While Iceland's fisheries minister Einar K Guofinnsson said they won't allocate new whaling quotas after the current season ends on on September 1, whale watching tourists off Japan encountered the bloody killing of a Baird's beaked whale.

The whale watching vessel initially noticed a whaling ship and sprays from a whale's blowhole about 3.5 km from them, when it approached within about 100 metres, the tourists saw a harpoon shot into a Baird's beaked whale.

With regards to Iceland, in 2006, after a break of more than 20 years, Iceland approved the killing of 39 minke whales and nine fin whales for commercial purposes, seven of each of the species were hunted by Icelandic whalers, apparently due to the low prospects for sales in Japan. However Iceland may consider issuing new whale-hunting quotas if market demand increases and it gets an export licence from Japan which it has been seeking. Stefan Asmundsson, an officer at the ministry of fisheries, said negotiations for market access to Japan were ongoing.

While this is excellent news for the moment let us not forget that Iceland still plan to kill six minke whales under their scientific whaling permits which should also now be stopped.