Icelanders are changing their minds - in favour of whales

Here we go again. We were on the verge of celebrating a permanent end to the horrors of Iceland's past - it looked as if it had hung up its harpoons for good - - but our cautious optimism was premature.

- By Mark Carwardine

A few months ago, the country's most obstinate whaler, Kristján Loftsson, suddenly announced that he would resume whaling on 10th June this year, after a four-year lull. His quota? A shocking 161 fin whales.

It's devastating news for the planet's second largest animal, which is still recovering from the ravages of more than one and a half centuries of commercial whaling. At least 915,000 fin whales have been killed worldwide - and they are still considered 'vulnerable' on the IUCN Red List.

Iceland is one of three countries continuing to make a mockery of the International Whaling Commission's 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling (the others are Norway and Japan). It stormed out of the IWC in 1992, then rejoined 10 years later (but this time, disgracefully, it was allowed to take out an official 'reservation' against the whaling ban).