OP. MJOLNIR - ICELAND 2018

SEA SHEPHERD UK's campaign to document and expose the commercial whaling of endangered Fin whales by Hvalur hf in Iceland. In May 2018 it was clear that the world's most notorious whaler, Kristjan Loftsson, intended with his company 'Hvalur hf' to re-start Icelandic whaling of endangered Fin whales with repair work starting on Hvalur 8 and Hvalur 9 in Reykjavik harbour. Therefore Sea Shepherd UK decided to launch 'Operation Mjölnir' (Thor's Hammer) - a new groundbreaking campaign to fully document and expose the entire Fin whaling 2018 season using cameras, drones and also by live-streaming direct from Hvalur hf's whaling station at Midsandur on Hvalfjörður, Iceland. Sea Shepherd UK’s 30 crew on Operation Mjölnir who travelled from England, Scotland, Wales, Shetland, Jersey, France, USA and Canada worked in small teams around Hvalfjörður and Akranes for a total of 101 days while cooperating with Photo-journalists and TV crews from the UK, Germany, USA and notably with the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) on the filming of the Horizont program ‘Iceland’s Controversial Whaler’ which was broadcast in Denmark, Iceland and the Faroe Islands which was followed by a second edit by the filmmakers called 'Killing Whales' watched internationally via Al Jazeera Media Network's 'People & Power'. By the end of the whaling season, Sea Shepherd's crew had documented 145 of the 146 whales which had been cruelly killed by the harpoons of Hvalur 8 and 9 in Icelandic waters - including 144 Endangered Fin whales of various ages (with around 21 of those harpooned when they were pregnant) as well as documenting the illegal killings of an endangered Blue whale and a rare Blue / Fin whale hybrid. Sea Shepherd crew also documented transport lorries loaded with crates of whale meat and pallet loads of boxes labelled both in Japanese and English 'whale meat from Iceland' as they were moved from the Midsandur whaling station to a large unmarked storage building in Hafnarfjörður about 1/2 mile from an industrial port where ultimately the 1500 tons of ‘products’ from these endangered harpooned whales were later shipped to Japan. If Kristján Loftsson's Hvalur hf again targets Fin whales in 2019 - Sea Shepherd has pledged to escalate the campaign.

WARNING !

IMAGES AND VIDEO ARE PROVIDED TO RAISE

AWARENESS OF MARINE CONSERVATION ISSUES

AND MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL VIEWERS OR YOUNG CHILDREN

Click to visit the Op Mjolnir campaign pages

21st & 22nd June 2018

23rd June 2018

25th June 2018

27th June 2018

28th June 2018 - Hvalur 9 sails into Hvalfjordur to have it's harpoon gun fitted

29th June 2018

30th June 2018

1st July 2018

3rd July 2018

4th July 2018

'Whale 22' - 7th July 2018

9th July 2018

12th July 2018

13th July 2018

14th July 2018

15th July 2018

16th July 2018

17th July 2018

19th July 2018

21st July 2018

22nd July 2018

23rd July 2018

28th July 2018

1st August 2018

2nd August 2018

3rd August 2018

4th August 2018

5th August 2018

6th August 2018

8th August 2018

9th August 2018

10th August 2018

11th August 2018

20th August 2018

Icelandic whalers aboard the whaling ship 'Hvalur 8' have harpooned a pregnant endangered Fin whale. Three of the whaling company's staff attempted to hide the fetus from the cameras of Sea Shepherd UK's crew by quickly dragging it to a side building beside the flencing area at the Miðsandur whaling station in Hvalfjörður.

24th August 2018
Whale 98 of the 2018 season.

Whale 98 appears to be another potential Blue / Fin whale hybrid harpooned by 'Hvalur hf'.

Whale 98 has many of the features of 'whale 22' which Icelandic whaling company 'Hvalur hf' claims was a hybrid Blue/Fin whale but which Sea Shepherd maintains was a Blue whale.

Whale 98 has the same all black Baleen of a Blue whale (Fin whales have black and white baleen). Whale 98 like 'whale 22' does not have the white underside of a Fin whale and does have some of the skin colouration characteristics of a blue/hybrid whale.

Blue, Hybrid or Fin whale - all are endangered and are being killed commercially by the whaling company Hvalur hf under permits issued by the Icelandic government in defiance of the Global Moratorium on Whaling

24th August 2018
Whale 99 - a pregnant Fin whale harpooned by Hvalur 9
13 whaling station workers attempted to conceal the fetus from our crew's cameras.

30th August 2018
Photos taken using a drone while the whaling ships were prevented from killing whales by rough seas.

3rd September 2018