A cruise line has apologized to its passengers after one of its ships arrived in the Faroe Islands in the middle of a whale hunt. The passengers witnessed a bloody scene in which 78 pilot whales were killed.
On Sunday, July 9, Ambassador Cruise Lines ship Ambition docked in Torshavn in the Faroe Islands, a self-governing, semi-autonomous region of Denmark, located in the North Atlantic. This coincided with the culmination of a traditional Faroese whale hunt, called a Grindadráp.
During the hunt, boats herded a pod of pilot whales to a designated beach, where whalers ran down into the water to capture and kill the animals, according to a Facebook post by the Captain Paul Watson Foundation UK. The pilot whale carcasses were then hauled to the harbor to be butchered, and the meat was distributed amongst gathered locals. A large crowd of onlookers was there to both observe the hunt and to receive the resulting meat.
According to Visit Faroe Islands, “The Faroese have eaten pilot whale meat and blubber since they first settled the islands over a millenia ago. Today, as in times past, the whale drive is a community activity open to all, while also well organized on a community level and regulated by national laws.” The site goes on to claim that the practice has been deemed sustainable, and that, “Hunting and killing methods have been improved to ensure as little harm to the whales as possible. All hunters must now obtain a hunting license in order to kill a whale.”
However, Ambassador cruise lines swiftly released a statement condemning the practice. “We were incredibly disappointed that this hunt occurred at the time that our ship was in port,” Tweeted the cruise line. “We strongly object to this outdated practice, and have been working with our partner, ORCA, a charity dedicated to studying and protecting whales, dolphins and porpoises in UK and European waters, to encourage change since 2021.”
Christian Verhounig, Ambassador CEO, added, “We are dedicated to supporting ORCA in their endeavors to collect data and to monitor whales and dolphins and we are extremely disappointed that this has happened after weeks of trying to open constructive dialogue with the Faroese government and Visit Faroes on these issues. We continue to educate our guests and crew not to buy or eat any whale or dolphin meat and stand against any profiteering from commercial whaling and dolphin hunts.”
