First Whales Killed Days After Hunting Suspension Lifted

The first fin whales have been killed days after Iceland lifted the country's whale hunting restrictions.

Two fin whales were killed just a week after the government announced the resumption of the practice, local media reported on Thursday. The Icelandic government announced that fin whaling would resume, following a temporary ban, at the end of August.

This time, there are stricter regulations in place, which the government says are aimed at minimizing suffering. The government announced there will be better equipment and increased monitoring and training for whalers.

However, animal rights groups are not happy with the decision.

"We will continue galvanizing support from within Iceland and continue to expose the cruelty of the Icelandic hunts," Danny Groves, head of communications at Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), which has been strongly campaigning to put a stop to whaling, told Newsweek.

"People in Iceland are turning against these hunts—they are not a good look for the country, and [the] latest polls now show they are in the majority. Whales are our allies in helping to fight climate breakdown—we need more whales to keep the ocean healthy, not more slaughter."

Iceland, along with Japan and Norway, still continues commercial whaling operations despite its controversy. The whales are often used for meat and exported to Japan.

Animal welfare groups argue that the practice is outdated, unnecessary and cruel. The temporary ban was implemented after a study from the Icelandic government showed that over 40 percent of whales killed during the whaling season suffered painful and slow deaths. Many of the whales did not die instantly.

The government report based its findings on 148 whales that were caught in Iceland during the fishing season from June to September 2022. Out of this number, 36 had to be shot more than once before they died. Five whales were shot three times, and four whales were shot four times.

The 40 percent of fin whales struggled for more than 11 minutes before they eventually died.

"With the expiry of the ban, the ministry is now implementing strict and detailed new requirements for hunting including equipment, methods and increased supervision," a statement sent to The Guardian from Iceland Minister of Food and Agriculture Svandís Svavarsdóttir read. "Irrespective of my personal or political standpoint on whaling, evaluation of its future remains ongoing and the official process continues."

Despite the continuation of whaling in the country, WDC told Newsweek that it will continue to flag issues related to the "legality and ethical aspects of these brutal hunts."

"One important point to make is that the new regulations that have been laid out, do not come into effect until the 18th of September," a statement from WDC said. "This means that until then, the whalers are operating under the same license and in the same manner which was deemed by Iceland's own national authority to be in conflict with Icelandic animal welfare law, which led to the suspension of whaling licenses earlier in the summer."

Whalers in Iceland hunt both fin whales and minke whales. Fin whales, the second largest whale on Earth, are listed as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

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