Govt suspends Icelandic whaler over animal welfare

The decision came just a week after the hunting of whales resumed following the government's decision to authorise the controversial practice, but under stricter conditions.

Iceland had suspended its whale hunt on June 20 for two months after a government-commissioned report concluded it did not comply with the country's Animal Welfare Act.

Shocking video clips broadcast by the veterinary authority had showed a whale's agony as it was hunted for five hours.

Thursday's statement from the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST) said one whaling boat had again breached the law.

While killing one whale, the Hvalur 8 had "hit the animal outside the specified target area, with the result that the animal was not killed immediately".

- Rising criticism -

Under the new, tighter regulations, the hunters should have shot the animal again without delay, but that had not been done until half an hour later, the statement added.

The suspension would be valid until the country's food and fisheries agency had approved improvements the whaler had been instructed to make, it added.

The whale hunting season normally ends at the end of September or in early October.

Iceland is one of just three countries that allow commercial whaling, along with Norway and Japan, in the face of fierce criticism from environmentalists and animal rights activists.

Annual quotas authorise the killing of 161 fin whales -- the second-longest marine mammal after the blue whale -- and 217 minke whales, one of the smallest species.

Opposition to whaling in Iceland has grown to the point that according to a poll published in June by the Maskina Institute, 51 percent oppose the practice, compared to 42 percent four years ago.