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Today in Focus

The last whale hunter in Iceland

Today in Focus

The Guardian

News, Daily News

4.65.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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?. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the Guardian.

0:11.6

Today, a meeting with Iceland's last whale hunter and those trying to make him stop.

0:30.9

Seeing the animals for the first time is the most amazing thing.

0:35.7

It's mind-blowing actually, and you get a glimpse of this hidden world in the oceans,

0:41.4

and it makes you more curious about what goes on down there.

0:49.2

And you see these huge animals that you feel so small when you're around them,

0:55.4

but they're also really beautiful.

0:57.4

It's breathtaking, it captures you completely, and you just want to see them again and again.

1:05.9

Valgrou Anodotir is an activist. She goes by Varna, and she's been campaigning to end the hunting

1:12.0

of whales in Iceland.

1:13.2

So whales do have their own languages. They communicate with sounds,

1:27.6

almost like songs that they make their sounds, and they can hear them for miles and miles away.

1:35.9

So it's just like us really, with our different languages and ways to communicate.

1:43.3

Finnweins are 20 to 30 meters long. They're huge. They're the second-largest animal in the world

1:54.8

after the blue whale. They are lean-long. They're on the list to go extinct in most parts of the

2:04.0

world, but in Iceland, they're in the Northland Atlantic hemisphere. They are listed as vulnerable,

2:13.6

but there are thousands of them, but migrate from the southern Atlantic to the North and

2:19.3

Atlantic, because all other nations, except Iceland, stop hunting them decades ago.

2:27.5

The wailing industry in Iceland is led by one man, and he refuses to stop

2:33.2

killing whales, despite the rising protest. It's so sad to see such a large animal being

2:42.3

dragged after a boat.

2:44.8

I don't understand how anyone can think it's okay to go out and shoot them with explosive

...

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