Iceland announces whaling ban: up to 70 fin whales still permitted

Iceland's government intends to end commercial whaling by law.

If it successfully steers the announced bill through parliament in February 2027, only Norway and Japan would remain as countries with commercial whaling worldwide. As the government announced on its website this week, the bill is intended to introduce a "permanent ban on whaling". Since the governing coalition holds a majority in parliament, passage is considered likely.

Ban announced, quota not yet exhausted

However, the announcement comes too late for the fin whales that may still be killed during Iceland's current hunting season. From June to the end of September, the 2026 quota permits up to 150 fin whales. According to the animal welfare organisation Humane World for Animals, 80 animals had already been killed by 9 September. As a result, up to 70 more fin whales could still die in the current season if the remaining seasonal quota is exhausted.

Until any ban comes into force, hunting remains legal under current law. The timing of its entry into force, the parliamentary process and possible transitional provisions remain open.

Fin whales are considered the second-largest animal species on Earth after the blue whale. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists them as "vulnerable" on its Red List.

A single company keeps whaling alive

Icelandic whaling is effectively carried by a single company: Hvalur hf., owned by entrepreneur Kristján Loftsson. The company is the last commercially active whaling operation in the North Atlantic. After interruptions in previous years, Hvalur resumed hunting fin whales in 2026. In the two years before that, hunting had ceased entirely despite a valid licence, because sales in Japan, the only buyer market, had become economically unattractive.

Licensing policy remains particularly controversial. At the end of 2024, Hvalur was granted a five-year hunting licence, issued by a caretaker transitional government during its final days in office. Animal welfare organisations sharply criticised the decision, not least because earlier official inspections had documented serious animal welfare problems involving the use of explosive harpoons. A report by the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST) found that some animals took a very long time to die after being struck by a harpoon. The announced legislative initiative would fundamentally call the licence into question, both politically and legally.

Wild animals pay the price of a political game

The contradiction is obvious. A government that wants to end whaling is at the same time allowing harpoons to continue being fired right up to the last legal day. Wendy Higgins of Humane World for Animals spoke of considerable political and public support for the ban, as well as compelling ethical, veterinary, legal and conservation-related reasons for its success.

The pattern is also familiar from the Swiss debate on hobby hunting: as long as a single economic or ideological interest is legally protected, wild animals continue to die, even though the public and science have long since moved on. Whether, in the end, not a single fin whale dies will not be decided by the announcement, but by how many animals the as-yet-unexhausted quota costs and how quickly the ban becomes law.

More on this topic in our article Despite all the scandals, Iceland approves whaling in 2024 as well as on Japan's return to commercial whaling.