Why Is Iceland Brewing Whale Beer?

<p><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fin_whale_St_Vincents.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></p>
<p><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fin_whale_St_Vincents.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></p>

Environmental group Whale and Dolphin Conservation is protesting Icelandic brewery Steðji for its new seasonal beer, which includes a portion of whale meat from the North Atlantic fin whale.

Iceland has a quota of 184 fin whales that can be killed each year, despite the species' classification as an endangered species. The beer, made in partnership with whaling company Hvalur, includes "whale meal," which is the dehydrated, ground product left over from the whale oil extraction process. The beer's marketing claims it makes drinkers "true Vikings." Says Vanessa Williams-Grey of the WDC:

Reducing a beautiful, sentient whale to an ingredient on the side of a beer bottle is about as immoral and outrageous as it is possible to get. The brewery may claim that this is just a novelty product with a short shelf life, but what price the life of an endangered whale which might have lived to be 90 years?

The beer will only be sold in Iceland during the country's mid-winter festival ending February 22nd, according to The Guardian.