EUR: Seven countries urge Iceland to reconsider whaling quota
18 Feb 2009 4:18 AM
REYKJAVIK, Feb 17 AFP - Seven countries including Britain, Germany and the United States have urged Iceland to reconsider a decision to increase its whaling quota sixfold, a copy of a letter obtained by AFP on Tuesday showed.
Iceland's former government announced the increase in late January as one of its last moves, but a new left-wing interim government that came to power just days later said it would reconsider the increase.
"We are writing to you today to express our governments' extreme disappointment in the decision of your predecessor to issue a quota for 150 fin and 100 minke whales to be harvested in Icelandic waters," ambassadors and charge d'affaires from the seven countries wrote in the letter to Icelandic Fisheries Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson.
"We applaud your interest in re-evaluating this decision," they said in the letter dated February 12, adding: "We call on Iceland to reconsider this decision."
The other countries that signed the letter were Finland, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Prior to the recent announcement, Iceland, which pulled out of an international whaling moratorium in 2006 after 16 years, had a quota of just nine fin whales and 40 minke whales per year.
"It is critical that the continuation or expansion of Iceland's commercial harvest or international trade in whale meat does not undermine goodwill or hamper progress in resolving issues pending before the (International Whaling) Commission," the letter said.
Iceland and Norway are the only two countries in the world that authorise commercial whaling. Japan officially hunts whales for scientific purposes, although the whale meat is sold for consumption.
