Iceland's Reduced Whaling Quotas Are Not Enough

Last week, Iceland released its commercial whaling quotas for the summer of 2026, allowing the killing of up to 318 whales with permits for 150 fin whales and 168 minke whales. While this represents a reduction from the licenses issued by Iceland's outgoing Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson in December 2024, which authorized the killing of up to 209 fin whales and 217 minke whales annually, a reduced quota is not a humane quota. It is simply a smaller number of senseless deaths.

Iceland remains one of only three countries in the world, alongside Japan and Norway, still conducting commercial whaling in defiance of the International Whaling Commission's global moratorium, which has been in place since 1986. The whales targeted by Iceland's whalers face deaths of extraordinary cruelty, shot with explosive harpoons and, according to Iceland's own veterinary authority, sometimes taking up to two hours to die. Fin whales, one of the species targeted under this quota, remain classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, meaning they already face a high risk of extinction in the wild. These animals are simultaneously threatened by climate change, ocean pollution, ship strikes, and entanglement in fishing gear. Adding commercial hunting to that list of threats is unconscionable.

What makes this quota particularly difficult to accept is its timing. A bill to ban commercial whaling in Iceland entirely is expected to be introduced later this year and Iceland's current government, led by Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir of the Social Democratic Alliance, has publicly opposed whaling. Allowing this killing to move forward when this cruel practice is on the brink of being banned is not a compromise, but rather a failure of leadership to do the right thing when it matters most.

Iceland has shown in recent months that it is capable of choosing a more humane path. Following the first-ever exposé of Icelandic fur farming earlier this year, Iceland Fashion Week took a clear stand by prohibiting the use of fur on its runways, and campaigners are hopeful that a full ban on fur farming will follow. Iceland has a genuine opportunity to extend that moral momentum to whaling and to step away from one of the last remaining commercial whaling industries in the world. A reduced quota acknowledges growing rejection of the practice. A full ban would acknowledge its fundamental injustice.

You can use your voice to take a stand by signing our petition urging Prime Minister Frostadóttir and Iceland's new government to ban whaling once and for all.