Iceland has granted licenses to two whaling vessels for the next five years despite welfare concerns.
Under the permits, 209 fin whales and 217 minke whales can be caught during each year’s whaling season, which runs from June to September.
Animal rights and environmental groups condemned the move by Iceland’s outgoing conservative government.
But the official notice of the permits said it would ensure “some predictability” for the industry, while setting limits on the number of whales that could be hunted based on the advisory.
Along with Japan and Norway, the country is one of only three in the world that still allows hunting of whales for meat, blubber and oil.
Only fin and minke whales are allowed to be hunted off Iceland, but other whale populations are protected.
Permits are usually issued for a period of five years, but the previous one expired in 2023.
A brief period of just three weeks in 2023 ended with the killing of 24 fin whales. There was a quota for a total of 209 whales.
In the same year, whaling in Iceland was suspended for two months after a government-commissioned inquiry concluded that the methods used did not comply with animal welfare laws.
Monitoring by the government’s Veterinary Institute has shown that explosive harpoons are causing whales chronic suffering.
whale, Iceland’s only remaining active whaling ship, instead relies on license renewals On an annual basis.
Iceland’s environmental association said issuing news licenses “violates the interests of climate, nature and animal welfare”.
Sharon Livermore, International Fund for Marine Conservation’s director of animal welfare, said: “Some of the nation’s richest whales continue to make an impact even in the dying hours of this interim government.
“This government should be holding down the fort, instead it has made a highly controversial and hasty decision.”
Iceland’s ruling Independence Party lost to the centre-left Social Democratic Union in a snap election on Saturday.
Icelandic Notice of Govt The total allowable catch follows advice from the Norwegian Fisheries Agency’s fishing advice that “it should be based on sustainable use and a precautionary approach”.
