Icelandic brewery uses dead whales in its beer – latest news from WDC

This news has been taken from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) website. www.us.whales.org

Introduced by our Conservation editor Jeff Goodman

When I was sent this news I thought it was perhaps a joke, but no. At a time when most of us are hoping the world will come to some semblance of common sense with regards the systematic destruction of our marine ecosystems, the Icelanders come up with this? Instead of looking at ways of reducing the killing of wildlife in our bright new technological word, they are actually looking at more ways to justify their insane cruelty to marine life via market commercialisation. What hope for the future?

WDC has expressed dismay and concern regarding the sale of a beer in Iceland that its brewers claim contains dead whales.

‘Whale beer’ is the brainchild of the Icelandic Steðjar brewery and fin whaling company, Hvalur, and claims to contain whale meal.  Its launch is timed to coincide with the Icelandic mid-winter festival of Þorrablót (Thorrablot) held in honour of the Norse god, Thor.

Brewery owner, Dabjartur Arilíusson, declared: “This is a unique beer, brewed in collaboration with Hvalur hf.  Whale beer will include, among other things, whale meal.”  The brewery also states that the beer is a healthy drink because whale meal is very protein rich, and has almost no fat in it.”

Last year, WDC helped expose the use of endangered fin whales in dog food, and the perverse use of fuel made from dead fin whales to power Hvalur’s own hunting vessels.

Sadly, WDC has become increasingly used to Hvalur’s desperate hunts for new outlets for his whale meat,” says WDC’s Icelandic whaling campaign lead, Vanessa Williams-Grey. “Demand for this meat is in decline with fewer and fewer people eating it. Even so, reducing a beautiful, sentient whale to an ingredient on the side of a beer bottle is about as immoral and outrageous as it is possible to get. The brewery may claim that this is just a novelty product with a short shelf life, but what price the life of an endangered whale which might have lived to be 90 years?”

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