Traveling to the Danish Faroe Islands is like a short vacation in an asylum for the criminally insane. Not that this is unexpected considering the large amount of methylmercury that the Faroese whalers digest every year despite their own health officials constantly warning that excessive methylmercury toxicity is not exactly good for the brain. It kind of makes Swiss cheese out of gray matter which is not conducive for keen mental and emotional facilities.

Over the few weeks in the Faroe Islands, we observed some rather unusual behavior. Such behavior would seem bizarre in most everywhere else outside the Faroe Islands, well, except for Taiji, Japan where methylmercury is also the heavy metal drug of choice by dolphin killers.

MERCURY ADDLED BRAINS

The first example of bizarre behavior is the unleashing of full psychopath on innocent victims. Entire families, entire pods of pilot whales and dolphins driven onto beaches and viciously, mercilessly slashed, stabbed, and slaughtered. Fetuses ripped from the wombs of mothers, young calves writhing in agony on the beach, bellies slit open, teeth, knocked out, eyeballs poked out, all in full view of young children.

In Denmark, if even a trace of methylmercury is detected in pigs, the entire pork industry would be shut down yet the demonstrably high levels in pilot whales and dolphins are ignored. The cruel slaughter of pilot whales and dolphins is illegal under European Union and Danish law yet it is the Danish courts defending the slaughter in the Faroe islands.

Methylmercury toxicity in cetaceans is so high Faroese doctors attest to the fact that children in the Faroe islands have the highest levels of any social group in the world. They have stipulated that each person should not consume more than 250 grams a month and should never be consumed by pregnant mothers or small children. These warnings are ignored by half the population.

DUMPING CORPSES FOR FUN AND AMUSEMENT

Every year the Faroese whalers kill many more Pilot whales and Dolphins than they can possibly eat but they love to torture and kill, and they have a final solution for the excess in murdered innocent victims. They dump the carcasses into the sea where their rotting flesh can contaminate the local salmon farms. People around the world are mostly oblivious to the fact that their salmon and lox or sushi were raised in a cesspool of blood and rotting flesh,

COZYING UP TO THE TOURIST TRADE

And if that’s not crazy enough, on July 9th, 2023, they massacred an entire pod on the beach of the capital city Torshavn in front of hundreds of passengers on the cruise ship Ambition, a sight so traumatizingly shocking that the Ambassador Cruise Ship Line publicly condemned the bloody spectacle, going so far as to describe the scene as barbaric.

WHALE MEAT EATING COMPROMISES THE COPS

The Faroese police were upset that we did not communicate with them. We refused to do so because the Faroese police have a blatant conflict of interest. Imagine being witness to a bank robbery and seeing police officers driving the getaway car. A few days later the same police officers with their pockets full of stolen loot attempt to serve you a summons to appear in court because you were a witness to the crime in which they were participants. On Sunday, July 9th, 77 innocent victims were viciously slain by a deranged mob of blood thirsty killers. The crew of the John Paul DeJoria arrived shortly after the bodies had been removed, but the bay was still red with the blood of entire families. The police watched the butchery and had previously warned us that we were not to witness the horror on the beach. In fact, we were not to enter the territory where the atrocity was taking place. The police attempted to serve some papers to us outside of their territorial waters and we refused to accept whatever they were attempting to serve. The reason being is that we don’t trust the Faroese police because they have a blatant conflict of interest. They physically participate in the horror of the Grind and the Coast Guard ship that shadowed us  — the BRIMIL — is the same ship that helps to load the corpses of dead pilot whales. Accordingly, they are given pieces of whale meat for each officer’s personal use. This represents a blatant conflict of interest. Can anyone imagine a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, or a British or European Fisheries vessel helping whalers to load whale meat and then being sent to arrest whale conservation activists. Even the Japanese police are not this corrupt. Obviously, the Faroese don’t see anything unusual in such an arrangement.

GIFT FROM GOD

I remember in the past meeting with former Faroese Prime Minister Atli Dam in Torshavn. There was no reasoning with him. Completely unwilling to have a discussion. According to him, the whales are a gift from God. When I asked if he believed everything in the Bible, he replied that yes, he did. So I pointed out Leviticus 11.9 (“`Of all the creatures living in the water of the seas and the streams, you may eat any that have fins and scales. But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales–whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water–you are to detest.”) I informed the Prime Minister that the Old Testament specifically forbade eating the flesh of whales, he replied that Jesus had made an exception for the Faroese. He was not forthcoming about the relevant chapter and verse.

