Iceland'sfin-whale hunt.
Hvalavinir at IWC70The season Season figures
LIVESeason figures from the published log.
The 2026
season.
Fin whales killed
Unborn calves, in Hvalur's own reports
93 killed
150 recommended by scientists for 2026 [2]
01 / The operation
One company.
Two ships.
Hvalur hf., run by Kristján Loftsson, is the only company that hunts fin whales in Iceland.
Its two ships, Hvalur 8 and Hvalur 9, bring the whales to its station in Hvalfjörður, north of Reykjavík.
02 / Documentation
Unborn calves.
21 pregnant females were killed this season, according to Hvalur's own catch reports. The Directorate of Fisheries gave us the figure in reply to our information request. [24]
The unborn calves measured from 56 cm to 4.43 m. A fin whale is about 5.5 m at birth. [24] [25]
From 2009 to 2018, 104 of the 845 fin whales killed were pregnant, about one in eight, according to the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute. This season it was more than one in five. [22]
MAST's station reports cover all 93 whales. They have no line for a calf, and none of them mentions one. [3]
The Captain Paul Watson Foundation's shore team filmed four of the calves. We filmed three.
03 / At sea
The official record.
Time to die: 35 inspectors' checklists, 22 June to 20 August 2026; the season's other 58 whales have no checklist.
Shots: MAST's station reports for all 93 whales. [3]
Did not die instantly
Shot more than once
Longest time to die
On 16 July a whale was shot five times and took 38 minutes to die. Two of the shots missed. [3] [4]
The Environmental Investigation Agency counted 21 hunts this year for the IWC's welfare working group. By its count 19% of whales died instantly. On average a whale took 9 minutes 38 seconds to die. Its sample is different from ours. [20]
More from the records
34 checklists are for whales killed and brought alongside. The 35th is for a whale harpooned on 18 August and lost at sea. In 13 of the 34, the whale took a minute or more to die. For those 13 the median was about 10 minutes. [3]
We left out six unclear cases. Three give the time to death as a range starting at zero: 0–3, 0–7 and 0–9 minutes. In the 0–9 case, on 16 August, the inspector notes that the whale swam underwater for about four minutes. Three Hvalur 8 forms from August say "0 minutes". The times written on the same forms put death one to five minutes after the shot. With these six, the count is 19 of 34. [3]
The forms also record three misses on two whales, one harpoon lost at sea with its line, and one grenade that did not explode. [3]
Inspectors from the Directorate of Fisheries fill in the checklists on board. MAST, the food and veterinary authority, released them to us under information law. For one whale, the station form records two shots and the checklist one. [3]
MAST's vets also write a station report for every whale. All 93 have reached us. They record a second whale lost at sea, in September. They have no field for time to death. [3]
In 2022 MAST found a median of 11.5 minutes for whales that did not die at once. It measured that year in a different way. [5]
On 22 June a whale took four harpoons and 31 minutes to die. MAST closed its investigation on 17 July and found no breach. [6]
04 / The business
The market
for the meat.
From 2008 to 2022 almost all of Hvalur's meat went to Japan. Iceland has shipped none there since December 2022. [17]
The last cargo, about 2,500 tonnes, reached Japan in 2023. In September 2026 the buyer, Kyodo Senpaku, said some of it was still in its freezers. [8]
Before the cargo arrived, Japan had 2,171 tonnes of whale meat in cold storage. A month later it had 4,609. In June 2026 it still had 3,496. The count covers all whale meat in Japan. [19]
Other uses have been small. In 2013 Loftsson said his ships burned whale oil as fuel. [16] The same year Icelandic fin whale was sold in Japan as dog treats, until campaigners found out. [14] Later a brewery in Iceland made beer with smoked fin-whale testicles. [15]
In August 2026 Hvalur stopped selling to Japan. Loftsson now wants to turn the meat into an iron supplement. [7] Hvalur announced the same idea in 2018. Nothing came of it. [16]
Hvalur sold whale products worth ISK 3.4 billion in the year to September 2023, mostly the 2022 cargo. In the next two years it sold ISK 19 million and ISK 22 million. [23]
Its profits come from investments. In the year to September 2025 it made ISK 1.7 billion, mostly by selling shares, and paid ISK 1 billion in dividends. [23]
05 / What comes next
A rolling licence.
A promised ban.
Iceland has not banned whaling.
