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Iceland will allow the hunting of more than one hundred whales this year, the fisheries ministry has confirmed.

The Icelandic government has granted a license to Hvalur, the country’s sole remaining whaling company, to hunt 128 fin whales in 2024.

This is fewer than the 161 whales permitted last year. Yet, every whale hunted is one whale too many.

Last year, the Icelandic government released a report that showed that more than 40% of the whales Hvalur kill suffer slow and painful deaths.

“It’s ridiculous that in 2024 we’re talking about target lists for the second-largest animal on Earth, for products that nobody needs,” Patrick Ramage, Director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, told Reuters.

Commercial whaling continues in three countries

Iceland is one of only three countries that still allow commercial whaling.

Since the passing of a moratorium in 1986, the number of whales hunted commercially has plummeted.

Iceland hunts fewer whales than the other two hold-outs, Norway and Japan. Norwegian whalers hunt minke whales under a self-allocated quota; in 2024, the cap was 1,157, according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation, a marine animal protection charity.

Meanwhile, Japan hunted almost 400 whales in 2021, after having resumed commercial whaling in 2019.

As well as the whales caught directly, at least 300,000 cetaceans are estimated to be caught and killed as bycatch every year.

In Iceland, the whaling season runs from mid-June to late September. Hvalur will be able to hunt 99 fin whales in the Greenland and West Iceland region and 29 in the East Iceland and Faroe Islands region.

The majority of Iceland’s whale meat will be sold to Japan.