After visiting the Faroe Islands last month I was targeted on social media by people who condemned me for going to a country that continues to kill whales. They were angry, and they were angry with me and everyone else on the island because somehow being there as a visitor showed an allegiance with the ‘enemy’.
Though I disagree with this kind of guilty-by-association reaction, I tried to understand their point of view. Being a reasonable person who always attempts to look at both sides of the story from a completely objective point of view, I had to ask myself – was it wrong of me to go to the Faroes? And was I a deserving recipient of hate-speech?
This is my response
Most of the negative comments I received were on Twitter, a platform that gives people 140 characters to express themselves, and whilst Ernest Hemingway might have been able to do it, I’m not Hemingway. I tried to craft a thoughtful response to engage in some kind of reflective dialogue but it turned out to be absolutely futile.
These people cannot be reasoned with because they have no intention of seeing different perspectives or even trying to understand the bigger picture. A large proportion seemingly enjoy attacking different ways of life if they don’t conform to their own view of the world, and there’s little chance of turning the mirror on themselves before spewing out the vitriol.
The majority of comments protesting against the Faroes can be seen resorting simply to name-calling. I don’t think I’ve read one comment that says, ‘How can we change this?’ or ‘How can we find a solution that also benefits Faroese people?’ Instead I’ve read words like ‘incest’, ‘murderers’ and ‘boycott’ time and time again. In practice, I don’t think boycotting a country is the solution for sustainable change, and using hateful language will never inspire cooperation, it will only build more fences.
Reactions like this are fuelled by propaganda, and whilst it’s true that whales are killed in a term known as Grindadrap, much of what I’ve read has been falsified or exaggerated. Many comments describe Faroese children being forced to watch or detail the pleasure gained from killing like they are some kind of bloodthirsty monsters rampaging through the island with knives. But because the images that go alongside these comments are very shocking, people believe and propagate these false claims instead of trying to put whaling into a social context.
The only sensible and justifiable response to whaling which presents an argument against it, is the high level of mercury present in the mammals that have recently come to light. But what you will find on social media is a barrage of comments using these findings as proof that the Faroese do not eat whale and kill for the sheer enjoyment. Now this is completely false. In spite of the mercury content, the Faroese do eat whale, however have been advised to do so in moderation. For thousands of years before the health warnings, whale has been a part of their staple diet and is an extremely sustainable source of food, particularly as it can be dried and salted for the winter months when resources are limited and food needs to be stored.
Another reason in favour of stopping Grindadrap would be if research found a decline in the ocean’s ecosystem as a result, but the whaling in the Faroes adheres to strict rules which take into consideration the importance of biodiversity.
The images of the whale hunt are undoubtedly shocking as we witness the sea turning scarlet red, nobody can deny that, but what do you think the inside of an abattoir looks like? If that’s the case, I have to ask, are these people protesting to end whaling or are they really protesting for make-shift abattoirs on the beach to conceal what’s really going on? We must look beyond the blood and look at all the facts.
I have absolutely no problem with people campaigning against it, but anyone with an ounce of intelligence wouldn’t truly think using hate-speech is going to be the way forward. You can’t fight fire with fire.
And those who truly advocate change would not waste their energy attacking someone for simply treading on Faroese soil. Using the same logic, it’s like shouting at someone for being in China during the Yulin dog festival or Spain for the Running of the Bulls but playing absolutely no part in it. That would be absurd wouldn’t it? Apparently not if you’re in the Faroes.
It’s easier to attack a small country with a small population and a way of life very few people have experienced and can’t therefore connect to.
Life on the Faroe Islands
48, 000 people live across the 18 islands that make up the Faroes, located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Completely exposed to the elements, winter storms can rage for prolonged periods, cutting off some of the smaller islands for days. With very little tourism, the economy is entirely dependent on fishing, with salmon accounting for 95% of total exports and nearly half of the Faroese gross product. Importantly to know, they do NOT export whale, and the only species they eat is the pilot whale, which is NOT endangered and entirely legal contrary to what others say…
Living in a climate with similar conditions to the Arctic, often too harsh for animals and plants to survive, inhabitants have to be a lot more resourceful and historically the consumption of whale meat has played a valued part in their survival. With this in mind, should eating whale in the Faroes be met with such worldwide criticism?
