{"id":650403,"date":"2026-06-21T10:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T10:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/650403\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T10:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T10:26:13","slug":"anti-whaling-protester-caught-in-crows-nest-as-iceland-resumes-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/650403\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-whaling protester caught in crow’s nest as Iceland resumes hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lone anti-whaling protester who climbed into the crow’s nest of a whaling vessel in Iceland says he “broke down” when he realised he was going out to sea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of Iceland’s two remaining whaling ships set out this week to hunt the giant mammals after a two-year hiatus, local media and campaigners reported.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

H\u00f3lmsteinn Har\u00f0arson broke down when he realised the whaling ship he had boarded was sailing. (Facebook: Hvalavinir \u2014 Stop whaling in Iceland)<\/p>\n

Iceland is one of only three countries that still openly permit whaling, alongside Norway and Japan, despite international opprobrium from the public and animal welfare organisations.<\/p>\n

An unexpected journey<\/p>\n

Protester H\u00f3lmsteinn Har\u00f0arson chained himself to the mast of the Hval 9 before it left the port of Reykjav\u00edk on Friday.<\/p>\n

Iceland suspends whale hunting over animal welfare concerns<\/a><\/p>\n

Iceland’s government says it is suspending this year’s whale hunting until the end of August due to animal welfare concerns, likely bringing the controversial practice to a historic end.<\/p>\n

Mr Har\u00f0arson spent more than two hours in the crow’s nest before the vessel set sail, Icelandic digital news site V\u00edsir reported.<\/p>\n

He said he did not believe it would go all the way to Hvalfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur (Whale Fjord).<\/p>\n

“I believed that we would possibly just take a little detour and turn around, but that didn’t happen,” Mr Har\u00f0arson said, adding he broke down when he realised what was happening.<\/p>\n

“I’m very grateful to the crew for how they reacted when I broke down.<\/p>\n

“I felt so bad, I started crying.”<\/p>\n

After a journey of more than three hours, the ship arrived at the pier in Hvalfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur and the crew could be seen with Mr Har\u00f0arson, V\u00edsir reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After he came down from the crow’s nest, Mr Har\u00f0arson was escorted away by police.<\/p>\n

“I hope whaling stops. I hope people stop consuming animals and animal products, that’s my hope,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Animal rights activists are “disheartened” Iceland is again allowing the hunting of fin whales.\u00a0 (Benny F. Nielsen: Polfoto via AP)<\/p>\n

Activists ‘disheartened’<\/p>\n

In 2023, environmentalists were hopeful Iceland had seen the end of whaling<\/a>, with a majority of citizens in favour of dropping the practice.<\/p>\n

“It is so disheartening to see Iceland’s whaling boat leave port to begin another season of whale slaughter despite overwhelming evidence that there is no humane way to kill a whale,” Joanna Swabe of the Humane World for Animals said after a second vessel headed out to sea.<\/p>\n

“These ocean giants will very likely endure an agonising death for meat that virtually no-one in Iceland wants to eat.”<\/p>\n

Iceland cancelled its whale hunt in 2024 and 2025, partly because economic woes had cut demand and the industry was not deemed sufficiently profitable.<\/p>\n

The International Whaling Commission banned the commercial killing of whales in 1986 amid alarm at the declining stock of the marine mammals.<\/p>\n

128 fin whales will be killed and hunted in Iceland this year <\/a><\/p>\n

Animal rights activists have described the decision to kill 128 fin whales as inhumane after the Iceland government issued a licence to a fin whaling company.<\/p>\n

Iceland and Norway are the only two countries still openly practising commercial whaling in defiance of the moratorium.<\/p>\n

Japan hunts the ocean giants for what it claims are “scientific” purposes, even though most of the meat ends up in the market for consumption.<\/p>\n

Iceland’s Marine and Freshwater Research Institute has recommended a reduction in the number of whales harpooned this season, which runs from mid-June to mid-September.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Iceland has recommended fewer fin whales be killed this season. (Greenpeace: Paul Hilton)<\/p>\n

The 2026 annual number of fin whales killed should not exceed 150 animals, a 28 per cent drop on the recommended annual catch for the period 2018\u20132025, it said.<\/p>\n

The fin whale is the second-largest animal on Earth after the blue whale.<\/p>\n

The Institute set an annual quota of 168 animals for the minke whale hunt this year, a 23 per cent reduction.<\/p>\n

The government is due to table a bill on banning whaling altogether within months.<\/p>\n

AFP\/ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lone anti-whaling protester who climbed into the crow’s nest of a whaling vessel in Iceland says he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[218849,57290,791,218850,443,90,56,54,55,34850,121741,4407],"class_list":["post-650403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-anti-whaling","tag-fin-whale","tag-iceland","tag-minke-whale","tag-protest","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-whale","tag-whaling","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}