Sea Shepeherd UK (now Paul Watson Foundation UK) Calls on Cruise Ship Companies to Postpone Offering Future Voyages to the Faroe Islands Until the Grindadráp Hunts End Forever

📁 Archive Document — Historical Record

This article was first published when our charity's original name/branding as 'Sea Shepherd UK' prior to our name change on 18th May 2023 following the removal of Captain Paul Watson from Sea Shepherd entities worldwide (with the exception of the UK, France and Brazil).

Captain Paul Watson remains a member of our Board, and our charity continues to uphold its founding principles of non-violent direct action marine conservation.

This article and its contents are the property of the 'Captain Paul Watson Foundation UK' and forms part of our 21 year history.

Learn more at paulwatsonfoundation.uk/new-name

Paul Watson Foundation UK is calling on cruise companies visiting the Faroe Islands to show their opposition to the hunting of hundreds of pilot whales and dolphins each year by removing the Faroe Islands from their future cruise ship itineraries.

Paul Watson Foundation UK has been leading the opposition to the grindadráp (or 'grind' as these hunts are commonly called) since the early 1980s and is currently in the Faroe Islands for the organisation's eleventh year with 'Operation Bloody Fjords 2019'. As part of this campaign Paul Watson Foundation UK is appealing for cruise ship companies to publicly voice their opposition to the killing of around 850 pilot whales and dolphins each year by the Faroese.

Captain Paul Watson (Founder of Paul Watson Foundation UK), Rob Read (Chief Operating Officer of Paul Watson Foundation UK) and Helen Taylor (Ambassador of Paul Watson Foundation UK) have written to all sixteen cruise companies offering trips to the Faroe Islands, requesting that they declare that the Faroe Islands will no longer be a port of call or destination of their ships until such time as the grindadráp is consigned to history.

Hvannasund grindadráp — 87 long finned pilot whales & 12 Atlantic White Sided Dolphins were killed on 16th August 2018

Letters (both hardcopy and by email) have been sent to the Chief Executives and Presidents of the following cruise companies: Cruise & Maritime Voyages, Hurtigruten, Viking Ocean Cruises, Silversea, P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, Phoenix Reisen, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Pullmantur, Seabourn, Nicko Cruises, Voyages to Antiquity, Oceania Cruises and Windstar Cruises.

Captain Watson and Rob Read have explained that the hunts "can happen at any time, at any one of the 26 designated killing bays around the Faroe Islands.... with no season, no quota, a lack of effective regulation and despite pilot whale meat being heavily contaminated." And that when the Faroese kill pilot whales and dolphins "every member of every pod is killed including pregnant mothers, juveniles and weaning babies. None are ever spared."

Paul Watson Foundation UK crew are currently on the Faroe Islands engaging with tourists (including those arriving on the islands by cruise ship) and educating them about this barbaric activity and encouraging them to limit their spending on the islands in silent protest of the hunts.

Atlantic White Sided Dolphins of all ages killed in a grindadráp at Hvalvík — 11th September 2018

This year our crew in the Faroes is again filming, photographing and live-streaming the hunts to the web as well as working with mainstream TV crews, journalists and documentary makers to expose the dolphin hunts to a worldwide audience in several different languages.

In 2015 Paul Watson Foundation UK successfully persuaded two major German cruise liner companies (AIDA and Hapag-Lloyd) to cancel their tours to the Faroe Islands because of the continued Faroese dolphin hunts. Despite this bold move, the number of cruise ships visiting the Faroes has increased dramatically in recent years, largely due to a well-funded publicity drive by 'Visit Faroe Islands' — the public face of the Faroe Islands' official tourist board — describing the islands as "Europe's best kept secret."

"If the cruise companies back this campaign and stop taking tourists to the Faroe Islands this will significantly impact the islands' economy. Combined with Paul Watson Foundation UK's continuous exposure of this issue, it is hoped our efforts will finally force the Danish Government and Faroese Parliament to call a final halt to these unnecessary and cruel hunts."

— Rob Read, Chief Operating Officer, Paul Watson Foundation UK

Further information:

536 long finned pilot whales and 7 Atlantic white sided dolphins killed in the Danish Faroe Islands so far in 2019. The first hunt of a family of 70 pilot whales on New Year's Day immediately lost the Faroese a one million euros incentive to end the grindadráp (100,000 euros each year for 10 consecutive years if there were zero cetacean kills) — which was offered by Paul Watson Foundation UK on 28th September 2018.

Over the last decade, a total of 7,744 small cetaceans of 5 different species have lost their lives in the Faroe Islands in grindadráp hunts.

In 2008, an article in the New Scientist told how Faroe chief medical officers Pál Weihe and Høgni Debes Joensen deemed whale meat unsafe for human consumption because of high mercury content. They detailed how mercury poisoning could trigger a range of ailments including fetal neural development issues, high blood pressure, circulatory problems and possible infertility.