Photo by Bart

Norway has set its commercial whaling quota for 2026 at 1,641 common minke whales, an increase of 235 on the previous year, triggering an immediate and forceful response from conservation organisations. The Norwegian government has described the rise as largely administrative, attributing it to the carryover of unused quota from previous seasons, but critics have rejected that framing as a cover for the ongoing normalisation of commercial hunting.

Norway’s Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Marianne Sivertsen Næss, defended the policy, describing the country’s whaling practices as “sustainable” and “strictly regulated”, and stating that “animal welfare-friendly” methods are used. The ministry maintains there are more than 100,000 minke whales in the North Atlantic and that the population is in good condition.

Conservation groups dispute these claims on multiple fronts. In 2025, only 429 whales were killed across ten vessels, well short of the available quota, a gap that for campaigners points to a sector propped up more by political will than genuine demand. A 2021 survey found that only 2% of Norwegians regularly eat whale meat, with no respondent under 35 reporting eating it often. Critics argue that the industry has increasingly relied on exports to Japan and on sales to tourists in supermarkets and restaurants, rather than serving a genuine domestic food need.

On the question of animal welfare, NGOs including the marine conservation charity ORCA have argued that deaths lasting several minutes in large, conscious, air-breathing mammals challenge the government’s “animal welfare-friendly” characterisation. Data reviewed through the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission shows that while many whale deaths are recorded as instantaneous, a notable minority are not.

The renewed quota has landed in the context of a major international campaign. To mark the 40th anniversary of the IWC’s moratorium on commercial whaling — which came into force in 1986 — a coalition of twelve conservation and animal welfare organisations, including the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), launched the End Commercial Whaling Coalition on World Whale Day on 15 February. The coalition has launched a global petition at endcommercialwhaling.org, calling on the governments of Norway, Japan and Iceland to end commercial hunting ahead of the 70th meeting of the IWC, which takes place in Hobart, Australia in September 2026.

EIA Senior Ocean Advisor Clare Perry said: “It is ludicrous that in this day and age, when other IWC members ended commercial whaling 40 years ago in response to the moratorium decision and when so many people want to see it brought to a complete end, that just three countries remain outliers to the consensus that the world is significantly better off with whales in the world’s oceans instead of in pet food and in supermarkets.” She continued: “There is no economic necessity for Iceland, Japan or Norway to hunt whales, only a refusal to evolve. At a time when the world is desperate for environmental leadership, it is indefensible for three of the world’s richest countries to bypass the IWC’s global moratorium on commercial whaling.”

Since the moratorium came into force, the three countries have together sanctioned the killing of more than 45,000 whales. Norway lodged a formal objection to the moratorium in 1992 and is therefore not bound by it, operating instead under self-allocated quotas. Its highest catch since resuming commercial whaling in 1993 was 660 animals, and catch numbers have continued to fall even as quotas have risen.

The coalition’s petition will remain open until September 2026, with signatures to be formally presented at IWC70. The campaign also calls on all IWC contracting governments to voice their support for a permanent end to commercial whaling at the Hobart meeting.

Against this backdrop, the World Whale Film Festival, held this year on 11 February at the historic ʻĪao Theater in Wailuku, Maui, as part of Pacific Whale Foundation’s 45th annual World Whale Day celebrations, provided a platform for some of the conservation stories that most sharply illustrate what is at stake. UK-based marine conservation charity Marine Connection was among those selected, with its documentary Captive chosen for the festival. The film, directed by natural history filmmaker Ben Gibson, explores the ethical issues surrounding orcas in captivity, examining the UK’s history with captive cetaceans and following the stories of Wikie and Keijo, the last two orcas from the now-closed Marineland Antibes, who remain held in France. The first part of Captive is complete, with a second instalment in production.