Husavik,
March 2003.
Whaling again?
DENMARK: March 13, 2003
COPENHAGEN - Iceland said yesterday it would submit plans to
resume scientific whaling to the International Whaling Commission
(IWC) later this month - a key step towards restarting its controversial
whale hunting.
Iceland, which has not hunted the marine mammals since 1989,
said after rejoining the IWC in October it planned to start
hunting again. It said commercial whaling would not begin until
2006 but that whaling for scientific purposes could come sooner.
Stefan Asmundsson, the fishing ministry's whaling commissioner,
said the government would submit a plan for scientific whaling
to the IWC later in March. "We have made no decision on
when we will start scientific whaling," he added. He said
the IWC, which requires member states to present detailed research
plans before they can begin hunting for research purposes, would
discuss Iceland's proposal at its annual meeting in June. No
decision would be made before that. A vast majority of Icelanders
support the resumption of whaling, which has long traditions
in the country, and advocates argue that a rising whale population
in north Atlantic waters deprives fishermen of their catch.
Environmental groups disagree and tour operators fear whaling
would put an unfavourable spotlight on Iceland, which has become
a trendy destination. They say tourism revenues from whale watching
are twice what whaling yielded before Iceland began enforcing
a ban in 1989. Asmundsson said Iceland was investigating whether
there would be a market for the whale products. He said scientific
whaling would be very expensive if Icelanders could not sell
those parts of their catch not earmarked for research labs.
Whale meat and other products are popular in Japan, which also
carries out what it calls scientific research whaling. Iceland
refused to sign up to the 1986 commercial whaling moratorium
and stormed out of the IWC a decade ago in anger over the ban,
before rejoining last year. It stopped whaling in 1989 amid
international pressure.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Once again whale watching in Iceland is being threatened by
talk of whaling.
Even though whale watching has been growing faster than any
other sector of the Icelandic tourist industry in the past 8
years there is still a constant call for the resumption of whaling
by the old time whalers and a number of Parliament members.
Last year, Iceland managed to get into the International Whaling
Commission (IWC) "through the back door" with a reservation
to the Whaling Moratorium set in 1983.
The most commonly used argument in Iceland is that whaling must
be resumed before the whales start having a negative impact
on fish stocks. Scientists of the Marine Research Institute
(MRI) claim that the minke whale stock in the mid North Atlantic
Ocean consume over 1 million tons of small fish, krill, but
most seriously several thousand tons of cod every year. These
facts are picked up by the politicians and used as the main
argument when promoting the resumption of whaling. According
to the proposals of the Marine Research Institute, 250 minke
whales and 100 fin whales should be taken every year.
Mr. Johann Sigurjónsson, manager of the MRI, stated in
an interview last year that taking 250 minke whales would not
have any effect on the stock of minke whales in the Mid-North
Atlantic Ocean, as they have estimated the stock to be 58-70.000
animals. "It is like a drop in the Ocean" Sigurjónsson
stated.
If taking 250 minkes is not going to have any negative effect
on minke whale stocks around Iceland, how can they claim it
is going to change the ecosystem around Iceland? As often, when
looking in to the arguments from the pro- whalers they do not
have any scientific data to back up their case. Common sense
tells me and I feel most others will see that taking 250 minkes
a year will NOT change the ecosystem around Iceland a great
deal or increase the annual 10-20.000-ton cod catch.
Yearly report on Iceland whale watching industry:
Note! The BIG leap upwards in 2001 is due to the fact
that the UK Airliner GO stated flying in to Keflavik, Iceland
and brought a lot of new tourists from England to Iceland but
GO did not fly again in the year 2002. British tourists are
keen to go whale watching and that may be the reason for this
big jump.
Since
1995, I have been collecting information from every whale watching
company in Iceland on the number of tourists that have been
going on whale watching tours. In 2000, a total number of 45,400
tourists went on a whale watching tour from 9 locations around
Iceland and last year, more than 62.000 tourists went whale
watching in Iceland. (Icelanders are about 10% of the total
number). The growth of the whale watching business has indirectly
provided a strong argument against the popular attitude toward
Iceland's resumption of whaling as it is now providing a lot
of revenue for the local communities around the island and also
for the economy of Iceland in general.
We estimate that the direct value of the whale watching business
in Iceland is now close to US$ 8.550.000. and the total revenue
for the Iceland economy is estimated to be US$ 14.000.000.
| The
estimated value of whale watching tourism for Iceland’s
economy: |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| Item: |
Number
of tourists: |
Expenditures
pr. person |
Amount
spent. |
| Calculation
based on 62.050 tourists. |
|
US$
|
US$
|
| |
|
|
|
| Group
1. Icelanders. |
7.000
|
50
|
350.000
|
| Group
2. Whale watching reason for the holidays |
5.000
|
1.200
|
6.000.000
|
| Group
3. Whale watching a part of the visit. |
5.850
|
150
|
877.500
|
| Group
4. Whale watching because it is there. |
44.200
|
30
|
1.326.000
|
| |
|
|
|
| Estimated
direct revenue from whale watching |
|
US$
|
8.553.500
|
| |
|
|
|
| Multiplying
factor for the indirect revenue 1,63. (Information from
the Institution of Economics) |
|
US$
|
5.388.705
|
| |
|
|
|
| The
estimated total value of whale watching for Iceland’s
economy: |
|
US$
|
13.942.205
|
The
number of tourists given in the chart above are gathered directly
from every whale watching company in Iceland which, by law,
has to keep a log book on board each boat.
