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Earlier this summer Iceland suspended commercial whale hunting until the end of August, but the government just allowed it to resume until the end of the year putting whales at risk once again — and more have already been killed. Urge the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries not to grant any new licenses when the quota expires!

Iceland remains one of three countries that continue to defy the global ban on commercial whaling put in place by the International Whaling Commission in 1986 and has brutally killed hundreds of fin and minke whales since via grenade-tipped harpoons.

Last year, Hvalur hf, Iceland's lone whaling company, killed 148 fin whales, who are now listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, including 11 who were pregnant.

In June there was a promising development when Svandís Svavarsdóttir, the Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, suspended this year's hunt until August 31 over animal welfare concerns after a government-commissioned report concluded whaling violates the country's Animal Welfare Act.

According to the report, “Of the 148 whales caught, 36 whales (24%) were shot more than once. Of these, five whales were shot three times, and four whales were shot four times. One whale with a shuttle in its back was chased for 5 hours without success.”

On-board monitoring of 58 whales killed also found that 41% didn't die instantly; the median time to death for those was 11.5 minutes, while one whale took almost an hour to die and another took two hours.

Despite the report's gruesome findings, a working group subsequently concluded changes could be made to improve animal welfare and the government unfortunately just announced whaling could resume with new requirements intended to reduce suffering.

However, it's clear there are no measures that can be put into place that will ever make whaling acceptable — yet more whales have already been killed using the same cruel and unethical methods that have been deemed inhumane because the new rules don't go into effect until September 18.

The current five-year whaling quota expires at the end of the year, at which point the government is expected to make a decision about the future of commercial whaling licenses.

Letter to Decision Maker(s) for reference:

As someone who is concerned with the conservation of whales and marine ecosystems, I’m writing to urge you to end commercial whaling for good at the end of the year.
 
Iceland has shamefully allowed both scientific and commercial whaling to continue since a global moratorium was put in place in 1986 and has taken the lives of hundreds of fin and minke whales since.
 
The announcement in June that whaling would be suspended brought global hope that this industry would finally come to an end, yet despite the troubling findings of a government-commissioned report highlighting the cruelty inherent in whale slaughter it has been allowed to resume.
 
Not only is killing whales via grenade-tipped harpoons inherently cruel, but Iceland’s commercial whaling continues to tarnish your country’s international reputation and has further been found to be unprofitable and increasingly unpopular in opinion polls.
 
Yet the true price is now being paid by fin whales, who are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, both individually and as a population.
 
I sincerely hope that when the quota expires at the end of the year, no further licenses will be granted and Iceland’s commercial whaling will become a relic of the past and instead support ethical tourism that allows both residents and visitors to enjoy these magnificent animals for generations to come.

There are no justifications to allow commercial whaling to continue in 2024. I would very much appreciate hearing about your plans regarding this issue.

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