1st December 2010
An incredible 1,115 pilot whales and 35 Risso’s and white-sided dolphins have been brutally slaughtered in the Faroe Islands so far this year, the largest number of whales killed there in over a decade.
The Faroe Islands are situated just 200 miles north-west of Scotland and the Faroese have killed whales for centuries. However whaling today is more about tradition than necessity for these prosperous islands. The Whaling involves driving entire schools of pilot whales, which can number in the hundreds, into shallow bays where they are gaffed with metal hooks while the whalers use long knives to cut down into the necks of the terrified animals to sever major arteries – a process that can take several minutes and must inflict appalling suffering on the whales before they die.
Campaign Whale is working with a coalition of organisations that want to end Faroese whaling and we are deeply concerned by the sudden increase in these cruel hunts. This year, more whales have been killed than in any year since 1996, and even more could yet be slaughtered before the year’s end.
The escalation in whaling is all the more shocking given the fact that in 2008 the Chief Medical Officer of the Faroes, and a doctor from the Department of Public and Occupational Health, issued a joint press statement saying that the meat and blubber of pilot whales was no longer fit for human consumption. This is because of the high levels of mercury and other toxic pollutants that build up in the whales’ bodies through the food chain. The unexpected upsurge in whaling suggests that this warning has been forgotten, or is simply being ignored.
The hunts this year have produced an estimated 550 tons of pilot meat and blubber, providing a staggering 11 kilos of meat and blubber for every one of the island’s 49,000 inhabitants, despite the fact they have been warned not to eat it at all. Campaign Whale Director Andy Ottaway, who met with Faroese officials in London recently to express concerns over whaling, said
“It is an unfolding tragedy for the whales and the people eating them. The Faroese must see sense and recognize that pilot whale and dolphin meat is no longer safe to eat. This cruel tradition has to end.”
For further information about whaling in the Faroes, and how you can help our campaign to stop it, please click here