Butterfill’s letter comes in response to the fact that for the past few years, the EIA has been represented in the British delegation to the International Whaling Commission. The delegation has submitted to the Commission material on the pilot whale harvest produced by the EIA: “In no respect does this paper fulfil the requirements normally accepted for technical and scientific papers, despite its pseudo-scientific presentation,” says a written comment from Denmark on the EIA paper presented to the Whaling Commission last year. The Danish comment continues: “References include not only their own campaign material, but also unpublished work, letters and general magazine and textbook material,” and the paper “relies on personal opinion, hearsay and speculations,”.
“The content (of the EIA paper) was largely based on film,” writes Michael Jack from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to Butterfill. He claims that the British Government’s commitment to the pilot whale issue “is simply reflecting the overwhelming concern of the British public.” In his reply to Jack, Butterfill writes, “Of course I understand the concerns among the British public since the EIA film was screened on British television showing highly emotive scenes and giving the British public an entirely misleading opinion on what happens in the Faroes. The film, for example, alleges that the whales killed have no real value, indeed that a large proportion of the catch is not consumed by the Faroese and that the whale cull is carried out largely as an enjoyable sporting occasion and that extreme cruelty is encouraged. None of this is true. I feel strongly that the British Government has a responsibility to ensure that its sources of information are reliable...”