The Fascination around Whales and the European Story of Whale Hunting
By: Lavinia Tacke
Reading time: 4,5 min
Source: Pixabay
It seems that as soon as a news story involves whales, its popularity goes through the roof. Whales have always captured the attention of humans and continue to do so today. Earlier this year, when a humpback whale got lost in the Baltic Sea and ended up stranded on the German coast, it became a national media phenomenon. The story about soon-to-be-called humpback whale “Timmy” (or sometimes “hope”) caught immense attention in Germany. A similar story was that of the beluga whales who were moved from a Canadian aquarium to marine parks in Spain and the United States to be rescued from euthanasia. Both stories show how the marine mammals catch immense attention and continue to fascinate us.
Partially due to this human fascination with whales, whales enjoy a largely protected status. Other than fish, it is forbidden to hunt them in nearly every country in the world. There are only three exceptions to this prohibition of whaling: Norway, Iceland, and Japan. In these three countries, whales are still hunted for commercial purposes.
Whale Protection in the EU
The EU has adopted several legislative acts to protect cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises). Let’s have a quick look at them:
The Habitats Directive 1992
Tackles the disappearance of many vulnerable species, such as whales, and aims to preserve Europe’s biodiversity
The Habitats Directive requires Member States to strictly protect the species listed in Annex IV. Under this obligation to protect falls, among other measures, a prohibition of killing or deliberately disturbing the mentioned animals.
The Convention on International Trade and Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
An international agreement between 184 countries and regional organizations that entered into force in 1975.
The CITES aims to protect vulnerable species “against over-exploitation, by regulating international trade”. Regarding cetaceans, the treaty prohibits the trade of whale meat and other whale products.
Countries such as Japan, Norway, and Iceland are signatories to the agreement but filed reservations on some specific species.
The EU has formulated the objective of protecting the European “coasts, seas, and oceans in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD)” that was adopted in 2008.
The Marine Strategy Framework Directive aims to balance the conservation of the sea’s health with the sustainable use of marine resources. This legal act contributes to the European Green Deal, which aims to significantly cut the EU’s emissions.
Whaling on the European continent still continues…
Despite the international efforts to protect cetaceans, Norway and Iceland are the only European countries that continue whaling practices. Both countries signed the CITES agreement but reserved some exceptions.
In Norway, minke whales are still being hunted under a government-set quota. For 2026, this quota is set at 1,641, but it acts more as a symbolic measure, as the number of hunted whales in reality usually falls around 500 per year.
Number of whales killed per year in Norway
Source: WDC
But why does Norway so persistently stick to whaling? Whaling has a long history in Norwegian culture, dating back to the Viking Age. In 1973, when the CITES agreement was signed, Norway filed an objection to the moratorium and “took a reservation to the ban on international trade in whale products”, arguing that species such as minke whales were not endangered. Therefore, according to international law, Norway remains allowed to trade whale products with Iceland and Japan, as the two other countries holding reservations to the CITES agreement, as well as with non-parties to the treaty, such as the Faroe Islands. Following their objection to the CITES agreement, they first continued whaling for scientific purposes, as claimed by the government, and later openly continued hunting whales for commercial purposes.
Also in Iceland, commercial whaling is not yet a thing of the past, as both fin and minke whales are hunted in this Northern country. While almost all the fin whale meat is exported to Japan, minke whale meat is mostly served to domestic customers and tourists. Like Norway, Iceland filed an objection to the prohibition of commercial whaling agreed on by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1973, which allowed them to continue whaling. After abruptly leaving the IWC in 1992, Iceland rejoined in 2002, but with a reservation against a total ban on whaling.
Minke whale; source: Oregon State University, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Fin whale; source: Wikimedia Commons via Public Domain
The EU’s “strong opposition” against whaling
The case studies of Iceland and Norway show that whale hunting has not yet ended in European waters. However, it has in the EU, as all EU Member states have agreed to the CITES agreement. In the past, the EU has repeatedly opposed whale hunting, for example, regarding the continuing whaling in the Faroe Islands, a self-governing part of Denmark that does not belong to the EU. There Pilot whales and dolphins that are killed. The European Parliament has filed a formal answer to citizens’ concerns raised on the situation, stating “the European Union (EU) is strongly opposed to the hunting of whales, dolphins and porpoises.” Nevertheless, the EU has very little power when it comes to stopping whale hunting in the Faroe Islands, since the autonomous territory is not part of the EU and therefore not bound by EU legislation.
Furthermore, in 2014, the EU participated in an international demarche against whale hunting in Iceland alongside the United States, Australia, Brazil, Israel, New Zealand, Mexico, and Monaco. In this demarche, it is stated that the participants “wish to express [...] [their] strong opposition to Iceland's continuing and increased commercial harvest of whales, particularly fin whales, and to its ongoing international trade in whale products.”
All these actions taken show that the EU is keen to stop whaling, as ethical and environmental reasons have been repeatedly brought forward. However, the EU has little power over third territories such as Norway, Iceland, or the Faroe Islands. This also applies, in part, to the international legal system. While there is the CITES agreement by the International Whaling Commission, the countries that filed reservations are not fully bound by it.
The large international interest in whaling, or better said, the stopping of it, underlines the high status whales and dolphins enjoy. Humans have always been fascinated by these enormous creatures and are therefore passionate about this topic. The excitement and turbulence around the stranded whale in Germany are just one event that illustrates the high standards we hold for the protection of whales.
