Photo by Bernd Dittrich
The Icelandic government has formally confirmed it will introduce a bill to amend the country’s Whaling Act in February 2027, giving what it describes as “particular consideration” to a permanent ban on commercial whaling. Humane World for Animals (HWA) reports that the revision appears on the government’s published agenda for its 2026-27 legislative session as a bill to amend the Whaling Act, No. 26/1949, and will draw on a 2024 working group report that examined the legal and constitutional issues around ending the hunt, including freedom of employment and property rights.
If a ban follows, the Guardian reports, Iceland would leave only Norway and Japan permitting commercial whaling worldwide. The prospect follows sustained pressure on the government since a 2023 report by Iceland’s own Food and Veterinary Authority found that some harpooned whales took up to two hours to die, and that 41 per cent suffered immensely before death, a finding that triggered a temporary suspension of the hunt that year. Iceland’s industries minister, Hanna Katrín Friðriksson, had already pledged in January to bring forward legislation, and in July a group of high-profile figures including Dame Judi Dench and Leona Lewis wrote to her urging an outright ban.
A hunt with a shrinking rationale
By early September, 80 of a permitted 150 fin whales had been killed in Icelandic waters this season, according to HWA, which also recorded at least seven unborn calves cut from their mothers at the whaling station; unborn calves are not counted against the quota. Whale and Dolphin Conservation reported that by the time the season closed later in September, the total had risen to 93. Hvalur hf, Iceland’s only remaining whaling company, is run by Kristján Loftsson and holds a permit that runs until 2029.
The commercial case for the hunt has also weakened. Japan, once the main market for Icelandic fin whale meat, has largely stopped importing it, partly because it now has its own stockpile and has expanded its own commercial whaling. Geographical reports that fewer than 2 per cent of Icelanders eat whale meat, with most of what is sold consumed by tourists, and that a 2025 poll found 51 per cent of Icelanders dissatisfied with the current whaling permits regime and 44 per cent in favour of a legislative ban.
Wendy Higgins of HWA called the bill “a really significant milestone” in efforts to end Iceland’s whale hunts, while the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s Sharon Livermore said updating the law would mark “a groundbreaking step towards modern day marine conservation.” Campaigners caution that any ban is unlikely to take immediate effect: existing permits are expected to be allowed to run their course to 2029 rather than ending the day the law changes.