Faroe Islands tourists traumatized as 78 dolphins killed

Table Of Content

• Princess Cruise Lines fined in whale's death
• Ambassador Cruise Line apologized to customers and underscored its commitment to conservation
• Toothed whales use 'vocal fry' to hunt for food, scientists say
• Ship passengers traumatized as 78 dolphins killed in whaling tradition
• Trump hush money trial: Judge sets opening statements for Monday

Men leaving the scene were photographed covered in blood and carrying knives. Some of the animals, which included nine calves, took over 30 seconds to die. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Princess Cruise Lines fined in whale's death

Companies are realising that they must engage in these measures,” Bray concluded. “I’m sure the St. Maarten port authorities are already engaged in reducing environmental impact. We are there to award those initiatives when it comes to whale safety and to provide consumers with a reference list for sustainable ports and operators,” Bray said. Shipping and cruise companies can take different measures with different level of effectiveness.

Ambassador Cruise Line apologized to customers and underscored its commitment to conservation

Blue Planet Society, which has tracked the hunt and the total killings, said the July 9 hunt brings the total this year to 650, and they called on the European Union and U.K. Whatever is caught during the hunt is distributed to island residents for free. The first two companies are on board and hopefully more will follow in 2022, Bray said. But eventually, only the top-ranking companies will be able to receive the logo as the organisation slowly raises the bar. For example, the number of whales in the Mediterranean Sea has diminished by more than 50 per cent over the past two to three decades. Images of the event showed dolphins of all ages drenched in blood on the shore and stuffed in bins.

Toothed whales use 'vocal fry' to hunt for food, scientists say

U.K.-based Ambassador Cruise Line said passengers were aboard the Ambition in the port of Tórshavn in the Danish territory when they caught the highly scrutinized tradition, according to NPR. The British cruise liner received a mixed response to its apology to stunned passengers — with some slamming the operator for criticizing local tradition while others called for a boycott of the island altogether. As the Faroese tradition of grindadráp took place Sunday, passengers aboard a docked Ambassador Cruise Line ship were horrified to watch how locals have harvested their food for centuries. The government of the Faroe Islands, however, has been clear on their stance of the whale hunting for several years. But a record single-day killing of more than 1,400 white-sided dolphins in 2021 brought the practice into intensified scrutiny.

Cruise Ship Passengers Watch Another Barbaric Whale Slaughter in the Bloody Faroe Islands - Cruise Law News

Cruise Ship Passengers Watch Another Barbaric Whale Slaughter in the Bloody Faroe Islands.

Posted: Fri, 14 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Visit Faroe Islands says on its website about 800 pilot whales are killed a year, a number the government claims is sustainable. Whale and Dolphin Conservation estimates the global pilot whale population is 800,000 to 1 million, and about 100,000 reside in Faroe’s waters. So far this year, the government has registered 646 whale killings, including the 78 on Sunday and 445 on June 14. "We are utterly opposed to the commercial hunting of whales and dolphins in the Faroes," said Ambassador Cruise Line. "While traditional hunts of this type have taken place for many years in the Faroe Islands to sustain local communities, we strongly object to this outdated practice, which we believe is now becoming commercial, with meats sold in local supermarkets, for example."

There is nothing “traditional” about using helicopters and power boats to herd and kill whales. Passengers aboard a luxury cruise ship watched in horror Sunday as their vessel docked at a small island where locals yielding knives and metal rods were killing wild dolphins as part of a centuries-old mass hunting tradition. “We were incredibly disappointed that this hunt occurred at the time that our ship was in port. Each catch is "distributed for free in the local community" but "in some supermarkets and on the dockside, whale meat and blubber is occasionally available for sale." Long-finned pilot whales, which are technically a species of dolphin, are a medium-sized marine mammal that dwells in the North Atlantic, known for their bulbous head and sickle-shaped flippers. They're not currently listed as an endangered species, but as a sign their population may be on the decline due to human activity, the species is listed under the Marine Mammal Protection Act in the U.S..

The European Union bans the killing of whales and dolphins; however, the self-governing country under the Kingdom of Denmark is not a member of the organization. Government officials said its hunting techniques have improved over the years, though animal welfare groups disagree. The standard practice involves securing a hook in the blowhole, dragging the animal onto the beach, severing its spinal cord and blood supply, and cutting its neck with a whaling knife. Though the carnage caught the cruise line by surprise when it pulled into Torshavn, the company had been aware of the annual event. In a 2021 letter to Faroe’s prime minister, chief executive Christian Verhounig expressed his dismay over a dolphin hunt that had occurred in September. That same year, the company teamed up with ORCA, a marine conservation group based in the United Kingdom, on an anti-whaling and dolphin hunt campaign.

