1986 Hvalur sinkings participant Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
The 1986 Hvalur sinkings occurred in Iceland's Reykjavík harbour in November 1986, when anti-whaling activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society sank the unoccupied whaling vessels, Hvalur 6 and Hvalur 7, and sabotaged a whale processing station in Hvalfjörður. The ships were two of the nation's fleet of four and were eventually raised, but have not gone on a whale hunt since and were dragged onto dry land. Repairs have still not yet been made to the ships some 36 years later. The factory was the country's only processing facility.The incident was an attempt by animal-rights activists to disrupt Iceland's whaling industry after the country circumvented a commercial ban on the practice to conduct research. No one was injured but the attack caused $2 million worth of damage to the ships, $2 million worth of damage to the processing plant, and damage to the whale meat freezer in the processing plant spoiled $4 million worth of whale meat. The perpetrators, Rod Coronado and David Howitt, were able to escape the scene via a flight to Luxembourg.Background
A moratorium on commercial whaling was implemented by the International Whaling Commission in January 1986; the ban allowed for scientific whaling to continue. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society direct-action environmentalist group wished to intervene in the whaling continued by Iceland, Norway, the Soviet Union, Japan, and the Faroe Islands. The government of Iceland believed that taking 120 whales in 1986 for research was vital to its fishing industry. In June 1986, the plan was formulated to sabotage Iceland's whaling industry with an emphasis on causing as much economic damage as possible with the intent to act when there was no threat to human life. The operation was delayed due to a summit in Reykjavík between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union that October. One of the perpetrators, Rod Coronado, was also allegedly involved in an attack on Faroese whalers in June.Operation
Sea Shepherd's Coronado and David Howitt flew into Reykjavík in October 1986. Howitt has also been named as David Howard, Nick Taylor or Martin Braidley. The pair stayed at a youth hostel and began covertly investigating the local whaling industry and it has been reported that they posed as tourists and took jobs at a fish factory. On 8 November, they traveled 50 miles to the nation's only whale processing station in Hvalfjörður, where they broke in at 8:00 pm. Sledgehammers, wrenches, and other common tools were used to systematically destroy computers, power generators, machinery, and windows. The large refrigeration unit used to freeze the season's catch was destroyed beyond repair and documentation at the facility was doused with acid. The main factory and two smaller buildings were left inoperable.Coronado and Howitt then returned to Reykjavik during the early hours of 9 November where three of the country's four whaling vessels were moored. The saltwater cooling valves in the engine room were opened at around 5:00 am, causing the ships to flood and sink within half an hour. The third whaler, Hvalur 8, was not attacked since a watchman was aboard while the fourth, Hvalur 9, was in drydock. The police did not arrive at the harbor until 7:00 am, and the attackers were able to flee the country via a 7:45 am flight to Luxembourg. They were subjects of a routine traffic stop en route to the airport but the police did not suspect them of any wrongdoing and let them continue on their way. In November the two 430-ton whaling vessels were raised from the harbor floor by a salvaging company. According to the whaling company, the attack caused $2 million worth of damage.