WTF WAS THIS?

As we were enroute the second time to where a pod of pilot whales was spotted, we were pursued by two Faroese Coast Guard vessels. This was not unexpected. What was unexpected was a large unmarked black inflatable carrying 14 people in identical yellow/lime green survival suits wearing white helmets. The logical immediate assumption is that this was a boarding party. We have been boarded by police boarding parties in the past with crew ranging between eight and twelve and as the fast boat was approaching towards our midship area, the deck crew prepared fire hoses to repel boarders. As the boat approached closer, it quickly turned around the stern and then came along the starboard side. It then fell back, and we assumed it was because they saw the fire hoses. We were later informed that it was a group of tourists and if this is true, it was a very irresponsible maneuver. At no time did they communicate by VHF radio with us, or the Faroese Coast Guard nor did the Faroese Coast Guard communicate with them. This was a potentially dangerous situation, and it was negligent on the part of the Coast Guard to not issue a warning to a tourist boat recklessly maneuvering between three ships involved in a fast pursuit. I cannot imagine the U.S. Coast Guard tolerating such recklessness in a similar situation.

When I later sent a message to the owner of the tourist excursion company that it was irresponsible of him to place tourists in such a dangerous position, he replied that if any of his clients had been injured, it would be my fault. He then said that he was a conservationist, told me about how he spent hours rescuing a bird and he was opposed to the Grind. A quick click on his website revealed that he offers all his clients whale blubber and dried whale meat as a treat.

HAVING THEIR CAKE AND EATING IT TOO

The Faroese reap all the benefits of the European Union without having to follow the regulations and laws of the European Union. They can live and work in the EU. They get massive EU subsidies through Denmark. They are a part of Denmark when it’s advantageous to be part of Denmark and they are not a part of Denmark when it is to their advantage to not be a part of Denmark. They enjoy the highest per capita income in all of Europe, they have supermarkets brimming with produce from around the world, and on islands where there are more sheep than people, they buy New Zealand lamb in the market and whine about how important it is that they kill their own meat. They brag about the necessity of free meat from God, but they sell it in the market and in restaurants. They gleefully rip the heads off nesting fulmars and callously kidnap puffins from their nests. The most self-righteous, spoiled, barbaric, entitled bloodthirsty group of people in Europe. The rest of the world needs to stop buying their contaminated farm-raised salmon and other fish products and to stop sending cruise ships and tourists. 

Kangaroo Court

I was not expecting to see kangaroos in the Faroes but we did discover a kangaroo court. We had been ordered to not enter within the 12-mile territorial limit despite maritime law allowing us the right of passage, meaning not stopping. We politely respected the order although we were forced to ignore it on July 9th and July 19th when we were alerted to emergency situations where the lives of pilot whales were under threat. The first intervention was unsuccessful because of the time and distance to the site of the Grind although the 2nd intervention allowed a pod of pilot whales to escape. 

The consequence was a trial just a few days after the 19th. We did not receive a summons and we did not have time to retain a lawyer. A lawyer was appointed for us by the Danish court. Only one side was heard, and a sentence was pronounced. $23,000 U.S. fine for defying the order to not enter Faroese waters plus $600 U.S. for each of the 27 crew onboard the John Paul DeJoria for immigration violations despite not having a single crewmember set foot on the Faroe Islands. We are appealing but the odds of success feel quite remote.

The Long Haul

I began my opposition to the horror in the Faroe Islands in 1983, before most of the dolphin killers were even born. It has been a long and difficult fight. My crews have been beaten, threatened, and arrested and I am often asked, why do we continue? That we will never win and resistance to the slaughter is futile.

But things have changed. In the Eighties, some 99% of the Faroese people supported the Grindadrap. Today that percentage is below 50%. When we began the world was unaware of the bloody annual atrocities. Over the decades we have exposed the slaughter internationally in the media, there are boycotts of tourism to the islands and boycotts of Faroese fish products.

Yes, ending this horror show sometimes seems to be impossible but I believe that courage, passion, imagination and persistence can find impossible solutions to seemingly impossible problems.

We will never quit our opposition to the Grindadrap (Old Nordic meaning the Murder of whales) and I am confident that this barbaric tradition inflicting torture and death can be abolished.

We intend to return next summer with a dedicated and courageous crew of shore volunteers and with two ships to aggressively intervene against this atrocity once again.

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