Iceland, Norway, and Japan are the only countries still to allow commercial whaling, a practice widely condemned by animal rights groups.

"Hvalur hf. intends to cancel its whaling season slated for this summer. Company employees were informed earlier this week," broadcaster RUV wrote on its website.

"As we see the situation, Hvalur hf. sees no other option than to stay in dock and await better times, but the situation will be reviewed next year," its CEO Kristjan Loftsson was quoted as saying Friday.

The Icelandic whaling season generally is from mid-June to September but in recent years whalers have failed to land their quotas.

Hvalur's main rival hung up its harpoons in 2020 as demand for whaling meat collapsed in the midst of the Covid pandemic.

Last year saw Iceland suspend whaling for two months during a government enquiry into the practice that concluded methods deployed in whaling did not meet laws on animal well-being.

In a message to AFP late Friday, Wendy Higgins, the director of international media for the Humane World for Animals association, welcomed the news.

"If true, this season's whaling cancellation will spare the suffering and death of countless sentient whales for a brutal and pointless hunt that continues without moral or scientific justification," she said.

"It's time that Iceland's whaling ship stopped turning the sea red once and for all. It's time for a total ban on commercial whaling."