Iceland‘s government is poised to ban commercial whaling and make it easier to join the EU.

Norway, Japan and the “Land of Fire and Ice” are the only three countries to still allow whale hunts, which were banned by the International Whaling Commission in 1986.

In a referendum on Aug 29, Icelanders will vote on whether to restart long-abandoned membership negotiations with the EU.

Joining the EU will mean surrendering control of fisheries policy to Brussels, which bans the trade of whale and products made from whales such as whale oil.

Whaling has deep historical and cultural roots in Iceland and could become a powerful symbol of sacrificed sovereignty.

Kristján Loftsson is the chief executive of Hvalur hf., which is Iceland’s last commercial whaling company, and has been nicknamed “Iceland’s Captain Ahab” by his detractors.

“Whaling is like any other activity in harvesting the living resources of the ocean,” he told The Telegraph. “If it is done in a sustainable way, i.e. not taking too much at a time, then one can whale forever.

“As for the referendum on restarting EU membership talks in August, then in my opinion Icelanders are not that stupid, overall, to vote yes, so the negotiations will not start at all.”

He added: “Who wants to join a close to bankrupt union?”

Whaling resumed in Iceland last month after a two-year break caused by economic pressures that made it unprofitable, including a drop in demand for whale meat from Japan.

Two fin whales, the largest animals on Earth after the blue whale and listed as vulnerable, were killed off the coast two days after the hunt resumed. Iceland’s marine and freshwater research institute has recommended that no more than 150 be killed in the 2026 season.

Conservationists and “yes” campaigners believe whaling is being used as a weapon to fight against EU membership and stoke nationalist sentiment.

The “no” campaign has been reluctant to directly link whaling and EU membership, instead focusing more on the loss of control of fisheries and trade in general.

Whaling is a comparatively small industry, while Iceland’s fishery exports were valued at around £2.2bn in 2023, about 30 per cent of the country’s export earnings.

Prof Haraldur Ólafsson, the leader of the “no” campaign, told The Telegraph: “The European Union is the ultimate body that decides on everything when it comes to fishing.

“We know that the European Union has a lot of interests, and the interests of people living in Iceland will never be ranked very high in the list of priorities of the European Union.”

The Independence Party, the centre-Right main opposition party, opposes EU membership and views whaling as a sovereign right to be decided on by Iceland alone.

Fisheries, along with tourism and aluminium, are one of the pillars of Iceland’s economy and national identity, and the industry fears that joining the EU’s common fisheries policy could mean opening Icelandic waters to foreign fleets.

“Fisheries is in our DNA like a part of our independence. It’s just totally unacceptable that we will share the fisheries with other countries. We will never accept that,” Guðrún Hafsteinsdóttir, the chairman of the Independence Party, said in June.

When Iceland was last in accession talks with the EU in 2013, the survival of whaling became a political hot potato.

When a Eurosceptic government won elections that year, the negotiations, which had begun four years earlier, were put on hold.

At that time, support for commercial whaling was at about 60 per cent. Since then, it has been dropping in the Nordic country of some 402,000 people.

Last year, a poll found that about half of Icelanders were dissatisfied with the previous interim government’s decision to issue new whaling permits in 2024, which last for five years. Most people aged between 18 and 29 and most women supported an outright ban on whaling, the poll found.

Iceland’s current government, a coalition led by the centre-Left Social Democratic Alliance, announced a referendum on whether to restart accession talks on March 6.

It is the first part of a two-step process that could lead to membership later this decade.

A recent poll showed that 44.5 per cent of Icelanders plan to vote “yes” to reopening talks, with 39.4 per cent opposed and 14.6 per cent undecided.

A majority oppose actual EU membership, which would require another referendum once accession negotiations were finished.

The government, which took power in December 2024, acted after Donald Trump’s threats to take over non-EU Greenland. During that crisis, the US president mistakenly referred to the Danish autonomous territory in the strategic Arctic as “Iceland”.

Opinion polls have also shown the war in Ukraine and a rise in the cost of living have boosted support for EU membership.

In April, a month after the referendum was announced, the government said it would bring forward legislation in the autumn that would eventually ban whaling.

“Work is now under way on legislation concerning the future of whaling in Iceland,” a government spokesman told The Telegraph.

“Until such legislation has been enacted, the existing legal framework remains in force.”

The ban is expected to be phased in with the expiration of the current five-year hunting licences, which expire in 2029.

That timeline would coincide with EU membership negotiations and Iceland potentially joining at the end of the decade.

But a ban, which requires a majority vote in the world’s oldest surviving parliament, is not a foregone conclusion.

Iceland must also hold elections by November 2028, which could lead to a change in government before the island joins the EU.

Hvalur hf. is influential and has managed to secure hunting permits in the past despite intense international pressure, and the ban could be opposed by conservative politicians.

Brussels, representing a market of some 460 million consumers, is unlikely to bend its rules.

Campaigners are already putting European Commission negotiators under pressure to ensure the end of whaling is a condition of EU membership.

Paul Musiol, a spokesman for Greenpeace European Unit, said: “Whales are magnificent, vulnerable creatures and crucial pillars of our marine ecosystems. They deserve protection.

“If Icelandic voters decide to restart accession talks with the EU later this year, then the European Commission must remain firmly against commercial whaling in the membership negotiations and insist that Iceland stop the whaling boats, pass a national ban and make good on its promises under global treaties to secure a network of ocean sanctuaries.”

A European Commission spokesman told The Telegraph: “In the EU, we have rules that forbid the trade of whales or whale products. We also have rules that ban all imports of whale products.

“Iceland is not part of the EU. Therefore, such rules do not apply to this country.”

The spokesman said that whaling would be part of future negotiations.

“Should the Icelandic people decide to resume negotiations, the European Union stands ready to engage constructively and in a timely manner,” the spokesman said.

“Any future negotiations would provide the appropriate framework to address Iceland’s priorities and concerns, in line with the established principles of the accession process.”