BREAKING NEWS: Iceland kills its first fin whales since 2023
The whaling vessel Hvalur 9 shot two fin whales overnight. The animals were the first hunted in Icelandic waters since 2023.
Iceland’s Minister of Industries, Hanna Katrín Friðriksson, has said in public that commercial whaling is not in the national interest, and her government has committed to legislation to end it. She has also said that nothing could be done this summer to stop Hvalur, and that a bill would be introduced when parliament returns in the autumn. Two fin whales are dead this morning in the gap between those two statements.
The license sits at the centre of that gap. In December 2024, Iceland’s interim government issued Hvalur a five-year permit covering 2025 to 2029, a decision heavily criticised by most parties in Iceland. For 2026, the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute advised a ceiling of no more than 150 fin whales and 168 minke whales to be killed.
The minister’s position has a defensible basis. A whaling license is a legal instrument, and revoking one mid-term is not the same as declining to issue it. Unilateral revocation could expose the state to compensation claims from a company that already litigates over halted seasons. Even IFAW, which opposes the hunt, has acknowledged that any change in the law may only take effect when the current licence expires. The lawful route to ending whaling may genuinely run through primary legislation, and primary legislation may genuinely have to wait for the autumn session.
What the government has not done is explain why a practice it calls indefensible remains lawful enough to kill an endangered animal this morning. At the same time, the remedy waits for a parliamentary calendar.
Fin whales are the second-largest animals on Earth, after blue whales. The IUCN Red List classifies them as vulnerable to extinction. They mature slowly and reproduce slowly, which means populations recover slowly from hunting pressure.
The method is contested on welfare grounds, by Iceland’s own regulator. A report by the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority on the 2022 season found that 41% of whales did not die immediately, took a median of 11.5 minutes to die, and in some cases survived up to two hours after being struck, findings the authority concluded were inconsistent with Iceland’s Animal Welfare Act.
The commercial case for the hunt has thinned. Japan, historically the only export market for Icelandic fin whale meat, has scaled back its purchases as its own whaling capacity has grown, and meat from the 2023 season has reportedly gone unsold. Whether any of this changes the minister’s hand is now a question for the autumn.
Iceland is one of three countries, with Norway and Japan, that still permit commercial whaling. A national referendum on restarting EU accession negotiations is scheduled for August. The European Union opposes commercial whaling. The bill to end it has not been written.
Two fin whales were killed before any of that was settled.
Yet another tragic day for whales. How is it possible that one man's obsession with killing whales, enabled by his wealth, is allowed to continue with this shameful pursuit?