MASSACRE called FESTIVAL!!!

http://www.petitiononline.com/Dolphend/petition.html

http://lottus.net/?p=2858
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http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grindwalfang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_the_Faroe_Islands
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6176563723666627529#
Whaling in the Faroe Islands [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

Killed pilot whales on the beach in the village Hvalba on the southernmost Faroese island Suрuroy, 11 August 2002.

Whaling in the Faroe Islands has been practiced since about the time of the first Norse settlements on the islands. It is regulated by Faroese authorities but not by the International Whaling Commission as there are disagreements about the Commission"s competency for small cetaceans.^[1][2] Around 950 Long-finned Pilot Whales (Globicephala melaena) are killed annually, mainly during the summer. The hunts, called "grindadrбp" in Faroese, are non-commercial and are organized on a community level; anyone can participate. The hunters first surround the pilot whales with a wide semicircle of boats. The boats then drive the pilot whales slowly into a bay or to the bottom of a fjord.

Most Faroese consider the hunt an important part of their culture and history. Animal-rights groups criticize the hunt as being cruel and unnecessary,^[3][4] while the hunters claim in return that most journalists do not exhibit sufficient knowledge of the catch methods or its economic significance.^[5]

As of the end of November 2008 the chief medical officers of the Faroe Islands have recommended that pilot whales no longer be considered fit for human consumption because of the levels of toxins in the whales.^[6]

Origins

Whale hunting has been a common phenomenon for a long period of time. It is known to have existed on Iceland, in the Hebrides, and in Shetland and Orkney.

Archaeological evidence from the early Norse settlement of the Faroe Islands c. 1200 years ago, in the form of pilot whale bones found in household remains in Gшta, indicates that the pilot whale has long had a central place in the everyday life of Faroe Islanders. The meat and blubber of the pilot whale has been an important part of the islanders staple diet. The blubber, in particular, has been highly valued both as food and for processing into oil, which was used for lighting fuel and other purposes. Parts of the skin of pilot whales were also used for ropes and lines, while stomachs were used as floats.

Rights to whales have been regulated by law since medieval times. References are found in early Norwegian legal documents, while the oldest existing legal document with specific reference to the Faroes, the so-called Sheep Letter from 1298, includes rules for rights to, and shares of both stranded whales as well as whales driven ashore.^[7]

Records of drive hunts in the Faroe Islands date back to 1584.^[8]

Elements of the hunt The sighting

The pilot whale hunt has a well-developed system of communication. Reverend Lucas Debes made reference to the system, which means that it had already developed by the seventeenth century. Historically the system takes place as such: When a school of pilot whales has been sighted, messengers are sent to spread the news among the inhabitants of the island involved (the Faroe Islands have 17 inhabited islands). At the same time, a bonfire is lit at a specific location, to inform those on the neighbouring island, where the same pattern then is followed.

It is believed that the system is one of the oldest elements concerning the pilot whale hunt. This is because a rather large number of boats and people are necessary to drive and kill a school of pilot whales. Today, however, the news of a sighting is relayed via mobile phones and other modern methods of communication.

Locations

The small village of Hvalvнk (in English Whale Bay) on the island Streymoy is a well-known place for beaching pilot whales.

The location must be well-suited to the purpose of beaching whales. It is against the law to kill pilot whales at locations with inappropriate conditions. The seabed must gradually slope from the shore out to deep water. Given such conditions, the chances are good that the whales can be driven fully ashore or close enough to the shore that they can be secured and killed from land. When a school of pilot whales is sighted, boats gather behind the whales and slowly drive them towards the chosen authorized location, usually a bay or the end of a fjord. There are 17 towns and villages that have the right conditions, and therefore legal authorization, for beaching whales. These are Bшur, Fбmjin, Fuglafjшrрur, Syрrugшta, Hъsavнk, Hvalba, Hvalvнk, Hvannasund, Klaksvнk, Miрvбgur, Norрskбli, Sandavбgur, Sandur, Tуrshavn (in Sandagerрi), Tvшroyri, Vбgur and Vestmanna. These towns and villages have featured most heavily in the statistics for whaling in the Faroes since 1854.

