But behind the dramatic spectacle of the pilot whale hunt is a method - a killing method that has developed over centuries, and which continues to develop, under the close scrutiny of experts whose task it is to oversee the simple technology yet considerable skill and organisation required to kill a whole group of whales as quickly as possible.
A leading figure in the continued monitoring of killing methods in the Faroese pilot whale hunt is Jústines Olsen, senior veterinarian at the Faroese Veterinary Service in the capital, Tórshavn. For many years, Olsen has been actively involved in assessing the effectiveness of killing methods in Faroese pilot whaling, and has presented information on the latest developments to the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) workshops on whale killing methods. Olsen is also a member of the Working Group on Hunting Methods under the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMCO).
Grindaboð asked Jústines Olsen, firstly, to describe how pilot whales are killed.
Olsen: Pilot whales are killed with special whaling knives by severing the blood supply to the
brain. Unlike in land mammals, the blood supply to the brain in pilot whales is through major
arteries which enter the cranial cavity through the foramen magnum together with and
encircling the spinal cord. A dorsal cut is made in the neck about a hand's breadth behind the
blowhole, deep enough to sever the spinal cord and the surrounding vessels leading to the
brain, at which point the animal is paralysed and loses consciousness within 5-10 seconds.
Grindaboð: Is this the only way the whales can be killed?
Olsen: Small whales such as pilot whales are killed in a variety of ways in other parts of the world today. We have also considered alternative methods, in particular shooting. But in a pilot whale hunt there are many people working together quickly in uncontrolled conditions. For practical and, not least, safety reasons, the use of firearms is not an option. Given the circumstances of the pilot whale hunt in the Faroes, the centuries-old traditional method of severing the spinal cord, which also disrupts the major blood supply to the brain, is the quickest, safest and most efficient way to get the job done. A workshop on stranded whales in 1983 concluded that of a variety of possible methods for euthanising stranded whales, including firearms, explosives and chemicals, the most effective method was to force a sudden drop in pressure of blood to the brain, but that "the biggest drawback is the disturbing effect it has on people watching".
Grindaboð: But the conditions in which the whales are killed are not controlled, as they are in slaughterhouses for livestock. How efficient and humane is this killing method in practice?
Olsen: The efficiency of the kill is largely dependent on the overall organisation of the drive, from the time a school is first sighted and the whales are driven toward the shore, as well as the experience and skill of those on shore who carry out the work of killing the whales when they have been beached. Ideally, all the whales in the school are beached and can be easily reached for killing. But this is not always the case. When whales are not fully grounded, men have to wade out in the water, but rarely deeper than to the waist, to hook the whales with a heavy iron gaff attached to a rope by which they are hauled up to be killed.
Over the past two years we have attempted to monitor performance in the hunt in a systematic way by timing the specific phases of the kill in order to assess where improvements in the time-to-death for individual animals can be made. Times have been taken from 181 whales in 3 whale hunts by observers working in pairs, with one person taking the time and one monitoring the general performance of the kill and marking the whales for later registration of size.
Our main concern is to keep the overall time-to-death to a minimum given the conditions in which the work is carried out. This time is measured from the moment an animal is first wounded by the gaff or knife, to the loss of consciousness. It is obvious that there is a significant difference in the time it takes, depending on whether or not the whale needs to be secured with a gaff before killing. It is particularly this aspect of the kill where the greatest improvements are possible.
Grindaboð - What kind of improvements?
Olsen: A new gaff or hook has been developed and tested to some extent in practice. The hook has a blunt, rounded tip and is designed for insertion in either of the vestibular air sacs lateral to the blowhole. It can be inserted into the air sac without wounding the whale, and the whale can then be easily guided in the desired direction. The advantage with the new hook is that those whales which must first be secured and hauled aground are not wounded prior to the actual killing. We need to continue to assess the effectiveness of this new hook in practice, so it is too early yet to say when it will replace the traditional iron hook in general use.
The 21 authorised whaling bays are also constantly under review in order to identify any necessary improvements or changes. New harbour construction or increased salmon farming activities may affect the suitability of locations for driving and beaching pilot whales.
The most important thing is to keep the whole activity under review, through monitoring and discussion. Our assessments of the time and performance during both the drive and the killing stages of the hunt are aimed at monitoring the overall situation, as well as providing some objective criteria by which to assess the hunt in relation to Faroese animal welfare regulations and whatever international criteria may be developed in the future.
