Chef Ulfar Eysteinsson prides himself on providing the finest 14-year-old whale steak at his popular restaurant in downtown Reykjavik.
But as diners tucked into lunch on Friday under the gaze of stuffed puffins and codfish, Eysteinsson was dreaming up garnishes for a new version of the old menu special -- fresh whale meat.
Eysteinsson, the lead chef at Thrir Frakkar (Three Frenchmen), plans to be at the front of the line when the government begins selling meat left over from scientific hunts of minke whales this year.
"The meat from the whale is the best meat, there is nothing else like it," said Eysteinsson, among a small number of chefs with deep-frozen whale left from before Iceland quit commercial hunts in 1989. "The stock I have is running down and I'm ready for more."
Iceland's decision to kill 38 minkes -- each weighing up to 10 tonnes -- for scientific testing has been condemned by environmental groups and several nations, including the US and Britain. It has also caused consternation here among tourism operators who fear the country's whale watching industry will suffer.
Iceland cut back on plans for a bigger take that angered opponents when it was presented at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission, the world regulatory body, in June.
The plan then was to kill 100 minkes, 100 fin whales and 50 sei whales for each of the next two years.
Officials said Friday no decision about future whale hunts would be made until this year's results have been analyzed.
The government says the cull is needed to study what's in the stomachs of the minke whales and see if they feed too much on fish stocks such as cod, which are vital to the national economy. Fish products account for about two-thirds of Iceland's export industry.
"We knew beforehand there would be countries who would object and we knew that this research was going to cost us a lot of money to carry out," said Stefan Asmundsson, Iceland's commissioner to the International Whaling Commission. "Regardless of these facts, we believe that it is so important that we simply cannot afford not to do it."
Asmundsson said the cull would not affect the 43,000 minke whale population in Icelandic coastal waters.
Critics say that small sample and the intention to sell the leftover meat in Iceland show that the testing isn't just about fish stocks. Susan Lieberman, director of the species program at the conservation group WWF, said she feared Iceland wants to gauge international reaction before it resumes commercial whaling, as it has said it may do after 2006.
The WWF and other animal rights groups argue that modern technology, including DNA analysis and tissue sampling, has provided non-lethal means of conducting the necessary tests.
But scientists at Iceland's Marine Research Institute claim newer techniques have not yet been proven.
Gisli Vikingsson, the institute's head scientist, said researchers know that minke whales consume about 2 million tonnes of fish annually, but they don't know exactly what.
The first cull is set for Aug. 15. Vikingsson said the whalers will be under strict guidance and that they would use new explosive harpoons designed to kill quickly.
As institute researchers made their final preparations, a few hundred yards along the waterfront at Reykjavik dock, tourists clambered onto boats for whale watching tours.
Vignir Sigursveinsson, who operates Elding Adventure tours, is worried Iceland will lose both its whales and its tourists because of whaling.
"After the hunters have gone out, the whales may not want to approach the boats anymore," he said.
Karen Moffat, 32, a training consultant from London, had not heard about the whaling plans until she arrived in Reykjavik.
"I was coming here because I thought it was a beautiful country, and a place known for its scenery and wildlife," Moffat said after booking a whale-watching trip in Iceland.
"Actually, I'm happy I'm here now because I've got more chance of seeing a whale now than I do next year," she said.
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