Iceland’s Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture, Svandis Svavarsdottir, has announced that Iceland will likely stop authorizing its commercial whaling practices as early as 2024. Svavarsdottir noted that since Japan returned its commercial whaling practices in 2019 after a thirty-year hiatus, demand for Iceland’s whaling products has severely decreased. Without any economic gain and significant protest from conservationists there is little reason to continue the practice. Whale watching is of greater economic value to the country. If Iceland does ban whaling, Norway and Japan will be the only countries that permit commercial whaling. Read more here.
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