Iceland to submit bill that could ban whaling in its waters

The country is one of just three that still permits commercial whaling, while its government has faced mounting pressure to ban the practice

Iceland will submit a bill in February 2027 which could permanently ban whaling in its waters, a move that would leave Norway and Japan as the only two countries to permit commercial whaling.

Whaling in Iceland has been put under intense scrutiny since a government-commissioned report was published in 2023 that found harpooned whales took two hours to die. The report led to a temporary suspension of the hunt that year.

The bill, announced on the Icelandic government’s website, follows comments by Iceland’s minister of industries, Hanna Katrín Friðriksson, earlier this year calling for changes in the whaling laws she said were outdated and expressing support for an end to the whale hunt.

Wendy Higgins, of Humane World for Animals (HWA), an animal welfare group, said the bill was a “significant milestone” in efforts to end the practice.

“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 Higgins. “Every whale killed by exploding harpoon in Icelandic waters, is a tragic loss of life needlessly taken for an industry that has no purpose. A law to stop the killing can’t come soon enough.”

So far this year, up to 8 September, 80 fin whales were caught in Icelandic waters, according to HWA. The hunting season runs from June to the end of September and Iceland’s quota is up to 150 animals.

Fin whales are the second-largest animals on Earth, second to blue whales, and are classified as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, despite decades of recovery after the commercial whaling moratorium in 1986.

Iceland has only one remaining whaling company, Hvalur, run by Kristján Loftsson. A previous interim government in Iceland issued a five-year permit to Hvalur, which runs until 2029.

Higgins said: “Of course, campaigners want an immediate end to the killing of whales, but we also recognise that even if a ban is introduced, it’s likely that the current whaling permits, which expire in 2029, will be allowed to run their course.”

Sharon Livermore, the director of marine conservation at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said: “A proposal to update the laws that allow whaling in Icelandic waters would be a groundbreaking step towards modern day marine conservation and animal welfare, especially for a country so reliant on a healthy ocean.”

Just three countries – Iceland, Norway and Japan – have hunted for whales commercially in recent years. Norway resumed commercial whaling in 1993, and Iceland in 2006, despite a moratorium by the International Whaling Commission.

Japan left the IWC in 2019 and resumed commercial whaling in its waters.