Caught this at linked at the Volokh Conspiracy from Jonathan Adler.
Iceland said it would resume commercial whaling as early as this week after a moratorium of nearly two decades, defying a worldwide ban on hunting whales for their meat. At the same time, the whaling ship Hvalur 9 took to the seas for a test run after being laid up for years in Reykjavik Harbor. The government will allow the hunting of 30 minke whales and nine fin whales through next August. The Ministry of Fisheries said there were more than 43,000 minke whales and 25,000 fin whales in Icelandic coastal waters.
Seems like a fairly minor harvest, though I'm not certain as to the economic need for this. Not that there really needs to be justifications as long as there is a market. The report states that this will be primarily for domestic consumption, but some will be available for export.
I suppose I have a visceral dislike for whaling, but like other forms of harvesting from nature, I suppose there is a logic that some societies find this acceptable. As long as this doesn't turn into international opening of harvesting and the usual lack of self control, it appears that this isn't an unreasonable action. I'm just a bit skeptical that open harvesting could ever again be viable. Especially looking at the fisheries management, or lack there of, that we are now experiencing with most other forms of harvesting.
I suppose I have a visceral dislike for whaling, but like other forms of harvesting from nature, I suppose there is a logic that some societies find this acceptable. As long as this doesn't turn into international opening of harvesting and the usual lack of self control, it appears that this isn't an unreasonable action. I'm just a bit skeptical that open harvesting could ever again be viable. Especially looking at the fisheries management, or lack there of, that we are now experiencing with most other forms of harvesting.
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