Whaling in the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic has been practiced intermittently since about the time of the first Norse settlements on the islands. It is regulated by Faroese authorities but not by the International Whaling Commission as there are disagreements about the Commission's competency for small cetaceans.[1][2] Around 950 Long-finned Pilot Whales (Globicephala melaena) are killed annually, mainly during the summer. The hunts, called "grindadráp" in Faroese, are non-commercial and are organized on a community level; anyone can participate. The hunters first surround the pilot whales with a wide semicircle of boats. The boats then drive the pilot whales slowly into a bay or to the bottom of a fjord.
Most Faroese consider the hunt an important part of their culture and history. Animal-rights groups criticize the hunt as being cruel and unnecessary. As of the end of November 2008 the chief medical officers of the Faroe Islands have recommended that pilot whales no longer be considered fit for human consumption (much of the meat ends up in local dumpsters) because of the levels of toxins in the whales.[3]
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Throughout prehistory, humans have sporadically hunted whales, though almost all modern societies avoid killing whales today. Holdouts have included Iceland, the Hebrides, in Shetland and Orkney.
Archaeological evidence from the early Norse settlement of the Faroe Islands c. 1200 years ago, in the form of pilot whale bones found in household remains in Gøta, implies that the pilot whale has long had a place in the life of at least some Faroe Islanders. The meat and blubber of the pilot whale was once an important part of the islanders' staple diet. The blubber, in particular, was highly valued both as food and for processing into oil, which was used for lighting fuel and other purposes. Parts of the skin of pilot whales were once also used for ropes and lines, while stomachs were used as floats.
Rights have been regulated by law since medieval times and references are found in early Norwegian legal documents, while the oldest existing legal document with specific reference to the Faroes, the so-called Sheep Letter from 1298, includes rules for rights to, and shares of both stranded whales as well as whales driven ashore.[4]
Records of drive hunts in the Faroe Islands date back to 1584.[5]
Like the pilot whales themselves, the hunt has a well-developed system of communication. Reverend Lucas Debes made reference to the system, which means that it had already developed by the seventeenth century. Historically the system takes place as such: When a school of pilot whales has been sighted, messengers are sent to spread the news among the inhabitants of the island involved (the Faroe Islands have 17 inhabited islands). At the same time, a bonfire is lit at a specific location, to inform those on the neighbouring island, where the same pattern then is followed.
It is believed that the system is one of the oldest elements concerning the pilot whale hunt. This is because a rather large number of boats and people are necessary to drive and kill the mobile social groups of agile, intelligent pilot whales. Today, however, the news of a sighting is rapidly and efficiently relayed via mobile phones and other powerful modern methods of communication, ensuring the successful kill.
The location must be well-suited to the purpose of trapping and beaching whales. It is against the law to kill pilot whales at locations with inappropriate conditions. The seabed must gradually slope from the shore out to deep water. Given such conditions, the chances are good that the whales can be frightened and driven fully ashore or close enough to the shore that they can be attacked and killed from land. When a social group (family, or pod) of pilot whales is sighted, boats gather behind the family and slowly drive them towards the chosen authorized location, usually a bay or the end of a fjord. There are 17 towns and villages that have the right conditions, and therefore legal authorization, for beaching whales. These are Bøur, Fámjin, Fuglafjørður, Syðrugøta, Húsavík, Hvalba, Hvalvík, Hvannasund, Klaksvík, Miðvágur, Norðskáli, Sandavágur, Sandur, Tórshavn (in Sandagerði), Tvøroyri, Vágur, and Vestmanna. These towns and villages have featured most heavily in the statistics for whaling in the Faroes since 1854.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, proposals to begin regulation of the whale hunt began to be proposed in the Faroese legislature. On 4 June 1907, the Danish Governor (in Faroese amtmaður) as well as the sheriff sent the first draft for whaling regulations to the Office of the Exchequer in Copenhagen. In the following years, a number of drafts were debated, and finally in 1932 the first Faroese whaling regulations were introduced. Since then, every detail of the pilot whale hunt has been carefully defined in the regulations. This means that the institution of the pilot whale hunt, which had previously largely been based on tradition, became an integrated part of society's legal structure. In the regulations one has institutionalized old customs and added new ordinances when old customs have proved insufficient or inappropriate.[6]
Since 1832, the Faroe Islands have been divided into several whaling districts, although there is reason to believe that these districts already existed in some form prior to this date. These whaling districts are the basis for the distribution of the meat and blubber of the pilot whales caught. The catch is distributed in such a way that all the residents of the whaling district are given the same amount of the catch, regardless of whether they took part in the hunt or not, or whether the whales are used or discarded.
