Iceland to submit bill banning commercial whaling, leaving only Norway and Japan

For decades, Iceland has stood among a dwindling handful of nations still permitting the commercial hunt of whales — creatures whose suffering, a government's own report confirmed, can stretch across two agonizing hours after the harpoon strikes. Now, in a gesture that reflects both evolving moral sensibility and the weight of scientific evidence, Iceland's government is preparing legislation that would permanently close this chapter. If passed, the ban would leave only Norway and Japan as the last practitioners of a trade the world has largely chosen to leave behind.