For most of us, whaling is distasteful. What has become clear is that whales are essentially swimming trees in terms of their positive impact on carbon emissions.
It is therefore quite frustrating that several nations continue to demand the ability to hunt whales.
Thankfully there is now so little demand for whale meet, that Iceland is going to end its hunt.
They stated that in 2024 when current quotas expire and need reauthorizing, there is little point as there is little economic advantage to the hunt. Furthermore, hunting in itself causes so many people to avoid visiting, that their tourism has been damaged -and this makes up far more of the countries GDP. At the moment (2019-2023) Incelands quota allows 209 fin whales and 217 minke to be hunted, yet over the last 3 years 2 of their lisence holders have suspended their hunts, and one stopped for good in 2020. The hunt got more expensive a few years ago, when the no take zone was extended further from the shore, requiring whaling trips to take far longer.
Before 2019 Iceland could export its meat to Japan, but in this year they restarted their own whale hunt (I cannot be the only one to notice that if the meat is not consumed in your own country it is not for food but to sell, and therefore should not be allowed anyway).
This also may have something to do with Coronavirus, as the processing factories had to close- perhaps something good will have come out of COVID.