Before the enactment of home-rule in 1948, the Danish governor had the highest responsibility of supervising a pilot whale hunt. Today, supervision is the responsibility of the Faroese government. The government is charged with ensuring that the Pilot whaling regulations are respected and otherwise answer for preparations. In practice, this means that it is the local legislative representative, who holds the highest command in a pilot whale hunt. It is his responsibility to both supervise the hunt and to distribute the catch.
Aside from the use of fast modern boats, petroleum products, internal combustion engines, and highly efficient modern communications technology, whale hunting equipment is otherwise legally restricted to hooks, ropes, and assessing-poles for measurement. A fast modern boat that has been equipped in such a manner is deemed a pilot whale boat. The pilot whale boat is not a traditional small Faroese rowing boat, neither is it a vehicle used by the coastal navigation, and it does not include the modern Faroese factory fleet. A pilot whale boat simply describes the temporary condition of any small modern boat during a hunt, which is otherwise used for line fishery or leisure purposes.
When the whalers have met the requirements specified above, the pilot whales can be driven. Whale drives only take place when a family of whales is sighted close to land, and when sea and weather conditions make driving whales possible. The whaling regulations specify how the family of whales is to be driven ashore. The drive itself works by surrounding the family with a wide semicircle of boats. On the whaling-foreman's signal, stones attached to lines are thrown into the water behind the pilot whales, frightening them, thus the boats drive the whales towards an authorised beach or fjord, where the whales then beach themselves in desperation. It is not permitted to kill whales on the ocean-side of the rope. A pilot whale drive is always under supervision of local authorities.
The pilot whales that fought and refused to beach themselves were often stabbed in the blubber with a sharp hook, called a gaff (in Faroese sóknarongul), and then pulled ashore. But, after allegations of animal cruelty, the Faroese whalers started using blunt gaffs (in Faroese blásturongul) to pull these rebellious whales ashore by their blowholes. Today, the ordinary gaff is usually only being used to pull killed or dying whales ashore. The blunt gaff became generally accepted since its invention in 1993, and it is not only more effective, but it is claimed that it is more humane by comparison to the other gaff. However, anti-whaling groups such as Greenpeace and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) claim that the partial blocking (i.e., suffocation) and irritation of the airway hurts and panics the animal.
Furthermore, in 1985 the Faroe Islands outlawed the use of spears and harpoons in the hunt, as it considers these weapons to be unnecessarily cruel to animals.
Once ashore, each pilot whale is ideally killed by instantly cutting the dorsal area through to the spinal cord with a special whaling knife, a grindaknívur. Given the circumstances during a pilot whale hunt, the whaling knife is considered by people the safest and most effective equipment with which to kill the whales. The length of time that it takes for a whale to die varies between a few seconds to a few minutes, with the average time being 30 seconds.[7]
According to Faroese legislation it is also permitted to kill off certain species of small cetaceans other than pilot whales. These include: bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus); Atlantic white-beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris); Atlantic white-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus acutus); and harbour porpoise ( Phocaena phocaena).
The hunting and killing of these dolphin species, with the exception of harbour porpoises, is likely carried out in the same way as the pilot whale hunt.
Harbour porpoises are killed outright with shotguns and the numbers of harbour porpoises killed must be reported to the relevant district sheriff. According to statistics, it is claimed that the number of harbour porpoises shot this way on an annual basis is up to 10 animals.
Commercial whaling for larger whale species (fin and minke whales) in the Faroese has not been carried out since 1984.
During the attempt to cut through the vertebral column and spinal cord of the pilot whale, their main arteries may be severed partially or completely, thus pumping out copious quantities of the animal's blood. Because of the large blood loss from so many dying whales, the surrounding sea rapidly becomes a shocking blood-red. This vivid imagery is emotionally disturbing to most people, and what photos have escaped censoring remain powerful educational tools for environmental organizations raising awareness about the hunt. Understandably, these images of a blood-red sea can often have a motivating effect on bystanders.
Since most harpoons, spears, and firearms are prohibited, the whalers must be on the shoreline of the water and kill each individual whale by hand. Other than perhaps via toxins in their flesh, no records exist of pilot whales killing people once ashore.
