Thousands of cruise ship passengers were left horrified after several pilot whales were slaughtered on July 9, ABC News reported. The next day, British cruise ship operator Ambassador Cruise Line took to Twitter to apologize to the passengers for docking in the Faroe Islands at the same time a group carried out its regular hunting of pilot whales. During Sunday’s hunt, a fleet of small boats and jet skis herded 78 long-finned pilot whales—a species of oceanic dolphins—into shallow waters, where they were killed. The cruise ship’s passengers witnessed the gruesome killings as it arrived in Torshavn, the capital of the 18-island archipelago.
The slaughter, part of the centuries-old tradition of hunting for food known as Grindadrap, is illegal under European Union law and incredibly cruel to marine mammals, according to activists. The Blue Planet Society, a volunteer pressure group, calls it “sickening torture” that “should not have happened anywhere in the world.”
However, the Faroe Islands’ local government has long defended the hunt. A Faroese whale expert says the hunt is “part of our heritage and culture” and that he’s proud to see more tourists visiting the area. The islands are halfway between Norway and Iceland and have been a popular spot for nature lovers, thanks to the dramatic landscape of jagged mountains, glistening fjords, and quaint villages.
Passengers aboard the Ambition, a ship owned by Ambassador Cruise Line, were shocked to find themselves in the gruesome slaughter of pilot whales when their ship docked in Torshavn. The company’s CEO issued a statement expressing its “deep disappointment” that the ship was there at the same time as the slaughter, and it said it could not prevent the event from taking place. It called on the Faroese government to address the issue and urged crew members and passengers not to purchase whale meat.
In addition to its apology, Ambassador Cruise Line has a separate tweet that reads, “We strongly object to this outdated practice. We ask the Faroe Islands to take immediate action.”
A representative from Ambassador Cruise Line tells Insider that it doesn’t believe boycotting the Faroe Islands will do much to stop the hunting of the dolphins. “Visiting allows us to apply pressure, whereas boycotting is the end of our influence and impact,” they say. “We continue to urge visitors to make a difference by not purchasing whale meat.”
The representative would only respond to a request for comment within business hours from NPR. The Faroe Islands are a semi-autonomous region of Denmark. Still, they’re not currently part of the European Union, so their whaling practices will likely continue until the EU decides to change that. In the meantime, some cruise companies have been removing trips to the Faroe Islands from their offerings, and some are even refusing to book voyages that visit.
