Icelandic whalers slaughtered the first fin whale of the season yesterday, landing the whale—around 65 feet in in length—overnight at a whaling station.
The fin whale hunt is Iceland’s first in years and is in direct defiance of international law, which bans commercial whaling.
Known as the "greyhounds of the sea" for their speed, fin whales are the world’s second largest animal (after the blue whale). Fin whales are listed as endangered both under U.S. law and on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List.
There is no market for fin whale meat in Iceland, so Iceland’s only fin whaling company plans to market fin whale meat, blubber and bones for iron supplements, gelatin, and other products. It has a self-allocated license to kill over 200 fin whales.
The slaughter of endangered fin whales is in gross defiance of international law. It’s also an outrageous attempt to jump-start a dying industry.
Voice your outrage here.