The heroes

The Numbers Tell the Story of Sea Shepherd's Successful Summer in the Faroe Islands

Commentary by Captain Paul Watson

The men and woman volunteers for Grindstop 2014 have done an incredible job this summer and their success and effectiveness can be measured in numbers.

A quick review of the kill records will illustrate just how effective they have been.

These are the kill figures for the last five years (Taken directly from official Faroese records)

- 2009 (June - September): 180

- 2010 (June - September): 964

- 2011 (June - September): 103

- 2012 (June - September): 338

- 2013 (June - September): 1360

The Kill figures for 2014 (June1st – September 1st): 33 Pilot whales and 5 beached Beak Whales. Total 38

The last time that Sea Shepherd was in the Faroese was the summer of 2011. The total kill during that period was 103 and the kill took place only a couple of days after the Sea Shepherd crews left. No whales were killed in July and August while the Sea Shepherd ships and crew were in the islands. We did not cover the area for the month of September.

Last summer (s2013) the kills between June 1st and September 1st were 1136

21/07/13 Viðvík: Long-finned pilot whale: 125

30/07/13 Fuglafjørður: Long-finned pilot whale: 267

08/08/13 Sandavágur: Long-finned pilot whale: 107

11/08/13 Leynar : Long-finned pilot whale: 21

13/08/13 Húsavík: Long-finned pilot whale: 135

13/08/13 Hvalba : White-sided dolphin: 430

27/08/13 Hvalvík/Streymnes: Long-finned pilot whale: 51

This summer Sea Shepherd diverted four pods of whales away from the Islands. The first pod involved going out to divert a pod the whalers had spotted but did not pursue because of the bad weather. Sea Shepherd boats drove the whales out of the fjord despite the weather. That pod was estimated at about 100 whales.

The next three pods that were diverted were done before the whalers became aware of them and from offshore. As the whales approached they were spotted by the land based look-out. Sea Shepherd boats intercepted them and drove them back out to sea.

The first of the three pods were 80 pilot whales driven away from Harraldsund on July 30th.

The second pod of around 30 were driven out from east of Gota on Eysturoy Island on August 24th.

The third pod of about 30 driven away from and area east of Vagur on Suduroy Island on August 26th.

So potentially the Sea shepherd crew were able to keep 240 pilot whales away from the islands.

Would they have been killed? Maybe yes, maybe no, but Sea Shepherd made sure they absolutely would not be killed. In the case of the initial pod of 100 that the whalers knew about, Sea Shepherd is quite certain those whales would have died and the Grind foreman was extremely angry the next day when they were deprived of their “kill.”

No one has ever been charged with interrupting a whale kill in the Faroes. The new law has never been tested. The six land based crew will test it tomorrow in court. They will not make a plea bargain, they will not attempt to defend their intervention by saying anything but the truth, and the truth is they were there to do what they could to stop the slaughter of a pod of pilot whales.

Since the arrests, a good number of applications have been received from people wanting to join Grindstop 2014. Compassionate people are never deterred, and the people on the ground and on the boats have had their commitment reinvigorated by what they saw and heard yesterday. 

They saw and smelt the hot blood of an entire family of whales and they heard the screams as they saw the bodies thrashing about in unimaginable agony, they endured the hostility, the threats, the insults and they were physically revolted by the obscene sight of men, women and children cheering as they witnessed the life blood of the whales spurting out and oozing onto the sand of an island seemingly devoid of empathy, compassion and kindness.

Last night as Rosie Kunneke and some of her team were returning on the ferry from Sandoy to Torshaven, they had smirking Faorese citizens in their faces, taking close-up of pictures of them, giving them the finger and laughing. Rosie and her team said nothing, just smiled.

Later she told me, “They really thought they had won and they took the opportunity to vent against us. We said nothing and just smiled. I was proud of what my crew had done, proud of their courage and their dedication and although the whalers managed to kill 33 whales with the support of the Danish Navy, we had saved many more this summer and we knew that, and they did not, and it did not matter if they did or not, because our satisfaction is in knowing that there are whales out there that they did not get, because we have been here all summer.”

Photo: Sea Shepherd land and boat teams after being released from jail in Torshaven, Faroe Islands.