A Whale of Opportunity

Marine conservationists cry, "Save the whales!" Asbjörn Björgvinsson tags on: Because it pays. "I cannot argue that we should save whales because I love them so much," says the Icelander, who gave up a successful engineering career in 1997 for this cause. "That wouldn't work." Especially in a country where whales are not seen as objects of sympathy, but as meat — and therefore business.

So Björgvinsson, 45, the godfather of Iceland's whale-watching industry and a pioneer of European ecotourism, is bringing...

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