A fin whale being processed in Hvalfjörður, Iceland in June. Micah Garen / Four Corners Media
Iceland is one of just three countries, along with Norway and Japan, that still allows commercial whaling in its waters, but that may be about to change. The Icelandic government will put forward a bill in February that could ban the practice.
The Icelandic government will allow for as many as 134 minke whales and 150 fin whales to be killed this year by its last remaining whaling company, Hvalur. While minke whales are not a threatened species, fin whales are classified as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
So far this year, 80 adult fin whales have been killed in Iceland, where authorities have found that harpooned animals often endure immense suffering. A 2023 report released by the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority determined that some harpooned whales can take up to two hours to die.
The government is now looking to update its whaling law, it says, and will consider a permanent ban on whaling. “This is a really significant milestone in efforts to consign to history Iceland’s cruel and needless whale hunts,” said Wendy Higgins, a spokesperson for Humane World for Animals.
Over the past two decades, Icelandic whalers have killed more than 1,000 fin whales, according to Humane World for Animals, which says that most of the whale meat produced is consumed not by Icelanders but by visiting tourists.
Whaling in the early 20th century decimated populations of cetaceans around the world, leading countries to agree to an international ban on whale hunting in 1986. Despite the ban, Norway resumed commercial whaling in 1993, Iceland in 2006, and Japan in 2019.
ALSO ON YALE E360
Supertrawlers Are Taking Antarctic Krill That Whales Depend On