Reykjavik - A boat filled with tourists heading for a whale- watching tour has disrupted the operations of a whaling ship off the coast of Iceland in the second incident of its kind this summer, it was reported Thursday.

The RUV radio broadcaster in Reykjavik said that the whale watching boat Edling 2 approached the whaling ship Njordur KO7 so closely offshore from the port city of Hafnarfjordur that the ship's crew was forced to abandon their hunt for minke whales.

Operators of whale watching tours are determined to whaling off of Iceland banned. Earlier this year, Iceland Fisheries Minister Einar F. Gudfinnsson approved the killing of 40 minke whales.

Meanwhile the captain of the Njordur KO7, Karl Tjhor Baldvinsson, said he respected the zones off the Icelandic coast which are reserved for whale watchers. But on the other hand, he expected whale watchers to respect his legal activities.

Whale watching tour operators have complained that only a few minke whales have been spotted so far this summer.

At the end of May, Iceland's Marine Research Institute reported that the whale population, since the 2001 estimate putting the number at 43,600, has since then been reduced by possibly as much as one- fourth. (dpa)