FINAL DEATH THROES OF A WHALE KILLER

FINAL DEATH THROES OF A WHALE KILLER

By Gary Stokes

Kristján Loftsson’s recent behaviour has the unmistakable feeling of his whaling company in its final death throes. At 83, Loftsson, like a mad man possessed continues to send Hvalur’s harpoon ships out to hunt fin whales, even as the commercial logic has clearly disappeared. Iceland’s last whaling company announced that it will no longer be selling its whale meat to Japan. What might once have looked like a dependable commercial alliance now must look, from Loftsson’s perspective, like Japan’s abandonment.

The last Icelandic shipment to Japan, more than 2,500 tonnes, arrived in 2023 and has still not been fully sold. Now Japan has it’s own domestically caught fin whale meat, and reports say that it’s even struggling to sell that. New generations are not simply interested in eating whales. Whaling is a dying industry globally, and it’s death can’t come soon enough.

There is something almost bizarrely theatrical about Loftsson’s determination to keep the machinery of this dying enterprise alive. Beside the old whaling station sit Hvalur 6 and Hvalur 7, the two vessels sunk by Rod Coronado and David Howitt in 1986.

Raised from the harbour after the sinking, they never hunted again. Their engines survived, but saltwater damaged their electrical systems and interiors. Decades later, the ships remain on land, preserved with a supply of electricity and hot steam in an effort required to stop relics from simply becoming wrecks. As if Loftsson is still trying hard to face the truth he lost half of his fathers fleet to anti-whaling activists.

They make an extraordinary metaphor for Loftsson himself, old machinery kept warm, refusing to admit that the world around has changed and is no longer desired.

And then there is Captain Paul Watson, Loftsson’s arch nemesis, fighting hard to end his barbaric industry. The 1986 sinking of Hvalur 6 and Hvalur 7 was a huge blow to Icelandic whaling, and the confrontation between Loftsson and the anti-whaling movement has continued for four decades. This year the Captain Paul Watson Foundation returned to Iceland with ‘Operation 86’, deliberately invoking the history between the two rivals.

In his latest death throe he has filed a claim against Captain Paul Watson’s Foundation for financial losses incurred this year. Allegedly caused by the Bandero’s interference, even after publicly admitting that the Bandero never came close to his ships. This is due to the Icelandic Coastguard passing him the confidential hourly co-ordinates of the Bandero so that he may avoid them. The Coastguard itself is in breach of Article 24 of No.80/2013 Maritime Traffic Service and Vessel Traffic Monitoring which clearly states; “may provide police authorities and other official control authorities with information for control and investigation cases. The Maritime Traffic Service and competent authorities shall take the necessary measures to ensure the confidentiality of information sent to them pursuant to this Regulation.”

Swiftly following the news from Japan that they will not be buying his meat, he again reverts to desperation. Bringing up his old pipe dreams of making iron supplements from the whale meat.

This time to supply the iron deficient people of sub-Saharan Africa?

Perhaps the clearest way to define Kristján Loftsson is sat on the beach beside the whaling station in Hvalfjörður, the two old ships waiting for a future that increasingly resembles the past.