Two days almost exclusively dedicated to administrative work are an inevitable penalty of being away birdwatching for almost a month!!! Quick forays to local sites ensured some sanity but produced very little or indicated any sense of change.
In amongst the forms and telephone calls found an opportunity to lend weight to the campaign the Humane Society International are running related to the decision taken by the Icelandic Government on the 20th May, 2008 to allow 40 Minke Whales to be killed within the next six months. This is in defiance of the commercial whaling ban the International Whaling Commission imposed in 1986 and is a direct reversal of the decision taken by the Icelandic Government in 2007. Besides feeling this action could lend encouragement to others to do the same I personally feel the decision to be utterly lamentable. Since moving to Islay in 1999 the number of sightings of Minke Whales has only recently started to be more frequent and only then involving odd individuals. Such would seem to indicate an improving situation but one that I certainly feel should be allowed to proceed unchecked for some little time yet before initiatives of this sort are even considered, and then after extensive research. Personally I would be relieved if international agreement could be reached such that the practice of whale hunting was abandoned absolutely!
So folks, after that burst on the banjo, if you feel concerned by the above please log in to the HSI website and lend weight to the current campaign.
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