Posts Tagged ‘Faroe Islands’
84 pilot whales die in Faroes hunt
84 long-finned pilot whales were killed this weekend in the Faroe Islands during the first hunt of the season. The slaughter took place in the killing bay of Bøur on the island of Vagar. The meat is distributed amongst the local population despite ongoing concerns about the long-term health implications of eating whale meat. High levels of…
Read MoreWhen health advice should trump culture
In the UK slow but steady progress on advice to smokers has led to one of the greatest reductions in smoking of any industrialised nation. According to the Guardian newspaper, Just 16.9% of adults in England now smoke, according to the latest data from Public Health England. This battle between what some people would regard as a…
Read MoreLeading Faroese medical expert warns against eating whale meat
Chief Physician at the Department of Occupational Medicine and Public Health in the Faroes, Dr. Pal Weihe has contradicted government advice and reiterated a warning to the country’s population not to eat whale meat. High levels of pollutants like mercury, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and PFCs (perfluorinated compounds) from the world’s oceans end up in sea…
Read More150 pilot whales die in latest Faroes hunt
Another terrible slaughter of pilot whales has taken place in the Faroe Islands in recent days. According to local reports around 150 whales were killed over a two hour period. Some whales were left to swim around the bay while the bodies of their fellow pod members were pulled onto the beaches. Eventually the whales…
Read MoreThe pilot whale slaughter that also raises serious human health concerns
Once again, more pilot whales have been slaughtered in the Faroes. This time 43 whales have been killed in the first hunt of the season on the Islands. The whales were driven to shore and killed in the bay of the Faroese village Hvannasund. A total of 508 pilot whales had been killed in 2015. The…
Read MoreCruise lines to stop visits to Faroes
Two major German cruise lines are to stop sending their ships to the Faroe Islands in protest over the bloody whale and dolphin hunts that take place there. Hapag-Lloyd and AIDA cruise lines will now look for alternative destinations to send their vessels, a move that represents a massive blow to the islands, which depends…
Read MoreOver 250 whales die in Faroes hunts
It has emerged that over 250 pilot whales have been slaughtered in just one day in the Faroes. The two hunts (or grinds) took place in the killing cove of Bøur, where 111 pilot whales were slaughtered, and one just a few hours later in Tórshavn, where 142 pilot whales were killed. The total killed…
Read MoreFaroese Prime Minister claims whale hunt is regulated
The Faroese Prime Minister, Kaj Leo Holm Johannesen, has claimed that whaling in the islands is “sustainable and fully-regulated” in a statement issued in response to recent criticism of the continued hunting of pilot whales. He goes on to say that the hunt is a natural part of Faroes life that has being going on for…
Read MoreLarge group of pilot whales slaughtered in Faroes hunt
Reports from the Faroes suggest that over 150 pilot whales have been killed in the first drive hunt (grind) of the year . The slaughter, which involves the herding of whales by boats into shallow coves, took place on the island of Vágar in the northwest of the Faroe Islands. The grinds are an extremely…
Read MoreOf Mermaids, Dolphins, and Sea Change
A few years ago, we were approached by naturalist and author Ran Levy-Yamamori, introducing us to his wonderful story “The Mermaid and the Dolphins.” After translating it into Japanese and Danish, we shared it more widely with a hope that its message would reach across the globe, and especially within those communities in Japan and…
Read More