Kristján Loftsson is the last Icelandic whaler, a businessman with a piratical air whose uncle died on a cargo ship torpedoed by a U-boat in the frigid oceans between Greenland and Canada during World War II and who, as a young man, served as a lookout on his father’s first whaling boat.
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who → die → boat
Today at 83, he has made a fortune from the whaling outfit he inherited – and the sprawling investment and fishery businesses he built from it – yet is famous as the defiant face of an industry that refuses to die.
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that → make → industry
This weekend, the International Whaling Commission will hold its biannual meeting in Hobart, while in Iceland there are political moves afoot to finally shut down Loftsson’s whaling operation, Hvalur.
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Commission → hold → operation
Loftsson normally attends IWC meetings and maintains a quiet presence as an observer, says Sharon Livermore, the marine program director with the International Fund for Nature, just as he normally avoids media attention.
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he → attend → attention
This year, Loftsson has pulled out of the meeting at the last moment, and is dispatching his son, Loftur Kristjánsson, in his place, but he seems happy enough to speak with this masthead as the meeting approaches.
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meeting → pull → masthead
The thought of his son turning up at the IWC clearly tickles him.
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son → turn → him
According to Loftsson, opponents of whaling – whom he refers to collectively “the anti’s” – have taken to speculating that Icelandic whaling will end when he retires.
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he → accord → ’s
His son’s appearance in Hobart, he says, will signal that it will not.
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it → say → Hobart
At least not if he can help it.
In conversation with Loftsson, it can be hard to tell if he is speaking with intent or for effect.
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he → help → effect
At one point he says he is considering applying for carbon credits for all the whales he has killed over the years, given the extra carbon dioxide they would have exhaled had they been allowed to live full lives.
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they → say → lives
As Loftsson sees it, there is no moral or ethical difference between killing, say, a cow, a kangaroo or a whale for human consumption, so long as their populations are healthy and the slaughter humane.
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slaughter → see → consumption
Indeed, he seems baffled that Australia does not hunt its own whales.
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Australia → seem → whales
“You have 40,000 humpback whales on the east coast, and you have 40,000 of different stock on the west coast.
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you → have → coast
What are you going to do with these whales?
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you → go → whales
Just let them swim there forever?”
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them → let → ?
“What are you going to do with these whales?
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you → go → whales
Just let them swim there forever?”Kristján
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them → let → ?
Loftsson speaks from some experience.
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Loftsson → speak → experience
He attended the 29th meeting of the IWC in Canberra in 1977, and afterwards flew to Western Australia to join a sperm whale hunt from Albany.
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He → attend → Albany
He recalls being impressed by the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company’s use of aircraft to spot whales.
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He → recall → whales
A year later the business closed, marking the end of whaling in Australia.
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business → close → Australia
Since then, while humpback populations enjoyed a spectacular recovery, the bounce-back of southern right whales stalled at about 3500, and sperm whales have never recovered at all.
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whales → enjoy → 3500
Today, Hvalur – which means simply “whale” in Icelandic – still runs two whaling vessels after Sea Shepherd activists sank two others in a sabotage attack in port in 1986.
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activists → mean → 1986
This year, those vessels took 93 fin whales, out of a quota assigned by the Icelandic government of 150.
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vessels → take → 150
Fin whales are the second-largest animals on earth after the blue whale, and it is estimated that since the international moratorium on whaling the North Atlantic population of the animal has recovered from about 15,000 before the global whaling moratorium to between 30,000 and 40,000.
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population → estimate → 30,000
Loftsson claims this year’s take was low due to poor weather.
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take → claim → weather
Captain Paul Watson, who founded the Sea Shepherd environmental direct action group in 1977 only to split with it in 2022, claims it was low due to his new foundation’s harassment efforts on the open ocean.
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it → found → ocean
Either way, Hvalur has so far been unable to sell the whale meat it harvested this season, which begins in July and ends in late September.
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which → sell → September
According to Livermore, this is because beyond a tiny trade in selling whale meat to restaurants for tourists in Iceland, there is simply very little market for the product.
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this → accord → product
Loftsson counters that he has been unable to sell the meat because Japan, to which he once exported, subsidises its own industry so heavily, a practice he describes as “discrimination”.
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he → counter → discrimination
Whatever the cause, it leaves him with about 1000 tonnes of whale meat sitting in cold storage.
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it → leave → storage
No matter, says Loftsson.
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Loftsson → say → ?
He has a plan to turn the meat into iron supplement tablets for “pregnant women and women of childbearing age”, who he reckons would far prefer to eat tablets made of natural whale rather than synthetically produced ones.
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he → have → ones
He says he can have machinery in place to make them by next season, though he can’t yet say how many he’d make with his 1000 tonnes of stored whale.
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he → say → whale
Australia could secure its own supply by taking just 200 of its humpbacks a year, he has calculated.
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he → secure → humpbacks
As he keeps a weather eye on international efforts to end whaling, Loftsson is also facing increased pressure at home.
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Loftsson → keep → home
His existing five-year licence to continue whaling was put in place by an outgoing conservative government in 2024.
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licence → exist → 2024
Iceland’s current centre/centre-left ruling coalition plans to introduce a bill to parliament in February that would end whaling, leaving Norway and Japan isolated as the only countries still conducting a commercial hunt in the face of the international moratorium.
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that → rule → moratorium
This comes after the same government commissioned a report that found the explosive-tipped harpoons used by Hvalur could leave whales fighting for their lives for up to two hours, and polls show support for the hunt falling.
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support → come → hunt
(Loftsson says the whales that Hvalur takes die in under three minutes.)
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Hvalur → say → minutes
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
