Who Still Hunts Whales? Norway, Japan, the Faroes, Iceland

The short answer is four places, and no two are alike. Norway and Japan hunt commercially. The Faroe Islands hold a community hunt of pilot whales and dolphins. Iceland has just started again. I also want to be open with you: Norway, Japan and the Faroe Islands are places we do not promote ourselves, and this is the main reason why.

Let us go country by country, in plain words, and then look at what a traveller can really do. Where I am not sure of something, I will tell you.

How can a whaling ban exist and still not apply?

This is the part that confuses most people. In 1986 the International Whaling Commission brought in an indefinite moratorium on commercial whaling. But the commission can only bind the countries that accept its decisions, and three countries found three different ways around it. Norway filed a formal objection to the moratorium, so it is not bound by it. Iceland left the commission in 1992, rejoined in 2001 with an objection, and went back to commercial hunting in 2006. Japan left the commission in 2019 and restarted commercial whaling in its own waters, which closed about thirty years of what it called research whaling.

Sources do not fully agree on the year Norway first objected, so I will not give you a date for that. The main point stays simple: the moratorium is real, and it is also not universal.

Norway sets its own number

Because of its objection, Norway decides its own quota. For 2026 that quota is 1,641 common minke whales, up from 1,406 in 2025. Officials call the rise mostly administrative, because quota left unused in earlier seasons is carried forward. Real catches are usually far below the quota: in 2025, ten vessels took part and 429 whales were killed, according to the reports I found.

Japan left the table

After leaving the International Whaling Commission in 2019, Japan began commercial whaling in its coastal waters and its exclusive economic zone. Later it added fin whales, a much bigger species than the others, to its list. Japan’s Fisheries Agency reviews its catch limits every six years, and the 2025 allocations I found for sei, fin, Bryde’s and minke whales add up to 413 animals. That total is my own sum of the agency’s published figures, so please check the agency’s current page if you need exact numbers.

Not every source shows the same figures. One website still lists the older quotas from before the review, so I left it out. If you see a different total somewhere else, that is probably why.

The Faroe Islands and the grind

In the Faroe Islands there is a community hunt called the grindadráp, often shortened to “the grind”. Pods of pilot whales and Atlantic white-sided dolphins are driven into shallow bays and killed on the shore. It depends on chance: it happens when a pod swims close enough to land, and most hunts fall in summer.

The first grind of 2026 took place on 4 May near Sándavágur, where more than 125 pilot whales and several white-sided dolphins were killed. Sea Shepherd, which documents the hunts, reports about 996 pilot whales and dolphins killed in 2025, while another report says more than 1,000. The exact total depends on who is counting. Critics also say that some very small animals and unborn calves are left out of the official counts. That is their claim, and I could not check it independently.

Two more details matter here. For decades, Faroese health authorities have warned that pilot whale meat and blubber carry high levels of mercury and other pollutants, and a 2012 paper by the chief physician and the national health director concluded that the meat should no longer be seen as suitable for regular eating. Then came a legal fight. News and campaign reports say Faroese police took up a complaint about a 2024 hunt, and that in 2026 the Faroese parliament changed the animal welfare law so that hunting falls outside it. I could not find the official texts, so I give no details of the charges or the law here. The whalers’ association welcomed the change, while the government is reported to say the hunts are still regulated by their own grind laws. How this will settle is not clear to me yet. For the current rule, check the pages of the Faroese parliament and government.

Pilot whales are close to our hearts. Meeting a pod of around fifteen pilot whales shaped how Ocean Calling thinks about wildlife tourism: with humility. That is why this part was hard to write, and why I still believe it belongs here.

Iceland, a chapter still open

In 2025, Iceland’s only fin whaling company cancelled its season. In June 2026 the hunt started again, and the first fin whales since 2023 were brought ashore. The 2026 quota is 150 fin whales and 168 minke whales, and the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute had advised a cap of 150 fin whales. The catches are legal under Icelandic law, because five-year permits were issued in 2023.

Perhaps you have read that Iceland banned whaling. It has not, at least not yet. The minister has said in public that commercial whaling is not in the public interest and that a law to end it would be put forward. I found no report confirming that such a bill has actually been introduced, so I cannot tell you where it stands. Please check the latest news before you travel.

What you can do as a traveller

The first step is very simple: do not order whale. In Norway, look for the word hval on the menu. In Japan, look for kujira. If you are unsure, ask. We wrote more about this in our guide to whale meat and what travellers find on menus.

The second step is to choose responsible whale watching. Every ticket for a respectful trip tells a community that a living whale has value. A good boat slows down, keeps its distance and lets the whale decide how the meeting ends. A roll-top dry bag keeps your phone dry on a boat day, so you can spend more of the time just watching. And a refill bottle from a simple tropical travel kit saves a lot of single-use plastic along the way.

If you visit these countries anyway, you can still travel kindly. You choose what you eat and who you pay, and those choices reach further than one meal. It is fair to be honest about travel itself too: flying north to watch whales has its own environmental cost, and fewer, slower trips are kinder than many quick ones.

The conservation layer

Whaling is about more than numbers. Whale and Dolphin Conservation and other groups say commercial whaling goes against the global conservation consensus, while governments describe their hunts as sustainable and regulated. Both views exist, and I try to report each one fairly. What I can say with confidence is this: living whales are worth more to coastal communities when people pay to watch them respectfully, and the rules change a lot from one coast to the next. We wrote about this in how to choose an ethical whale swim operator.

If this made you curious to share space with living whales yourself, you can read about our Moʻorea whale retreat in September 2027, where a small group of at most six guests observes humpbacks under local rules. Nothing is ever guaranteed, and guests can skip any activity. Wildlife encounters are unpredictable. Whale watching should always follow local regulations and experienced professional guidance.

Questions people ask

Wildlife encounters are never guaranteed and never forced. Ocean Calling works only with vetted, ethical local operators, and every animal is free to approach, or not, entirely on its own terms.