Hvalur hf. is an Icelandic

commercial whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

and

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

. Hvalur hf. was founded in 1947 as a commercial whaling company by Loftur Bjarnason and Vilhjálmur Árnason and later run by their sons,

Kristján Loftsson Kristján Loftsson (born 17 March 1943) is an Icelandic businessman and a whaler. He has been the CEO of the commercial whaling and investment company Hvalur hf. since 1974 and is, along with his sister, its largest shareholder. He began his wha ...

and

Árni Vilhjálmsson Árni Vilhjálmsson (born 9 May 1994) is an Icelandic professional footballer who plays as a striker. Club career In January 2017, Árni joined Swedish side Jönköpings Södra IF. On 28 January 2022, he signed for French club Rodez. Persona ...

. In the recent decades, it has become one of the most powerful investment companies in Iceland, having owned large shares in

Arion Bank Arion Banki hf. formerly ''Nýja Kaupþing hf'' or ''New Kaupthing'' is an Icelandic bank with roots tracing back to 1930. The bank operates in the Greater Reykjavík area as well as in the largest urban areas around the country. In 2016 the bank ...

Marel Marel is a multi-national food processing company based in Iceland. The company manufactures and provides equipment, systems, software and services to the poultry, meat and fish processing industries. Marel is a large manufacturer of food process ...

Origo hf. Origo hf. is an Icelandic company that provides information technology services. Profile Origo has holdings in numerous subsidiaries: Applicon in Sweden, Denmark, UK and Iceland, ParX Business Consulting ehf., Dansupport in Denmark, Klak ehf. ...

and

Brim hf. Brim hf. (known as HB Grandi until 2019) is a fishing and fish processing company in Iceland. Brim's headquarters are in Reykjavík where its office and groundfish production are located. The company also runs fish processing plants in two other ...

amongst others. In 1948, the company purchased an American naval base at

Hvalfjörður Hvalfjörður (, "whale fjord") is situated in the west of Iceland between Mosfellsbær and Akranes. The fjord is approximately 30 km long and 5 km wide. The origin of the name Hvalfjörður is uncertain. Certainly today there is no ...

(Whale Fjord) and converted it into a whaling station. Norwegian crews were involved in training Icelandic whalers into the early 1950s.

Whaling fleet

The company currently operates two whaling ships, '' Hvalur 8'' and '' Hvalur 9''. It further owns two more, '' Hvalur 6'' and '' Hvalur 7'', that where never fully repaired following the

1986 Hvalur sinkings The 1986 Hvalur sinkings occurred in Iceland's Reykjavík harbour in November 1986, when anti-whaling activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society sank the unoccupied whaling vessels, ''Hvalur 6'' and ''Hvalur 7'', and sabotaged a whale p ...

Ships history

*''Hvalur 1'' Arrived in 1949. *''Hvalur 2'' - Sold to ''Síldarverksmiðjur Ríkisins'' in 1962 and moved to

Seyðisfjörður Seyðisfjörður () is a town in the Eastern Region of Iceland at the innermost point of the fjord of the same name. The town is located in the municipality of Múlaþing. A road over Fjarðarheiði mountain pass (elevation ) connects Seyðisfjö ...

where its steam engine was used to produce steam for a herring smelt factory. *''Hvalur 3'' - Sold to ''Síldarverksmiðjur Ríkisins'' in 1962 and moved to

where its steam engine was used to produce steam for a herring smelt factory. *''Hvalur 4'' *''Hvalur 5'' - Bought in 1955 and sold to

Faroe Island The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway betwee ...

in 1968. On display in the

German Maritime Museum The German Maritime Museum (german: Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum (DSM)) is a museum in Bremerhaven, Germany. It is part of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community. The main museum building was opened on 5 September 1975 by then-presid ...

Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the R ...

, Germany. *'' Hvalur 6'' - Arrived in 1961. Currently in storage as of 2022. *'' Hvalur 7'' - Arrived in 1961. Currently in storage as of 2022. *'' Hvalur 8'' - Acquired in 1962. In active use as of 2022. *'' Hvalur 9'' - Acquired in 1966. In active use as of 2022.

Controversies

On June 20th, 2023, the Icelandic Minister of Fisheries,

Svandís Svavarsdóttir Svandís Svavarsdóttir (born 24 August 1964 in Selfoss, Iceland) is a member of parliament of the Althing, the Icelandic parliament. She is a member of the Left-Green Movement. She served as Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources i ...

, temporarily halted whaling until 31 August 2023 due to alleged violations of the Icelandic Animal Welfare Act by whalers of Hvalur ehf. On 1 September the same year, whaling resumed again with stricter conditions.

References

Companies based in Reykjavík Companies established in 1947 Holding companies of Iceland {{Iceland-company-stub