The breakdown of the total number into groups is an estimate
only as no formal surveys have been conducted on board the whale
watching boats, or on land. The estimated number of tourists
in each category is therefore based on interviews with the boat
owners and an overall impression of the business. I stress that
there is an urgent need to conduct formal research on the whale
watching industry as the value of whale watchers can vary according
to the breakdown. If more whale watchers were coming directly
to Iceland because of whale- watching it would of course provide
greater value than that given here or less value if fewer tourists
come directly for whale watching.
The
estimated direct value of whale watching will include costs
for such items as flights, bus transport, car hire, hotels,
guesthouses, restaurants, various food, gasoline, whale watching,
souvenirs and other related items. The multiplying factor for
the economy of Iceland is 1,63. This is what we call indirect
revenue, incurred by various other types of services provided
for the tourists by many different companies and the public
service sector.
The Importance of whale- watching for Iceland's future.
Obviously, the value of whale watching for the Icelandic economy
is now so great, that whale watching needs to be taken into
serious consideration by the government. I believe there is
a growing recognition by the authorities that whale watching
needs to be considered seriously when looking at the value of
the tourist industry in Iceland. Sadly, however, many politicians
are not willing to consider the total value of whale- watching
when arguing for resumption of whaling. The value of whale watching
has now reached over 8,5 Million US$ which is more than half
the value that whaling contributed to the Icelandic economy
when whaling was at its peak, 1950-1980.
During the "scientific" whaling years (1985-1989)
the annual value of whaling was estimated at close to 3-4 million
US$. I claim whale watching is already providing more total
revenues for Iceland's economy than whaling ever will. Whale
watching will also help us to preserve and build up the "nature
destination" image for Iceland.
When
scientists, politicians, fishermen and some members of the Icelandic
media claim that whales need to be utilized as any other resource
they are forgetting that whales are being utilized today. There
are other means of utilization than killing the whales. Whale
watching is a very positive way of utilization, each year the
whales are getting more and more familiar with the whale watching
boats and are starting to take an interest in the boats, providing
a greater and deeper experience for the tourist.
Future plans for whale watching in Iceland.
There is a need to set formal regulations for whale watching
operators so they can aim to provide a better service for tourists
visiting Iceland. In this way we could also gain greater international
recognition for running the whale watching business in a responsible,
personal and friendly manner. I feel it is vital for the whale
watching business in Iceland that we establish a formal organization
of whale watching companies so we will be able to speak out
as one voice.
I have managed to implement general guidelines for whale watching
operators here in Iceland and believe everyone is now working
to these guidelines. Still, formal legislation is needed to
ensure that everyone follows them in all aspects. Such legislation
needs to be made in
co-operation with the whale watching operators.
The potential for whale watching in Iceland is excellent! There
are so many species of whales (blue, fin, humpbacks, minke and
sei whales) close to shore that can be seen on a short trip
from the South, West and the North coast of Iceland. Also, if
whale- watching continues to grow for the next few years, there
may be a number of whale watching boats offering longer trips
to find sperm whales which tend to stay in deeper waters off
the coast.
Before closing, I would like to raise a matter with the environmental
NGOs such as Greenpeace and WWF. I need to ask them to promote
their policies with regard to fisheries in a much more careful
and even proactive manner than they have done so far. This is
because the whalers have for years successfully argued that
once these NGOs have stopped Iceland's whaling, they will go
after Iceland's fisheries. Hence, it is best to take the fight
on whaling now rather than expand this
to an overall war over fisheries.
Conclusion.
The
pressure for the resumption of whaling is high at the present
moment. Local surveys tell us that 70-80% of the nation support
whaling when asked, "should Iceland resume whaling or not?"
I feel that the results strongly reflect national pride and
are therefore a statement of independence rather than an expression
of the true will to resume whaling. Finally, a vast majority
of the nation also believes that whales are a problem for the
fisheries and should therefore be culled. This is why there
is an urgent need to tackle this argument and inform the nation
that killing 250 minke whales is not going to make much difference
to the ecosystem around Iceland.
If whaling minke whales is resumed, it will have a very negative
effect on the whale watching business in Iceland. Minkes are
one of the most important whales for whale watching in many
places; also there is NO evidence that whaling and whale watching
can co-exist as the scientists of the MRI and many politicians
have been claiming. I feel that the friendly minkes would be
the first to be killed as they often approach the whale watching
boats and thus would also approach the whaling boats. Whaling
could therefore directly damage many years of friendly encounters
with the minke whales around Iceland in the future.
The potential for whale watching is outstanding according to
world whale watching experts like Mr. Erich Hoyt, Mark Carwardine
and many others. Iceland has become the HOT SPOT for whale watching
in Europe and I strongly believe that it will continue to grow
in years to come if Iceland does not resume whaling.
If dreams come true!
Finally, I would like to tell you that The Husavik Whale Centre
opened a new whale centre on the 15th of June 2002 in a much
larger building than the one we had before. 18.300 guests visited
the new museum last year, which makes our museum one of the
most popular in Iceland. We welcome any support as it is vital
for us to continue our educational programs for the public of
Iceland to get them to understand that whales can be "utilized"
in a different manner than killing them. Please see if you can
lend a helping hand and make our dream come true!
If you need any further information pls. send me a line through
email to: abbi@icewhale.husavik.com
or call 354-891-9820.
All my very best
Yours truly,
Asbjorn Bjorgvinsson (Abbi)
CEO for the Husavik Whale Centre