I was absolutely disgusted by what I read and the horrific images I saw back in 2015 and just this week. The North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Faroe Islands was red with the blood of 78 long-finned pilot whales that were hunted by men in the island’s capital of Torshavn, Yahoo News Australia reported. Long-finned pilot whales are one of the largest members of the dolphin family, second in size to the killer whale.

But the people in the Faroes are not satisfied with killing just whales; they view most anything swimming in their waters as fair game to slaughter. The Washington Post wrote that in addition to pilot whales, the Faroes’ hunters “target other small whales and dolphins, such as orcas, Atlantic white-sided dolphins and Northern bottlenose whales . "It defies belief that the Faroese authorities allowed this activity to take place in clear sight of a cruise ship packed with passengers sitting in dock," ORCA CEO Sally Hamilton said. "On one hand, they promote their pristine environment and spectacular wildlife while simultaneously wielding gaff hooks and lances to kill whales and dolphins. It's almost as if they are flaunting the hunt and taunting the tourists." In addition to pilot whales, Hourston said hunters target other small whales and dolphins, such as orcas, Atlantic white-sided dolphins and Northern bottlenose whales. In September 2021, participants killed more than 1,400 Atlantic white-sided dolphins, an alarming body count that forced the government to cap the number at 500.

While the local government has invested more into its tourism sector, fishing and marine-related industries still remain the region's top economic driver. Passengers aboard the cruise ship Ambition, owned by the U.K.-based Ambassador Cruise Line, had just arrived Sunday in the port of Tórshavn in the Danish territory when they caught the spectacle, part of a long-standing and highly scrutinized local tradition. There is a long history of pilot whale and dolphin hunting in the Faroe Islands, deeply rooted in cultural traditions that go back several centuries. Long-finned pilot whales live years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The species is threatened by whaling, entanglement in fishing gear, disease and contaminants in ocean waters, NOAA says. Cruise ship passengers arrived in the Faroe Islands as dozens of whales were killed as part of a traditional hunt, the cruise line confirmed Thursday.

Cruise ship witnesses slaughter of dozens of pilot whales - The Jerusalem Post

Cruise ship witnesses slaughter of dozens of pilot whales.

Posted: Fri, 28 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

However, half of these populations are endangered at some level, Bray said. Sperm whales, which also swim in St. Maarten’s waters, are the second most endangered whales in the world. But as Moon illustrates, not all struck whales die immediately and recent research suggests that even if 95% of large ships in the Santa Barbara channel slowed to 10 knots, the reduction in whale mortality would be 30% at most.

The second most effective measure to reduce whale ship strikes is simply slowing down, he said. There is evidence that slowing down to 10 knots can reduce the risk of impact by at least 50 per cent. There are some worldwide slow-down areas, but these are mainly in the US and Canada, not in many other hotspots around the world where there is a higher risk of striking or disturbing whales, he added. Also, evidence shows that only some shipping or cruise operators actually comply with these areas.

As the Ambassador cruise ship arrived in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, on Sunday, July 9, they were met with the culmination of a hunt of 78 pilot whales in the port. Conservationists from ORCA were on board the shp as it arrived in the Faroe Islands. According to the organization, small boats and jet skies were used to herd the pilot whales into shallow waters. When this newspaper spoke to Bray, Friend of the Sea was planning to reward the best cruise ship and shipping company for their efforts to reduce whale ship strikes. We are not pointing fingers at anybody; we simply want the operators to be collaborative,” he said.

It also instituted procedures and speed restrictions for the Icy Strait area, with ships not to exceed 11.5 miles per hour when in the strait south of the national park. Achieving regulation, whether for mandatory speed limits, exclusion zones or detection kit, is easier said than done. The relatively straightforward policy of banning commercial whaling, for example, took decades. One thing that will help, though, is better data to reveal the true scale of the problem and what solutions have the most impact, but that depends on captains consistently reporting when they have hit a whale.

The most effective measure involves moving vessel routes from areas with higher risks for collision or interaction with whales. In doing so, whales waste a lot of energy and time trying to follow their instinctive migration routes. Sometimes they cannot make it to the spot they normally reproduce or feed due to the disturbances caused by ships.