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7 - The whaling versus whale-watching debate

The resumption of Icelandic whaling

from Part II - Human dimensions of whale-watching

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2014

By
Marianne Rasmussen
Edited by
James Higham ,
Lars Bejder  and
Rob Williams
Marianne Rasmussen
Affiliation:
The University of Iceland’s Research Center in Húsavik, Húsavík, Iceland
James Higham
Affiliation:
University of Otago, New Zealand
Lars Bejder
Affiliation:
Murdoch University, Western Australia
Rob Williams
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland
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Summary

Introduction

Iceland is a unique example of a country being a former whaler nation transforming to a whale-watching country, where whale-watching today is a very important industry for the Icelandic economy. The aim of this chapter is to describe in a neutral way the historical aspect of Icelandic whaling history and how the whale-watching industry has evolved during the last 20 years. The whaling history includes old whaling, the time period before modern whaling, which started around 1870 with the Industrial Revolution and the use of a new kind of whaling vessel that increased catch numbers. Iceland is now one of the few places in the world where both whaling and whale-watching of the same species (Minke whales) in the same bay occurs. Of course, this causes many conflicts and a lot of political discussions both nationally and internationally. The changes from an old whaling nation to a whale-watching nation also reflect general changes in society from being a country mainly dependent on the fishing industry to being a country where tourism is a very important industry.

Type
Chapter
Information
Whale-watching
Sustainable Tourism and Ecological Management
 , pp. 81 - 94
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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