Iceland Government Proposes Bill to Ban Commercial Whaling

A bill to be submitted by Iceland's government in February could outlaw whaling, leaving Norway and Japan as the world's only remaining nations to permit commercial hunts.

The industry in Iceland has provoked years of opposition from animal rights campaigners alongside prominent Hollywood figures.

Ministers are evaluating various options to modernise the country's whaling legislation, placing specific focus on the potential implementation of a permanent ban, according to an update posted on the official government website late on Wednesday. The governing administration holds a parliamentary majority.

During this year's hunting season, which runs from June until around the end of September, 80 fin whales had been caught as of 9 September, according to figures from animal welfare group Humane World for Animals. The current annual quota allows 150 fin whales to be killed this year.

"There is considerable political and public support for this bill to ban commercial whaling, and compelling ethical, veterinary, legal and conservation reasons to hope it succeeds," said Wendy Higgins, a Humane World for Animals spokeswoman.

Fin whales, the primary target of Iceland's whaling industry, are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as vulnerable.

In 2024, Iceland's interim government issued a five-year license to its sole remaining whaling company.

Only Iceland, Norway and Japan have conducted commercial whaling in recent years, according to the International Whaling Commission's catch list.

Norway resumed commercial whaling in 1993 and Iceland in 2006, despite an international moratorium that took effect in 1986 to protect whale populations.

Japan withdrew from the International Whaling Commission in 2019 and resumed commercial whaling in its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.

The moratorium allows indigenous peoples in certain parts of the world, such as Greenland and Alaska, to hunt whales because whale products play a vital role in their nutritional and cultural lives.