Iceland announces permanent ban on commercial whaling

Iceland has announced a permanent ban on commercial whaling. The government in Reykjavík wants to introduce a corresponding bill in February. The Icelandic government has its own majority in parliament.

In 2024, an interim government granted a five-year license to the country's only remaining whaling company. The announced legislative initiative would end this development if Parliament approves the draft.

Commercial whaling has taken place in Iceland, Norway and Japan in recent years. The states are thus defying an international moratorium that came into force in 1986 to protect whale stocks. Norway resumed commercial whaling in 1993, followed by Iceland in 2006. Japan withdrew from the International Whaling Commission in 2019 and resumed hunting in its own territorial waters.