Written evidence submitted by the Born Free Foundation (MM0012)
Whale and dolphin hunts on the Faroe Islands
Background
The brutal slaughter of over 1400 white sided dolphins on the Faroe Islands in September 2021 triggered huge anger and revulsion around the world and brought global attention back to the long and bloody history of whale and dolphin killing in this beautiful but isolated archipelago 200 miles to the Northwest of Scotland.
Although the European Union has a ban on the killing of whales and dolphins by its Member States under an EU Council Directive and the Bern Convention, this does not apply to the Faroe Islands as a self-governing country in the Kingdom of Denmark. The Faroe Islands is also not a member of the International Whaling Commission, and whale and dolphin hunts can be legally licenced by the Faroese Government.
In recent decades several marine conservation organisations have engaged with the Government and people of the Faroe Islands to end the whale and dolphin hunts. Public meeting and debates have been held; studies have been produced to look at the economic benefits of developing a whale watching industry, documentaries made, and books published, but the brutal killing continues.
Targeted species
Pilot whales
Pilot whales are one of the most intelligent marine mammals on the planet. They live in family pods for their entire lives with very strong bonds between family groups. Members of the pod will socialise, play, hunt and rear their young together and in some cases whole pods of dolphins will strand themselves rather than leave a sick member of the family group alone.
Pilot whales have for tens of thousands of years taken routes around the cold waters of the Faroe Islands in search of fish, octopus, and shrimp.
Pilot whales are not considered endangered, the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission estimate a global population of around 778,000. However, these figures are considered an overestimate by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) describes pilot whales as “Data Deficient” on its Red List of Threatened Species. The average annual figure of pilot whales killed in the Faroe Islands is just over a 1000, which is considered sustainable by the Faroes Government.
White sided dolphins
The total global population of Atlantic white-sided dolphins is believed to be between 200,000 to 300,000 individuals. They have a narrow distribution in the cool temperate and sub-Arctic waters of the North Atlantic. Their major prey are herring, cod, and squid but they also consume shrimp, mackerel, and sand eels
On the 12th September 2021 a pod of white-sided dolphins was driven into Skalabotnur beach in Eysturoy in the Faroes, and over 1400 were killed. This was the largest individual slaughter of dolphins recorded in modern history.
The ferocity and scale of the dolphin slaughter caused a major international outcry and led the Faroe Islands’ Prime Minister to order a review of dolphin hunts. To date no report has been published and no restrictions have been put in place to prevent more dolphins being killed.
Wider threats to whales and dolphins
All species of whales and dolphins are increasingly threatened by human activities, including commercial fishing, plastic and other marine pollution, oil and gas exploration, military and commercial use of sonar devices and climate change. These threats are rapidly increasing and will be affecting whale and dolphin populations around the world.
Cruelty of the whale and dolphin killing
Although the whale and dolphin hunts on the Faroe Islands are legal this does not mean they are humane. In recent years international pressure has forced the Faroese Government to introduce tighter licensing rules for those islanders participating in the slaughter of pilot whales and dolphins, with the latest rules being adopted in 2015.
The licensing rules cover all aspects of the hunts, from driving pilot whales and dolphins into shore, to the killing method and the distribution of meat to the local community. At present over 2,000 Islanders are licensed to kill whales or dolphins, having attended a two- and half-day training course under the Government licensing scheme.
During the training the hunters are shown how to drive the whales or dolphins into shore, secure a hook and rope in their blow hole to drag them onto the beach, and how to stab a steel lance at one hand breadth behind the blow hole, which severs both the main blood supply to the brain as well as the spinal cord. Finally, they are trained to use a whaling knife to make deep cuts into both sides of the whale’s neck, to bleed out the animal.
Only adults can be licenced to kill whales or dolphins, but any member of the public can take part in the drives. Children of any age can and do watch the slaughter and some of the most controversial images being shared around the world show children in the water with dead whales or in some cases even playing on the top of whale carcasses.
Despite the licensing rules for the driving of the whales or dolphins into shore, their killing involves huge suffering well beyond anything that would be acceptable in other circumstances where animals are legally and deliberately killed.