Ólavur Sjúrðaberg, the chairman of the Faroese Pilot Whaler’s Association, describes the pilot whale hunt in such a way: "I'm sure that no one who kills his own animals for food is unmoved by what he does. You want it done as quickly and with as little suffering as possible for the animal."[9]
Most part of traditional Faroese food consists of flesh. Because of the rugged, rocky Faroese terrain, grain and vegetables have not been able to grow very well as only about 2% of the 1,393 km2 is arable land and none is set aside for permanent crops.[10] During the winter months the Faroe Islanders´ only option was to mostly eat salted or dried food (this includes meat, pilot whale meat, seabirds, and fish). This means that over the centuries, the pilot whale was once an important source of food to the isolated population on the North Atlantic archipelago.
The portion of the pilot whale meat and blubber that is used is stored, prepared, and eaten in the Faroese households. (The rest is discarded.) This also means that whale meat is not available at supermarkets. Although the Faroe Islands' main export is fish, this does not include pilot whale meat or blubber. An annual catch of 956 pilot whales[11] (1990–1999) is roughly equivalent to 500 tonnes of meat and blubber, some 30% of all meat produced locally in the Faroe Islands.
Whale meat and blubber is a Faroese specialty. Well into the last century meat and blubber from the pilot whale meant food for a long time. Most everybody got a share, as is the custom to this day.[12] The useable portions of the meat and blubber can be stored and prepared in a variety of ways such as Tvøst og spik. When fresh, the meat is boiled or served as steaks. A pilot whale steak is in Faroese called grindabúffur. Whale meat with blubber and potatoes in their skins are put in to a saucepan with salt and then boiled for an hour. Slivers of the blubber are also a popular accompaniment to dried fish.
The traditional preservation is by salting or outdoor wind-drying. Today that portion of the meat and blubber that is used is often kept in the freezer. The traditional way of storage is still being practiced however, particularly in the villages.
Tourists in the Faroe Islands who would like to try pilot whale meat and other Faroese food specialties can do so at different cultural events, which are mostly organized in the summer period. Tourists that consider consuming pilot whale or dolphin meat on a visit to the Faroe Islands should note the latest warnings concerning high levels of mercury, PCBs and other contaminants in the pilot whale meat and blubber from the Faroese Chief Medical Officers mentioned below.[13]
The pilot whale hunt is promoted internationally as an integral part of Faroese social culture. As the attenders of a grindadráp usually are men, women do not actively take part in it, but are bystanders or onlookers. This is part of the traditional division of labor concerning grindadráp that is centuries old, and is not expected to change.
In Faroese literature and art, grindadráp is an important motif. The grindadráp paintings by Sámal Joensen-Mikines rank internationally as some of his most important. They are part of a permanent exhibition in the Faroese art museum in the capital Tórshavn. The Danish governor of the Faroe Islands Christian Pløyen wrote the famous Pilot Whaling song, a Faroese ballad written in Danish entitled "A New Song about the Pilot Whale Hunt on the Faroes". It was written during his term of office (1830–1847) and was printed in Copenhagen in 1835.
The Danish chorus line is Raske drenge, grind at dræbe det er vor lyst. In English: Tough boys, to slay the grind that's our desire.
These old verses are rarely sung by the Faroese today. To many modern people (including Denmark) these are seen as a backward cliché about the culture of the islands.
Records of the drive exist in part since 1584, and continuously from 1709—the longest period of time for statistics existing for any wild animal harvest in the world.[14]
The catch is divided into shares known in Faroese as a skinn, which is an age-old measurement value that derives from agricultural practices. 1 skinn equals 38 kg of whale meat plus 34 kg of blubber: in total 72 kg.
| Period | Drives | Whales | Skinn |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1709–1950 | 1,195 | 178,259 | 1,360,160 | |
| Period | Drives | Whales | Skinn |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951–1960 | 122 | 18,772 | 99,102 |
| 1961–1970 | 130 | 15,784 | 79,588 |
| 1971–1980 | 85 | 11,311 | 69,026 |
| 1981–1990 | 176 | 18,806 | 108,714 |
| 1991–2000 | 101 | 9,212 | 66,284 | |
| Period | Drives | Whales | Skinn |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 11 | 918 | 7,447 |
| 2002 | 10 | 626 | 4,263 |
| 2003 | 5 | 503 | 3,968 |
| 2004 | 9 | 1,010 | 8,276 |
| 2005 | 6 | 302 | 2,194 |
| 2006 | 11 | 856 | 6,615 |
| 2007 | 10 | 633 | 5,522 |
| 2008 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2009 | 3 | 310 |
The Faroe Island Statistical office has published the official numbers for the 2009 drive hunt. The statistics show that a total of 310 pilot whales, 174 whitebeaked dolphins, 2 bottlenose whales and 1 bottlenose dolphin were killed in three separate grinds.[15]
The pilot whale hunt represents a significant threat to pilot whale populations; the actual size of the Northeast Atlantic pilot whale population is a subject of debate between different organizations with different motivations. The figure accepted by the International Whaling Commission's Scientific Committee is the 778,000 animals obtained by the North Atlantic Sightings Survey in 1992. Those in favour of killing whales, such as the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission in their 1997 and 1999 report on the hunt,[16] claim that this is a highly conservative estimate, whilst others such as the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society cite data that the figure is over-estimated. If the Whaling Commission's figure is accepted, then the average claimed kill from 1990–1999 of 956 animals each year represents more than 0.1% of the population, which may or may not be sustainable.
