Iceland ends commercial whaling, joining few remaining nations
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Iceland’s government will submit legislation in February to permanently ban commercial whaling, leaving Norway and Japan as the only countries still practicing it.
This decision comes during a hunting season where dozens of fin whales, a baleen whale species, have been killed despite international concern for their protection. Humane World for Animals recorded 80 fin whales killed this season, though Iceland’s quota allowed for 150.
The Icelandic government holds a majority in parliament and expects support for the bill based on ethical, veterinary, legal, and conservation reasons. In 2024, Iceland granted a five-year permit to its last remaining whaling company. For years, Iceland, Norway, and Japan have been the only nations continuing commercial whaling, defying a 1986 international moratorium intended to protect whale populations. Norway resumed commercial whaling in 1993 and Iceland in 2006, disregarding the moratorium.
Japan withdrew from the International Whaling Commission in 2019 and then resumed commercial whaling within its own waters. The moratorium does allow certain Indigenous communities, like those in Greenland and Alaska, to hunt whales for cultural and nutritional needs.
