In just a few short months, Iceland has killed over 150 whales despite a 1986 international ban on commercial whaling and ban on international trade in whale products.  The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) reports 63 minke whales and at least 93 endangered fin whales have been slaughtered since May 2009, in what is being described as the largest commercial hunt in the North Atlantic in decades.

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Sea Shepherd announced today that they have decided to give up their Operation Musashi campaign against the Japanese whaling fleet for this season, citing the whalers’ increasingly violent and dangerous tactics in the Antarctic.

“I have said always said that we would do everything we can short of hurting people to end illegal whaling in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary,” said Captain Paul Watson. “Although we are willing to take the risks required, even to our own lives, I am not prepared to do to the Japanese whalers what they do to the whales and the escalating violence by the whalers will result in some serious injuries and possibly fatalities if this confrontation continues to escalate.”

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On the heals of the dissolution of Iceland’s ruling government, incoming government officials appear to be on the verge of revoking a five-year extension to whaling of fin and minke whales passed just last week by the outgoing government.

Steingrimur Sigfusson, the Minister of both Finance and Fisheries for the Icelandic government, told a news conference on Tuesday:

“We agreed in a government meeting this morning to send a formal warning out to those with vested interests in whaling, saying that the recent decision of the ex-minister of fisheries about increasing the whaling quota for the next five years is now being reconsidered.”

In one of its final acts before stepping down over the country’s mounting economic crisis, the center-right government of Prime Minister Geir Haarde announced last week that it would allow whaling of fin and minke whales for another five years.

The announcement sparked an uproar in the conservation community, particularly from vocal Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson, who encouraged an economic boycott. “We’re going to say to people around the world to not buy Icelandic vodka, sweaters, and fish, to not go as tourists to Iceland and to not use Iceland as a refueling station for private jets,” said Watson from his boat, The Steve Irwin, in the waters of the Southern Ocean.

Iceland is one of the few countries left that occasionally shows interest in hunting whales, and they are no stranger to the intervention of Watson and the Sea Shepherds. In 1986, the anti-whaling group sunk half of Iceland’s whaling fleet while docked at Reykjavik harbor, claiming the destruction of the ships was the reason the whaling industry in Iceland stalled for 20 years.

Image: CC licensed by flickr user wili_hybrid