Gruesome Whale and Dolphin Bloodletting Massacre at Faroe Islands

Pilot whales writhing and thrashing about madly in shallow waters, the ruby-red sea drenched with their blood and no means or hope for the creatures to escape from their captors — it’s the blood-bath scene of a massacre for an age-old tradition of the coming of age, the mark of transition from childhood to adulthood, in the archipelago of the Faroe Islands. 

While not much speaks of the tradition itself, the atrocious slaughter nonetheless does occur in the Faroes, and has been practiced since at least the 10th century. Nearly 1,000 are killed annually in the “grindadráp” — whale hunt — typically occurring during summer months.
These highly social animals travel in pods of up to 200, following their favorite meals — preys of squid and mackerel.
As schools of whales are spotted in the narrow channels and fjords, messengers spread the news among the islanders, and a bonfire is lit at a specific location to inform those on the neighboring island where the same pattern then is followed. Others use cell phones and various further methods of communication to ready the islanders for the hunt.

They rush to their boats to surround the creatures in a wide semi-circle. On the whaling-foreman’s signal, stones attached to lines are thrown into the water, and the whales are driven to land where they then beach themselves in shallow water. Islanders are not allowed by law to take the whales on the ocean-side of the rope.
Whales that aren’t beached used to be stabbed in the blubber by a sharp hook called a gaff, but today they’re allegedly caught by their blowholes with a hook and pulled ashore, after outcries from animal rights activists for the former brutal practice. However, anti-whaling groups such as Greenpeace and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) claim that the partial blocking and irritation of the airway hurts and panics the animal.

Once ashore, men slaughter the pilot whales — from babies to mature adults — in a flurry of blood and spray by severing their spinal cords, cutting through the dorsal area with sharp knives called a grindaknívur. The sea and shoreline become saturated with the spills of their blood in a gruesome display.
During the cut of a pilot whale’s spine, their main arteries are also cut. Since the whales are killed manually, death cannot by definition be instantaneous, taking anywhere from about 30 seconds to several minutes to die.

Men gather on the shore to kill the beached whales in the town Vágur.
Photo Erik Christensen

It’s generally only Faroese men who take part in the grindadráp while females look on. This is part of the traditional division of labour concerning the centuries-old killings, and has not changed over time.

The sea turns blood-red. Photo Erik Christensen

Pilot whales are laid in rows on the beachfront to be carved up, each neatly numbered with Roman numerals cut into the thick blubber.
Small family groups take on the grisly process of butchering, the black skin and white blubber peeling away to reveal dark red meat which steams in the chill air, and the catch is divided out amongst people in the community.

Atlantic White-sided Dolphins on a concrete-floored dock in Hvalba, August 26 2006.
Photo Erik Christensen

Faroes and Regulations on Whaling
Pilot whales are “small cetaceans” and not covered by the regulations of the International Whaling Commission. Much debate has arisen over the years as to whether or not smaller species of whales and dolphins should be included under the auspice of the commission, which banned commercial whaling in 1986. Subsistence whaling is permitted in Denmark, Greenland, the Russian Federation, Grenadine Islands in the Caribbean, St. Vincent, and the U.S. under IWC rules.

The Faroes are an isolated archipelago of 17 small inhabited islands located about 200 miles northwest of Scotland in the North Atlantic, halfway between Scotland and Iceland.
While they are part of the Kingdom of Denmark, they are essentially an autonomous entity, self-governing in most matters other than foreign affairs, the legal system, and defense. Their special status was granted in 1948 under Home Rule as a self-governing populace.

Even though Denmark is part of the European Union, the Faroe Islands are not. The Faroe Islands agreed with the EU and acceded to membership of the Pan-European System of Cumulation of Origin, in a mutual free-trade agreement in 2003.
It is regulated by Faroese authorities, but the hunts are non-commercial and organized on a community level — anyone can join in at will. The institution of the pilot whale hunt, which had previously been largely based on tradition, became an integrated part of society’s legal structure.

2 dead Northern Bottlenose Whales whose necks that have been cut with the grindaknívur
in the bay of Nes in Vágur. Photo Erik Christensen

Controversy
The whale hunts have caused international outrage and have been condemned as cruel, unnecessary and barbaric by conservationists, animal rights activists, and anti-whaling groups around the world, calling for Faroese whaling to be banned, and making frequent attempts to disrupt and stop the slaughter.

