Faroe Islands - dolphin slaughter

Half of Faroese GDP comes from salmon- check your supermarket does not sell this. Or give up fish altogether - super trawlers and atrocious fish farms mean we can’t take the moral high ground here. Watch Seaspiracy on Netflix.

For those who continue to eat fish including all tinned products , we must make absolutely sure that there are no companies from the Faroe Islands etc that are being sold in the supermarkets.

We can hit them where it most hurts.

Anyone know any companies? I’ll do a bit of research.

Few could argue that the Grindardráp isn't barbaric but this article by Philip Hoare points out the hypocrisy in our outrage:

We humans set arbitrary limits in our daily hypocrisies and projects. Necessarily. Wild birds shot over Mediterranean shores or abandoned dogs provoke sadness. But every minute of the day we slaughter countless animals for food. We consume animals as units without a thought. What difference is there if a thousand or more dolphins should die?

Is it because of our relentless anthropomorphism? That we project our physical, or idealised selves on to animals? When do wild animals become our pets? Dolphins appear as our alternative selves: perfected, Edenic versions, antediluvian humanoids. Innocents, who left the land before we spoilt it, besporting themselves carelessly in the sea, unburdened by our wants.

What do we want them to be? Performers in dolphinariums, prisoners of our entertainment, paid in fish to act out a part? Millions of tourists each year spend money for this pleasure – the pain of thousands of such animals kept in confinement around the world, from China to Europe and the US – is ignored. Animals who possess culture – as we now know cetaceans do – become assimilated into our culture. It is their fate, and ours, even as we realise that we need to refer to them as a “who”, not a what; as individuals, not a collective mass of otherness.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/15/horror-at-the-faroes-dolphin-slaughter-is-only-human-but-it-risks-hypocrisy

Blimey! They appear to be totally dependent on their fishing industry.

The world needs to flex its muscles and threaten sanctions.

At the very least we can vote with our purses.

They will very quickly get the message I would think.

And at the same time boycott Danish products.

The Faroe Islands are responsible for this area Whatdayisit
It's a "devolved" area and has been so for years, as Caleo says upthread.

Horrible, reminds me of the old whalers. Mind you, they slaughter deer, foxes and rabbits here so maybe we are not much better?

When Denmark in 1973 joined the European Economic Community, now the European Union, the Faroes had the option to remain outside. Like other fisheries dependent communities, the Faroese have not found it their interest to become subject to the Common Fisheries Policy. As a result, the Faroes is regarded as a third country in the context of the EU. The formal relationship between the parties is regulated by two bilateral agreements the Free Trade Agreement and the Bilateral Fisheries Agreement.

In 2019, The Faroe Islands and the United Kingdom signed a free trade agreement (FTA) to ensure that trade between the countries continues after Britain’s departure from the European Union.

www.government.fo/en/foreign-relations/missions-of-the-faroe-islands-abroad/the-mission-of-the-faroes-to-the-european-union/the-faroe-islands-and-the-european-union/

www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/faroe-islands-and-uk-ink-free-trade-agreement

I campaigned against this for years. It is shocking no-one seems able to stop them doing it.

NotSpaghetti

The Faroe Islands are responsible for this area Whatdayisit
It's a "devolved" area and has been so for years, as Caleo says upthread.

Yes but the Danes have similar barbaric traditions that they practice.

They are just as bad here. They cull brumbies, they cull kangaroos, deer ,anything that moves. Horrible sadistic people.

The article by Philip Hoare you quoted echoes my feelings too Silverbridge @ 9.37
I often wonder about taking fish oil capsules as well.
I no longer have any fish in my diet since I read about, and saw the Netflix film about the wholesale destruction of the oceans.

It's a complex issue Namsnanny. We are all complicit in cruelty to animals.

Whale and dolphin meat is a substantial part of the diet in some Arctic and Far Eastern cultures and those meats often contain dangerous levels of mercury. Where is the mercury coming from? It's emitted into the atmosphere by coal-burning power plants and other industrial facilities. That mercury is carried into the oceans, where it is absorbed by marine organisms and, over time, is passed up the food chain to dolphins and whales.

We live in a global economy and demand cheaply made goods from the very factories and processes which emit these toxins. We may not eat the meat or be directly involved in the slaughter but we are nonetheless contributing to poisoning animals with our insatiable need for consumer goods and services.