Health concerns on whale and dolphin meat consumption
Although the slaughter of pilot whales and dolphins generates little public opposition on the Faroe Islands, there is growing concern over the public health risk from whale and dolphin meat consumption. In 2008 the Chief Medical Officer on the islands and scientist Paul Weihe, wrote a letter to the Prime Minister warning against the consumption of pilot whale or dolphin meat in view of high levels of mercury, PCB’s and DDT derivatives. Although the government refused to introduce a ban on islanders eating whale and dolphin meat, they were forced to put in place recommendations that adults should only eat the meat once a month, that women should not consume the meat at all during pregnancy, and the kidneys and livers of the whales or dolphins should not be eaten.
International trade
The population of the Faroe Islands is just over 50,000, the vast majority being of Faroese, Norse or Celtic descent. Fishing and fish farming remain a vital part of the economy, but tourism and new information technology businesses are becoming increasingly important to the future economy of the Islands.
The Faroe Islands has some of the highest levels of employment and GDP per head than any country in Scandinavia or Europe, however the islands remain dependant on aid from Denmark, which continues to account for around 13% of the national income.
International trade represents a key driver for change within this isolated island community, as it becomes increasingly compelled to connect with the modern world.
Prior to leaving the European Union, Britain had little leverage over the Faroes or Danish Governments in this area, but that has all changed with Brexit.
In March 2019 the UK Government entered into a Free Trade Agreement with the Faroe Islands which now accounts for over 25% of the Faroes’ global trade. To the end of 2021 the value of exports from the Faroe Islands under this agreement reached £864 million (a 101.4%. increase on the previous year). Most of this trade was in cod, shellfish and farmed salmon which is sold in UK supermarkets. In comparison, total UK exports to the Faroe Islands in 2021 were valued at just £17 million a 50% reduction on the previous year.
Government Petition
In September 2021, Dominic Dyer, Policy Advisor and British Wildlife Advocate at Born Free, started a government e-Petition calling for a suspension of the Free Trade Agreement with the Faroe Islands until all the whale and dolphin hunts end.
In October the petition reached 20,000 signatures, prompting the following response from Government:
“The UK strongly opposes the hunting of cetaceans and is committed to upholding high animal welfare standards in its trade relationships. We continue to urge the Faroe Islands to stop cetacean hunts”.
Petition generates growing public support and media coverage
Over the six months that followed, tens of thousands of people signed and shared the Petition, protest marches against the killing of whales and dolphins in the Faroes were held in London, and the issue of trade sanctions against the Faroe Islands generated coverage in both the national and broadcast media
High profile figures including Chris Packham, Deborah Meaden and Ricky Gervais promoted the petition, and the slaughter of whales and dolphins on the Faroe Islands was a key issue of discussion at the Born Free-hosted ‘State of the Earth’ Question Time Debate at the COP26 Climate Change Summit in Glasgow in November
Petition exceeds 100,000 signatures
On Monday 15TH May, the Petition exceeded 100,000 signatures and is now being scheduled for a debate in Parliament before the summer recess.
Whale and dolphin hunts resume
In recent weeks the whale and dolphin hunts have started again on the Faroe Islands. On the 7TH May in the first hunt of 2022, 63 pilot whales were killed including 10 pregnant mothers and their unborn calves. On the 24TH May a further 119 pilot whales were killed.
United States trade with the Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands has a trade agreement with the United States which is valued at over $184 million mostly in in fisheries products. The UK and United States now account for a significant proportion of the Faroe Islands’ global trade.
US Senator Richard Blumenthal (a Democrat from Connecticut) has taken an interest in seeking to bring the whale and dolphin hunts to an end. His staff are currently in contact with officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to see if the US Marine Mammals Protection Act can be applied to the export of fisheries products from the Faroe Islands.
This legislation, implemented in 2020, prevents the United States from importing fisheries products from fisheries where marine mammals have been targeted and killed to protect fish stocks. The implementation of this legislation brought an end to the licensed shooting of seals by the Scottish Government to protect salmon farms, in 2020.
The Faroes Government claim the whale and dolphin hunts are solely carried out to protect culture and tradition and for local consumption of whale and dolphin meat.
However, there is a close connection between the hugely valuable fisheries industry on the Faroe Islands and those who carry out the whale and dolphin hunts and increasing evidence that protection of the Islands fisheries might be a key and increasing driver for the killing of whales and dolphins.
Links to supporting documents
UK Free Trade Agreement Faroe Islands
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/summary-of-the-uk-faroe-islands-free-trade-agreement-fta
UK Trade & Investment fact sheet Faroe Islands
Parliament Petition Faroe Islands whale and dolphin hunts
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/597171
US Marine Mammal Protection Act
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/marine-mammal-protection-act
May 2022