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Whaling has taken place for generations on the Faroe Islands (Image: Getty)
An anti-whaling activist has warned it may take a generation before the “ecological obscenity” of slaughtering whales and dolphins is “extinguished”. Paul Watson, who last month was removed from international police body Interpol’s most-wanted list, is determined to end the killing of the animals in the Faroe Islands - an archipelago 200 miles north of Scotland.
Writing in the Express, he said: “It is a long process of civil disobedience, protests, and boycotts, and it may take a generation before this ecological obscenity is extinguished.” He added: “The children of the Faroe Islands suffer the highest concentration of methyl mercury in their bodies than any other group of children in the world. It appears that the Faroese dolphin killers have no problem jeopardising the health of their own children to maintain and defend an antiquated, bloody and barbaric tradition.”
Campaigners have said the UK’s £1.3billion imports of Faroese fish each year props up the industry which fuels the hunts.
Whaling in the Faroe Islands, or grindadráp, happens most often during the summer although a hunt can be called at any time.
Locals surround pods using speed boats then drive them towards shore where they are slaughtered using sharp lances, similar to a spear.
Faroese are fiercely defensive of the hunt which is an important part of their culture and traditions.
Whale meat and blubber remain a popular dish despite concerns about the high levels of mercury.
Mr Watson said: “Forty-two years ago, I would not have found a single Faroese opposed to the grind. People around the world, including the people of Denmark, were oblivious to this brutal massacre of cetaceans.
“Today, support for the grind among the population of the Faroe Islands is dropping. More people around the world, and especially Denmark, are now aware of it.
“Today, we have Faroese citizens actively opposing the killing. To me, that is progress— slow progress maybe, but progress, nonetheless.”
Campaigners call for Labour to suspend deal with the Faroe Islands
The activist, who was jailed for several months last year in Greenland, is wanted by Japan over an encounter with a whaling ship.
The 74-year-old is a former head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, whose high seas confrontations with whaling vessels have drawn support from celebrities and featured in the reality television series “Whale Wars.”
Japan wanted his extradition over an encounter with a Japanese whaling research ship in 2001, when he was accused of obstructing the crew’s official duties by ordering the captain of his ship to throw explosives at the whaling ship.
The Canadian-American was arrested and jailed on the Japanese warrant last year in Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, but released after five months.
By Paul Watson, founder of the Captain Paul Watson Foundation
The grindadráp, known simply as the “grind,” literally translates from old Nordic as “the murder of whales.”
My opposition to the grind—the ongoing slaughter of pilot whales and other dolphins in the Faroe Islands—has been a long and patient struggle against entrenched nationalistic and religious traditions.
Since 1983, I have led numerous campaigns against the grind using ships at sea and crews based on land. Confrontations and dramatic clashes over the decades have helped to publicise and expose what many view, as I do, as an atrocity and a crime against nature.
My crews and I have been assaulted, shot at, arrested, jailed, fined and deported, leading some critics to say that little or nothing has been accomplished.
I disagree. Forty-two years ago, I would not have found a single Faroese opposed to the grind. People around the world, including the people of Denmark, were oblivious to this brutal massacre of cetaceans.
Today, support for the grind among the population of the Faroe Islands is dropping. More people around the world, and especially Denmark, are now aware of it.
Today, we have Faroese citizens actively opposing the killing. To me, that is progress— slow progress maybe, but progress, nonetheless.
Social revolutions don't happen overnight. Being an activist for the environment and for wildlife takes endurance and patience and the key to success is consistency, dedication and commitment.
Our actions over the past 50 years have shut down whaling operations around the world including in Australia, Spain, the Soviet Union, South Korea, Peru, Brazil, Chile and South Africa. We have shut down illegal whaling in Iceland for the past three years and have forced the Japanese whaling fleet out of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, saving the lives of over 6,500 whales in the process.
The killing of pilot whales and other dolphins in the Faroe Islands has no economic or practical purpose. The meat is contaminated by methyl mercury which, by any reasonable health standards, should be prohibited from consumption.
The sole reason it continues is the excuse of tradition and religion to justify what is simply a sadistic blood sport whose participants are motivated by the thrill of killing to escape the tedious routine of their lives in a relatively remote and isolated part of the world.
Ending the grind would cause no economic hardship. The former Prime Minster of the Faroes, the late Atli Dam, bluntly told me the grindadráp was “a gift from God.”
He was not persuaded by my counter argument that eating the flesh of cetaceans is expressly prohibited by Leviticus in the Bible. His response was that God gave the Faroese an exemption, although he could not produce any theological documents to back up that blasphemous assertion.
There are only two places in the world where the mass slaughter of dolphins is tolerated. It is, thus, no surprise that the sister city of Taiji, Japan, made famous by the Academy Award film The Cove, is the Faroese town of Klaksvik.
Two towns united by only their common bloodlust for the slaughter of dolphins.
I have never been under the illusion that we would stop the killing in the Faroes and in Taiji, Japan, easily or quickly.
It is a long process of civil disobedience, protests, and boycotts, and it may take a generation before this ecological obscenity is extinguished.
Meanwhile, the children of the Faroe Islands suffer the highest concentration of methyl mercury in their bodies than any other group of children in the world. It appears that the Faroese dolphin killers have no problem jeopardising the health of their own children to maintain and defend an antiquated, bloody and barbaric tradition.
Change happens through the consistent application of passion, courage and imagination. I am confident that through education, litigation, legislation, economic pressure and direct activism, we will prevail in securing a safe word for dolphins and whales.
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