There is a clear and reasonable purpose for their hunt – food – but whether or not we believe they need to eat whale in this day and age is another question. Whilst I would argue yes (and I say this as a non-meat eater) because of the island’s lack of natural resources and its sustainability, others argue no. I find this debate really difficult to have with people who eat other forms of meat including cow, sheep and chicken, because are we therefore saying it is ok to eat one animal but not another – unless we are talking about endangered species, which we are not, how can we justify the killing of one animal over another?
Hopefully she hasn’t been to France…
If more of us stop to think about our own relationship with the meat industry, we might fall silent to the overbearing sound of our own hypocrisy.
The meat industry kills over 56 BILLION animals every year, and if we write that down the number looks even more shocking, 56,000,000,000, especially if we put it next to the number of whales killed in the Faroes every year – 800.
Most of us live in countries where plants and vegetables grow in abundance and as a result we do not need to eat meat yet most of us do. Worse still, most of us do little or no research to know where our meat comes from. Most are factory farmed livestock with zero freedom from the day they are born, yet the whales consumed by the Faroese live in the wild up until their death. You don’t need me to point out which one is the more humane existence of the two.
Other countries also carry out whaling but they have received only a miniscule of the criticism the Faroese have received, this shows how much we like to pick on the ‘small guy’. And where other countries, in particular Japan, make money from selling it, the Faroese divide it locally between each other for free, similar to like they do in Greenland after a hunt. A few small grocery stores might sell the blubber but I never saw it once on a restaurant menu, like I have in Iceland, Norway and Japan. It’s quite ironic that whilst I was in Japan last March for a longer period of time, nobody brought up the issue of whaling with me, and if they had I would have said I’m against it too.
Onto Bigger Issues
Whaling is not a means of bringing people in for tourism, and contrary to popular believe it is not an annual festival unlike the Running of the Bulls. Travel companies support this festival and bullfighting resulting in a SLOW death by sending thousands of people to Spain and Mexico for people’s entertainment. It’s a huge moneymaking business – now how can people target all their rage at a small community in the middle of nowhere when they could actually be campaigning against corporations earning millions by promoting animal cruelty, and it’s happening on their doorstep – they have the perfect opportunity right there to make an impact!
But no, they don’t. They hide behind their computers, usually appearing as an animated favicon and show hostility to people who they believe are doing wrong in the world. The people who DO make a true impact don’t have time to troll people, they are out protesting, gaining momentum, using their voices to fight the true criminals for true causes, and many of these people put their own freedom at risk. These people are the unsung heroes that I’m going to listen to, I wouldn’t for a second give the time or day to someone who hasn’t even bothered to do research on what exactly it is that enrages them.
A few people who are alive and some who are sadly not with us, use the power of speech to fight against worthy causes include Aaron Schwartz, Malala Yousafzai, Rosa Parks, George Monbiot, Aung San Suu Kyi, Arctic 30, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Nelson Mandela to name just a few. They have campaigned for race, gender and sexual equality to freedom of speech, and from climate change awareness to access to free education. They recognise what needs to be done to progress society oppressed by the powers that be.
Sustainable whaling should be waaaaaayyyyy down on the scale of issues that should be called for change. And as a result of masses of people focusing on this issue, it means real atrocities get ignored. Over a thousand Indians died working in a factory sweat shop that collapsed to the ground killing everyone inside, yet people will still buy clothes from the companies who employ slave labor under unsafe working conditions.
If we really cared, we’d boycott these companies but most of us don’t, or better still, we’d protest for them to pay their workers in India and China real living wages. But with the cost of production increasing, this means we’d have to dig further into our pockets to buy our clothes so we better keep quiet.
We will carry on eating from McDonald’s. We will use cosmetics tested on animals because our vanity is greater than our conscience. We will buy everything as cheaply as possible. We will turn up the heating and blast on the air con. We will continue to use as much plastic as possible and forget about recycling. We will watch the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer. Politicians will continue to deny climate change exists and we’ll be happy to accept it because why walk when we can take the car, and why separate our rubbish when we can dump it into one big plastic bag?
