Iceland's whaling assholes left port today.

[flvegan]

Iceland whaling season kicks off amid protests

REYKJAVIK (AFP) — Iceland's whaling season began on Tuesday in defiance of protests from animal rights group that have called for an end to the practice and after international calls for it to reduce whaling quotas.

Iceland, one of two countries worldwide that still authorises commercial whaling, has set a maximum quota of 100 minke whales that can be killed during the whaling season, which usually runs from May to late September.

"We hope to catch the first minke whale today," Gudmundur Haraldsson, one of the whalers on board the Johanna AR vessel, told AFP.

The Johanna left the harbour town of Njardvik close to the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik at around 1200 GMT.

Haraldsson said the promising weather forecast raised hopes that the first minke whale of the season could be brought ashore on Wednesday.

The first whales are usually killed in a bay just outside of Reykjavik as whaling is banned close to the harbour. The restrictions are to protect the whale watching businesses, which are popular with tourists.

"The first batch of meat will be in stores by the weekend," Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, manager of the minke whaler association, told AFP.

He said 50 to 60 percent of the meat will be sold domestically, while the rest is sold to Japan.

Meanwhile, the International Fund for Animal Welfare led calls for the country to call off the hunting season by handing in a letter of protest at the Icelandic embassy in London.

Former fisheries minister Steingrimur Sigfusson said in February Iceland would make no changes to its whaling quotas of 150 fin whales and up to 150 minke whales per year, despite international calls for it to reconsider.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hZ90fV9sXlEZ3ZdHo6dQX1-TYQnQ

And IFAW, love you and all but handing in a letter? Really.

This is how you protest Icelandic whaling:

[LeftyMom]

1. A letter? A FUCKING LETTER?

Maybe they can take a page from those ineffectual fucks at Greenpeace and send some volunteers to eat whale meat with some Icelandic grannies, too.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

2. But they didn't want to get hurt or anything!

:eyes:

Fucking disgusting. There ought to be more than just Sea Shepherd out there doing real work to save whales.

[Chan790]

3. I love that picture though.

There are few things prettier than a scuttled whaling ship. This one makes me happy too: