From Iceland — 84 Fin Whales Culled So Far

84 Fin Whales Culled So Far

Published August 12, 2015

Andie Sophia Fontaine
Photo by
Borkur Sigurbjornsson/Wikimedia Commons

There is still a ways to go before the season’s quota is filled, but about 50 fin whales have been culled in less than a month.

RÚV reports that whaling company Hvalur hf. has landed 84 whales so far. This is 48 more than were hunted less than a month ago, and 66 fin whales away from filling their quota for the season.

“We will be hunting on until late September,” Kristján Loftsson, the director of Hvalur hf., told reporters. “It only depends on the weather and other circumstances.” He added that the past few days have not been especially good for whaling, and his whaling ships are currently docked.

As reported, Hvalur hf. – Iceland’s largest whaling company – earned 3 billion ISK in the last fiscal year. However, these earnings did not come from whaling. Rather, they came from Hvalur hf. owning almost all of Vogun hf., which is the largest shareholder of the fishing company HB Grandi.

In fact, the revenue generated from whaling alone fell short of Hvalur hf’s operational costs by about 72.5 million ISK.

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