Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.08.2013, Síða 10

Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.08.2013, Síða 10
 Continued Book online www.bustravel.is or call +354 511 2600 GRAND GOLDEN CIRCLE GOLDEN CIRCLE Afternoon GLACIER LAGOON SOUTH COAST - VIK BLUE LAGOON Schedule EXCITING DAY TOURS - BEAUTIFUL PLACES More Iceland for less money Iceland | Whaling By Rebecca Louder The Wrong Kind Of Whale Watching “How mentally prepared for this should we be?” I asked our driver, Marvin Lee Dupree, as we approached the turn-off to Hvalfjörður. Marvin paused, made a pensive sneer and replied. “It’s pretty gnarly.” On Friday, August 2, we received a call to our office from known activist Sigursteinn Másson inviting us along to an anti-whale hunting protest set up by the Interna- tional Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). The whaling ships Hvalur 8 and Hvalur 9 had reportedly caught two fin whales, despite having no current buyer for the meat or any means of shipping it through other countries, and were dragging them into the fjord to the whaling station. A few of us at Grapevine decided to go along. Into the fjord Approaching the mouth of the fjord, we noticed two boats tailing each other towards the whaling station, and Marvin sped up the car. “I want us to be ready for them when they get there,” he said, referring to the protestors. Finally he pulled off the road and parked in front of a chain link fence, next to several other vehi- cles. “This is kind of a community event. People in the area come out to see this.” A few steps past the other cars I looked down to the right at what appeared to be the lower-half of a fin whale laid out on an open concrete dock, sawed clean through at the midsection and splayed open lengthwise, exposing muscle, entrails and the spine. About a dozen male workers in waterproof coveralls walked around and on the carcass using chainsaws and large straight hooks to cut off pieces of flesh, meat and bone, and then drag them over to various areas of the work-dock, seem- ingly dependent on where the parts were headed to next. Mechanical animals Large automatic pulleys were installed on the work- dock and a hook-line was drawn from the back-end pulley, attached to the skin of the whale—which had al- ready been loosened by the workers—and then stripped off the carcass in one mechanical motion. As the work- ers finished removing the skin and dragged it into a container full of (presumably) water at the back of the dock, a second whale was being dragged through the open water up to the dock. One worker walked around with a large mop pushing waves of blood back towards the sea, which was already full of crimson pools. The work was done quickly to the point of appearing sloppy, with seemingly little atten- tion paid to hygiene. The work-dock and carcass were not hosed off during the carving and workers wantonly switched between walking on the ground and on the spine. The place emanated an acrid smell, similar to the metallic salty taste of putting an old key in your mouth. Masses of birds flocked onto the whale as it was dragged through the open water, pecking at it and get- ting their fill. Once the second whale reached the edge of the dock, it stayed bobbing in the water for several minutes while a group of about eight people stood down at the edge looking at it from up close. Marvin later said that these were most likely people invested in whale hunting in some way, be it monetarily, politi- cally or personally. Pointless Meanwhile, the protestors had gathered on the side of the hill overlooking the dock, holding up cardboard hands pointing towards the ocean that read, “What’s the point?” along with a large cloth banner that reiterated the ques- tion. While implicitly peaceful, the protesters were al- most passive, spending the time quietly observing the activity of the whaling workers, or chit-chatting amongst themselves. The lines between interested onlooker, hor- rified visitor and outraged protester were almost impos- sible to distinguish, save for those cardboard hands. The workers finished butchering up the first whale and dragged the remaining chunks off, dropping them into holes in the dock that possibly led to further process- ing or simply a refuse pile. Marvin walked down from the hillside and pointed my attention toward a worker heading to the far back end of the dock, dragging away with him the titular fin. It was taken somewhere out of sight but not discarded, most likely to be kept as a trophy. The second whale was now attached by its tail to the hook-line of one of the pulleys and gradually brought up onto the dock in the same place the first whale had been. The workers stood around it, dwarfed by the mass of the second largest cetacean in the ocean. At this point, there didn’t seem to be much need to watch the slow-motion replay. The protest broke up and people began heading back to their vehicles, save for a few onlookers there for neu- tral observation (or perhaps genuine entertainment? Who’s to say). On the drive back, through the warm, sun- filled fjord, our intern spoke up. “It’s weird because I’d never seen a whale before,” she said. “And now the first time I saw one, it was dead.” Marvin walked down from the hillside and pointed my attention towards a worker heading towards the far back end of the dock, dragging away with him the titular fin. “ „ Finback whales are being hunted exclusively by the company Hvalur hf. Their buyers in Japan recently cancelled their contract after it was revealed the meat was being used for dog treats. Rebecca Louder 10The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 12 — 2013 is going to cost, as many tobacco smokers around Iceland have been doing. Following the 15% increase of the tax on tobacco at the start of the year, tobacco sales have dropped by 10.4% since January. Plus, smoking conditions are prob- ably unfavourable with the recent trend of "gloomiest weather since..." headlines. This past month Reykja- vík was subject to the coldest July since 2002, with an average temper- ature of 10,6°C. Furthermore, the former Minister of Finance Gylfi Magnússon assures Iceland that Sanati's claims are pre- sumptuous and wrong. Santani's charge against Iceland's "zombie banks" would not even apply to the old banking system, Gylfi remarks, let alone the new one which San- tani doesn't seem to know anything about. Basically, according to Gylfi, Santani is just being a drama queen. But being a drama queen isn't al- ways a bad thing, especially if you were competing in Reykjavík's sec- ond annual drag contest held in Harpa's Eldborg concert hall over Pride week. Congratulations to the 'Foxy Ladies' duo Márky Cántalejo and Chris Mercado and to Brjánn Hróðmarsson for being crowned this year's Drag Queens and King. And thanks for contributing to Ice- land's growing reputation as great entertainers. That reputation, by the way, was given a pretty hefty boost when Rolling Stone magazine named Sigur Rós one of the Top 50 Great- est Live Acts Right Now. The article likened the band's trippy stage pres- ence to Pink Floyd, and praised Jón- si for his crowd-destroying union of bow and guitar. Speaking of harmonious unions, Di- rector Baltasar Kormákur and CCP Games are joining forces to create a TV series based on the wildly popu- lar game, EVE Online. He admits that his personal interest in gaming never really evolved beyond a brief Pac-Man affinity as a child, but he uses this as an asset to make the series appealing to a wider range of people, and hopefully bring in some new fans. You got this, Kormákur. NEWS IN BRIEF AUGUST

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