These kills have occurred in the Faroe Islands for hundreds of years and are considered by Islanders to be an important part of their social culture and history, strongly defending their right to engage in the hunts.
Local hunters claim that most journalists do not have sufficient knowledge of the catch methods or its economic significance. Defending their actions against international organizations like Greenpeace, they cite that the hunt is not commercial, they only kill those swimming close to land, the food is only distributed locally, and they don’t believe pilot whales to be an endangered species.
They argue the harsh realities of animal food production, but conservation organizations claim that today’s Faroe Islanders have ample food and don’t require whale meat to survive as they did in earlier centuries.

Pilot whales in the area are known to have high levels of mercury, insecticides, PCB’s, and environmental poisons. Large consumption of whale meat can be dangerous to their health and by law, the islanders are only allowed to eat whale meat once every 2 weeks. Pregnant mothers on the islands have been counseled not to eat it.
In days of old, the Faroese used rowing boats to circle and drive a school of whales which gave the animals a relatively large possibility of escaping. Today they don’t stand a chance against what’s basically a small fleet of motorboats.

Paul Watson — founder of Sea Shepherd International — has witnessed the whale hunts in Faroe Islands first-hand.
“They literally saw through the animal’s spine to kill them.” Watson said. “People tend to drink a lot and it’s a big party akin to the Roman gladiator games.”

“The Faroese are wiping out entire pods and family groups. The number of North Atlantic long-finned pilot whales is unknown and they are listed as ’strictly protected’ by the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats.”
“Aside from the barbarism and pointlessness of the act, such a practice is a direct threat to genetic diversity. They are removing building blocks from the gene pool of the species and damaging the web of life in the North Atlantic and the North Sea.” Watson says.

The Danish embassy claims that whale meat accounts for a quarter of the islander’s annual meat consumption, but conservation groups say most of the whales go to waste.
“Many whales are left to rot on the beach or are thrown back to sea after they are killed.” said Andrew Christie, director of the American Chapter of Sea Shepherd.

Sea Shepard has been working to put economic pressure on the Faroe Islands to stop the whale hunt, and have convinced more than 20,000 grocery stores in Germany to stop carrying Faroese seafood products. Large oil deposits have recently been discovered near the Faroe Islands, and Sea Shepard has also targeted oil companies to sanction the Danish protectorate.
Despite its cultural significance, the continuation of the practice is very difficult to convincingly defend and some Faroe Islanders have even begun opposing it.

Legal Locations
The small village of Hvalvík in English Whale Bay on the island Streymoy is a well-known place for beaching pilot whales.

It’s against the law to kill pilot whales at locations with inappropriate conditions which must be well suited for the purpose of beaching whales, such as a gradual slope from shore to deep water to make it easier to drive the whales fully or close to shore, usually a bay or the end of a fjord.
There are 17 towns and villages that have the right conditions with legal authorization for beaching whales, which have featured most heavily in the statistics for whaling in the Faroes since 1854.
The islands are divided into several whaling districts which are the basis for the distribution of the meat and blubber. The catch is distributed so that all residents of the whaling district are given the same amount of the catch, regardless of whether or not they took part in the hunt.

Photo Portal.fo

Pilot Whale as Food
The major component of traditional Faroese food consists of meat due to the harsh climate in the area which makes it difficult to grow grain and vegetables well. Locals mostly eat salted or dried food during the winter months including meat, pilot whale meat, seabirds, and fish. The pilot whale meat and blubber is stored, prepared and eaten in the Faroese households.

In some of the larger villages and towns, a small amount taken from the private shares is sold to the local food stores. The maximum retail price is regulated by governmental order and is about half the price of other meats such as beef or lamb — a strong incentive to eat pilot whale.
While the Faroe Island’s main export is fish, it does not include pilot whale meat or blubber.

Whale meat and blubber is a Faroese specialty. When fresh, the meat is boiled or served as steaks. Whale meat with blubber and potatoes in their skins are cooked in a saucepan with salt and then boiled for an hour. Thin slivers of the blubber are also a popular complement to dried fish.
The traditional preservation is by salting or outdoor wind-drying, but the meat and blubber is often stored in the freezer in today’s times.
Tourists in the Faroe Islands can ‘enjoy’ pilot whale meat at various cultural events which are mostly organized in the summer.

Whale and Dolphin Massacre in Europe