Whalers Whooing Travelers with Whale Meat

(Dive Travel Business News - November 3, 2011) --  Icelandic whalers are trying to win tourists over to their point of view, offering them the chance to go to see with them, feel harpoons and eat whale meat and blubber.

Now after being alerted to the fact that whale meat is on sale at an Icelandic airport, the British Foreign Office has issued a stiff warning to Britons not to bring home any whale meat, saying to do so is in breach of international law protecting endangered species.

Penalties of imprisonment or fines up to £5,000 could be meted out by the courts, says the Foreign Office, because importation into Britain and other EU countries is illegal under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (Cites). Up to 70,000 Britons who visit Iceland each year however so far there have been no reports of whale meat on sale in the UK or being seized at the border.

Last week the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society released a statement after it emerged that whale was being sold in the "Inspired by Iceland" store in the Keflavik airport. According to the statement, staff at the store told tourists from the U.S. that they could import the meat back home safely. This is not true and the U.S. Citizens can face similar penalties as British tourists.

In the U.S. and other countries that support CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), it is illegal to import anything that is endangered. There are so many restricitions on the importation of ivory and other endangered products (from whale, elephant, rhino and seal to name a few) the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asks travelers to plan ahead and contact them before they depart on their trip to investigate whether or not a particular item is on the permitted list.  For instance, if a traveler is interested in bringing home such things as tortoiseshell jewelry, marine turtle products, leather goods, or articles made from whalebone, ivory, skins.  U.S. travelers should contact U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Law Enforcement, P.O. Box 3247, Arlington, VA 22203-3247, or call (800) 358-2104. Other travelers should contact their Foreign Office or similar Department of Foreign Affairs.

Source: guardian.co.uk

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