Party political whales – the ongoing senseless slaughter of whales by Iceland, Japan and Norway
Almost four decades after the 1986 global moratorium on commercial whaling put an end to the mass slaughter of whales, opposition to commercial whaling around the world is stronger than ever.
Yet as we mark World Whale Day 2025, Japan, Norway and Iceland – three of the world’s wealthiest nations that otherwise generally abide by multilateral environmental agreements – persist in defying the global ban.
Why do these prosperous nations, with no real economic or subsistence need for whaling, continue this practice?
The answer lies in political symbolism, nationalist posturing and the stubborn protection of dying industries rather than any genuine demand for whale meat or interest in preserving culture and tradition, however outdated it might be.
Japan
Japan’s first commercial hunt after leaving the IWC in 2019 (c) EIA
Five years after Japan left the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and resumed commercial whaling, the nation’s offshore whaling company Kyodo Senpaku has renewed determination to continue and expand whaling.
The company has overseen the construction of a new whaling vessel, the Kangei Maru, and various marketing strategies such as whale meat vending machines and whale-based ‘health’ products. In the latest of a long series of efforts to spark consumer interest in whale meat, Japan extended its hunt to fin whales in 2024, auctioning off fresh fin whale meat for the first time in nearly 50 years, which fetched as much as $1,300 per kilo.
But despite these Government-supported efforts, sales are not going well. In a recent debate on Japanese national TV, the director of Kyodo Senpaku bemoaned the fact that leading supermarkets and online retailers such as Amazon Japan would not sell whale meat. Even before the expanded 2024 whaling season began, Japan had a surplus of more than 4,300 tonnes of whale meat, including at least 2,000 tonnes of Icelandic fin whale meat remaining from a 2023 import.
Increasingly, the meat from these majestic animals is being repurposed for pet food, making a mockery of Japan’s claim that whaling is a tradition to be upheld.
Although no longer a member of the IWC, Japan continues to wield considerable influence within the organisation, aligning foreign aid with votes for pro-whaling positions as indicated by a number of resolutions supporting commercial whaling proposed and supported by non-whaling states such as Antigua & Barbuda and West and Central African countries.
At the 69th IWC meeting in 2024, for example, countries voting against both a Resolution on commercial whaling and a proposal for a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary included Antigua & Barbuda, Benin, Cambodia, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Morocco and Togo.
Norway
Whale meat being unloaded from a whaling vessel, Norway (c) EIA
Last week, a Norwegian Government press release announced a new quota of 1,406 minke whales in 2025, an increase of 249 from the previous year.
But what the press release didn’t say is that most of these whales won’t be caught because there is no economic motivation to catch them. The highest catch since Norway resumed commercial whaling in 1993 was 660 minke whales and that was 10 years ago.
Within the announcement of new increased whale quotas, Norway’s Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans seems to lend its support to the notion that by killing whales it will increase fish populations and bring ‘balance’ to the ocean. This statement, which lacks any credible scientific basis, is also stunningly hypocritical, given the two million tonnes of wild ocean fish that are used to feed Norwegian farmed salmon every year.
While pro-whaling advocates claim that minke whale meat is primarily used as human food and “coveted by fish restaurants”, Norwegian whalers actually admit that “Norwegians have stopped eating whale meat”. Small amounts of minke whale have been exported to Japan, but that trade has been hampered by Japan’s concern over levels of pesticides in the whale meat.
Additional concerns have surfaced recently in a report by the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) and Norwegian NGO NOAH, revealing concerning levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in tests of Norwegian minke whale. This PFAS, or ‘forever chemical’, is linked to serious human health issues, including cancer, liver damage, immune system suppression and developmental problems in children.
In reality, the only noticeable demand seems to be as cheap meat to make pet food – and not just in Norway. At the end of last year, Finland’s customs reported an illegal import of 36 tonnes of sausages containing minke whale meat caught in Norway. According to the customs agency, the sausages were used to feed sled dogs and the main reason whale meat was used in the feed was its “favourable price”.
Iceland
Icelandic whaling vessel with its catch (c) Dagur Brynjólfsson
Of the three commercial whaling countries, Iceland offers the most hope for the future of whales. The last minke whaling company ceased in 2020 and Icelandic people have become increasingly vocal concerning the one-man war against fin whales led by millionaire Kristjan Loftsson.
After the appalling cruelty of the fin whale hunt was laid bare by the country’s own veterinary experts in 2023, the Government suspended whaling. Although the fin whale hunt began in August 2023 with new regulations in place, welfare violations continued, prompting the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST) to temporarily suspend the permit of one of the two whaling vessels and only 24 whales were killed, compared to 148 the previous year.
In June 2024, the Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries granted a one-year permit to kill more than a hundred fin whales, but no whaling took place.
However, in October 2024, after Iceland’s coalition government collapsed and during the interim period before a snap election, Loftsson’s Hvalur whaling company submitted a new whaling license. Despite the caretaker status of the Government, Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson asserted that he would make a decision on the license and in December 2024, after Benediktsson lost the election, new five-year quotas to hunt 217 minke whales and 209 fin whales per year were announced.
Whether the new Government will overturn the quotas remains to be seen, but there are hopeful signs. The new Minister for Foreign Affairs, Þorgerður Katrin Gunnarsdóttir, has previously raised the issue in the Alþingi (the Icelandic Parliament), describing Iceland’s whaling as “absolutely indefensible”.
More recently, Kristrún Frostadóttir, the Prime Minister of Iceland, stated that the laws on whaling in Iceland are outdated and require revision.
The time for whaling to end is now
Minke whale
The continued whaling by Iceland, Japan and Norway is not about cultural survival or economic necessity – it is about politics, nationalism and the unwillingness of a few powerful interests to let go of an outdated and unsustainable practice.
These three wealthy nations have no real justification for persisting with commercial whaling, especially when demand for whale meat is nearly non-existent and the economic value of live whales far outweighs that of dead ones.
In my view, whales represent the facets of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss perhaps better than any other group of animals.
Slaughtered almost to extinction, their numbers now are still a fraction of what they were before industrial whaling, even after almost 40 years of protection. Their marine habitat is threatened in multiple ways by climate change while the mercury, PFOS and other pollutants in their environment threaten not just their viability, but also the health of people that consume them.
At the same time, these wonderful creatures offer so much hope. Whales are not just incredible to watch, supporting sustainable whale watching industries around the world and connecting millions of people to nature, but they are one of nature’s solution to climate change, making them an important ally in our global efforts to avoid catastrophic climate change.
Commercial whaling as a profit-making industry died long ago – what will it take for these countries to end this political charade that keeps whaling alive?
It is time for Iceland, Japan and Norway to acknowledge the changing values of their own peoples and the changing world around them – and consign commercial whaling to the history books.
