Whaling in Iceland: Is 2020 the End of Iceland’s Whaling?
Iceland’s whaling history is long, bloody and fraught with horror stories. The country’s commercial whaling industry is responsible for the slaughter of thousands of fin whales and minke, much to the dismay of international animal rights groups, since the dawn of the 21st-century. Iceland is one of the few countries that allow commercial whaling following the formation of the International Whaling Commission in 1982; the others being Japan and Norway.
Fin whales are considered endangered animals, and are the second-largest species on the planet. In 2018, 146 fin whales were killed during whaling season in Iceland. The casualties included two extremely rare fin whale-blue whale hybrids.
It was a dark time for the whale conservation community.
As hard work was being put in around the world to secure a brighter future for the highly-persecuted whale population, Iceland seemed hellbent on putting a dent in their numbers.
However, Iceland’s involvement in whaling may be coming to an end.
The Current Situation: Whaling in Iceland
In 2019, not a single whale was killed in Iceland. Despite the Icelandic government issuing a notice stating that 2000 whales were allowed to be killed and butchered between 2019 and 2023, no whales were hunted in the country.
In 2020, that trend stayed the same. No whales were killed and the whaling ships of Iceland remained at port.
With a two-year whaling hiatus under their belts, is the Icelandic whaling industry set to shut down for good? Even if there is governmental and legal support for whaling, the industry seems unlikely to act on the opportunity.
Iceland may be part of a select community that still legalises commercial whaling, but they were also the country that killed the lowest number of animals. Norway and Japan slaughtered far more whales than Iceland. And the numbers have only been falling in recent years, even when whaling activities were taking place.
Why Whaling in Iceland is Ending
There are only two companies in Iceland that conduct whaling activities. Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, Managing Director of Ip Utgerd, one of these two businesses, has claimed that the company’s days of whaling are behind them. Hvalur, the other whaling company in Iceland, has not made quite such bold claims, but did indeed confirm they would not be whaling in Iceland during 2020 - the second year in a row.
The COVID-19 crisis has been widely cited as the primary driver behind the end of whaling in Iceland. Social distancing makes work in slaughter yards difficult, as it does on boats as well. With Iceland’s case rate so low, measures for protecting residents are being taken very seriously, which has resulted in an inability to hunt whales.
But does that mean that once we are clear of the COVID-19 pandemic, whaling will return to Iceland?
Not likely.
This is not the first year Hvalur has failed to head out into Icelandic waters to hunt whales. They didn’t do so in 2019, but Coronavirus was not a problem then.
Iceland’s whaling industry has been in trouble for a while, for three primary reasons, all of which are economical.
The first is demand.
Only around 3% of people in Iceland eat whale meat regularly. Public opinion generally favours the conservation of these animals, which means very few people actually have interest in the product produced by Iceland’s whalers. Many Icelandic people don’t want whaling to tarnish the reputation of their otherwise beautiful country.
So because nobody in Iceland is buying, traditionally whale meat was being sold to Japan. But Japan is not only facing a decline in whale meat demand, but has also increased its own supply. The result is that Iceland’s whalers actually developed stores of whale meat they couldn’t sell. Not to locals or foreign markets.
Whaling in Iceland is expensive, and there's just no financial reward in the practice. At the end of the day, whaling in Iceland is a business, not a hobby, and the business model is failing.
Which brings us to a much more economically rewarding whale-related activity.
Whale Watching Could End Whaling for Good
Whale watching has become one of Iceland’s most popular tourist activities. Over the previous decade, the activity has grown in interest by as much as 34% year-on-year. Where once a few hundred people would visit the country to view whales, the industry has now ballooned to tens of thousands.
Whale watching has not only produced jobs and income for Icelandic residents, but the demands it has placed on Iceland’s environmental agencies has also meant protected areas and sanctuaries for whales have had their borders extended, meaning whalers have to travel further out to sea to hunt, which makes the practice more difficult and more expensive.
The economic incentives of whale watching over whaling in Iceland are clear, which has done nothing but accelerate the demise of whaling in Iceland. There is just no money in killing these graceful giants, but there is lots of money to be gained from keeping them alive.
A great reason to support ethical whale watching.
With both Norway and Japan also seeing increased demand for whale watching as interest in whale meat plummets, we can only hope our love for whales triumphs over the barbaric practice of whaling in these hold-out countries as well.
So remember, when you take a whale watching trip in Iceland, you’re helping to end whaling in Iceland - and perhaps even around the world - for good.