In its Red List of Threatened Species the IUCN lists both the Long-finned and Short-finned Pilot Whales with "Data Deficient" status according to its 2008 assessment. In a previous assessment in 1996 the organization listed the species in the "Lower Risk/least concern" category. However, the IUCN also says that with a Whaling Commission-estimated population size of 778,000 in the eastern North Atlantic, with approximately 100,000 around the Faroes, Faroese catches of 850 per year are probably sustainable; current levels of close to 1,000 whales may not be.[17]
According to the American Cetacean Society — pilot whales are not considered endangered. The society cites that there may be 200,000 short-finned pilot whales worldwide.[18]
Photographs of the pilot whale hunt display a blood-red sea with hundreds of bodies of dead whales. These images understandably enrage people worldwide.
Most Faroese maintain that it is their right to catch pilot whales given that they have always done it. The whalers defend their actions before international organizations like Greenpeace with three arguments: one, that grindadráp is not a hunt as such, but a dráp meaning a kill (i.e., that they do not regularly take to sea just to hunt for pilot whales, but only kill those sighted swimming "too close" to land); two, that despite being promoted to tourists as a romantic part of the culture of the Faroe Islands, the pilot whale hunt does not exist for commercial reasons, but for communal food distribution among local households; and three, some data suggest that pilot whales might not be endangered.
It is rare to hear critical voices in the Faroe Islands, but in the last few years they have become more frequent. Opponents of the grindadráp often argue on an emotional level, citing in particular the bloody kill on the fjord bank. The Faroese response to this allegation is that a bloody beach is not in fact a problematic issue concerning whale-killing, and that the problem is that a great deal of the civilized population has been distanced from the process and basic consequences of animal food production.
Proponents of the kill further argue that the pilot whale lives its whole life in freedom in its natural habitat, the Atlantic Ocean, and then after a brief if frightening episode, usually dies in a few minutes, in contrast to the fate of conventional livestock such as cows, pigs, and chickens. These animals often live in captivity or confinement for their whole lives and are then subject to lengthy transportation and other stressful events before final slaughter. Furthermore, causing an animal unnecessary or excessive pain and discomfort is prohibited by the Faroese law.
Other people argue that the grindadráp is not only cruel, but in view of the ample food supply in today's Faroes, completely unnecessary. Additional evidence is supplied by the Faroese Ministry of Health, which warns against consumption of too much pilot whale meat, since it has been clearly shown to contain high levels of mercury, PCBs, and environmental poisons.[19] The Faroese Chief medical officers Pál Weihe and Høgni Debes Joensen announced in late 2008 that pilot whale meat and blubber contains too much mercury, PCBs, and DDT derivatives to be safe for human consumption[3]
During the recent history of the grindadráp, the tools of the catch have modernized. Cellular telephones and radio allow the islands to be alerted to a sighting within the course of minutes. The use of private, powered motorboats give the whalers more speed and maneuverability on the water. The duller blowhole hook, adopted in response to concerns over cruelty, had the additional effect of further increasing the effectiveness of Faroese attempting to beach the whales. In spite of how such improvements to the tools could make the grindadráp more effective, the number of pilot whales caught, both overall and per drive, is less than preceding centuries. This last point suggests that the number of pilot whales is decreasing.
In 1989 the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society commissioned an animated public information film [1](narrated by Anthony Hopkins) to raise awareness on the Faroe Islands' whaling of long-finned pilot whales. The film caused controversy when it was released, as it showed in clear detail what occurred during the annual kill, but was only given a Universal Certificate by the BBFC since it was animated.
New book: Joensen, Jóan Pauli 2009: Pilot Whaling in the Faroe Islands. History, Ethnography, Symbol, Faroe University Press, Tórshavn 2009
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