Icelandic “Ahab” Kristján Loftsson resumes vengeful quest to kill whales

Activists sank his battleships 40 years ago

REYKJAVIK, Iceland––Kristján Loftsson,  84,  chief executive of Hvalur,  the last Icelandic whaling company,  driven by an enduring thirst for vengeance against anti-whaling activists,  on June 19,  2026 sent the last two whaling trawlers in Iceland out into the North Atlantic Ocean to kill a quota of as many as 209 fin whales,  recognized by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as a vulnerable species.

Hvalur also holds a 2026 quota 217 minke whales.

“The first three fin whales of the season landed at the whaling station in Hvalfjörður” on June 23 and June 24,  2026,”  reported Arne Feuerhahn,  founder of the German marine conservation society Hard To Port.

“The catcher vessel Hvalur 9 arrived on June 23 at around 4:30 a.m. with two male fin whales secured alongside its port side,”  Feurhahn detailed.

“Hvalur 8,  after spending almost 100 hours at sea,  returned [the next day] with a third fin whale.

Hard To Port

Feuerhahn and others started Hard To Port in 2014 “following a creative,  peaceful protest onboard an Icelandic whaling ship in the Old Harbor of Iceland’s capital Reykjavík,”  the Hard To Port website recounts.

Feuerhahn previously,  beginning in 2008,  participated in missions against Japanese whaling in the Antarctic Ocean as a crew member for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society,  then still under Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson.

Kristján Loftsson

Loftsson,  though,  one of the richest and most politically influential people in Iceland through his business success in building the HB Grandi commercial fishing empire,  has long nursed a deep grudge against the Sea Shepherds,  generalized to anyone who opposes whaling.

Loftsson’s father founded Hvalur,  whose name means “whaler” in Icelandic,  in 1947.  Loftsson first sailed with his father as a 13-year-old whale spotter in 1956.

Anti-whaling activists Rod Coronado and David Howitt,  acting under the flag of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society,  in November 1986 vandalized the Hvalur whale processing plant in Hvalfjörður fjord and scuttled the whaling ships Hvalur 6 and Hvalur 7 in Reykjavík harbor.

The Hvalur 6 and Hvalur 7 were both refloated,  but were never repaired and returned to service.  Loftsson replaced them with the Hvalur 8 and Hvalur 9,  of similar appearance but newer construction.

Hólmsteinn Harðarson

Continuing to operating Hvalur despite huge annual losses,   Loftsson on April 18,   2018 declared his intent to kill 191 fin whales that year––and a day later sold 34% of his shares in HB Grandi for $217.5 million,  apparently to help finance the whale-killing.

Icelandic opposition to whaling was represented as the Hvalur 8 and Hvalur 9 left the port of Reykjavík by protester Hólmsteinn Harðarson,  who chained himself to the mast of the Hvalur 9.

The Icelandic digital news site Vísir reported that Harðarson spent more than two hours in the crow’s nest before the Hvalur 9,  plus three more hours at sea,  before descending to be arrested and put ashore at Hvalfjörður,  meaning Whale Fjord in Icelandic.

Anahita Babaei & Elissa Biou

Harðarson’s action echoed those of anti-whaling activists Anahita Babaei and Elissa Biou,  who slipped aboard the Hvalur 8 and Hvalur 9 at approximately 5:00 a.m. on September 4,  2023.  Chaining themselves into the crow’s nests where whale spotters would have been,  had either ship been able to leave port,  Biou climbed down and Babaei was helped down with police assistance about 33 hours later,  as the weather in Reykjavik grew increasingly foul.

A police ambulance was sent to the scene,  but both women were taken away in an ordinary police car,  said Linda Blöndal of RUV,  the Icelandic national television station.

(See Icelandic whalers kept in port by women who chain selves to masts.)

Whalers turn off tracking system

Apparently fearing interception by protest vessels at sea,  though none are known to be in the area,  “Iceland’s two whaling vessels disappeared from public tracking services after switching off their automatic identification systems,”  Iceland Review reported on June 23, 2026.

“Hvalur 8 and Hvalur 9 are no longer broadcasting their locations through public tracking systems,”  Iceland Review explained.  “The vessels continue to report their positions directly to the Icelandic Coast Guard every hour via satellite.

“The Coast Guard said this decision does not require its approval and rests solely with the vessel’s captain.

“Iceland’s commercial whaling industry has resumed operations after two years without a single whale being caught,”  Iceland Review reported earlier,  “even as the government prepares legislation that could eventually bring the practice to an end.

