Benediktsson grants whaling license for five years

Bjarni Benediktsson, acting Prime Minister and Minister of Food, Agriculture …

Bjarni Benediktsson, acting Prime Minister and Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries. mbl.is/Eggert Jóhannesson

Bjarni Benediktsson, acting Prime Minister and Minister of Food, has issued a fishing permit for 201 fin whales to Hvalur hf. in addition to a fishing permit for 217 minke whales to the trawler- and minke whale fishing vessel Halldór Sigurðsson ÍS 14, which is owned by Tjaldtangi ehf., according to an announcement on the Government website.

The permits are granted for five years, as was done in 2009, 2014, and 2019. The permits are extended annually by one year and it is allowed to carry over up to 20% of each year's fishing quota to the following year. The Directorate of Fisheries and the Food and Veterinary Authority will continue to monitor the fishing.

It is stated that three applications were received for a fishing permit for minke whales and one application for fishing for fin whales. As mentioned earlier, only two permits were granted after receiving comments from the Directorate of Fisheries and the Marine Research Institute.

Whaling has been at a standstill since last year when Svandís Svavarsdóttir, then Minister of Food, temporarily suspended whaling due to the opinion of the expert council on animal welfare.

It was also pointed out that the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority's inspection report on whale welfare during fin whale hunting, which was received by the ministry in May 2023, showed a clear conclusion that the killing of the animals took too long based on the main objectives of the Animal Welfare Act.

Recently, environmental protection organizations called on Benediktsson not to issue permits for whaling again until a new government takes office that has a mandate from the Alþingi.

“The protection of marine life is the country’s most pressing interest, and hunting minke whales and fin whales based on a poor reservation to the international whaling ban will not strengthen Icelanders’ fight for the protection of the ocean – the nation’s vital interests,” the organization said in a letter to Benediktsson.

Picture from 2022 from the Whaling station of Hvalur hf. …

Picture from 2022 from the Whaling station of Hvalur hf. in Hvalfjörður. mbl.is/Eggert Jóhannesson

Based on sustainable exploitation

The announcement on the government’s website states that “the management of the usage of living marine resources in Iceland is subject to fixed limits and the total allowable catch of minke whales and fin whales shall follow the fishing advice of the Marine Research Institute, which is based on sustainable exploitation and a precautionary approach. The advice is based on assessments by the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Council (NAMMCO) and recommends that the annual catch of fin whales in the period 2018-2025 should not exceed 161 animals in the East Greenland/West Iceland fishing area and a maximum of 48 fin whales in the East Iceland/Faroe Islands area.”

It is noted that the Marine Research Institute’s advice on whaling for the years 2018 to 2025 refers to a stock assessment trend from 2017, which reported that fin whales have increased in numbers off Iceland since the beginning of whale censuses in 1987.

“The number in the last count (2015) was the highest since the censuses began. The best-adjusted estimate for the entire counting area of ​​Iceland and the Faroe Islands in 2015 was 40,788 minke whales, of which 33,497 were in the East Greenland-Iceland stocking area.”

217 minke whales

It is also noted that the Marine Research Institute advises that the annual catch of minke whales from 2018 to 2025 should not exceed 217 animals.

Six minke whales were caught in 2018 and one in 2021. No minke whales have been caught in 2024, in 2022 148 animals were caught after a three-year fishing break, and 24 animals were caught in 2023.

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