"I don't think they'll start the hunt today ... they can start tomorrow (Wednesday) if they like," Bjoern Brynjolfsson, an assistant to Fisheries Minister Einar Kristinn Gudfinnson, told AFP.

"The meat will be exported," he added.

Environmental group Greenpeace immediately blasted the decision, saying it "doesn't make any sense whatsoever."

Iceland's fisheries ministry insisted in a statement that "none of the planned catches involve any endangered or threatened stocks of whales.

"They only involve abundant stocks and are linked to Iceland's overall policy of sustainable utilisation of marine resources."

The fin whale is the second largest species of whale after the blue whale.

In the case of minke whales, the proposed commercial catch and the existing planned catch for scientific purposes -- numbering 39 -- would represent less than 0.2 percent of the minke stock in Icelandic waters, the ministry said.

According to estimates agreed on by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), there are close to 70,000 minke whales in the central North Atlantic Ocean, of which around 43,600 are in Icelandic waters.

Fin whales in the central North Atlantic number around 25,800, according to IWC estimates referred to by the ministry.

Iceland halted whaling altogether in 1990 but in 2003 resumed for what it called scientific reasons.

Marine experts say the scientific value from whale catches is negligible, while environmentalists claim Iceland and Japan invoke scientific reasons in order to exploit a loophole in the IWC's provisions.

As a condition for re-joining the IWC in 2002, Iceland pledged not to authorise a resumption in commercial whaling before 2006. Thereafter it would not be allowed while talks within the IWC regarding sustainable whaling were deemed to be making progress.

At the IWC's 2005 meeting Iceland warned that these discussions were not making sufficient progress and said the 2006 talks had reached a deadlock.

At the June meeting the IWC narrowly passed a resolution declaring that a 20-year moratorium on commercial hunting was "no longer necessary".

However, the moratorium is not in immediate danger as it needs a currently unobtainable 75 percent majority to be overturned.

Reykjavik took the vote to mean it had a legal right to resume commercial whaling.

While the meat from the commercial hunt was to be exported, whale meat caught for research purposes by Iceland is finding a growing home market.

"We have seen a great change in the past two years regarding public attitudes towards eating whale... Restaurants (are) coming up with all kinds of new recipes, from sashimi to barbeque," fisheries ministry lawyer Asta Einarsdottir told AFP.

The meat from this year's catch has been "all but ordered up", she said.

This argument was however rejected by Greenpeace, which deplored the Icelandic decision.

"Iceland has virtually no market for whale meat. Whale tourism is worth much more in economic terms," spokesman for the group Frode Pleym told AFP.

He disputed Iceland's argument that it was within its rights to conduct commercial whaling, stressing that the country was "clearly in breach of the intentions of the ban on whaling."

He claimed the IWC vote in June "was a result of bribery ... by Japan... The decision needs to be seen in that light."

Icelandic media reported that a newly-built whaling ship, Hvalur 9, left Reykjavik on Tuesday, but only to test its engines.

According to the Morgunbladid daily however, the vessel had a full crew of whalers on board.

The owner of the ship, Kristjan Loftson, told the newspaper Frettabladid that his fish factory in Hvalfjordur was equipped and ready to begin processing whale meat.

Related Links
Follow the Whaling Debate