Anti-Whaling Campaign Features Prominent Icelanders

An anti-whaling campaign emphasises local attitudes about whaling, and its impacts on the tourism industry.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has launched a campaign against whaling, a practice the group has fought against for years. The campaign features several prominent Icelanders – amongst them musicians Sóley, Högni Egilsson and DJ Margeir – all bearing the signature message: “I’m Icelandic, I don’t eat whale meat.”

The campaign has also released a video – in Icelandic with Engish subtitles – on how whaling affects whale watching, one of the most popular aspects of Iceland’s booming tourist industry.

The campaign is accompanied by a petition, which about 73,000 people have signed at the time of this writing, wherein signees pledge to never eat whale meat, while encouraging the country to abandon the practice. This petition will, in turn, be handed over to the Ministry of Fisheries.

The Icelanders involved in the project are far from alone in their stance, either. As has been pointed out, in 2013 only 3% of Icelanders said they had eaten whale meat six times or more a year. Over 82% said they had never eaten it. Whale meat sold in Iceland is predominantly targeted at tourists.