Just when we needed it most, some great news has come out of Iceland! Iceland is poised to end the slaughter of whales in 2024 when its current three-year hunting quota expires. We are grateful to all the In Defense of Animals supporters who contributed to this victory! We have published multiple action alerts and articles calling on Iceland, Norway, and Japan to end their whale hunts, and also asked the major airlines not to support Iceland’s whaling. Today your outspoken support has helped to achieve a significant victory. 

We humans have collectively acknowledged the barbarity of whaling for decades now, and the International Whaling Commission banned all commercial whaling in 1986. Only Iceland, Finland, and Japan have continued commercial whaling - and how much suffering they have caused! Since the 1986 embargo, more than 1,700 sei, fin, and minke whales have been killed in Iceland alone.

Modern commercial whaling is unimaginably cruel. The industry uses massive harpoons usually fitted with grenades. If the harpoon doesn’t hit close enough to the skull, however, death may not come instantly, and the whales may have to be harpooned again and shot with rifles, and even then may be hauled onto the ship still alive and in agony. And apart from the barbarity, another tragedy is the ecological devastation caused by the mass killing of this essential, keystone species. 

As a result of pressure from animal protection groups and you, our supporters, most people today appreciate the intelligence and social lives of whales, and demand for their meat has collapsed. Even though Iceland’s 2019-2023 quota allows for the hunting of 209 fin whales and 217 minke whales every year, only one Minke whale has been killed so far in 2021. Not only has whaling failed to generate revenue for Iceland, but it has also actively hurt Iceland economically. For example, the U.S. retailer Whole Foods stopped marketing Icelandic products in 2006 due to Iceland’s commercial whaling. 

Now, Iceland’s finally acknowledging how damaging and unprofitable this industry is with the Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries stating that, “There are few justifications to authorize the whale hunt beyond 2024.”

With Iceland likely to abandon commercial whaling, the systematic persecution of whales will soon be limited to Norway and Japan. Moving forward, we at In Defense of Animals will double down on our efforts to pressure both nations. But there is a more positive way to frame this. In recent years Iceland has led the way in terms of migrating its economy away from killing whales, toward ecotourism instead. In 2019, more than 360,000 whale watchers admired these majestic creatures from a safe distance. What more can Norway or Japan ask for than a peaceful and profitable solution?

If you’d like to help us protect all cetaceans and ensure their habitats remain healthy, please consider making a donation.