Extract from the linked article below:

Humans aren't the only sentient mammals affected by mercury; it harms the dolphins too.

Mercury and other toxins "have been linked to increased rates of cancer, increased first calf mortality, immune suppression, and a higher susceptibility to infectious diseases, [and] are postulated to be a primary factor causing population declines," according to Toxic Catch, a 2013 comprehensive study on Taiji dolphin meat conducted by the London-based Environmental Investigative Agency.

"It's a terrible, terrible thing for dolphins," said Luca Giovagnoli, the resident marine mammal veterinarian at the Dolphin Project. "It particularly impairs their neurological function, just as it does for humans."

www.takepart.com/article/2015/02/11/revealing-cove-dolphins-toxic-secrets/

vegansrock

Disgusting. These dolphins were rounded up by jet skis into a shallow fjord and killed with knives. Tradition is surely another word for habit, and just because something is labelled tradition, doesn’t excuse cruelty and endangering species.

How can this be excused as 'cultural tradition' if they are using jet skis?

I seem to remember Liz Truss heralding a trade deal with the Faroe Islands, so possibly tinned or frozen fish from there could be in our supermarkets . Please check .

Each year, the UK fishing fleet catches around £2.34m worth of fish from Faroese waters. Species including cod, haddock, and pollock are landed in ports such as Lerwick, Peterhead and Ullapool.

www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-signs-fisheries-agreement-with-the-faroe-islands

No-one has responded to my last post. The point I am making is that is very easy to feel indignant over the wholesale slaughter of animals particularly ones which we have come to anthropomorphize such as the dolphin but where is the compassion for the everyday cruelty: the millions of cows, pigs, sheep, poultry and fish which are killed every single day to satisfy the western diet. I see little difference in using a jet ski to round up marine mammals and a farmer using a quad bike to round up land animals to take then to the abbatoir.

On top of that is the way we are poisoning the environment with industrial processes to produce the goods we all crave. It’s too easy to show outrage at the “cruel” practices of other cultures while turning a blind eye to our own.

I don’t have any answers other than that we all take a good hard look at our own environmental footprint, consider what and how much we are consuming and how those products are sourced.

There’s an interesting long read in today’s Guardian about untangling the global supply chain, how supposedly ethically sourced goods are not what they claim to be. The article focuses particularly on the cotton and meat industries. How do we know, for example, that that “ethical” cotton T-shirt hasn’t come from Xinjiang, China where factories use captive labour.

www.theguardian.com/news/2021/sep/16/food-fraud-counterfeit-cotton-detectives-untangling-global-supply-chain

silverbridge I agree with you when you dig deep we can’t take the moral high ground, but baby steps - if enough people are outraged by this needless destruction and question what is in the supermarket then they might consider our own “traditions ” or habits which we don’t question.

I do understand what you are saying vegansrock. I always baulk when there is a sudden outpouring of protest against a topical news story such as this without looking at the bigger picture of animal cruelty. It often feels like a lot of knee-jerk reactions and then it's forgotten.

I'm thinking about the outrage over the palm oil industry a few years ago when the plight of orangutans was in the news. Lots of people here saying they were going to boycott all products which contained palm oil but I wonder how many people are still doing so or look to see if their pizzas, chocolate, packaged bread, cosmetics, shampoos and detergents are made from sustainable sources or preferably no palm oil at all.

It's hard, I know, to be constantly vigilant and, again, the supply chain problems complications and contaminations which are discussed in the Guardian article means that one can never be entirely sure that a product is ethically sourced.

Silverbridge I did answer your post. It was just that there wasnt much more I could add except to agree.

I did see that Namsnanny and thank you. I meant the one after that about how we are all culpable in the destruction of the natural world with regard to pollution and land encroachment to meet our demands for goods and services.

Yes, true, it does seem hypocritical of us not to accept culpability doesnt it?
Having said that the breadth of the problem is so huge, its hard to contemplate how to grasp a comprehensive answer, sometimes.
For example, if we dont eat fish (as I no longer do), we must recognise that we are adding to the demise of our fisherman's livelihood, and that of countries less rich than ours.
How does one square the circle of trying to do the right thing for the future of the oceans, whilst aiding the financial suffering of people who are alive now?