"Watching a grindadrap in the Faroes is rather like seeing the Great wall in China or the changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, through the spectacle is a bit more bloody"
(Lawrence Millman: Last Places - A Journey in the North, 1990)
"If they want to kill whales in the traditional way, that's
fine with us, if nothing else about their way of life, significantly anyway,
has changed."
Sean Whyte, Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, 1991 (7)
"They say that they need it as part of their tra-dition, but
they've got modern houses, modern cars. It's not necessary. "
Gillian Stacey, Pilot Whale Campaign, 1994 (8)
"I believe that if we read the small print in our new Green
Bible we may discover that the sustainable - and, one hopes, humane - use
of a natural resource which swims to your home waters is the very essence
of greenness. "
Brian Leith, British environmental film maker, 1991 (9)
Ólavur Sjúrðaberg lives in Leirvík,
a vil-lage of 800 people in the Faroe Islands, where he teaches at the
local primary school. But he is also a sheep farmer, a fisherman and a
whaler. In the slatted shed next to his house, lamb, fish and whale meat
hang drying in the wind. He gets his potatoes from his own patch. He has
a modern house and a modern car. At least once a fortnight he and his family
eat pilot whale meat for dinner. They also eat the blubber together with
dried fish.
Life in the Faroes combines modern with traditional, and that's how the islanders like it. Many people with daily jobs as carpenters, bank clerks, bus drivers or public servants also keep a few sheep, grow their own potatoes, go fishing and fowling, collect seabird eggs, and take part in whale drives, all for their own household use. Locally produced lamb, fish and whale meat are preferred after drying them in the wind, a traditional method of preserving foods.
Ólavur owns 10 sheep together with his mother-in-law. There are no slaughter-houses for sheep in the Faroes, and so he must slaughter and butcher them himself. «Slaughtering is the worst job I know,» -he says, «but there's no alternative.» -Producing your own food obviously makes a big difference to the household budget, «but it also gives you great satis-faction. Raising or catching what you eat yourself keeps you in touch with nature and keeps life interesting and varied. It also means a lot for community spirit in a small place like Leirvík. We talk about the sheep, we talk about fishing, we talk about pilot whaling. We have it all in common.»
But the Faroes are not self-sufficient in
meat. Lamb is imported from New Zealand and Iceland, and pork and beef
from Denmark. In the poor Faroese soil, it is a feat to get anything more
than potatoes and rhubarb to grow well, and there are no natural forests.
And the climate is harsh; seldom a day goes by when the forecast is not
«wet and windy». Truly, the wealth of the Faroe Islands is
in the sea.
(Click the image to enlarge)
Just before Christmas Ólavur set some long-lines from his boat and pulled in 750 kg of fish. «I can't remember ever having had such a good catch before. I don't need to go out again for a long while.» And what his own family can't use, goes to his neighbours.
The Faroes are divided into seven wha-ling districts, and in his own district Ólavur is a whaling foreman. He is responsible for organising whale drives, and making sure the word spreads when whales are sighted so there are enough boats to drive the whales, and willing hands on shore to help out.
The Faroese have been catching pilot whales since the 10th century, or as long as the islands have been permanently settled. The almost continuous records of catches and strandings dating back to 1584, provide the longest and most com-plete statistical record available for any use of wildlife. Since 1990, the annual catch of pilot whales has averaged about 1,000. With recent estimates putting the North Atlantic population at 778,000, there can be no doubt that the pilot whale harvest is sustainable. Smaller numbers of other abundant species, such as Atlantic white-sided dolphins, are also occasionally taken for meat
The drive fishery for pilot whales has been regulated by law in the Faroes since the early 19th century, but these regulati-ons have been updated several times in recent decades, especially with regard to animal welfare aspects of the kill. This has led to improvements in the organisa-tion and conduct of the drive as well as the introduction of a system for authori-sing only the best-suited bays for wha-ling. But the basic character of the hunt has changed little.
To begin with, a whale drive in the Faroes is always unexpected. No one can predict when a school of pilot whales will appear close enough to land, in the right weather and sea conditions, for them to be herded ashore. This is why in some years meat and blubber will be in short supply, while in others districts may be closed for fur-ther whaling because supplies are already ample.
Secondly, pilot whaling involves virtually all members of the community - employ-ers usually give staff time off to take part - and everyone gets a free share of the catch. The catch is divided in accordan-ce with a complex, traditional sharing system unique to each whaling district. The recipients cut their allotted shares of meat and blubber from the carcasses themselves.
Thirdly, the hunt is bloody, turning the sea bright red. Boats drive the whales ashore, where they are killed with a deep incision behind the blowhole, severing the spinal cord and stopping the blood supply to the brain. Any whale which does not beach high enough on the shore is hauled into the shallows with a hook fastened into its blubber.
The preliminary results of recent veteri-nary monitoring of the killing techniques used indicate that on average a whale is unconscious within seconds of the cut being made, and dead in well under a minute. This makes killing in the pilot whale hunt as efficient as in any other form of hunting in Europe today.
Ólavur was about 17 years old when he killed his first pilot whale. Young men are taught by their elders, usually their fathers or other relatives. «I'm sure that no one who kills his own animals for food is unmoved by what he does. You want it done as quickly and with as little suffering as possible for the animal.» Given the circumstances under which pilot whaling is conducted, the knife is by far the most effective instrument for the job, while firearms are out of the question.
«I can well understand the strong reacti-ons people have to pictures
of pilot wha-ling in the Faroes,» says, Ólavur. «But
all meat was once a living creature that someone had to kill so it could
end up on your plate. People seem to want to forget this fact of life.»
Notes:
7.Sean Whyte, Chief Executive, Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, TV Interview, quoted in Kate Sanderson, Grind - Ambiguity and Pressure to Conform: Faroese Whaling and the Anti-Whaling Protest, in Elephants and Whales: Resources for Whom? eds. Freeman and Kreuter (Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, 1994).
8. Quote from the television program Animal Detectives, Pilot Whales, Carlton TV, UK, 1995.
9. Brian Leith, Hung Verdict, The Daily Telegraph (Aug. 3, 1991).