Whaling

Iceland has defied a global ban on commercial whaling by killing hundreds of whales since 2006.

President Obama recently imposed diplomatic sanctions on Iceland for its illegal commercial whaling. But if that nation resumes its slaughter of whales next season, then Icelandic companies tied to whaling should be targeted for tough economic sanctions.

Since 2006, Iceland has killed 280 endangered fin whales and more than 200 minke whales. In the last two years alone, it has exported millions of dollars worth of whale meat, blubber and oil to Japan, Norway, Latvia and Belarus. Iceland has not only flouted the ban on whaling, it has depleted whale populations at an alarming rate. It’s practically begging to be sanctioned.

-Pierce Brosnan, Actor and NRDC Member

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The time has come for Iceland to pay a steep price for its inhumane and illegal slaughter of whales.

Pierce Brosnan: Make It Stop

When it comes to whaling, Iceland is an international outlaw.

What's at Stake

Weighing up to 80 tons and almost twice the length of a school bus, the massive fin whale known as the greyhound of the sea for its swimming speed was the victim of decades of commercial slaughter that killed them by the tens of thousands each year.

In 1982, with the species on the brink of extinction, the nations of the world agreed to a moratorium on commercial whaling, and this magnificent animal got a reprieve — except in Iceland, where the hunting and trading of fin whales has escalated in recent years.