Ginés Morata

whales. It has done great damage to its reputation and image.” Among the countries to sign the letter were the US, France, Germany, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina. The European Union also signed. Tourists have reacted angrily to Iceland’s decision to hunt nine fin whales, classified as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and 30 minke whales. A spokesperson for the Iceland government in London said that seven of the nine fin whales permitted under the licence this year had been caught but that hunting was now suspended for the winter. A new licence will be needed to resume hunting from September 1, 2007 and the government would take full account of the effect on ecotourism before reaching a decision, he said. But Iceland’s decision to restart commercial whaling is likely based on local public opinion which shows that 70–80 per cent of people support commercial whaling and the government claims that whaling is economically essential to the country. But there are growing critics of this view as all of Iceland’s whaling is carried out by a single company based in Reykjavik who are subsidised by the government. But the boom in tourists visiting the island, many of which want to include whale-watching trips, has proved a sudden and dramatic economic boost. Tourist numbers in Iceland reached a record 400,000 this year, 89,000 of whom went whale watching. Clive Stacey, of Discover the World, one of the biggest operators of tours to Iceland, said that the company organised trips for 7,000 Britons this year, but that booking for next year had dropped by 25 per cent in the two weeks after Iceland began whaling. The company had expected bookings to increase by 50–100 per cent. “We’ve had a few people write to cancel and the level of interest in booking holidays in Iceland has dropped,” he said. “There has to be a reason for this. The most obvious is that people are reacting to the whaling. We are very concerned about what’s going on.” Q & A