Kristján Loftsson has stubbornly refused to bow to public opinion or an overwhelming international consensus against whaling. But with a full ban coming in Iceland, has he killed his last whale?
In the face of protests from environmentalists, political pressure and a near universal global consensus, whale hunting is still legal in Iceland, where it is carried out by a single company. Hvalur was inherited by a man named Kristján Loftsson, 80, who rarely speaks to the international media, but this month he invited the Guardian’s chief reporter, Daniel Boffey, to visit.
As Boffey tells Nosheen Iqbal, Loftsson is in effect Iceland’s last whaler, and with his five-year permit expiring in the coming weeks, he could have killed his last whale. A new bill is being debated in the Icelandic parliament that would ban the practice.
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