Fully legal trade in minke whale products resumed on July 15, 2002.
Bilateral negotiations and domestic legislation in both Iceland and
Norway preceded the first shipment from Norway, and a free flow of products
is expected very soon. Minke whale meat and blubber is welcomed in Iceland,
whose people traditionally enjoyed whale on their menu. Whale blubber is
not traditionally consumed in Norway, and a huge surplus has built up in
freezer storage there, awaiting this trade resumption. Norwegians in the
whaling industry certainly prefer to see all parts of their prey utilized,
rather than being dumped at sea or otherwise destroyed.
It has been necessary for Iceland to examine all the possible
ramifications of their decision to resume trade in whale products, or
indeed, to resume whaling themselves, because Iceland has long been afraid
of what the United States might do to Icelandic business interests, in the
US and elsewhere. However, the behavior of the US and other like-minded
Parties to the IWC, has perhaps convinced Iceland that there will be no
improvement in US policy towards whaling, and they might as well utilize
their rights under CITES and the WTO, and get on with it. IWMC applauds the
courage of Iceland and Norway in this matter, and expects that soon, Japan
may decide to exercise that nation's right to also import whale product
from Norway, since Japan, like Norway and Iceland, also has a reservation
under CITES to the ban on trade in minke whale products.
CITES Secretary General Willem Wijnstekers made it plain that the
Norway-Iceland trade is entirely legal under CITES, due to the reservations
that each nation filed when the organization listed minke whales on
Appendix I.
The trade will not harm minke whales. It is strictly monitored through
the use of a DNA registry that should be recognized as a fine example of
the use of science by conservation law enforcement.
Perhaps this is the beginning of an era in which every nation shall soon
find the courage to exercise its legal rights under international law,
without fear of trade or other reprisals from those who object to specific
resource use for political or cultural preference reasons.
Congratulations, Norway and Iceland. Best wishes from IWMC. 
