Japan hunts in waters which are notoriously more polluted than those where Icelandic whalers ply their trade
Icelandic whaling giant Hvalur company boss, Kristjan Loftsson, took aim at import standards imposed by Tokyo to measure levels of chemical pollutant PCB in whale meat.
“In Japan they are using a 40-year-old method of measuring and it gives unpredictable results,” said Loftsson, whose company has served the Japanese market since 1973.
He added: “They are using stone age methods. When we export whale products to Japan we never know what to expect, they might even reject the whole shipment.
“Those are technical barriers to trade and are totally unacceptable.”
During the 2015 season, Hvalur caught 155 fin whales. Other Icelandic companies hunt Minke whales, a smaller species, of which 29 were caught last year.
Loftsson said Japan hunts in waters which are notoriously more polluted than those where Icelandic whalers ply their trade.
“The Antarctic Ocean is very clean so there is little PCB. But it is higher in the waters closer to Japan, where it is above the limits set by Japan, but all of the whale products go on market nonetheless,” he said.
Consumption of whale meat in Japan has fallen sharply in recent years while polls indicate that few Icelanders regularly eat the meat.
