The Icelandic government on Tuesday announced the suspension of whaling until the end of August in the name of animal welfare, also hinting that the controversial practice is coming to an end. Animal rights groups and conservationists hailed the decision, with Humane Society International calling it “a major turning point in compassionate whale conservation.”
“I have taken the decision to temporarily stop whaling” until August 31, Food Minister Svandis Svavarsdottir said, after the publication of a report commissioned by the government which concluded that the hunting did not comply with Icelandic animal welfare law. This report from the country’s veterinary authorities pointed out that the killing of cetaceans was taking too long. Videos recently released by these authorities showed the shocking agony of a whale hunted last year, which lasted for five hours.
“If the government and the [hunting] license holders cannot guarantee the welfare requirements, this activity has no future,” added the minister. The fishing license of the last active hunting company in the country, Hvalur, expires in 2023. It has already announced that this season will be its last due to declining fishing profitability.
The whaling season in Iceland 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. But catches have been significantly lower in recent years due to lower demand for whale meat.
“There is no ‘humane’ way to kill a whale at sea, and so we urge the minister to make this a permanent ban,” Humane Society International director Ruud Tombrock said 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, the director of Sea Shepherd UK, the decision is also “a blow” for other whaling nations. “If whaling can’t be done humanely here…it can’t be done humanely anywhere,” he said. “Whales are the architects of the ocean. They help to enhance biodiversity, they help fight global warming by affecting the carbon cycle process,” he added.
In Iceland, opposition to this practice is now a majority opinion among the population: 51% of Icelanders are opposed to it, compared to 42% four years ago, shows a survey carried out by the Maskina Institute, the results of which were made public in early June. Iceland, Norway and Japan are the only countries that allow whaling.