The Nat Geo Wild film about our investigation into the trade in Icelandic fin whale in Japan aired in the US on Tuesday. The investigations we did in Iceland and Japan now feel like a distant memory; so much has happened since, although I believe as these things go the film was actually put together in record time
Iceland is the only country to actually expand commercial whaling in recent years, killing 273 endangered fin whales in 2009-10. More than 1,200 tonnes of fin whale meat and blubber, worth an estimated $17 million, has been shipped to Japan since 2008. Several thousand tonnes remain in Iceland, awaiting shipment
Since the June annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) rejected the proposal to allow Japan, Norway and Iceland IWC endorsed commercial whaling catch limits, we have been catching up on all the other work that the cetacean campaign does outside the IWC meeting
It is a huge relief that Japan, Norway and Iceland were not rewarded with IWC sanctioned catch limits