Grindaboð: Are participants in the pilot whale hunt especially trained to kill whales?
Olsen: There is no formal training programme for pilot whaling in the Faroes. The driving and killing of pilot whales, although technically simple, requires the kind of traditional knowledge and skill that is passed from one generation to the next and that can best be learnt by example and experience. Formal, organised teaching and demonstrations of killing methods are difficult, since a pilot whale hunt is always unexpected and is quickly finished. But it is the custom for younger participants to be accompanied by older, more experienced men who supervise and assist them. These days pilot whaling is also discussed in schools, and older school pupils are shown how to butcher whale carcasses after a hunt, under the supervision of teachers and experienced whalers. In this way they learn about the whale's anatomy and about the correct methods used to kill whales. We have also complied quite a lot of photo and video material from pilot whale hunts in recent years which is used in schools and at regular public meetings held to discuss the organisation and methodology of pilot whaling.
Grindaboð - In animal welfare terms, how does pilot whaling compare with killing methods in other forms of animal use?
Olsen:There is very little common ground for comparing the slaughter of domestic livestock with the hunting of wildlife. echnical slaughtering systems are constructed for domestic animals, and large investments are made in scientific research aimed at making the slaughter as humane as possible. The aim is of course that animals should die "instantaneously", but even with the most advanced equipment, this ideal is often compromised in practice by other factors. Domestic animals are totally dependent on the conditions imposed upon them by the farmer, from the moment they are born until they are slaughtered. Demands for livestock productivity and economic returns can easily compromise general standards of animal welfare, often resulting in increased suffering and stress due to cramped living conditions, genetic programming for higher yields, and long-range transport to slaughter.
In the case of hunting, such as pilot whaling in the Faroes, the relationship between humans and animals only exists from the time the animal is observed until it is killed. The only real point of comparison is in the purpose of killing the animal, i.e. to provide food. In pilot whaling it is not possible to kill whales instantaneously, both for technical and safety reasons. Although instantaneous death is always the ideal, it is necessarily conditioned by the circumstances in which the animals are killed. This qualifying factor was recognised in the working definition for humane killing developed by the IWC's international workshop on whale killing methods in 1980 - the only definition on which there is international agreement - "Any humane killing technique aims first to render an animal insensitive to pain as swiftly as is technically possible, which in practice cannot be instantaneous in the scientific sense".
It is also difficult to compare the pilot whale hunt, in which a whole school of whales is killed at once, with other forms of hunting in which a single hunter takes aim from a distance and shoots his prey. With the simple technology of the knife used to kill pilot whales, men come into close physical contact with the animals, and no wounded animals escape or are left to die slowly.
The average times-to-death in the pilot whale hunt are as good as or better than all other forms of hunting for which there is comparative data. Since we began registering data, the maximum time-to-death using the gaff was 5.5 minutes, and 2 minutes using the new blunt hook. One of the drawbacks in comparing our methods with others is that there is very little in the way of comparative data, except from other forms of whaling, such as Norwegian minke whaling, even though most countries today have some form of wildlife hunting. If we had similar data from, for example, kangaroo hunting in Australia, or deer hunting in the UK, then we would have a far better basis for a comparative discussion of international standards.
Grindaboð - Do you think it is possible to develop international standards for humane killing of wildlife?
Olsen - Yes, as long as the purpose of defining international standards is clear and agreed from the outset. If we are going to develop common standards for the humane killing of certain kinds of wildlife, the point of departure must be that it is acceptable that these animals are hunted at all. This is at present the basis for co-operation on hunting methods through NAMMCO. You cannot expect constructive results if a majority of parties to such discussions are ideologically opposed to hunting in the first place.
The question of animal welfare standards should be a genuine concern for anyone who eats meat or benefits from animals and their products in other ways. It would be very difficult - and expensive - to eat well on a strictly vegetarian diet in the Faroes, and pilot whales are a major source of protein for us in the Faroes. Faroese animal welfare legislation requires that the killing of all animals, including pilot whales, be carried out as quickly and painlessly as possible. My work in monitoring the killing of pilot whaling is aimed at ensuring that this is, and continues to be, the case in practice.