FISH BUYERS URGED TO REJECT SEAFOOD CAUGHT BY ICELANDIC WHALERS

Ad campaign aligned with Seafood Expo Global to educate public about whaling-linked products

 

BRUSSELS: A coalition of animal welfare and conservation groups has launched a new online ad campaign to coincide with the 2015 Seafood Exposition Global and Seafood Processing Global convention in Brussels this week, advising consumers and major seafood buyers to be aware of fish “tainted by the blood of whales”.

 

Among exhibitors at the Seafood Expo Global are several companies that process and/or sell whale meat, or are tied by shareholdings to whaling companies, including Icelandic seafood giant HB Grandi.

 

“Opinion polls in Europe have shown that more than 80 per cent of the public do not wish to buy seafood from companies associated with whaling,” said Susan Millward, Executive Director of the Animal Welfare Institute.

 

Jennifer Lonsdale, Director of the Environmental Investigation Agency, added: “Kristján Loftsson, CEO of the Hvalur whaling company, is the driving force behind Iceland’s fin whaling industry which has killed 551 endangered fin whales since 2006.

 

“It is disappointing that HB Grandi shareholders missed an opportunity earlier this month to distance the company from whaling when they re-elected Loftsson as Chairman of the Board.”

 

Sigrid Lueber, Founder and President of OceanCare, urged seafood buyers at the Expo who have not yet joined the dozens of companies which have already pledged not to buy from whalers to “keep in mind that by putting money into the pockets of whalers you are helping to keep alive an industry that is both cruel and unnecessary.”

 

Vanessa Williams-Grey, Whaling Campaigner at Whale and Dolphin Conservation, said: “We ask those companies or consumers reluctant to look for an alternative to HB Grandi products to remember the suffering of the whales. They have no choice – you do.”

 

Seafood Expo Global runs from April 21-23, 2015 and is expected to attract 30,000 participants from 140 countries.

 

The coalition is encouraging retailers to conduct an audit of their seafood supply chains to ensure the public they do not source seafood from individuals, vessels or companies linked to whaling – including fish from third party agents and/or processors.

 

Visit http://dontbuyfromicelandicwhalers.com/europe.html for more information on the campaign.

35 GOVERNMENTS CALL ON ICELAND TO STOP WHALING AND END TRADE IN FIN & MINKE WHALES

LONDON: A formal diplomatic protest, known as a démarche, was today delivered to the Icelandic Government in Reykjavik.

 

The top-level protest registered countries’ “strong opposition” to Iceland’s continued whaling, particularly of endangered fin whales.

 

The démarche also objects to Iceland's international trade in whale products, stating: “Fin whales and minke whales are listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendix I … and we remain extremely concerned with Iceland’s reservation, entered in 2000, for these and other cetacean species.”

 

The démarche was signed by the 28 EU Member States, the USA, Australia, Brazil, Israel, Mexico and New Zealand. In addition, Monaco associated with the statement.

 

The 35 countries called on Iceland to “respect the IWC’s global moratorium and end its commercial whaling and international trade in whale products”.

 

Clare Perry, Senior Campaigner for the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), said: “Since 2006, Iceland’s whaling company Hvalur has killed more than 500 endangered fin whales, purely to cash in on a limited demand in Japan. This démarche highlights Iceland’s flagrant disregard for international efforts to conserve whales. We congratulate those countries that have initiated this protest and urge them and other countries to take further diplomatic efforts to bring an end to Iceland’s commercial whale slaughter.”

 

Susan Millward, executive director of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), said: “We welcome the fact that so many governments have acted to put Iceland on notice that its whaling is unacceptable to the world community. AWI urges Iceland to respect the call made in this diplomatic protest and to bring an end to both its whale hunts and trade in whale products, to stem the damage already done to both its reputation and economy."

 

Chris Butler-Stroud, Chief Executive Officer of Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), said: “We join the signatories of the démarche in urging Iceland to come in from the cold and join the international community in creating a world where whales are safe from this outdated practice. At a time when Icelandic parliamentarians are questioning the negative effect that whaling is having on Iceland's international standing, we urge Iceland to abandon this unnecessary slaughter and instead support its profitable and growing whale watch industry which brings considerable economic and social benefits to the country.”

 

Last week, the three organisations jointly released Slayed in Iceland, a new report outlining the connections between Iceland’s fin whale hunt and Iceland’s leading seafood company, HB Grandi.

 

The report strongly urged the IWC, governments and businesses dealing with Icelandic companies linked to whaling to take action to compel Iceland to cease commercial whaling and trade. 

GOVERNMENTS AND RETAILERS MUST ACT TO HALT ICELAND’S SLAUGHTER OF ENDANGERED FIN WHALES

LONDON: A new report today calls for the international community and vested commercial interests to take tough action to end Iceland’s ongoing slaughter of endangered fin whales.