But we will continue to hate the Faroe Islands because it makes us feel better for our own grotesquely lazy actions. We could do so much to make this whole world a better, safer, more loving, understanding, and connected world yet we choose to ignore the things we can control, and play a part in changing.
The great thing about the Faroes is that they (the haters) don’t have to change their lifestyle whatsoever to make them feel like they’re making a difference by uploading a picture of slaughtered whales, an action that takes a fraction of a minute to do.
How can we really make a difference?
If we think for more than a second, what can we ask the Faroe Islanders do?
Firstly we have to understand their way of life, only then can we expect any kind of respectful cooperation to happen. This doesn’t happen over night, but nothing sustainable ever does. It takes time, effort and patience. It looks hopeful if tourism grows, the opportunity for whale-watching tours can develop. It happened in Iceland so it can happen in the Faroes.
This is how progress happens; it’s about education and finding a balance that still helps the local community and provides new skills and other sources of income.
We can do it.
(Top picture taken from Spectator article: Why we should let Faroe Islanders hunt whales).
34 responses
YES. To all of this. I’ve been a pescetarian most of my life and am not an avid fan of eating meat, but I still don’t feel like it is my place to put one type of animal on a pedestal over another when so many are slaughtered DAILY for the sake of human consumption. I’m just tired of people imposing their views on people and thinking all of our governments and ideals need to be the same. No reason to travel if they are. The world is a beautiful place because every culture and human being is different and thinks different. While I’m not a huge fan of what they do in the Faroe Islands in terms of the slaughtering, I am also not a fan of how disgusting they treat animals that are raised for consumption in any country. I would absolutely visit the Faroe Islands if given the chance (I am sure I will in the near future) and truthfully, whales will be the last thing on my mind there. I don’t associate the Faroe Islands with whaling; I associate the islands with nature and beauty. Just as I don’t associate Canada with polar bear hunting, China with the shark fin industry, or Nepal with their sacrificing of millions of animals at Gadhimai (which has been stopped I read).
If someone wants to beat you up about the whale slaughtering, then I hope they are also beating up the food companies over their treatment of the animals they are almost surely consuming. But I am sure most of the people beating you up over things aren’t seeing the bigger picture of it all.
Thanks for your comments Megan. It”s a really difficult conversation to have and it’s not a particularly nice one to write about either because I don’t like the thought of any animal going through pain no matter what the reason is. But when a subject is difficult to talk about that’s often the very reason why we have to talk openly about it to avoid ignorance. I’m a pescetarian like yourself and I toy with the idea of becoming a vegetarian but I find it very difficult to stick to so I eat fish even though with more dedication I could live on a vegetarian diet, however in places like the Arctic and Faroes it’s more difficult so we really have to accept their consumption of whale, as they accept us eating meat from cows, sheep, pigs and so fourth. If the Faroes were killing whales to sell onto other countries or anything like what the Japanese do then I wouldn’t defend them, but their motives are not for that so we can’t typecast them together.
I’m happy to hear that you associate the Faroes with beauty and nature above all, it’s a shame most people don’t because they look at the headlines and jump onto the bandwagon of bullies. Unlike Canada, China, and Nepal, people know very little about the Faroes so people are not willing to see beyond what else the country has to offer. It’s upsetting because if we defend it people say we are pro slaughtering of whales when what we are really saying is, we are pro eating for sustenance.
all i can say in regards to that is when i look at the life those whales live before they meet death, it is 1000x better than any animal raised for consumption in the rest of the world. and i definitely agree with you about how feelings would be different if they were selling it for profits to the rest of the globe. i cant wait to go there one day 🙂 i like waterfalls and heavy knitted sweaters.
I imagine after living in Norway you’ve already amassed a few heavy knits!!
Yes Yes Yes!!! Thank you for this brilliant article! I’m so tired of reading comments where the Faroese are called barbaric and what not. You can’t simply compare life in the North with life in London or Paris. People really should start to educate themselves instead of being aggressive and hateful!
