Table Of Content
- Where are the whales? Scientists find clues thousands of miles away
- Ship passengers traumatized as 78 dolphins killed in whaling tradition
- More from NPR
- Ambassador Cruise Line apologized for exposing customers to a traditional whale hunt in blood-soaked waters
- Cruise line apologizes for 'distress' after passengers witness brutal whale hunt slaughter
Restaurants and cafes can be found nestled alongside the national theater, the national library and several delightful museums.” But the cruise line obviously doesn’t mention that the quaint “red-haired, freckle-faced Faroese people” murder hundreds of whales a year. Sustainability is one of Ambassador Cruise Line’s core values, and we fully appreciate that witnessing this local event would have been distressing for the majority of guests onboard. Accordingly, we would like to sincerely apologise to them for any undue upset. The group said some of the pilot whales, including a calf, took more than 30 seconds to die.
Where are the whales? Scientists find clues thousands of miles away
"We strongly object to this outdated practice and have been working with our partner, ORCA, the marine conservation charity dedicated to studying and protecting whales, dolphins and porpoises in UK and European waters, to encourage change since 2021," a spokesperson for the cruise line said. ''Sustainability is one of Ambassador Cruise Line's core values, and we fully appreciate that witnessing this local event would have been distressing for the majority of guests onboard. Accordingly, we would like to sincerely apologise to them for any undue upset,'' they wrote in another tweet. As the Faroese tradition of grindadráp took place Sunday, passengers aboard a docked Ambassador Cruise Line ship were horrified to watch how locals have harvested their food for centuries. These sentient, highly intelligent social beings which travel in pods with around 20 other family members. The people in the Faroe Islands gut the whales and rip their babies out after terrorizing the pods.
Cruise line apologizes after dozens of whales slaughtered in front of passengers - ABC News
Cruise line apologizes after dozens of whales slaughtered in front of passengers.
Posted: Fri, 14 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Ship passengers traumatized as 78 dolphins killed in whaling tradition
"The law explicitly states that the hunt is to be conducted in such a way as to cause as little suffering to the whales as possible." A 2021 review of the hunt found that residents had killed 1,423 dolphins in just one hunt, and the Faroese government responded by placing a limit of 500 on that specific breed while not capping the overall number killed. A whale hunt near the Faroe Islands left passengers on a luxury cruise in distress as they watched dozens of the creatures die. According to Visit Faroe Islands, about 800 whales are killed annually and meat is distributed among those who participate.
More from NPR
Passengers aboard the cruise ship Ambition, owned by the U.K.-based Ambassador Cruise Line, had just arrived Sunday in the port of Tórshavn in the Danish territory when they caught the spectacle, part of a long-standing and highly scrutinized local tradition. Long-finned pilot whales are one of the largest members of the dolphin family, second in size to the killer whale. The highly intelligent animals measure 19 to 25 feet long and can weigh up to 5,000 pounds, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Though the carnage caught the cruise line by surprise when it pulled into Torshavn, the company had been aware of the annual event.
More from CBS News
Marine conservationists were among the horrified cruise ship passengers who witnessed the slaughtering of 78 whales last week. Officials said each catch is "distributed for free in the local community" but "in some supermarkets and on the dockside, whale meat and blubber is occasionally available for sale." “We were incredibly disappointed that this hunt occurred at the time that our ship was in port. In an account shared by ORCA and confirmed by Ambassador, the conservationists said over 40 small boats and jet skis herded the whales to a beach where 150 people worked to haul the animals ashore with hooks and slaughter them with lances.
Cruise ship passengers witness startling slaughter of 78 pilot whales in Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands has a high standard of living today and the distribution of whale meat is completely unnecessary. It is a stretch to claim the residents of the Faroes are desperate for a source of food in their completely modern society today. Indeed, the sincerity of Ambassador’s newly found regret is belied by the fact that the company’s itinerary reveals that it will return its cruise ships to the Faroe several times within the next year. Islanders say the practice has been deemed sustainable due to the whale population in the area.
A cruise line is apologizing to passengers who witnessed the killing of dozens of pilot whales near their docked ship this week in the Faroe Islands. As the Ambassador cruise ship arrived in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, on Sunday, July 9, they were met with the culmination of a hunt of 78 pilot whales in the port. Conservationists from ORCA were on board the shp as it arrived in the Faroe Islands. According to the organization, small boats and jet skies were used to herd the pilot whales into shallow waters. Passengers aboard a luxury cruise ship watched in horror Sunday as their vessel docked at a small island where locals yielding knives and metal rods were killing wild dolphins as part of a centuries-old mass hunting tradition.
But Ambassador’s expressions of “disappointment” seem to be limited to the fact that the horrific slaughter occurred while the ship was in port in Torshavn. In other words, Ambassador was upset that the customers saw the gruesome truth of the local port’s so-called traditions. It doesn’t appear that Ambassador was concerned enough with the fact that terrorizing and killing these sensitive mammals is, in itself, inherently evil as to lose any profits by not cruising to Torshavn. This is exactly what hundreds of clueless Ambassador cruise passengers witnessed earlier this week where numerous media outlets reported that seventy-eight pilot whale were butchered. "We are utterly opposed to the commercial hunting of whales and dolphins in the Faroes, or anywhere else come to that," Ambassador said.
Cruise line apologizes for 'distress' after passengers witness brutal whale hunt slaughter
Whatever is caught during the hunt is distributed to island residents for free.
In 2023 alone, the Faroe Islands has registered 646 whale killings to date, including the 78 on Sunday when the Ambition arrived. Multiple hunts can occur throughout the year, and each is carried out by people with a required license and supervised by elected officials. Local legislation stipulates the killing must be carried out as "quickly and efficiently as possible." A cruise line company has issued an apology to customers after their journey coincided with a whale hunt. An official at the time told the BBC that the incredible number was a "big mistake" that did not line up with the initial estimate of "only 200 dolphins" in the pod.
According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, they measure 19 to 25 feet long and can weigh up to 5,000 pounds. Grindadráp, or grind for short, occurs each summer and involves the mass killing of sea mammals like the long-finned pilot whale — which is a dolphin, despite its name. I was shocked with what I quickly learned of the so-called “tradition” of slaughtering pilot whales in the Faroes.
There is no such quota for the pilot whales, according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation. Over the past 20 years, the group said more than 20,000 marine mammals have perished in these hunts. A British cruise line has apologized to passengers who witnessed the slaughter of nearly 80 pilot whales in the Faroe Islands on Sunday. Ambassador Cruise Line guests arrived to the port in the capital of Torshavn, where a traditional hunt had turned the sea red.
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