Icelandic whaling giant Hvalur announced Thursday it will not hunt endangered fin whales this year, denouncing restrictive regulations imposed by Japan, its biggest market.
Speaking to AFP, company boss Kristjan Loftsson took aim at import standards imposed by Tokyo to measure levels of chemical pollutant PCB in whale meat.
"In Japan they are using a 40-year-old method of measuring and it gives unpredictable results," said Loftsson, whose company has served the Japanese market since 1973.
He added: "They are using stone age methods. When we export whale products to Japan we never know what to expect, they might even reject the whole shipment.
"Those are technical barriers to trade and are totally unacceptable."
During the 2015 season, Hvalur caught 155 fin whales. Other Icelandic companies hunt Minke whales, a smaller species, of which 29 were caught last year.
Iceland and Norway are the only nations that openly defy the International Whaling Commission's 1986 ban on hunting whales.
The practice has drawn fire from numerous corners including the European Union and the United States which in 2014 threatened Iceland with economic sanctions.
Japan has used a legal loophole that allows it to continue hunting the animals in order to gather scientific data -- but it has never made a secret of the fact that the whale meat from these hunts often ends up on dining tables.
Loftsson said Japan hunts in waters which are notoriously more polluted than those where Icelandic whalers ply their trade.
"The Antarctic Ocean is very clean so there is little PCB. But it is higher in the waters closer to Japan, where it is above the limits set by Japan, but all of the whale products go on market nonetheless," he said.
Consumption of whale meat in Japan has fallen sharply in recent years while polls indicate that few Icelanders regularly eat the meat.
Icelandic whaling giant Hvalur announced Thursday it will not hunt endangered fin whales this year, denouncing restrictive regulations imposed by Japan, its biggest market.
Speaking to AFP, company boss Kristjan Loftsson took aim at import standards imposed by Tokyo to measure levels of chemical pollutant PCB in whale meat.
“In Japan they are using a 40-year-old method of measuring and it gives unpredictable results,” said Loftsson, whose company has served the Japanese market since 1973.
He added: “They are using stone age methods. When we export whale products to Japan we never know what to expect, they might even reject the whole shipment.
“Those are technical barriers to trade and are totally unacceptable.”
During the 2015 season, Hvalur caught 155 fin whales. Other Icelandic companies hunt Minke whales, a smaller species, of which 29 were caught last year.
Iceland and Norway are the only nations that openly defy the International Whaling Commission’s 1986 ban on hunting whales.
The practice has drawn fire from numerous corners including the European Union and the United States which in 2014 threatened Iceland with economic sanctions.
Japan has used a legal loophole that allows it to continue hunting the animals in order to gather scientific data — but it has never made a secret of the fact that the whale meat from these hunts often ends up on dining tables.
Loftsson said Japan hunts in waters which are notoriously more polluted than those where Icelandic whalers ply their trade.
“The Antarctic Ocean is very clean so there is little PCB. But it is higher in the waters closer to Japan, where it is above the limits set by Japan, but all of the whale products go on market nonetheless,” he said.
Consumption of whale meat in Japan has fallen sharply in recent years while polls indicate that few Icelanders regularly eat the meat.