 

Slayed in Iceland: The commercial hunting and international trade in endangered fin whales has been jointly released by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) on the eve of the 65^th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Portorož, Slovenia.

Iceland’s fin whale hunt revolves around Kristján Loftsson, a multi-millionaire and the Executive Director of Hvalur hf. In his bid to create a viable market for fin whale products in Japan, he has used the resources of another company for which he serves as Chair of the Board – Icelandic fishing giant HB Grandi.

 

The report exposes the sheer scale of the hunt and overseas trade, as well as the financial and logistical links between the whalers and some of Iceland’s largest companies. It includes recommended actions for governments and corporations to take to ensure that they are not supporting Hvalur's whaling activities.

 

Fin whales – the second largest creature on the planet, after blue whales – were for decades the target of industrial-scale commercial whaling, an unbridled slaughter curtailed in 1986 by the IWC moratorium on commercial whaling. Almost three decades later, fin whales remain endangered.

 

Iceland’s fin exports to date are worth an estimated US$50 million and clearly undermine both the IWC moratorium and the ban on international commercial trade in fin whale products imposed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

 

EIA Senior Campaigner Clare Perry said: “Since 2006, Hvalur has killed more than 500 fin whales, purely to cash in on a limited demand in Japan. It has exported more than 5,000 tonnes of fin whale products to Japan, including a record single shipment of 2,071 tonnes in 2014.

 

“This ongoing and escalating slaughter is not only a contemptuous slap in the face to international efforts to conserve whales, it’s a spreading bloodstain on Iceland’s international credibility and it needs to end now.”

 

AWI Executive Director Susan Millward said: “Iceland’s Hvalur company continues to whale with impunity and has managed to ship whale products to Japan via countries that have strong anti-whaling laws, such as the United States. Governments must work to ensure that their ports are permanently closed to the transit of whale products from protected species.”

 

And WDC Chief Executive Officer Chris Butler-Stroud said: “Efforts by HB Grandi to distance itself from fin whaling activities are revealed as mere smoke and mirrors –our report demonstrates that the company remains hand-in-glove with the fin whalers.

 

“Given that a recent poll suggests massive public opposition to the notion of purchasing seafood linked with whaling, we hope that our report, combined with falling profits, persuades HB Grandi and companies purchasing from it to urgently re-examine their position.”

 

Slayed in Iceland strongly urges the IWC, governments and businesses dealing with Icelandic companies linked to whaling to take action to compel Iceland to cease commercial whaling and trade.

CONSERVATION GROUPS CONDEMN RESUMPTION OF ICELAND’S BRUTAL HUNT OF ENDANGERED WHALES

LONDON: Conservation groups are calling on the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and its member governments to condemn Iceland’s commercial whale hunt following confirmation that the Icelandic whaling company Hvalur hf has killed yet another endangered fin whale.

 

The whale was killed off Iceland’s west coast and landed today at the company’s processing station in Hvalfjörður, less than an hour’s drive from the capital Reykjavik.

 

The kill, the first of the 2014 season, coincides with a working party meeting of the European Union Environment Council in preparation for the meeting of the IWC in September. NGOs are pushing for governments to take a strong stand against Icelandic whaling ahead of, and during, the IWC meeting.

 

Iceland rejoined the IWC in 2002 with a reservation to the global moratorium on commercial whaling adopted in 1982, and then resumed commercial whaling in 2006. Almost all the fin whale meat originating from the 2014 hunt is destined for Japan, despite a ban on international trade in fin whales under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

 

Since 2008, more than 5,540 tonnes of fin whale meat has been exported, with an unprecedented single shipment of 2,000 tonnes to Japan in March this year.

 

Clare Perry, Senior Campaigner for the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), said: “EU member states have to wake up to the fact that commercial whaling and trade, in defiance of the IWC and CITES, is taking place right on their doorstep. This hunt of endangered whales must no longer go unchallenged – we look to EU member countries to lead opposition to Iceland’s whaling at the IWC meeting in Slovenia.”

 

Susan Millward, Executive Director at the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), said: “Iceland is a remarkable country with friendly people, picturesque landscapes and a wealth of tourism opportunities, yet its international reputation is consistently eroded by promoting commercial whaling and trade in whale products in violation of international treaties.”

 

Chris Butler-Stroud, CEO of Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), said: “The world cannot stand by and allow Icelandic whalers to kill fin whales – the second largest creature on the planet – with impunity. WDC calls for urgent and concerted action by conservation-minded countries around the globe to oppose a hunt which is as unnecessary as it is brutal.”

 

HB Grandi, Iceland’s leading seafood company – whose chairman, Kristján Loftsson, is also the CEO of Hvalur – has played an active role in Iceland’s whaling industry, both promoting whaling and providing HB Grandi facilities in Arkranes, Iceland, for the processing of endangered fin whale meat for the export market. In addition to meat, the blubber and offal of the fin whale killed today will be rendered into oil.