Whaling in Iceland

From the past to modern days

Humpback whale diving with an Icelandic whaling vessel in the background dragging a fin whale carcass. Picture by Sigrún Helgudóttir

With whaling restarting this summer 2026 it is time to address this topic again. Through an overview of whaling history in Iceland, we present our views on this practice in modern days. 

Not a tradition 

Whaling has never been a tradition in Iceland. From the arrival of Norwegian Vikings in the 9th century, whales were never truly hunted. The first Icelanders made use of naturally stranded whales, as described in the old Sagas that depicts Odin, Heimdallr, Sleipnir and other figures from Norse mythology. Nowhere do those accounts describe common whaling practices. 

Title page of a late manuscript of the Prose Edda written by Snorri Sturluson (13th century).

It was the Basques who first brought whaling to Icelandic waters in the 17th century, followed by Norwegian and Spanish companies in the 19th, exploiting local resources while Icelanders, a poor nation at the time, could only watch. 

By 1915, whale populations had collapsed and Iceland became one of the first countries to ban whaling entirely. The ban was lifted in 1948 as numbers recovered, and commercial quotas followed through the 1970s and 80s before Iceland joined the global IWC moratorium in 1986, though scientific catches, and eventually commercial hunting, continued regardless. 

By 2009, the entire industry had consolidated into a single company, Hvalur, owned by one individual. Since then, over a thousand fin whales have been killed, though Hvalur skipped hunting in seven of those years, unable to sell meat that neither Icelanders nor foreign markets want.

In 2023, a study found that 40% of the kills involved agonising deaths lasting up to two hours for one of the whales. The government suspended whaling under the Animal Welfare Act, then allowed it to resume under new regulations. In 2024, when the elected government coalition dissolved, an interim caretaker government granted Hvalur a controversial five-year licence until 2029. 

2026 context

After two years without hunting, Hvalur has returned to sea with a quota of 150 fin whales. The government acknowledges whaling is obsolete and new legislation is in development. The date and outcome of those new legislations remain unknown, and change may unfortunately have to wait until the licence expires in 2029. Iceland's potential EU accession adds further pressure, as the EU bans whale products entirely within its borders.

A 2018 Gallup poll for IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) showed that 84 per cent of Icelanders said they had never eaten whale meat and that only 2 per cent said they had eaten whale meat several times a year.

The six most recent polls made by Maskína showed that Icelanders are in majority against whaling (in 2026 41% against, 33% in favour, 26% neutral). Those surveys revealed that over 60 years old Icelander are more likely to be in favour of whaling when 18 to 29 years old Icelander are more likely to be against it. Women are also generally more opposed to whaling than men.

Distribution of answers by Icelanders to the question “Are you for or against fin whale hunting?”. First graph on the left: orange against whaling, in grey neutral, in blue in favour of whaling. Top graph on the right - Percentage of those in favour of fin whale hunting by gender: Men on the left, Women on the right. Lower graph on the right - Percentage of those in favour of fin whale hunting by age: age categories Survey by Maskina.

Why we oppose whaling

For many years, pro whaling advocates were using the economic argument to defend whaling. An argument that progressively lost credibility. Whale meat finds little market in Iceland or abroad, while whale watching continues to grow as one of the country's most popular tourist activities. Whale watching is now a thriving industry, with nearly a quarter of the 2 million tourists who visit Iceland each year join a tour to see these beautiful creatures in the wild.

Picture from a whale watching boat in 2023. Picture by Milla Brandao.

Tourism has been Iceland's largest source of revenue since 2016 making it increasingly difficult to justify whaling on economic grounds. Furthermore, whaling could taint in blood the image of Iceland, making it less attractive for tourists.

Small whale watching vessel transporting tourists facing the whaling boat coming back from its hunt. Picture by Orsolya Stipsicz.

A living whale, seen by thousands of visitors over its lifetime, is worth incomparably more than a dead one, from both an economic and a symbolic point of view.

Whale watching passengers admiring a fin whale. Picture by Rob Hymen.

Then there is the question of animal welfare. Killing an animal of this size quickly and without unnecessary suffering is extraordinarily difficult. The most recent studies confirms that whales frequently endure a prolonged and painful death.

Multiple harpoon impacts on the third fin whale killed in June 2026. MAST report shows that the male was shot 4 times between 17:06 and 17:37, so at least 31 minutes of agony. Picture by Arne Feuerhahn.

Furthermore, whales play a vital role in the health of our oceans. As ecosystem engineers, they fertilise surface waters and increase marine productivity. More whales means a healthier sea, with a lot of fish that are still central in Iceland’s economy. Through the whale pump and whale fall phenomena they also contribute meaningfully to the fight against climate change.

But let's be honest. Even if none of that were true and backed by scientific evidence, even if whale meat were profitable, even if painless kills were possible, even if whales played no role in carbon cycles, we would still oppose whaling. Whales are conscious sentient beings going through life with their own subjective experience, social relationships, personality and animal culture. We believe firmly in their right to exist and to their right to move freely and peacefully into Icelandic waters. 

Fin whale seen in 2025. Picture by Guillermo Monescillo Aragón.

Icelanders know what it means to have their resources exploited by outside powers. That history has shaped a fierce and understandable protectiveness over their own sovereignty. For that reason, we believe the end of whaling must be Iceland's own decision, reached through dialogue between generations and a collective choice about which parts of the past to carry forward and which to leave behind. 

Miquel Pons