Hamfarirnar í Japan hafa áhrif á stórhvalaveiðarnar

Hamfarir í Japan hafa áhrif á hvalveiðar á Íslandi

 

Líklega mun ástandið í Japan bitna harkalega á hvalveiðum hér á landi samkvæmt fréttaveitunni AFP. Þar er rætt við Kristján Loftsson eiganda Hvals hf., og hann spurður hvaða áhrif hamfarirnar í Japan munu hafa á hvalveiðarnar.

Kristján segir að skipin veiði vanalega hvali frá júní til september en í ljósi þess að markaðurinn í Japan fyrir hrefnukjöti hefur snarminnkað eftir jarðskjálftann, þá verða veiðarnar hugsanlega endurskoðaðar í júní. Hann áréttar þó í viðtalinu við AFP fréttastofunnaað útgerðin sé alls ekki hætt hvalveiðum. Hún taki einfaldlega mið af þeim mörkuðum sem selja má hvalkjöt á, og Japan sé ekki þar á meðal í
augnablikinu.

http://www.visir.is/hamfarir-i-japan-hafa-talsverd-ahrif-a-hvalveidar-a-islandi/article/2011110519869 

REYKJAVIK — Iceland's fin whaling season may be delayed by the giant
earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, the main export market for
Icelandic fin whale meat, the country's only fin whaler told AFP
Tuesday.

"We may be delaying the time at which our whaling boats
go out to sea. We usually go at the end of June and we whale until the
end of September. This year, that may change because of the situation in
Japan," Kristjan Loftsson of Hvalur Hf told AFP.

"This doesn't
mean we are not going to whale, we are just going to have to evaluate
the situation come end of June. With commercial whaling you need
customers and currently, Japan is not one," he said.

He said that
purchasing of fin whale meat, which is also eaten in Iceland to a lesser
extent, had stalled in Japan since the earthquake and tsunami and the
ensuing nuclear disaster.

"The whole nation is grieving... nobody wants to do anything because of what happened," he said.

Iceland, along with Norway and Japan, uses legal loopholes to flout a 1986 ban on commercial whaling.

In a letter sent last November to Icelandic Fishing Minister Jón
Bjarnason, US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke warned Iceland the United
States was "deeply concerned by and strongly opposed to Iceland's
increasing commercial harvest of whales, in particular endangered fin
whales."

The letter said 148 fin whales were caught in 2010, up
from 125 in 2009 and that prior to increasing its quotas in 2008,
Iceland caught less than 10 each year.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iLrhFAuTuChYVeAGxD7-qRyi5NtQ?docId=CNG.724821b4919bf06d1776d821791b2347.6b1