It appeared to many that Iceland was intimidated by the majority of the IWC members, who were so anxious to ban whaling forever. What did Iceland think would happen if it resisted the pressures, and just kept on whaling? Norway did just that, retaining her sovereign right to object to the IWC whaling moratorium, and, nothing bad ever happened to Norway in reprisal. Iceland, Japan and Russia ultimately decided not to take that chance. Iceland thought the US was too powerful to purposefully annoy in this matter. This tiny country feared it might not only lose fish exports to the US, but landing rights in America for Icelandic Air. The US, itself constantly threatened with media damage by green NGOs, has been rudely blustering at Iceland over the whaling issue for years.

By 2001, ten years after Iceland gave up whaling and dropped out of the IWC, her fishermen had put so much domestic pressures on the government that national leaders made a courageous decision. Iceland suddenly decided to do as Norway had done. They tried to come back in with a "reservation" against the moratorium, so that they could be a part of the scientific and cultural whaling community again. The majority IWC members, afraid that an additional vote for whaling would be added to a growing roster, ganged up on Iceland, and with vote after vote, denied her the right to full membership, regardless of the fact that the dues had been paid. Iceland's attempt to become a full voting member of the International Whaling Commission, and to again participate in international conservation and management of whales, was rendered futile. This was a shameful demonstration of power, and blatant disrespect for a sovereign nation.

Whale watching has recently become popular in Iceland. Some 59,000 tourists trouped onto boats to see whales this past season. The owners of those boats are afraid that resumption of whaling would ruin their business, because greens have told them that whaling and whale watching are intrinsically incompatible. We believe this is utter nonsense. When Hvalur, Ltd., was taking whales under Icelandic government scientific permit, in the heyday of the Greenpeace anti-whaling campaigns, tourists still crowded the area of the whale processing station, because they wanted to see the animals being towed up onto the plant and butchered in the traditional way. They were not protesting anything, but were curious about the process. We believe that people would behave in the same manner today. It is a fact that visitors to Greenland eat whale meat and love it. They don't avoid that beautiful country just because the people there continue their traditional lifestyles. In Norway, whaling and whale watching are both thriving.

Instead of treating whaling as something to be ashamed of, Iceland's entrepreneurs could turn this protest-declared "lemon" into Icelandic lemonade. People are curious about customs native to the countries they visit. With an appropriate public education program, based on scientific fact and centuries of cultural heritage, Iceland could turn this fiasco around in a way that would rock the very foundations of the anti-use campaigns that have plagued them. Iceland could serve tourists fresh whale meat in their first class restaurants and pubs, and show the world a thing or two about tourism. Their fishermen would see a balance return to their ecosystem. Whales presently take five times more fish than do fishermen. There is no shortage of whales for both tourism and human consumption, and a science-based conservation of the entire ecosystem would result. Nothing bad would happen.