Maybe it would be best for both Jón Bjarnason and the whole country if he were to move to Grímsey, an uninhabited island in the West Fjords.
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The new Dreamliner, Boeing 787, landed at Keflavík International Airport yesterday morning for test flights in side wind. According to the airport’s information officer Fridthór Eydal, the airplane will be in Iceland for test flights for about a week.
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Click on the picture to watch an audio slideshow of a hike to Hraunsvatn lake in Öxnadalur valley in north Iceland, which lies at a height of 490 meters, interlocked between two steep mountains and a small glacier with a view of the majestic Hraundrangar peaks.
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Fjallabyggd (“Mountain Settlement”) is a skier’s dream. Its slopes are perfect for slaloming and there are also tracks for telemark skiing. Winter sporting enthusiasts can also go ice skating or rent snowmobiles. In summer, Fjallabyggd turns into a paradise for hikers. Read this special promotion about one of Iceland’s best hidden gems.
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According to a telephone conversation between Wakao Hanaoka, a Greenpeace representative in Japan, and the director of Asian Trading Co. Ltd. in Japan, the main importer of whale meat from Iceland, the company will not buy any whale meat from Iceland this year.
Whaling in Iceland. Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.
In the conversation, the director allegedly stated that the Japanese don’t consume much whale meat anymore and the younger generations are not interested in it. The annual consumption of whale meat in Japan is around 4,000 tons, he added.
Icelandic daily Fréttabladid has a recording of the conversation, which took place on May 7.
Kristján Loftsson, the managing director of Icelandic whaling company Hvalur hf., told the newspaper that there are plans to export to Japan the meat from all 150 fin whales, for which quota was issued this year, at least 6,000 tons.
Last year Hvalur exported around 80 tons of fin whale meat to Japan through Asian Trading. “People can debate endlessly about how much the Japanese eat every year,” Loftsson told Fréttabladid.
According to Loftsson, the price of whale meat has decreased because of the economic situation in Japan, but he is not concerned that there is no market for it. “People are not just thinking about this year but about the long term. It is expensive to get things started again after such a long time.”
Loftsson said that he had spoken with the director of Asian Trading and that he had denied having had the aforementioned conversation with Greenpeace’s Hanaoka. “If the conversation was with him, then it is something that Greenpeace has fabricated. They work like that,” Loftsson stated.
However, the individual Greenpeace claims is the director of Asian Trading has confirmed his identity with Fréttabladid, although he would not make any comments and remains anonymous throughout the newspaper’s article.
Some Greenpeace representatives, including Hanaoka, are currently in Iceland and met with Icelandic authorities yesterday. “The reason for us being here is to show the authorities that there is no market for whale meat in Japan,” Hanaoka explained.
Click here to read more about whaling in Iceland.
The second issue of the print edition of Iceland Review 2010 has just been published. Entitled “Under the Volcano” the magazine dedicates 20 pages, words and pictures, to the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajökull glacier which made headlines all over the word. New subscribers will receive the book 2010 Eruptions as a gift and all subscribers are part of a draw to win a trip to Iceland. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
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Dadi Gudbjörnsson's art with its smiley faces, Aladdin's lamps, gleaming hearts, blue mountains and psychedelic flora of unearthly origin reminds me of the cheesy R.E.M. song “Shiny Happy People”. The sugar-sweet naivety fails to amuse me but I must admit it infects my mood with delirious joy.
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Former President of Iceland Vigdís Finnbogadóttir turned 80 on 15 April this year and Mayor Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir—in making her an Honorary Citizen of Reykjavík to mark the occasion—observed that Finnbogadóttir’s life was interwoven with that of Reykjavík. In June 1980 Finnbogadóttir made history when she became the world’s first democratically elected female head of state.
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Today, August 30, and tomorrow is your last chance to visit the exhibition “Eau De Parfum” by Andrea Maack at the Spark Design Space in Reykjavík. In the exhibition space, Maack introduces three perfumes that are the result of her collaboration with French perfumery apf aromes & parfums.
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