Conservation groups warning prompts Foreign Office statement telling British tourists not to bring home whale meat from Iceland
11/3/2011 7:41 AM EST
An undercover investigation into whale meat on sale at Iceland’s Keflavik airport has prompted the Foreign Office to issue a warning to Britons who risk breaching international law.
The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) revealed recently that Iceland is openly selling whale meat packaged for export in the departure area at Keflavik airport to travellers who, if they make the purchase, are risking arrest for importing an internationally protected species.
Representatives from WDCS and AWI, who were travelling to the US, caught store staff at the airport on camera giving erroneous advice that the whale meat could be legally taken into the United States. In fact, such citizens could face arrest and prosecution under several U.S. laws for illegal wildlife trade. Travellers returning with whale meat to the UK, European Union or many other nations that comply with a ban on international trade in whale products would face similar penalties.
Tens of thousands of UK tourists who visit Iceland each year have now been given the warning by the Foreign Office which states that tourists risk penalties that include imprisonment or fines of up to £5,000 as importation into Britain and other EU countries is illegal under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES).
“It is impossible that Iceland is unaware of laws that prohibit imports of whale meat,” said Chris Butler-Stroud, CEO of WDCS. “Iceland is making a mockery of international law.”
WDCS has recently been running an awareness campaign directed at tourists visiting Iceland after revealing that a staggering 35–40% of the meat from minke whales slaughtered by Icelandic whalers is eaten by tourists visiting the country, most of whom have no idea that their actions are propping up commercial whaling in Iceland.
Link to undercover footage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiuLQ7tABqo&feature=youtu.beLink to FCO:
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/europe/icelandEnds
Danny Groves (UK WDCS Press Officer) 44 (0) 7834 498277
Editors’ notes
In both cases, the travellers disposed of the whale meat before departure, but retained the packaging and receipts. A “Veterinary Certificate” was offered to one of the buyers who was told that was all that was needed to legally import the product into the United States. The card stated that the product was sourced from “Icelandic livestock” that was “free from foot & mouth disease”.
Importation of whale meat into the United States, even as a non-commercial “personal effect,” would violate several U.S. laws, including the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Lacey Act, and the Endangered Species Act (the U.S. law that implements CITES). Although Iceland holds a reservation to the Appendix I listing of whales, exempting itself from the ban on international commercial trade, it may still be violating CITES by allowing the export of minke whale products by U.S. citizens since it knows that the U.S. prohibits the import.
In December 2010, WDCS filed a petition on behalf of 19 animal welfare and conservation groups under the Pelly Amendment to the Fishermen’s Protective Act. They sought certification by the Departments of Commerce and Interior that Iceland is diminishing the effectiveness of (1) the IWC by its commercial hunts of minke and fin whales (an endangered species), and (2) of CITES by its exports of whale meat and other products to Japan and elsewhere, including illegal exports to Latvia.
The Commerce Secretary certified Iceland for its whaling under the Pelly Amendment in July 2011 and President Obama responded on September 15 with a number of directives to U.S. cabinet secretaries aimed at convincing Iceland to end the hunt [
http://m.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/15/message-president-congress]. The Department of the Interior is still considering the Pelly petition and is expected to come to a conclusion soon.
AWI and WDCS are working together on joint campaigns to end commercial whaling and to keep whale meat and other products out of international trade. For more information, see
www.wdcs.org and
www.awionline.org.
A report about the airport whale meat sales, photographs of the products, and videotape of one of the whale meat purchases are available upon request.