Icelandic whaling firm Hvalur has announced intentions to hunt for fin whales again this summer, marking the first time since 2023 any firm from Iceland has conducted whale hunts.
Hvalur, which is the only active whaling company in Iceland, faced heavy public backlash during its last whaling season in 2023. According to The Reykjavík Grapevine, an Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST) report surfaced that year that cited serious animal welfare concerns and featured videos of Hvalur hunts that lasted up to several hours.
Even as public backlash grew, Hvalur was granted a five-year license to hunt whales in 2024 – a decision that was heavily criticized by most parties in Iceland – though too late into the year for a season to take place. The next year, Hvalur canceled the season itself, citing poor market conditions in its main export destination of Japan for the decision.
However, after two years without a whale hunt, Hvalur is set to resume the practice and take advantage of the quota the North Atlantic nation has set for the year at 150 fin whales. Iceland has also set a quota for minke whales at 168, though hunting for minke whales has mostly died out in the country.
In response to Hvalur’s announcement, conservation groups have expressed incredulity that the practice would continue this year.
Valgerður Árnadóttir, who is an Icelandic member of parliament and co-founded the organization Hvalavinir, which translates to Whale Friends, in 2023, told SeafoodSource there is no good reason to carry out whaling anymore in Iceland.
“There is absolutely no good reason to do it. It's not economical. We don't make money off it. It's not a cultural tradition. Almost nobody in Iceland eats whale, and all of it is sold to Japan if they buy it,” she said, pointing out that since Japanese companies started increasing whale hunting again in recent years, it has been difficult for Icelandic companies to compete in the market. “We have more and more people in Iceland who are against whaling, especially after May 2023, because the surveillance footage from the whaling boats came out, and you could see how horrific the hunting really is.”
Elsewhere, some have speculated whether the move is less about actually conducting whaling operations and more about making a political statement.
“It is perverse that Kristján Loftsson, owner of Hvalur, intends to kill fin whales again even though he cannot sell the meat,” International Fund for Animal Welfare Germany Campaign Manager Andreas Dinkelmeyer said in a release. “We question whether he has ulterior motives such as using whaling to inflame political debate, with fin whales ultimately paying the price as collateral damage. One possible aim could be to delay proposed reforms to Iceland’s whaling laws and influence the upcoming referendum on resuming E.U. accession negotiations.”
The reforms to which Dinkelmeyer alludes are promises Iceland’s current government has promised to ban whaling. Minister of Industries Hanna Katrín Friðriksson told local media that nothing could be done this summer to stop Hvalur from whaling but that a bill would be introduced in parliament in the fall, when the next parliamentary session starts.
Arnadottir said she has held a meeting with Friðriksson and hopes she will "stand by her word and propose a bill to ban whaling.”
Iceland is one of three countries in the world, along with Japan and Norway, that has allowed commercial whaling in recent years, despite the fact a global moratorium placed on the practice was adopted by the International Whaling Commission in 1986.
