Iceland grants five-year licenses to companies to hunt hundreds of whales in its waters each year.
Iceland’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture announced this week that it has issued permits to catch 209 fin whales and 217 minke whales annually during the June to September hunting season, according to IFL Science. The license is valid for five years and renewable annually, with 20% of unused quota carryover to the following year.
The fin whale fishing license is issued to Hvalur hf, Iceland’s largest commercial whaling company, while minke whales may be hunted by a trawler owned by Tjaldtangi ehf. Fin whales are listed as vulnerable on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Up to 25 m long, they are the second largest animal on Earth in terms of length, second only to the blue whale. Minke whales are the smallest whale species, about 7 – 9 m long. Although they are not in danger of extinction, many experts have expressed concerns about how they are hunted, similar to fin whales.
The Icelandic government emphasizes that the exploitation of Iceland’s living marine resources is subject to strict limits and that the total catch is set by advice from the Marine Research Institute, based on an assessment by the Marine Mammal Council. North Atlantic mammals.
However, environmental experts and animal welfare organizations described the decision as a “disaster for conservation” and said it was a step down from ongoing conservation efforts in Iceland. “Research results show that whaling is cruel. There is no humane way to kill a whale in the ocean.” said Sharon Livermore, director of the Marine Conservation Program at the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
A few years ago, Iceland appeared to abandon its controversial whaling policy. In June 2023, Icelandic authorities suspended the whaling season one day before it began by suspending fin whale hunting until the end of the summer. This sudden decision was made after a report by the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority showed that whaling often causes animals to suffer a slow and painful death.
However, in June 2024, the Icelandic government revealed that it had licensed the Hvalur hf company to kill 99 fin whales in the Greenland/West Iceland region along with 29 whales in the East Iceland region. Besides Iceland, only two other countries, Norway and Japan, continue commercial whaling.