The Icelandic government announced on Tuesday that it would suspend whaling in the name of animal welfare until the end of August, also indicating the controversial practice would end.
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Animal rights groups and conservationists applauded the decision, and Humane Society International called it “an important turning point in compassionate whale conservation.”
“I have made the decision to temporarily stop whaling until August 31,” Food Minister Svandis Svavarsdottir said after the release of a government-commissioned report that concluded the hunt was not in line with Iceland’s animal welfare laws stand.
This report from the country’s veterinary authorities pointed out that the killing of whales was taking too long. Videos recently released by these authorities showed the shocking agony of the whale hunt last year, which lasted five hours.
“If the government and (hunting) license holders cannot guarantee animal welfare requirements, this activity has no future,” added the minister.
The fishing license of the country’s last active hunting company, Hvalur, expires in 2023. It has already been announced that this season will be their last due to the declining profitability of the fishery.
Iceland’s whaling season runs from mid-June to mid-September, but activity is unlikely to resume after August 31.
Annual quotas allow for the killing of 209 fin whales – the second longest marine mammal after the blue whale – and 217 minke whales.
However, due to the lower demand for whale meat, catches have been significantly lower in recent years.
Growing public opposition
“There is no ‘humane’ way to kill a whale at sea and so we urge the Minister to make this a permanent ban,” said Ruud Tombrock, director of Humane Society International, in a statement.
“Whales already face so many serious threats in the oceans from pollution, climate change, entanglement in fishing nets and collisions with ships that ending cruel commercial whaling is the only ethical conclusion,” he continued.
For Robert Read, director of Sea Shepherd UK, the decision is also “a blow” to other whaling nations. “If whaling can’t be done humanely here, then it can’t be done humanely anywhere,” he said.
In Iceland, opposition to the practice is now a majority among the population: 51% of Icelanders oppose it, compared to 42% four years ago, according to a survey by the Maskina Institute, the results of which were published in early June.
Iceland, Norway and Japan are the only countries that allow whaling.