Hvalur's five-year licence, issued in December 2024, is extended by a year every year. [10]
Industries minister Hanna Katrín Friðriksson plans to bring a bill banning whaling to parliament in February 2027 and expects it to pass in spring. The bill may allow a phase-out. She has not said for how long. [10] [11]
In May 2025 she promised a bill for that autumn. It never came. [21]
Iceland's opening statement to IWC70 says the government is examining "the possibility of prohibiting commercial whaling". [18]
Even if the bill passes, hunting could continue.
At IWC70
Hvalavinir.
Hvalavinir, Whale Friends Ocean Protection, is an Icelandic NGO fighting against whaling. Its team is currently at IWC70 in Hobart.
Follow Hvalavinir for news on its work and on whaling in Iceland:
InstagramFacebookhvalavinir.is
Two members of our team sit on Hvalavinir's board. Some of the MAST records on this page came to us through Hvalavinir.
About
1000 Whales
1000 Whales is an independent investigation into Iceland's fin whaling.
Since the hunt resumed in June 2026 we have kept a dated log of the season, whale by whale, filmed at the whaling station in Hvalfjörður, and obtained the inspectors' checklists under information law.
All sources (25)
Sources
- Our 2026 season log. The figures on this page update from it. The count follows the Directorate of Fisheries' register, which includes whales lost at sea. Calves are not counted.
- Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, whaling advice for 2026, 22 April. Scientists advised no more than 150 fin whales, down from 209.
- MAST: 35 checklists from the ships, 22 June to 20 August 2026, released to us on 9 September under information law (request 107603). Also MAST's station reports for all 93 whales, and Hvalur's deviation report and the follow-up interview on the 22 June kill. The forms have no field for pregnancy.
We got the station reports, the deviation report and the interview from Hvalavinir. Two members of our team sit on its board.
- Hard To Port, 8 September 2026, on the 38-minute kill.
- MAST, 8 May 2023, on the 2022 hunt.
- MAST, 17 July 2026, on the 22 June kill.
- Vísir, 17 August 2026, and Iceland Monitor. The supplement is only a plan; nothing is on sale.
- Kyodo News, September 2026, in Hokkoku Shimbun: Kyodo Senpaku's president says some of the Icelandic meat imported in 2023 is still frozen in store. No tonnage given.
- Vísir, 14 May 2023: an audit found whaling cost ISK 3 billion more than it earned in 2012–2020. Dollars at the Central Bank rate of 18 September 2026.
- Vísir, 14 September 2026: the minister on the ban, the licence and a phase-out.
- Government of Iceland, bills planned for this session: the whaling bill is set for February 2027.
- Regulation no. 895/2023 on the fin-whale hunt.
- Our season-end entry, 20 September 2026, with RÚV and Vísir. The Directorate of Fisheries' register confirms 93.
- EIA, 29 May 2013: the dog treats are withdrawn.
- BeverageDaily, 12 January 2015, on Steðji's beer.
- Whale and Dolphin Conservation, "Whaling in Iceland": Loftsson on whale-oil fuel in 2013, and the 2018 plan.
- Statistics Iceland, exports by product: monthly table to July 2026. More on our products page.
- Iceland's opening statement to IWC70, 27 September 2026 (IWC/70/OS/CG/Iceland): the government is examining "the possibility of prohibiting commercial whaling", with bills due in February 2027.
- Japan's agriculture ministry, cold-store survey, whale meat: 2023 tables and June 2026 table. All whale meat in store, not only Iceland's. January 2023: 2,171 t; February 2023, when the cargo landed: 4,609 t.
- Report of the IWC's Whale Killing Methods and Welfare Issues Working Group (IWC/70/11.1/01), recording EIA's statement on behalf of 14 other groups.
Hvalavinir is one of those groups. Two members of our team sit on its board.
- Reykjavík Grapevine, 13 May 2025, on the minister's plan for a bill that autumn; mbl.is, 16 January 2026: no such bill had been introduced.
- Ministry of Food, memo to parliament's industries committee, 30 June 2023, citing the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute's reply of 1 June 2023: 845 fin whales killed in 2009–2018, 104 of them pregnant. The estimate of 11 for 2026 is our arithmetic at the same rate.
- Fiskifréttir, 14 August 2024; mbl.is, 30 July 2025; Viðskiptablaðið, 5 June 2026, on Hvalur's accounts. Its financial year ends on 30 September.
- Directorate of Fisheries, reply to our information request of 27 September 2026, received 30 September: Hvalur hf.'s catch reports record 21 pregnant females; fetus lengths 0.56 to 4.43 m.
- NOAA Fisheries, fin whale: newborn calves are about 18 feet long.
investigation.Twenty years of Iceland's fin whaling, with every source.