After a 10-year struggle to reclaim its whaling rights, Iceland has finally gotten the green light from the International Whaling Commission to resume commercial hunting. The commission outlawed commercial whaling in 1986, but Iceland and Norway refused to accept the ban. Norway negotiated to remain part of the commission and hang onto its hunting rights, but Iceland walked out — a move it would later regret. Following a narrow vote, and despite protests from the U.S. and Great Britain, the IWC has finally opened its arms to Iceland again; in 2006, the country will resume hunting fin and minke whales, which it says are abundant. Indigenous people who fish the Bering Strait will also be permitted by the IWC to resume whaling.
