According to a press release from the Whale and Dolphin society, which you can read at the following link:
http://www.cisionwire.com/whale-and-dolphin-conservation-society/groups-seek-us-trade-sanctions-against-iceland-in-response-to-escalating-whaling-activities
"Nineteen conservation and animal welfare groups, representing tens of millions of U.S. citizens, today called on the US Secretaries of Commerce and Interior to impose trade sanctions against Iceland for its escalating defiance of international conservation agreements on commercial whaling."
"A petition filed by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) on behalf of the ‘Whales Need US’ coalition and Species Survival Network, urges Secretaries Locke and Salazar to invoke U.S. conservation legislation known as the Pelly Amendment against Iceland, a move that could deal a death blow to Iceland's out of control whaling industry."
"The Pelly Amendment authorizes the President to impose trade sanctions against another country for “diminishing the effectiveness” of conservation agreements; in Iceland’s case, the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which bans commercial whaling, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which prohibits international commercial trade in whale products."
Iceland resumed commercial whaling in 2006, and dramatically increased its self-allocated quotas in 2009 to include 150 fin whales (an endangered species) annually. Iceland’s export of whale products has also sharply increased; in 2010, Iceland exported more than 800 tonnes of whale meat, blubber and oil, worth more than US$11 million, to Japan, Norway and the Faroe Islands and made illegal shipments of whale products to Latvia and Belarus.
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How selfish can an entire population of people be? Deliberately killing a species of animal that is already endangered? I hope everyone finds a way to voice your disapproval of the behavior of Iceland's people!
Please take the time to email the President of Iceland at this email address to voice your disapproval with the behavior of his country's people in relation to Whales! The email address is:
president @ president.is You may also want to email Iceland's Minister of Fisheries, whose name is Jón Bjarnason , and whose email address is: postur@slr.stjr.is If y...ou want to resort to economic means to voice your discontent with this behavior of people in Iceland you should know that "Iceland's economy is highly export-driven. Marine products account for the majority of goods exports. Other important exports include aluminum, ferro-silicon alloys, machinery and electronic equipment for the fishing industry, software, woollen goods. Most of Iceland's exports go to the European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries, the United States, and Japan. "The fishing industry is one of the most important industries. It provides 70% of export income and employs 6.0% of the workforce; therefore, the state of the economy remains sensitive to world prices for fish products." source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Iceland
Iceland's exports of fish can be viewed at this website:http://www.icelandexport.is/icelandexport2/english/iceland_export_categories/?category=732d33a5-4c77-419f-873c-b7f2b9496d46&searchparam1=catid%3D732d33a5-4c77-419f-873c-b7f2b9496d46 Please think about not eating these species of fish!
According to Iceland Review, Kate O'Connell, from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, points out that Iceland is violating two major international agreements: the ban on commercial whaling and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) ban on international trade in whale products. "Clearly, a strong response is merited." (source:: http://animals.change.org/blog/view/iceland_ignores_international_anti-whaling_agreements )
Please sign the following petition to help the whales in Iceland's waters:
http://animals.change.org/blog/view/iceland_ignores_international_anti-whaling_agreements
Source of image:http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/tags/whaling?page=6