Regulations

At the beginning of the twentieth century, proposals to begin regulation of the whale hunt began to be proposed in the Faroese legislature. On 4 June 1907, the DanishGovernor (in Faroese amtmaрur) as well as the sheriff sent the first draft for whaling regulations to the Office of the Exchequer in Copenhagen. In the following years, a number of drafts were debated, and finally in 1932 the first Faroese whaling regulations were introduced. Since then, every detail of the pilot whale hunt has been carefully defined in the regulations. This means that the institution of the pilot whale hunt, which had previously largely been based on tradition, became an integrated part of society"s legal structure. In the regulations one has institutionalized old customs and added new ordinances when old customs have proved insufficient or inappropriate.

Districts

Since 1832, the Faroe Islands have been divided into several whaling districts, although there is reason to believe that these districts already existed in some form prior to this date. These whaling districts are the basis for the distribution of the meat and blubber of the pilot whales caught. The catch is distributed in such a way that all the residents of the whaling district are given the same amount of the catch, regardless of whether or not they took part in the hunt.

Supervision

Before the enactment of home-rule in 1948, the Danish governor had the highest responsibility of supervising a pilot whale hunt. Today, supervision is the responsibility of the Faroese government. The government is charged with ensuring that the Pilot whaling regulations are respected and otherwise answer for preparations. In practice, this means that it is the local legislative representative, who holds the highest command in a pilot whale hunt. It is his responsibility to both supervise the hunt and to distribute the catch.

The hunt

In accordance with the regulations, men gather on the shore to kill the beached whales, here in the town Vбgur on Suрuroy, June 28, 2004.

Whale hunting equipment is legally restricted to hooks, ropes, and assessing-poles for measurement. A boat that has been equipped in such a manner is a pilot whale boat. The pilot whale boat is not a traditional small Faroese rowing boat, neither is it a vehicle used by the coastal navigation, and it does not include the modern Faroese factory fleet. A pilot whale boat simply describes the temporary condition of a small boat during a hunt, which is otherwise used for line fishery or leisure purposes.

When the whalers have met the requirements specified above, the pilot whales can be driven. Whale drives only take place when a school of whales is sighted close to land, and when sea and weather conditions make them possible. The whaling regulations specify how the school of whales is to be driven ashore. The drive itself works by surrounding the pilot whales with a wide semicircle of boats. On the whaling-foremans signal, stones attached to lines are thrown into the water behind the pilot whales, thus the boats drive the whales towards an authorised beach or fjord, where the whales then beach themselves. It is not permitted to take whales on the ocean-side of the rope. A pilot whale drive is always under supervision of local authorities.

The pilot whales that are not beached were often stabbed in the blubber with a sharp hook, called a gaff (in Faroese sуknarongul), and then pulled ashore. But, after allegations of animal cruelty, the Faroese whalers started using blunt gaffs (in Faroese blбsturongul) to pull the whales ashore by their blowholes. Today, the ordinary gaff is only being used to pull killed whales ashore. The blunt gaff became generally accepted since its invention in 1993, and it is not only more effective, but it is also more humane by comparison to the other gaff. However, anti-whaling groups such as Greenpeace and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) claim that the partial blocking and irritation of the airway hurts and panics the animal.

Furthermore, in 1985 the Faroe Islands outlawed the use of spears and harpoons in the hunt, as it considers these weapons to be unnecessarily cruel to animals.

Once ashore the pilot whale is killed by cutting the dorsal area through to the spinal cord with a special whaling knife, a grindaknнvur. Given the circumstances during a pilot whale hunt, the whaling knife is considered the safest and most effective equipment with which to kill the whales. Naturally since the whales are killed manually death cannot, by definition, be instantaneous. The length it takes for a whale to die varies between a few seconds to a few minutes, with the average time being 30 seconds.