No whales killed in 2024-2025

“The start of this year’s hunt marks the return of an industry that appeared increasingly dormant after consecutive seasons without any catches.  In both 2024 and 2025,  no whales were hunted,”  Iceland Review recounted,  despite Hvalur holding licences that allowed operations to continue.

“The resumption comes at a politically uncertain moment,”  Iceland Review assessed.  “In 2023,  the government issued a five-year permit authorizing fin whale hunts,  a decision that has remained in force despite repeated calls for the practice to end.

“Minister of Industries Hanna Katrín Friðriksson has pointed to that permit when questioned about the future of whaling,”  Iceland Review said.  “At the same time,  she has announced plans to present legislation this winter that would ban whaling altogether.”

Quotas

While the Icelandic whaling quotas remain at 209 fin whales and 217 minke whales,  the Icelandic Marine & Freshwater Research Institute “recommends a maximum catch of 150 fin whales and 168 minke whales during the current season,”  Iceland Review added.

“It is reported that Norway’s whaling season is already underway,  with catches already higher compared to last year,”  mentioned the Swiss organization OceanCare.

Norway claims a national whaling quota of 1,641 minke whales.  The full quota is unlikely to be taken,  due to lack of viable markets.  Norwegian whalers in 2025 killed only 429 whales out of a quota of 1,406.

Iceland,  Norway and Japan are the only three nations that still allow commercial whaling,  in defiance of the International Whaling Commission’s 1986 ban on the practice,  and in the case of Iceland,  in clear defiance of public opinion.  More than half of Icelandic voters,  according to recent polls,  favor the legislation proposed by minister of industries Hanna Katrín Friðriksson to ban whaling outright.

Exploding harpoons

“Three years ago,”  recalled the British-based Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society,  “the season was suspended in mid-summer after the government’s own veterinary authority found the hunt could not meet the standards of Iceland’s Animal Welfare Act.  Those findings were stark: more than 40% of whales did not die immediately after being struck,  taking on average over 11 minutes to die, and in one case as long as two hours.

“Nothing has been done to fix that,”  the Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society objected.
“The same exploding harpoons are being loaded onto the same ships.  There is no reason to believe this hunt will be any less cruel than the one that was halted.

Said Joanna Swabe,  European senior public affairs director for Humane World for Animals,  “Iceland has killed more than 1,000 fin whales in the past two decades — not only the second largest animal on the planet but also a species classified as globally vulnerable to extinction.”

“First of many”

Sharon Livermore,  director of marine conservation at the International Fund for Animal Welfare,  observed that the first dead fin whales landed “represent the first of many likely to be slaughtered this season.  And this is just the beginning.”

The history of Icelandic whaling in recent decades has reflected a see-saw battle for political clout between conservative/nationalist and socialist/internationalist factions,  within a parliamentary government led by coalitions of parties,  rather than any one party consistently holding the majority of seats.

Explains the Animal Welfare Institute web page on Icelandic whaling,  “Iceland,  a major whaling nation since the early 20th century and a founding member of the International Whaling Commission, did not legally object to the prohibition on commercial whaling adopted by the IWC in 1982, and was thus bound by the ban.

“Iceland continued to hunt whales”

“Iceland continued to hunt whales after the IWC’s moratorium took effect under the ‘special permit’ provision that allows whaling for ‘scientific research.’  Iceland killed an average of 90 whales per year until 1990,  exporting most of the products to Japan.

“In 1992,  Iceland withdrew from the IWC,”  the Animal Welfare Institute summarizes,  “but rejoined in 2002.

“Iceland also registered a reservation to the ban on international commercial trade in whale products when it joined the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 2000.  This allows it to continue to trade internationally in whale meat with other CITES parties holding the same reservation,  namely Norway and Japan,  as well as non-parties to CITES such as the Faroe Islands.

Whaling suspended in 2023,  reinstated in 2024

“Iceland resumed special permit whaling in 2003,  killing a total of 200 minke whales over the next five years under the guise of scientific research.  In 2006, it also resumed commercial whaling, targeting fin as well as minke whales.

“Since that time, around 700 fin whales and more than 400 minke whales have been killed by Icelandic whalers even though there is no demand for fin whale meat in Iceland, and most minke whale meat is served to tourists.”

Former Icelandic minister of food, fisheries & agriculture Svandís Svavarsdóttir suspended whaling in 2023,  after 24 whales were killed,  but lame duck prime minister Bjarni Benediktsson in December 2024 issued Hvalur a five-year permit for both fin and minke whaling that under Icelandic law remains valid.

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