The bottlenose whale belongs to the group of cetaceans known as odontocetes - or toothed whales. Apart from the sperm whale, the bottlenose is one ofthe largest of these, averaging about 8m in length. The northern bottlenose whale population is distributed across the North Atlantic, with concentrations west and east of Iceland and west of the Faroes. An assessment of this population was carried out by the Scientific Committee of NAMMCO (the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission) in 1995 and presented at the Fifth Meeting of the Council of NAMMCO in Nuuk, Greenland in February 1995. This was based on historical catch statistics and data from the North Atlantic Sightings Surveys (NASS) of 1987 and 1989, and showed a tentative corrected population estimate of 40,000 bottlenose whales in the North Atlantic.
Regular strandings
Small groups of bottlenose whales, rarely more than two or three, have stranded on an almost
annual basis in the Faroes, and most often in the month of September, for centuries. Long-
term statistics indicate that the two neighbouring bays of Hvalba and Sandvík on the southern
island of Suðuroy account for 72% of all incidences of bottlenose strandings in the entire
period for which almost continuous records are available - since 1584. These statistics
describe in scientific terms a fact which is so firmly established in the Faroes that it is also
the subject of several versions of a Faroese folktale which explains the phenomenon in
popular belief.
The earliest recorded version of this tale is found in the 1673 topographical description of the Faroes by the Danish priest, Lucas Debes, which is reproduced here in Grindaboð in the English translation which was published for the Royal Society in London in 1676 (see insert). There are also two other versions of this tale, in which a giant, or a troll or huldumaður (the "hidden" people of Faroese belief) offers the bottlenose whales, among other valuable gifts, as the price of defeat in a contest of strength.
When fresh, the meat of the bottlenose whale is eaten, while the oil from the blubber, which cannot be consumed, is extracted for use as a highly valued external treatment for a great variety of ailments, from bronchitis to burns. The value of the bottlenose whale to the local communities and the regularity of its occurrence is reflected in the ancient "døglingabýti" - special custo-mary rules for distributing the meat of the bottlenose whale which differ from the rules for distribution of pilot whales.
The one-eyed prince - shades of Norse mythology?
The Faroese word for the bottlenose whale, døglingur, derives from the Old Norse word
dòglingr, which was poetic language for "king" or "prince". The popular belief that the
whale had only one eye is most certainly a reference to the one-eyed Norse god, Oðin, king
of the gods of Valhalla. In one version of the contest of strength, which results in the
bottlenose whale's regular appearance in the Faroes, the troll loses an eye in his fight with the
man, and this is likely the remnant of an earlier tale featuring the one-eyed giant, Oðin, the
døgling of all døglings.
Bottlenose catches - past and present
In former times, whale oil was a valuable export commodity. Bottlenose whales, as well as a
number of other species, were caught offshore around the North Atlantic in commercial
operations, mostly by Norwegian whalers, who also sold bottlenose meat to the UK as pet
food until the market closed in the early 1970s. From 1903 to 1935, Faroese boats shot a total
of 61 bottlenose whales offshore, while Norwegian catches in the same period numbered
several thousand. An important whaling area was to the northeast of the Faroes, and this is
still an area of high abundance, where Faroese fishermen regularly spot bottlenose whales.
There has been no commercial catch of bottlenose whales in the North Atlantic since 1972.
The nature of the inshore bottlenose catch in the Faroes is rather different from the more renowned Faroese pilot whale drive. The historical catch records make no distinction between stranded whales and whales which have been actively taken. But it is a well-known fact, which is also reflected in the local literature, that it is almost impossible to drive the bottlenose whale. Bottlenose whales are easily scared and complete silence must be observed when they are approached. At times, however, it has been possible to ensure that bottlenose whales have stranded by carefully urging them ashore or securing them from boats, in which case the term "assisted stranding" has been suitably applied. Bottlenose whales can only be "assisted" in this manner once they are already very close to the shore, since they cannot be driven from longer distances, as can schools of pilot whales. Over the last 10-15 years, natural - unassisted - strandings have been the norm.
Stranded whales not wasted
According to Faroese law, stranded whales are the property of the Government. Local, long-
standing tradition in the Faroes virtually requires that all possible sources of food are used,
whether caught or found, and this includes stranded animals. In some places whales strand in
larger numbers than others. The two Faroese "bottlenose whale" villages are such places.
