Iceland to Seek Permanent Ban on Whaling

The Icelandic government has announced that it will submit a bill to Parliament in February calling for a permanent ban on whaling. If the legislation passes, Norway and Japan would remain the only two countries in the world to engage in commercial whaling.

The move follows years of protests by animal welfare campaigners. The government holds a majority in the Icelandic Parliament.

The main target of Icelandic whalers is the fin whale, which the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies as a vulnerable species. As of 9 September, whalers had caught 80 fin whales out of the permitted quota of 150 during the current hunting season.

In 2024, Iceland’s interim government issued a five-year license to the country’s sole remaining whaling company.

An international moratorium on commercial whaling has been in effect since 1986. Norway resumed commercial whaling in 1993 and Iceland in 2006. In 2019, Japan withdrew from the International Whaling Commission and resumed commercial whaling in its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.

(Reuters, max)