25-8-2011:  Kijk alstublieft naar Pierce Brosnan's indrukwekkende nieuwe video over de illegale walvisjacht door IJsland.

 

 

 

 

Actor and marine mammal activist Pierce Brosnan is heading up NRDC's latest online campaign to end Iceland's illegal slaughter of whales. Launched in July, the public mobilization follows a formal declaration by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce that Iceland is hunting whales in defiance of the global ban on commercial whaling. That announcement set in motion a 60-day period during which President Obama must decide whether to impose economic measures, including trade sanctions, against Iceland under conservation legislation known as the Pelly Amendment. "We can be sure that Iceland will not end the abhorrent practice of whaling until it is forced to do so," Brosnan wrote in an email message to NRDC's one million Members and online activists. "Please join me in urging the White House to impose tough sanctions and make Iceland pay a real, measurable price for its mass killing of whales."

Iceland has shown time and again that it will thumb its nose at anything less than sanctions. In 2004 the United States issued a similar declaration -- but failed to impose penalties -- and Iceland proceeded to ramp up its slaughter of whales. Since 2006 that nation has killed more than 200 minke whales and 280 endangered fin whales, which can weigh up to 80 tons and are the second-largest whale species on earth. Over the past two years alone, Iceland has exported more than 1,200 tons of whale meat, blubber and oil -- worth some $17 million -- to Japan, and has made additional shipments to Norway, Latvia and Belarus. NRDC is calling on President Obama to impose trade sanctions against Icelandic seafood companies with direct ties to the whaling industry.