Whale hunting resumes in Iceland under strict rules

Hvalur is the only company still whaling off Iceland but it will have to follow strict new rules (file pic)

Iceland's government has lifted a summer suspension on whaling, allowing hunting to resume under a series of tight new regulations.

Only one company, Hvalur, still hunts whales off Iceland and the whaling season has only weeks to run.

But opponents are furious about the change of heart.

Fisheries and Foods Minister Svandis Svavarsdottir said she understood the views of most Icelanders who wanted an end to whaling.

But she said she had to follow a legal framework based on the licence granted earlier this year by her predecessor.

"We are the last nation in the world that is fishing for large whales in this way, and there is only one party doing this whaling," she told reporters.

The values of Icelanders were now different from those of decades ago, she said, but added that it was up to parliament and society to discuss the next step.

Although Norway and Japan also allow commercial whaling, only Iceland permits the killing of longer fin whales.

The summer whaling season in Iceland is traditionally over by the end of September, before it becomes too windy and dark.

Sigursteinn Masson of the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Iceland says the foods minister had taken a significant step.

"I truly believe this year will be the final year of whaling in Iceland," he told the BBC. "There is solidarity in the government and that is important for the next steps to be taken to end whaling permanently."

The foods minister suspended the summer season in June after a report by Iceland's Food and Veterinary Authority found that killing whales took longer than welfare laws permitted.

Under the new regulations, fin whales can only be hunted off Iceland within a distance of 25m (80ft) from the boat and no calf must be involved.

Hunting should take place in daylight, and no electricity will be allowed. Anyone involved should be properly trained and using the right equipment and methods.

Declining profits mean Hvalur is unlikely to continue commercial whaling for much longer

Profits from whaling have declined and the increasingly stringent regulations will make hunting far more costly and difficult to do.

Although a recent survey by the Maskina institute in Iceland suggested 51% of people opposed whaling, it is thought many MPs are in favour.

The food minister's Left-Greens party supports a ban, but many Icelanders see continuing the tradition as a question of sovereignty and independence.

Lawyer Katrin Oddsdottir of the Icelandic Nature Conservation Association said there were no good arguments for whaling and it was to the shame of Iceland that one company, run by Kristjan Loftsson, was still aiming to continue.

"He could whale until the end of the year because the permit is valid and this new decision allows him to go out in the morning and start whaling," she told the BBC.

She said an injunction had been filed in a bid to prevent hunting from resuming.

A growing number of film-makers have signed a petition against whaling and Katrin Oddsdottir said there was a genuine risk of a Hollywood boycott of Iceland now that the practice was being allowed to resume.

Under annual quotas, 209 fin whales are allowed to be killed along with 217 smaller minke whales.