‘You can’t simply compare life in the North with life in London or Paris’ – Exactly, I could not have said it better myself. Thanks Van.
Um, yes. Thanks for reminding us of the bigger picture here, Shing! As always 🙂
Thanks for reading Silvia 🙂
Another really well written, thoughtful and insightful article Shing! A very good read and I hope you will turn some of your Twitter haters to the path of righteous demonstrators 😉 As a vegetarian I will always be against whaling, but you are absolutely right in that no animal should have more or less of a right to life than another, simply because the killing looks more gruesome because it is in public. I have to say that I am guilty of this hypocrisy as well, in that I will still kill spiders and mosquitoes and at the same time condemn people who kill butterflies or moths. And naturally these whales have lived far better lives than factory farmed animals, but I do wonder though about their deaths, how long the period of suffering is when you are bleeding to death in the ocean.
Hi Wesley, thanks for sharing your thoughts, as always you appear to be the voice of reason. It’s great that you’re a vegetarian and I appreciate that you’re against whaling, but you can see what my biggest gripe is in all this – the meat industry. I’m pleased you feel the same way as me; that favouring one life over another is essentially wrong, yet we do it all the time.
People who eat meat can’t let their own personal feelings come between a practise that is sustainable when they are happy for other animals to die for them in worse conditions- it’s the highest form of hypocrisy, and ignorance. These people need to sever their own ties with eating meat before they pressure another nation to do so.
You have an amazing mind, woman. I am happy to see a well thought out discussion on the topic. I have nothing to add… I agree with you. Particularly, I think it is most important to respect different culture’s customs, especially in cases like this when the end goal is food and sustenance.
“Particularly, I think it is most important to respect different culture’s customs, especially in cases like this when the end goal is food and sustenance” – I think you just summed up my whole post in one line Colleen!
Great points made/real nice read. Of course I shouldn’t boycott visiting such a unique, exotic land. That would be like stripping a piece of freedom from myself. Confession: In Japan, I tried a bite of whale flesh. There, when you go to an Izakaya (Japanese bar/restaurant) with others, you don’t get your own dish, you always share what’s on the table, so I had to try it and wash it down with a sip of sake. I really hope that doesn’t make me a hypocrite as I’d never kill a whale or condone the killing of one, unless I absolutely needed to for survival, which I don’t envision.
Hi Mike, I think whale needs to be taken off the menu in Japan and other countries where having it is not considered a means of sustenance and then situations like you were put in wouldn’t happen. Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts.
Like you, we’ve been attacked on Twitter and Facebook since being in the Faroes. The thing that bothers me the most about it is that the people who are so vehemently against it won’t even engage in a conversation about it. They just throw up their splashy photos and run away. I’ve tried to engage in the conversation to no avail – not one person responded – except for a fellow blogger on Facebook who suggested that must also mean I am in support of people marrying animals. WTF?
I can’t say I’m for or against the whale hunt as even though you have written a very good and thorough piece – I think for me that there are still so many things that I can’t know about without consulting numerous experts. But the bottom line is that this is no reason to boycott a nation – if that were the case, I could never return to our home continent for how they treat farm animals. Or Japan. Or Mexico for dolphin excursions. Or any number of places in the world!
Hi Dalene, it’s interesting to read your experiences. The comment made by the travel blogger who said you must also support people marrying animals speaks volumes, and is a good example of these ignorant people who attack before learning the facts and the cultural differences involved. And even if that person did have a point to make, she/he was woefully unsuccessful at addressing it. Yep, WTF indeed.
The reason for me writing this piece wasn’t to say whether I’m against it or not, it was to show both sides. When we look at how this is portrayed, it’s extremely one-sided and attention has been disproportionally drawn on this when whaling in the Faroes is different to whaling in the Japan on so many levels. And yet, you or me have probably never had any backlash against travelling to Japan. Nor Iceland or Norway. If we all cared to dig a little deeper, it would show a huge flaw in our human consciousness. We just pick and choose what enrages us irrespective of the bigger picture and hypocrisy of it all.