Impression

The sea having turned blood red.

 

Two dead northern bottlenose whales in the bay of Nes in Vбgur on Suрuroy.

During the cut of a pilot whale"s spine, their main arteries also get cut. Because of this the surrounding sea tends to turn a bloody red. This vivid imagery is often used by anti-whaling groups in their campaigns against the hunt. These images of a blood red sea can often have a shocking effect on bystanders.

Since harpoons, spears and firearms are prohibited, the whalers must be on the shoreline of the water and kill each individual whale.

Уlavur Sjъrрaberg, the chairman of the Faroese Pilot Whaler’s Association, describes the pilot whale hunt in such a way: "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."

The pilot whale as a source of food

Most part of traditional Faroese food consists of meat. Because of the harsh Faroese climate, grain and vegetables have not been able to grow very well. During the winter months the Faroe Islandersґ only option was to mostly eat salted or dried food (this includes meat, pilot whale meat, seabirds and fish). This means that over the centuries, the pilot whale has been an important source of food and vitamins to the isolated population on the North Atlantic archipelago.

The pilot whale meat and blubber is stored, prepared and eaten in the Faroese households. This also means that whale meat is not available at supermarkets. Although the Faroe Island"s main export is fish, this does not include pilot whale meat or blubber. An annual catch of 956 pilot whales^[12] (1990–1999) is roughly equivalent to 500 tonnes of meat and blubber, some 30% of all meat produced locally in the Faroe Islands

Cultural importance

The pilot whale hunt is an integral part of Faroese socialculture. Faroese men often say that grindadrбp makes them feel Faroese. Women do not actively take part in grindadrбp, but are bystanders or onlookers. This is part of the traditional division of labour concerning grindadrбp that is centuries old, and has not changed over time.

In Faroese literature and art, grindadrбp is an important motif. The grindadrбp paintings by Sбmal Joensen-Mikines rank internationally as some of his most important. They are part of a permanent exhibition in the Faroese art museum in the capital Tуrshavn. The Danish governor of the Faroe Islands Christian Plшyen wrote the famous Pilot Whaling song, a Faroese ballad written in Danish entitled "A New Song about the Pilot Whale Hunt on the Faroes". It was written during his term of office (1830–1847) and was printed in Copenhagen in 1835.

The Danish chorus line is: Raske drenge, grind at drжbe det er vor lyst

In English

: Strong young lads, to kill the grind that"s our joy

These old verses are rarely sung by the Faroese today. To many in the outside world (including Denmark) they are seen as a backward clichй about the culture of the islands.

Catches

Records of the drive exist in part since 1584, and continuously from 1709—the longest period of time for statistics existing for any wild animal harvest in the world.^[14]

The catch is divided into shares known in Faroese as a skinn, which is an age-old measurement value that derives from agricultural practices. 1 skinn equals 38 kg of whale meat plus 34 kg of blubber: in total 72 kg.
 

 

Period	Drives	Whales	Skinn
1709–1950	1,195	178,259	1,360,160
1951–1960	122	18,772	99,102
1961–1970	130	15,784	79,588
1971–1980	85	11,311	69,026
1981–1990	176	18,806	108,714
1991–2000	101	9,212	66,284
2001	11	918	7,447
2002	10	626	4,263
2003	5	503	3,968
2004	9	1,010	8,276
2005	6	302	2,194
2006	11	856	6,615
2007	10	633	5,522
2008	N/A	N/A	N/A
2009	N/A	N/A	N/A

• Long-term annual average catch 1709–1999: 850
• Annual average catch 1900–1999: 1,225
• Annual average catch 1980–1999: 1,511
• Annual average catch 1990–1999: 956

 

Grindadrap Vestmanna [Whaling] 17-06-1854

Threat to the whale population

Поглед с още по-засилващо се в мен мнение, че ходът на времето не винаги води към еволюция.