Laws & Regulations

This page contains an overview of laws and regulations related to whaling and sealing in NAMMCO member countries. Below are the links to the national laws and regulations in their native languages and Danish and English versions where available. Last updated March 2023. 

Faroe Islands

• Parliamentary Act:
  • No 43 of 22 May 1969 on weapons etc., as last amended by Parliamentary Act No 81 of 22 May 2015 (Faroese)
  • No 57 of 5 June 1984 on whale hunting, as last amended by Parliamentary Act No 54 of 20 May 1996 (Faroese)
  • No 56 of 19 May 2015 on pilot whale and other small whales, as last amended by Parliamentary Act No 91 of 7 June 2020 (Faroese)
    • (English)
  • No 49 of 30 April 2018 on animal welfare (Faroese)
• Executive Order:
  • No 57 of 12 September 1969 on weapons etc. (Faroese)
  • No 87 of 20 September 2007 on protection of whales (Faroese)
  • No 74 of 28 June 2016 on registration of shooting weapons, as amended by Executive Order No 92 of 7 September 2016 (Faroese)
  • No 93 of 7 September 2016 on weapon certificate (Faroese)
  • No 9 of 26 January 2017 on pilot whale and other small whales, as amended by Executive Order No 122 of 29 August 2022 (Faroese)
    • (English)
  • No 50 of 30 April 2018 (§18, stk 4),on Fish farming on reporting of seals killed or dead (Faroese)
  • No 65 of 14 May 2020 on prohibition to kill marine mammals around fish farms

Greenland

• Home Rule Act:
  • No 25 of 18 December 2003 on animal welfare (Greenlandic)
    • (Danish)
  • No 29 of 18 December 2003 on nature protection (Greenlandic)
    • (Danish)
  • No 34 of 13 June 2023 on Hunting
    • (Danish)
• Executive Order:
  • No. 28 of 30 October 1998 on the tasks and authority of wildlife officers
    • (Danish)
  • No 22 of 19 August 2002 on trophy-hunting and fishing (Greenlandic)
    • (Danish)
  • No 16 of 12 November 2010 on protection and hunting of seals (Greenlandic)
    • (Danish)
  • No 12 of 16 July 2010 on reporting from hunting and strike of large whales (Greenlandic)
    • (Danish)
  • No 13 of 30 December 2014 on hunting licenses for full time hunters
    • (Danish)
  • No 14 of 30 December 2014 on hunting licenses for part-time hunters (Greenlandic)
    • (Danish)
  • No 3 of 27 January 2017 on beluga and narwhal (Greenlandic)
    • (Danish)
  • No 9 of 6 December 2018 on large whales (Greenlandic)
    • (Danish)
  • No 31 of 14 Ocotber 2022 on protection and hunting of walrus (Greenlandic) 
    • (Danish)
• Summaries in English:
  • Summary of Regulations on Seals in Greenland (English)
  • Summary of the Points Relevant to Limitations of Catch Monitoring of Quota and Human Killing Methods from the Government of Greenlands Executive order no. 12 of 22 of December 2014 (English)

Iceland

• Parliamentary Act:
  • No 26 of May 3 1949 on whaling (Icelandic)
  • No 40 of June 1 1979 on amendments to Law No 26/1949 on whaling (Icelandic)
  • No 23 of April 17, 1991 on amendments to Law No 26/1949 on whaling (cf. Law No 40/1979) (Icelandic)
  • No 92, July 1, 1991 on amendments to Law 26/1949 on whaling (cf. Law No 40/1979 and 23/1991) (Icelandic)
  • No 126, of September 30, 2011 on amendments to Law No 26/1949 on whaling (cf. Law No 40/1979) (Icelandic)
  • No 157 of January 3, 2013 on amendments to Law No 26/1949 on whaling (cf. Law No 40/1979) (Icelandic)
• Regulation:
  • No 163, May 30, 1973 on whaling (Icelandic)
    • Amendments to Regulation No 163 of May 30, 1973 on whaling are listed under the section “Breytingasaga reglugerðar 163/1973” on the side panel to the left of the regulation (cf. Regulation No 304/1983, 239/1984, 862/2006, 822/2007, 456/2008, 58/2009, 263/2009, 359/2009, 1116/2013, 263/2014, 186/2019, 642/2023)
  • No 1035, November, 2017 on the ban on whale hunting in specific areas (Icelandic)
  • No 1100 of December 14, 2019 on the ban of seal hunting (Icelandic), which has its legal basis on Law No 62 of 14 June, 2006 on the harvesting of anadromous fish in Iceland (Icelandic)
  • No 895, September 1, 2023 on hunting of fin whales (Icelandic)

Norway

• Parliamentary Act:
  • No 15 of 26 March 1999 on the Right to Participate in Fishing and Hunting (Norwegian)
  • No 37 of 6 June 2008 on marine resources (Norwegian)
    • (English)
  • No 97 of 19 June 2009 on Animal Welfare (Norwegian)
    • (English)
• Regulation:
  • No 763 of 28 April 2022 on the conduct of hunting seals (off the coast) (Norwegian)
  • No 511 of 1 April 2022 on the conduct of hunting Minke whales (Norwegian)
  • No 1157 of 13 October 2006 on the special permission to execute hunting and fishing (Norwegian)
  • No 1745 of 22 December 2009 on the management of seals on the coast of Norway (Norwegian)
  • No 1651 of 5 December 2019 on the conduct on whale watching (Norwegian)

    The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries and the Directorate of Fisheries issues each year regulations relating to quotas, hunting period and areas for the hunting Minke whales, seals in the West Ice and East Ice, and coastal seals

    Svalbard

• “Forskrift om høsting på Svalbard” https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/2002-06-24-712#KAPITTEL_2