Whale Killing in a Timeless Land : Faeroe Islanders Depend on Annual Slaughter for Food

To the anguish of environmentalists, whale hunters on the Faeroe Islands each year force hundreds of pilot whales ashore and behead them for their meat and blubber.

It is a major source of food in this tiny, weather-beaten Danish territory, 180 miles out in the sea northwest of Scotland, where sheep far outnumber people and the citizens are staunchly conservative about politics, morals, customs and language.

The 18 small islands are a stronghold of 143 churches and chapels run by Lutherans, Baptists, the Salvation Army and others.

Faeroe society is guided by moral standards rare in much of Western Europe. Pornography is outlawed. Free abortions, common in Scandinavia, are unavailable.

Light Beer, Lighter Wine

Alcoholic beverages stronger than light beer are tightly restricted and can be obtained only through a three-step procedure, including confirming that the would-be purchaser owes no taxes. The islands’ few restaurants serve 1% wine at high prices.

Bars don’t exist, although private clubs operate by putting together many personal rations of alcohol. The clubs are usually found in dark alleys, with doormen checking membership cards.

“The population is conservative in this area, even Social Democrats,” said Atli Dam, head of the Landsstyre, the semi-autonomous Faeroese government. A 1,000-year-old legislature passes laws for the territory.

But modern times have not entirely bypassed the Faeroes. Though sheep graze 50 yards from the center of Torshavn, the capital city of 15,000, islanders have television sets, their own book-publishing industry and automated fish factories.

Ballads and BMWs

A favorite pastime remains a form of seemingly endless, trance-like chain dancing to medieval ballads. But when the dance is over, participants may drive home in BMW sedans.

Torshavn’s yellow, green and blue wooden cottages cling to bare rock on a site picked by Viking explorers. Long and dark winter nights and about 280 rainy days a year have evoked literary and artistic interest among the people. Paintings by Faeroese hang on almost every wall, from banks to ferryboats.

About 100 books are published every year in Faeroese, a language not even written until 130 years ago. Several island novelists, among them Joergen-Frantz Jacobsen and William Heinesen, author of “The Kingdom of the Earth” and “The Lost Musicians,” have won international renown.

The Academia Faeroensis, the islands’ college, has 30 full-time students enrolled in its departments of Scandinavian literature and language, science and theology. Two years of studies are offered, and baccalaureate degrees can be completed at universities in Denmark.

Since last year, a Faeroe television station broadcasts five days a week. Before that, Faeroese saw little but mainland Danish news programs relayed from Europe.

Alcoholics to Iceland

Despite the tight restrictions on the sale of spirits, alcoholism has become a growing problem, and there are no alcoholism clinics in the Faeroes.

“We send alcoholics to Iceland for treatment,” said Lisbeth Petersen, acting mayor of Torshavn.

There is also unemployment, though the government doesn’t officially recognize the idea of unemployment, keeps no statistics and pays no benefits. In the Faeroes, it is said, a person can always fish.

“It is a vicious circle--we don’t have any unemployed because we don’t have any unemployment benefits, and the other way around,” Dam said.

As for the Faeroes’ controversial whale hunts, Faeroese say environmental militants have given them an unjustified reputation for cruelty.

“We constantly get a lot of protest notes from environmental groups, saying, ‘Stop the unregulated killing of these innocent whales,’ ” said Juliana Klett of the Landsstyre.

Humane Slaughter

The Faeroese kills take place when pilot whales pass close to shore. About 2,400 whales are killed each year.

“The whales are forced on land, and their heads cut off,” said Danjal Baerentsen, the islands’ veterinary chief. “It takes 30 seconds to kill a whale that way. It is the most humane method.”

Until the rules were changed last year, Faeroese used to kill the whales in the water with harpoons, a process they say caused the whales more suffering and a more prolonged death.

The new rules, however, made it easier to photograph the kills, and photographs have fueled the protests.

“It looks so red when you see the blood on a picture,” Baerentsen said. “In a slaughterhouse, as much blood pours out after the slaughter, but it is tapped off for technical use. Here, it pours out in the sea.”

After the hunt, the whale meat is distributed among Faeroese, according to rules dating to 1298.

Part of Food Supply

Faeroese say that whale meat is essential to their food supply. Half of all meat production here and a quarter of meat consumption is from pilot whales.

In 1984, a law banning all commercial whale hunting in Faeroese territory was adopted.

“In principle, killing of pilot whales is forbidden,” Dam said. “It is allowed only for the necessary consumption of the population.”

Other fishing is essential to the islands’ economy and accounts for 99% of Faeroese exports. But catches are declining.

“If the biologists are at all right in what they are saying, we are very close to a catastrophe,” said Birgir Danieslen, managing director of the country’s cooperative fish export company, Faeroe Seafood.

Declining fish stocks in the Faeroese waters have led to an increase in the territory’s heavily subsidized fishing fleet. Past years’ catches have exceeded international recommendations, for some species by 100%.

Smaller Fish

“With more and more effort, we are getting less and less out of the stocks because the younger fish are caught, which leads to a smaller and smaller growth of the stocks,” said fishery biologist Hjalti i Jakupsstovu.

Under the home-rule agreement with Denmark, the Faeroese control their economy. They remained on their own when Denmark joined the European Common Market in 1973. There are ripples of sentiment that the Faeroes should be an independent country.

“We fully support continued community with the rest of the kingdom,” said Pauli Ellefsen, head of the Unionist Party. “That is natural for a small society.”

But Finance Minister Jongerd Purkus promotes full independence, despite Danish subsidies that totaled almost $40 million this year.

“It is as if your father always paid your rent for you, and then suddenly you have to pay it yourself,” she said. “You don’t think it will work because you have always been dependent, but it works when you have to.”