Wow I love this post! You’re completely right. As long as these animals aren’t being tortured for entertainment or they’re not endangered, what makes a whale more special than a cow? People should be much more concerned about shark fin soup in Hong Kong, which is decimating the shark population, but for some reason people like whales more than they like sharks, and shark fin soup is less bloody because they just cut the fin off and dump the shark back in the water to die.
Thanks Richelle, you get my point. It’s beyond me how people can be so seemingly enraged about one animal, but don’t care about others. And the irony is, these people don’t even show the same outrage for those whales in Japan. So what does this really tell us?
Seriously, this is the article that makes me the happiest from your blog so far. In my list of despicable people, those that always try to impose their own values to others and refuse to understand the bigger picture are one of the lowest, if not the lowest scums of our lovely planet Earth. My thoughts on whaling, to put it in simple words:
1. How is hunting a giant whale which put up some fight for food purposes more inhumane than slaughtering hundreds of chicken which are locked up in farms and helpless to feed the same amount of people? One whale life is more precious than hundreds of chicken lives?
2. How will boycotting a country and depriving them of even more tourism income help to curb whale hunting for sustenance? Try losing your job and all your income and then see if you’d rather starve to death or eat some whale meat.
I’m happy you appreciate this article, it’s so important to have these types of conversations that require us to leave our own personal feelings aside to look at the bigger picture.
Ahh this makes me so happy to read! Sometimes I feel I am the only one against all these hypocritical, lazy, outspoken dimwits! Everything you said I agree! People need to look at themselves before they so quickly judge others! How is whale killing any different from what has been killed in a factory for you to buy in the supermarket! It makes me upset that modern society is so distant from things such as these, that today someone killing an animal is outrageous, and it is now so un-natural for them to see it, they get angry and call it all kinds of things like murder! Yet they eat meat more or less every day! Obviously, killing in a humane manner, and avoiding endangered species is essential, but at some point people need to accept that to eat meat you must kill, and that usually involves blood!
Haha you are definitely not alone Eleanor, but possibly outnumbered! Exactly, so many people who buy their meat plumped, packaged and priced have conveniently forgotten how it ended up on their plate. Ridiculous.
Totally agree with you Shing. My goodness. There are bigger more important things to argue about in the world today…..!
People always talk about how development is seeping into rural or more isolated communities making them more commercial or losing “their culture” and yet, the same people do all they can to destroy the very fabric of what they liked in the first place and this is how it starts. I wonder how many of these people have even left their comfortable homes not to talk of even going to the Faroe Islands?
And anyway, why attack YOU? You’re not a leader or a politician. You’re not a mover and a shaker. You were just a tourst who also happens to be a pretty young lady and a blogger. Yes! I know. Let’s scratch her face, pull her hair and tear her down! Who does she think she is? ?!!!%$!!
I’m so sorry that you had to endure these awful cowardly trolls. Just yesterday, someone tried to get me all heated by sending me a really disgusting message on Twitter because of the article that I have just published. On checking through his tweets, ALL of them were hate-induced. I thought long and hard on whether I should respond or not, but I think as you have realised, some people can’t be reasoned with, so I blocked him.
As an animal activist & strict vegan I can not stand the idea of “any” animal being slaughtered … I am sickened by what goes on every day where I am from, Canada … if I could have just one wish …it would be that everyone would be vegan … With that said, I am very sorry that you were treated badly for travelling there
Jude
Hi Jude, I’m sorry for the late reply. I think that’s a wonderful wish to have, and it would solve a lot of problems beyond animal welfare too. I have stopped eating meat for almost two years now in December but I still eat fish so I think vegetarianism might be my next choice…
I’m interested to hear about your activism…what things are you involved in?
Well said Shing, like the Pamplona Bull Run there’s a lot of misconception. Especially when bull runs were invented by the English in the 1100’s, ran for 700 years and were ten times crueler to the bull than Pamplona has ever been in its entire history.
What we have are knee jerkers whose lives seem to built on their iPhones and have no concept of others cultures (right or wrong) because the furthest they travel is on a commuter train into their own town (usually boxed in with earphones on).
Whether it’s whales, squids, bulls, chickens or whatever, a larger perspective is always needed. Some countries people have to do this stuff, just to put a meal on a table or pay the rent and it usually takes travel to discover that.
