Whale Slaughter Claim Misleading
The recent video depicting the slaughter of long-finned pilot whales in the Faroe Islands was misleading in terms of impact and incorrectly asserted that this was a "rite of passage" for the island's teens.
The Faroe islanders have hunted long-finned pilot whales for centuries as a way to provide food stocks during the winter. The meat is never sold, but divided amongst the community, and any surplus is donated to hospitals and elderly care facilities. Locals pride themselves on using 90% of the carcass, and there is no evidence of any rites of passage connected to the practice.
The Office of Protected Resources, the headquarters program for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, lists entanglement in fishing gear as the top threat to long-finned pilot whales, and makes only passing mention of direct targeting by islanders, who since 1584 have taken an average of 850 whales yearly out of a North Atlantic population of 750,000. In a 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species report, the organization changed its classification from "Low Risk/least concern" to "insufficient data" in 2008, and listed anthropogenic sound, such as sonar, as the greatest threat to the species. That same report classified the Faroe island practice as "probably sustainable."
The Faroe island whale harvest does not have a major impact of the species, nor is it done simply for entertainment or tradition. This practice provides much needed winter food to a people who have a vested interest in maintaining adequate whale populations.
Sources:
www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/mammals/cetaceans/pilotwhale_longfinned.htm
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3104494.stm
www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/9250/0
Whale Slaughter Claim Misleading
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Let me clarify your stance
TheBigMike:
I appreciate a different perspective on this, but I'd like to clarify where you stand. You say that it's not a "rite of passage" but the manner in which these dolphins are killed -- I mean, just look at the picture -- is horrendous. With metal clubs?
With all due respect, are you excusing this massive slaughter because the animals are consumed? Surely this seems like an inhumane practice.
I just wanted to hear what you think of the slaughter. Maybe you wouldn't call it that. Thanks.
- Vandal K
February 3, 2010 3:07PM
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Clarification
My point is you cannot call it a rite of passage for two reasons. First, this is not done simply for the sake of killing something, or to prove that one is an adult. It is done for food . Secondly, and more importantly, there is no evidence documenting any reference to this being anything more then a community trying to provide food.
I put in the statistics about the number killed specifically to counter the mistaken belief that this is a "massive slaughter." In terms of numbers of animals killed, 850 out of a population of 750,000 is insignificant. You could argue that the cruelty is massive, but not the slaughter. I use the term "slaughter" not to imply anything about the number of animals killed, nor the manner in which they are dispatched, but simply because that is the term for killing an animal for food used by the regulatory agencies that govern the practice.
As for my personal feelings on the practice, which are completely irrelevant to the point I was trying to make, I am undecided. The video was obviously shocking, but then I think it was produced with that intent. Before forming an opinion, I would like to hear a few marine biologists' thoughts on if the method shown causes a swift death with minimal suffering. However, I recognize that these people need to eat, and will not condemn something simply because it looks horrendous, or because the animal in question is a marine mammal.
The bottom line for me is that the practice of killing an animal for food is not objectionable. If the method of slaughter causes reasonably preventable suffering, then the method should be altered. If qualified experts rule that death is swift, and suffering minimal, then I don't have a problem of it.
- thebigmike
February 3, 2010 4:12PM
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So this justifies cruelty does it?
So it's necessary to provide much needed winter food by slaughtering dolphins in such a brutal manner is it? With metal clubs that have hooks on the end to maximise the pain the dolphins suffer? Please do us all a favour and stop trying to justify such appalling and needless cruelty with your platitudes. It's bullshit, plain and simple.
- jbutler404
February 3, 2010 4:10PM
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It gets attention
The film is obviously meant to get attention, and it seems to work .
I don't think rite of passage has a good technical definition, but the fact that this is not daily routine lends it at least a festival like status.
That's beside the point. This is a horrible event for a number of reasons, mostly oriented around the extreme suffering this needless cruelty causes, and the desensitization that follows.
Also, the meat is some of the most toxic meat you can get from the ocean , and the doctors advise against eating it. That nullifies it as a nutritional source, in my opinion.
- Submariner February 3, 2010 5:10PM
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whale drive fisheries is the right thing to do....
Archaeological evidence from the early Norse settlement of the Faroe Islands from 1200 years ago, in the form of pilot whale bones found in household remains, indicates that the pilot whale, Globicephala melas, has long had a central place in the every day life of Faroe Islanders. The meat and blubber of the pilot whale has provided the islanders with an important part of their staple diet .
The whales are driven onto the beach with small boats, and killed by cutting down to the major arteries and spinal cord at the neck. The drive fisheries in Japan and in other areas of the world operate under similar circumstance.
These pods are more likely seaquake-injured.
Pods of whales and dolphins have been mass stranding on certain beaches around the world since the beginning of recorded history and likely long before. People who lived near the shore in certain areas grew to depended on stranded whales as food . The excitement would build as the pod slowly got closer to the shore. As often as not, the pods would mill around offshore for a day or so and then swim downstream and strand on the beach of some other tribe. Slowly, over many hundreds of years of practice, the locals, like the Faroese and Japanese fisherman, learn how to row out to meet the pod and position their little boats in a semi-circle behind them and drive them to their own beaches. They never knew why the pods were so easy to encircle with their little boats--most just thought the whales were a gift from God.
Indeed, if one believes God controls earthquakes and oceanic currents, then the religious faith of these people is supported by the Seaquake Hypothesis. ( www.deafwhale.com )
Unable and/or afraid to dive and dart under the small boats, seaquake-wounded pods would be easily driven toward the beach. The method varied from area to area. The Faroe fishermen would toss a special line, with a rock tied to one end, to the side of the pod. They would then pull the rock through the water fast and create a commotion on only one side of the pod. The whales at the side on seeing the splashing would swim away from the disturbance and slowly push their pod mates off in the opposite direction. Thus, the pods were slowly stirred along. The Japanese do something similar by making loud noises on one side of the pod or the other. (link: Conservation groups call for an end to Faeroe Island whale hunt.
Folks all over the world criticize Japanese and Faroe Island fisherman for harvesting pods of seismically-injured whales and dolphins, but, in view with the seaquake hypothesis, the practice of driving pods ashore with small boats appears to be the right thing to do.
What is really amazing here is that these fisherman look upon driving and slaughtering the whales as a macho thing to do. They simply can not imagine that for hundreds of years they have been driving injured whales. It's just too much for their macho pride to deal with.
Capt. David Williams
Deafwhale Society, Inc.
(one of the world's oldest marine mammal conservation groups)
(david at deafwhale.com)
- dwms02
February 4, 2010 5:15AM
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Thank you
For at least partially illuminating the other side of this issue.
As for the speed of death, the fastest method (I've heard of) would be a harpoon through the eye; but that's probably a tricky shot, even with the animal constrained, and assumes that the community has the resources to invest in harpoons (or substitutes). Even so, various species of whale are able to withstand greater damage and pain levels due to their thick hides; and I'm sure that these people, like all whalers, have a vested interest in making the kills as quick as possible.
That said, it's still a bloody mess; but then, so is the slaughter of pigs and cows.
- JKM121
February 4, 2010 5:36AM
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