AWI Appalled by Iceland’s Plan to Hunt More Than 2,000 whales

Washington, DC—The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) is deeply disappointed by today’s announcement that Iceland’s Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries has issued whaling permits that could result in the death of more than 2,000 whales over five years. One permit was issued to the Hvalur hf whaling company to hunt fin whales, and the other to the Tjaldtangi ehf company to kill minke whales.

The decision to allow whaling comes less than a week after elections in Iceland, which resulted in Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktssón’s Independence Party losing its lead position in government. The Independence Party supports commercial whaling, while polls indicate that the majority of Icelanders are against it.

“In issuing these quotas, Benediktssón, who has served as Acting Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, has failed not only Iceland’s whales but also the people of Iceland by preempting the incoming coalition government and condemning thousands of whales to a cruel and unnecessary death,” said Kate O’Connell, senior policy consultant for AWI’s Marine Life Program.  

According to today’s announcement, the whaling quotas follow the advice of the government’s Marine and Freshwater Research Institute. As many as 217 minke whales and 209 fin whales could be killed each year for the next five years. The International Whaling Commission (IWC), the global organization responsible for the conservation of whales and management of whaling, has not approved these quotas, which are based on a mathematical model that is not accepted by the IWC.

Any whaling by Iceland undermines the effectiveness of the commercial whaling moratorium imposed by the IWC in 1986. In allowing Hvalur to export products from fin whales (a threatened species) to Japan, Iceland is also disregarding a ban on international commercial trade imposed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). These exports are clearly not needed in Japan, as thousands of metric tons of Icelandic fin whale meat from the most recent shipment in 2022 remain unsold, according to local media reports. Whale meat stockpiles have been repurposed as pet food.

Hvalur took no fin whales in 2019, 2020, and 2021. The company resumed whaling activities in 2022, killing 148 fin whales that year. Last year, 24 fin whales were killed. Only one minke whale has been killed in Iceland since 2019.

AWI maintains that commercial whaling is inherently cruel, unsustainable and impossible to regulate, and continues to call for an end to Iceland’s unprofitable and unnecessary whaling industry.