This is such a balanced and well designed piece. I really learnt to step back and think of this as a different culture to my own. Thanks!
I can sign under every word in this post. You said the things right in their place. It’s like the people are in need to hate something constantly. Whatever it is. Today are the Faroe islands, tomorrow some other place or country. The social hypocrisy becomes bigger and bigger everyday. People have become like a flock. Baa this, baa that. Just give them something. Faroe islands, the global warming etc. It’s awful.
Great article!
Hi, I completely agree with all the things you said here. How hypocritical is it that people argue for the rights of whales yet are blind to the fact that they’re participating in an almost identical cruelty?I’ve been a vegan for 3+ years now and I have to admit, this is one of the arguments that annoy me more than anything.
There’s an ideology called ‘Speciesism’ which is where we value one species over another for arbitrary reasons and when another culture has different views, they are ridiculed. An example of this is dogs in China. Over there, dogs are treated similar to the way cows are treated in the Western world and our culture decides they are evil for eating dogs, whereas some cultures and religions like Hindus must see the westerners as evil for eating cows. People are quick to judge other cultures because they are ‘different’ but they rarely stop to think about their own and whether what they’re doing is equally as bad.
There’s a couple of documentaries I’d recommend watching. ‘The Cove’ is a documentary about dolphin hunting which focuses on similar ideas to whaling. ‘Earthlings’ is my personal favourite documentary as it really changed my perspective on everything and how I look at the world. I’d recommend either of those if you’re interested.
Nice read and totally agree with you with the hypocrasy of our society. I just saw a documentary about the grind and wanted to point out some details:
1) i’ve read an article and saw and interview where people of faroes island declare that they don’t eat the meat but simply throw it back to the sea. So my question now is: if they’re doing it not for sustenance are they doing it now just for the sake of their old traditions?
2) they just passed a law which oblige people(even tourists) to immediately report to the local authorities sightings of pilot whales otherwise they will have to pay a fee or even go to jail. These law also enables local authorities to detain for 12 hrs whoever they suspect might disturb the hunt.
I’m not gonna judge or throw some hate to the inhabitants of faroes islands but I have to admit that they are making it harder for outsiders to understand their reasons for continuing this tradition.
This article is excellently written, and well thought out.
The constant defamation of the culture, the grind, and the Faroese is a disgusting attack on the little guy. Instead of activism, it’s eco-terrorism.
Clean oceans should be the focus, not bully tactics in the seas, online hate, and false articles traditional media.
Heaven forbid people wake up and realize they should look in the mirror and find out they got conned. GREAT point about thinking of where the meat on your table or on your plate in a restaurant comes from.
Boycotts, vitriol only makes those who are targeted more likely to continue doing the same thing.
Science and medical issues are what will decide the fate of the grind.
And this commemoration of the survival of their Norse ancestors, should be lauded by Hollywood as authentic. After all the whole world loves Game of Thrones, violent video games.
Totally agree with you.. We’re going to Faroe this summer (those landscapes are a dream for us!), and after reading a lot about this issue, I started to be really worried for reactions in social media… But I can’t understand how visiting a country hast to mean supporting the whaling…
I’m from Spain, and here we have the horrible party of “bullfighting” that I hate, should I live my country…?
I’ve visited Thailand… and that doesn’t mean that I support elephant’s abuse…
Or Japan and the dolphins killing…
White slave traffic in Eastern Europe…
And we don’t stop visiting these countries…
Boycotting a country, for me, is not the best way to save the planet…
And in this specific case… As you have said, pilot whales are not in the endangered list, and it’s legal as they ‘re not parte of the EU. In addition, they use the meat for own consumption (here we eat meat pork, beef and a long etcetera…) so it’s a very specific situation.
Whaling it’s not something nice to see… but I don’t agree with all the attacks done by people in social media.
nice article, worth to read to open up your mind.
nevertheless, it is based on the assumption that the islanders kill the whale for food. I did not know much about it but i saw a report on TV on this subject.
And evidences are not whale were killed for food, just tradition. and the islanders feel they are not doing something totally right in that they prevent any not islander to attend or film or witness what happens.