Every year in the Faroe Islands, a commonwealth of Denmark, close to 2,000 pilot whales are rounded up near the shore where they come for feeding and then they are brutally slaughtered and eaten. It is a gruesome spectacle of human cruelty what is done on the shores of this island.
The Faroese people defend themselves by saying that this is a tradition that dates back to the 16th century, and a practice that has helped the people survive the harsh winters. The whale meat is not sold but divided among the community. The salughtering has become more intense since the collapse of the fishing industry in the region. They say they need to continue this barbaric butchering of whales or the community will starve.
In an ironic twist, chief medical officers of the Faroe Islands are recommending that pilot whales no longer be considered fit for human consumption because they are toxic. Apparently the whale meat contains too much mercurey, as well as high levels of PCBs and DDT derivatives, all unsafe for humans.
According to this article, research on the impact of the pollutants on the Faroese people, has shown that mercury especially has caused lasting damage. Such as damage to fetal neaural development, high blood pressure, and impaired immunity in children, as well as increased rates of Parkinson’s disease, circulatory problems, and possibly infertility in adults.
This is an example of the unsustainable lifestyles people have adopted throughout the ages in order to survive. It is now time for the Faorese people to reconsider their practices and possibly adopt a new way of life. One that respects the animals in the ocean, and one that will not put themselves at the risk of extinction from consuming poisoned wildlife.
It’s killing season in Japan, the factory ship has headed out sea, unceremoniously this year, though. Wonder if that has anything to do with the anti-whaling activists whose attention they are probably trying to avoid? And why wouldn’t they? According to this article, the Sea Shepherd activists plan to disrupt the 2008-09 whaling season, like they did the last. Last season Japan was only able to slaughter 551 whales, almost half of their 1,000 whale quota. That is pretty bad-ass!
Meanwhile, in Australia, the Environment Minister, Mr. Peter Garret, the former lead singer of Midnight Oil, is revealing the details of a $4 million anti-whaling program. Mr. Garrett said that the Australian government was undecided about whether to send a ship to shadow the Japanese hunting fleet.
Mr Garrett said he intends using diplomatic efforts together with the results of the new research project to influence the IWC and force Japan to stop hunting, “I’m not under any delusions as to how difficult and challenging this task is,” he said.
Whoa! Hold it there! Diplomatic efforts have not worked thus far, and it seems that the only people who are trying to actively do something are folks at Sea Shepherd. It’s not the research that is the issue, it is the fact that whales are being slaughtered illegally for profit! Now that Peter Garrett is in a position of power, a position where something could be done, why not do something? Diplomacy can only get you so far, and activists are putting their lives at risk because governments are unwilling to do anything.
The butchers scientists at the Institute of Cetacean Research in Tokyo have revealed the findings of their more than twenty years study of minke whales. The study was published by mainstream publication Polar Biology, after being rejected by two other scientific journals. Check out this story for more details.
So after brutally slaughtering more than 4,500 minke whales, what did the research show:
Whales are losing blubber due to climate change.
The scientists justified the killings by saying that it was the only way to accurately study the animals. Some of the animals were unusable in the research because of the damage to their bodies from explosive harpoons and other crude methods used to kill them.
The researchers claim that krill, the main source of the minke whale’s diet, is in decline in the oceans. The study argues that global warming, over-fishing of krill for fish harvesting and competition from humpback whales are the culprits. Many in the scientific community fear that Japan will use this as an excuse for allowing commercial whaling of the humpbacks and other larger cetaceans.
Luckily, researchers in New Zealand and Australia plan to launch their own study, but without the gruesome slaughtering. Read more here.
Whale meat is making a come-back in Icelandic kitchens. Whale-meat was once a popular staple of the Icelandic poor-man’s diet because of how inexpensive it was, but when commercial whaling was banned for twenty years, people adapted and began eating normal food.
But now that the ban has been lifted for a couple of years some daring restaurateurs are taking a gamble by incorporating whale-meat into their menus. Restaurant chefs are having to be creative because it’s proving to be hard sell for the younger generation who didn’t grow up on the stuff. I would imagine it’d be hard to eat knowing what we know about whale’s intelligence and that they are dwindling in numbers. And for the old-timers who did grow up eating whale I’m sure it’s a reminder of harder times when you’re choice for meat was whale. Yuk! It seems that the tourists are the ones eating the stuff up, imagine that.
The whale eaters claim that the minke whales that are hunted for human consumption are plenty in numbers so there is no worry of extinction. That’s all great and dandy, but does that justify the mass slaughter of whales? Is it worth killing them so some tourist said he ate “Moby on a Stick”?
Every year in the Faroe Islands, a commonwealth of Denmark, close to 2,000 pilot whales are rounded up near the shore where they come for feeding and then they are brutally slaughtered and eaten. It is a gruesome spectacle of human cruelty what is done on the shores of this island.
