Iceland: Food + Ethics — To Make Much of Time

UPDATED: 1/16/2023

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As always it is important to do your homework when traveling to ensure that you are not inadvertently contributing to practices that negatively impact the planet. Then you can make informed decisions. In Iceland some of the items to be aware of include shark, whale, and to a lesser extent Puffin. Below we explain more about each of these animals. For our general blog on food + drink in Iceland, check out more here.

Shark

Icelandic dried fermented shark, hákarl, is mostly made from sharks that were caught accidentally (at least this is the claim). That said, sharks are apex predators and in general will not reproduce fast enough to keep up with human appetite. The sharks commonly used in hákarl are sleeper sharks, the Greenland Shark being the most common. The Greenland Shark is listed as Near Threatened on the ICUN Endangered Species List. Some might make the case that because these sharks are caught by accident, it would be a waste not to eat them; however, one could equally make the case that fishing methods should be improved in an effort to reduce the absolutely massive amount of bycatch that is caught annually worldwide. Additionally, where there is a market, there is a risk of incentivizing behaviors to add more to that market. As long as tourists (or others) eat shark, there is an increased risk that the accidental catches are in fact intentional.

While we were in Iceland, we did see fermented shark for sale in many of the markets and grocery stores.

Whale

The several species of whale caught for food by Iceland are listed as Endangered. This means their populations are so low there is a strong risk they could go extinct. On top of that, whales are incredibly intelligent animals who live for 80-90 years! Whales have complex social interactions and many who study whales feel that individual whales can actually recognize them. Since Icelanders do not consider whale to be part of their diet, Iceland’s whaling industry almost entirely caters to tourists. As of the time of writing Iceland has actually increased their whale quota and will allow fisherman to kill over 2,000 whales over the next 5 years, flying in the face of world treaties and scientific recommendations. Let that sink in and decide where you stand on this issue before you make the choice to order whale.

While we were in Iceland, we did not notice whale on the menu anywhere that we ate but given our research, it seems that it is fairly available.

Arctic Puffin

Puffin populations have been on a precipitous decline in recent years. While some of this reduction in population stems from nest problems thought to be caused by climate change, a portion of this decline is due to the massive demand placed by tourists. While Puffins are not particularly smart, and they have the potential to support a sustainable harvest, at present eating Puffin might be doing more harm than it is worth.

We did see Puffin on the menu in a few spots and blogged about our time visiting Puffins on Grímsey Island, which you can read about here and includes an interesting article on the history of Puffin hunting.

Eating while in Iceland: a summary

Everything humans do effects the environment in some manner. The important part is knowing the impact of your actions and then deciding for yourself what you are okay with. We recognize that not everyone will make the same choices as us but having some background information will enable you to make an informed decision.

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