Olofson, however, says that the hunts are as humane as possible, and that the authorities plan them carefully.

I have a small permission card that allows me to take part in the grind. Only those who have followed a training are allowed to kill the whales. The course teaches you things like how to identify different whales, the whale anatomy, and how to use the different tools on the whale.





This is a picture of Silas Olofson’s license that authorises him to take part in the grind.

All of the meat is eaten and the blubber is eaten. In the Faroe Islands it’s virtually impossible to grow vegetables apart from potatoes, and our locally produced meats are fish, sheep and whale. Of course, we import meat from other countries like Iceland, but that’s much worse for the environment because of the transport.

It annoys us when we have these Sea Shepherd activists coming in and telling us we shouldn’t kill them. We don’t feel bad about it. These animals weren’t living in a cage before, they’ve had a good life. We’ve been doing this for thousands of years. When I was a kid we were hunting a lot more. Whale meat was an important part of the Faroese household and still is to this very day, even though the economic situation here has vastly improved since and we import more food.

‘It’s not pleasant. Would you slaughter sheep for fun?’

It’s not a sport. It’s not exactly pleasant to be a part of. Would you slaughter sheep for fun? But of course, you’re happy when it’s done, and you can chop off the nice whale beef and make a nice dinner, and you may have 20 kilos of meat in your freezer so you have food for the winter. But it’s never a nice experience to put a knife into an animal and kill it.





Screengrabs from our activist Observer's Facebook Lives, published on the Sea Shepherd's Facebook page.

It’s not commercialised. The person who spotted the whale pod is rewarded with either the biggest whale or the two smallest ones, and they get to choose which they want. If only a small number of whales are killed, the meat is shared between those who participated in the killing. If there is more, the meat is given to the elderly and to hospitals, and if there is even more it is distributed in the village where the grind happened, and everyone who wants some can come and get their share.

If there’s more than that, then other villages around on the island can get their share too. Last year, we had seven whale killings in this village, which meant that the meat was distributed all over the Faroe Islands, even to the southernmost island, which hasn’t had killings in 10 years or so.

Unfortunately, I think that whale hunting will decrease. All of the trash in the ocean is damaging the whales. It’s tragic that we as human beings have contaminated this product and the sea so much that we are not even able to live off it.

The whales being gutted. Screengrab from a video posted on the Sea Shepherd's Facebook page.

‘It’s part of our culture’

All of my three children have seen whale killings. My second oldest daughter’s favourite dish is whale meat. In Europe, killing an animal has become so unfamiliar to people. They are used to eating meat coming out of plastic in a shop. It’s very convenient for them – they don’t need to think about the reality of slaughterhouses. But in the Faroe Islands we live in the middle of nowhere and we need to get a huge part of our meat ourselves. It’s part of our culture and the way we get our food.