Although today the active hunting of whales is prohibited in most industrialised countries,
whales still frequently beach themselves or they are taken as incidental by-catches in
fisheries, or become the victims of other human activities. In most cases these dead animals
are buried, incinerated or dumped at sea, regardless of whether their meat is fit for human
consumption. Such wastage is quite alien to Faroese thinking.
Management status today
Faroese whaling legislation was fully revised in 1984, and in 1986 the Faroese Government
decided to protect the northern bottlenose due to its classi-fication as protected stock under
the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The IWC classification was agreed in 1977,
following discussions in the IWC Scientific Committee's subcommittee on small cetaceans,
and some years after the Norwegian commercial catch had ceased. The only remaining use of
the species in the North Atlantic then, as now, was the incidental, non-commercial use of two
or three stranded animals in the Faroes. The protected stock classi-fication was adopted on a
provisional basis, in the absence of a reliable estimate for the stock and "pending the
accumulation of sufficient information for classification" (IWC/31-1979 - Chairman's Report),
and is still in force today.
The recent stock estimate carried out through NAMMCO has highlighted the fact that the IWC's continued protected stock classification for North Atlantic bottlenose whales has no sound scientific basis. As well, the question of the competence of the IWC to manage small cetacean species such as the bottlenose whale has been vigorously discussed in recent years, with the point of departure in management proposals for the larger cousin of the northern bottlenose whale in the North Pacific, Bairds beaked whale, without the IWC having reached any agreement. These discussions have clarified the position of many governments, including the Faroes ( and Denmark), that the management of small cetaceans such as bottlenose and pilot whales, is outside the competence of the IWC, which was set up in 1946 to regulate the "whaling industry".
Against this background, the present protected status of bottlenose whales in the Faroes, which effectively also criminalises any active catch effort in connection with incidental strandings, has been the subject of recent discussion. There is now political agreement in both the Faroese Government and the Faroese Parliament to legalise the possibility for assisting strandings of bottlenose whales in the traditional manner, as well to allow a modest commercial off-shore catch of bottlenose whales, within strictly defined sustainable limits. This matter has been raised with the Danish Government, which is responsible for representing Faroese interests in the IWC, in order to find a solution to the present situation, with the most obvious option being to remove this small cetacean species from the schedule of IWC. The question remains under discussion between Faroese and Danish authorities.
In the view of the Faroese Government, the conservation and management of bottlenose whales in the North Atlantic can be appropriately carried out through NAMMCO, the regional organisation for international cooperation on the sustainable, science-based management of marine mammals in the North Atlantic.
....It is very remarkable that this Døgling Whale cometh usually no where in Feroe, but in Suderoe, and that specially in Qualboes Inlet, every year about Michaelmas. Here is related a strange story about it, which can be accounted but for a Fable; They say, it happened once during the darkness of Paganism, when Feroe was first inhabitied by men, that a Gyant under took to possess himself of the Island of Myggeness, a Sorcerer dwelling on the land would hinder him, wherefore the man did often fight withthe Sorcerer, and at last vanquished him; wherefore the Sorcerer made an agreement with him, that if he would not destroy him, but let him have his habitation in the Island, he would yearly procure him a sort of Whales and Fowl in the Land, which were not gotten in other places of Feroe; and that for him and his Successors as long as the world should last; though with this condition, that if any one mocked or derided his Whale, it should never come any more: which condition the man accepted, and since that time there came yearly a particular sort of Whale under the Land; as the Inhabiatants relate and have by relation of their Predecessors, the said Whale had but one eye; finally it happened that an indiscreet man, being weary of the labour he had every year by reason of that Whale, did condemen it, for haing but one eye, wherefore it never came there since; the Inhabitants believing it removed thence to Qualboe in Suderoe, they alone, and almost every year having them, though they have two eyes as other great Fishes. The Fowl wherewith the Sorcerer did present Myggeness, is the Sule [gannet] described above: which is neither found any where in this Country except there; this is sold for the price it cost. Though many things happened in those dark times amongst the Children of infidelity, both there and other places, that seem now in this our light, to be very disconsonant and incredible, as yet dayly many things are perpetrated by Witches, which the children of light cannot apprehend, much less imitate them therein.