International 1400 Dolphins killed in 1 day

[ocean size]

Your argument isn't really valid. These people process and distribute the meat to the citizens. They eat the meat and blubber, it actually IS sustainable, you are only suspicious that's it's some grand scale waste as they couldn't possibly process all of it therefore wrong.

America, Canada and western Europe are all highly developed countries yet practice mass slaughter for farming all the time and I promise you it's much worse than this. Despite this we don't turn around and say what you said about them not needing to be dependent on pork or beef because they are a massively wealthy country. It's just a weird argument to make.

The fact is there isn't anything really wrong about this at all. It's just our perceptions of it.

This is what I'm getting at, on any objective ethical measure I struggle to see how one could rage about this while eating grocery store meat. Moving forward I imagine they will be a bit more careful about being manned well enough or taking single pods of this size so animals aren't panicking while corralled for an hour, but even then our conventional food production systems involve even more grotesque shit.

 

[SmilinDesperado]

Your argument isn't really valid. These people process and distribute the meat to the citizens. They eat the meat and blubber, it actually IS sustainable, you are only suspicious that's it's some grand scale waste as they couldn't possibly process all of it therefore wrong.

America, Canada and western Europe are all highly developed countries yet practice mass slaughter for farming all the time and I promise you it's much worse than this. Despite this we don't turn around and say what you said about them not needing to be dependent on pork or beef because they are a massively wealthy country. It's just a weird argument to make.

The fact is there isn't anything really wrong about this at all. It's just our perceptions of it.

At the moment, I am talking about this one day where they killed 1,500---not the entire practice of killing dolphins..
From what I read, they usually kill about 800 a year. (during the summer) And they only killed 35 last year. To do 1,500 in a day, when you're an island of 50,000 people, and it's only used on your small island is an entirely different thing. They aren't selling this stuff to the rest of the world. How are they processing and eating that much meat and blubber in one day, when that's more dolphins than they would normally get in a full year/season?
They didn't even have enough people for the hunt and to kill the animals.

What's the purpose of these Whataboutisms? My criticism of this isn't an endorsement of the mass slaughter and commercial farming in the US, Canada, etc.
Killing for "culture" in 2021 is psycho shit.

 

[ocean size]

Oh OK. Let's just keep killing everything in mass numbers.... it'll always pan out well..

It's a managed fishery mate, and they are limited to what happens to swim nearby so a lot of years go by with close to no dolphins taken followed by a year like this. They are in no danger of putting a significant dent in the white sided dolphin population any time soon.

 

[ocean size]

At the moment, I am talking about this one day where they killed 1,500---not the entire practice of killing dolphins..
From what I read, they usually kill about 800 a year. (during the summer) And they only killed 35 last year. To do 1,500 in a day, when you're an island of 50,000 people, and it's only used on your small island is an entirely different thing.

The 800 refers to pilot whales. They weigh 1000-3000 kg to these dolphins' 100 kg. So this grind only represents a fraction of the total meat yielded in a typical year.

 

[PrinceOfPain]

Other than that though, the Faroe Islands are beautiful.
I assume it's hard to emigrate there? I'd kill a dolphin with my bare hands if needed.

 

[SmilinDesperado]

The 800 refers to pilot whales. They weigh 1000-3000 kg to these dolphins' 100 kg. So this grind only represents a fraction of the total meat yielded in a typical year.

Yes, and that's done over a season. They just did this in one day. They said they didn't have enough people to hunt and kill them, but they have enough people to process all of them?

This is what I'm getting at, on any objective ethical measure I struggle to see how one could rage about this while eating grocery store meat. Moving forward I imagine they will be a bit more careful about being manned well enough or taking single pods of this size so animals aren't panicking while corralled for an hour, but even then our conventional food production systems involve even more grotesque shit.

Your focus seems to be on pointing out hypocrisy. I'm largely a pescatarian myself, and if this was just about people eating animals that I don't think of as food, like dogs, cats, etc, I wouldn't have much of an argument.
My main beef with this is the "culture" reasons, and the wastefulness. It's not a large population of people living there. Are they eating dolphin sandwiches everyday? How much blubber does one use in 2021? Don't these animals have high amounts of mercury in them? I could be completely wrong on this, but it's hard for me to believe that they're routinely eating that much whale on a regular basis. The culture/tradition seem to be a bigger part of it then food.
It feels about as gross and callous as trophy hunting to me. (And my saying that doesn't mean I endorse or don't recognize the problems of commercial farming)

 

[EL CORINTHIAN]

At the moment, I am talking about this one day where they killed 1,500---not the entire practice of killing dolphins..
From what I read, they usually kill about 800 a year. (during the summer) And they only killed 35 last year. To do 1,500 in a day, when you're an island of 50,000 people, and it's only used on your small island is an entirely different thing. They aren't selling this stuff to the rest of the world. How are they processing and eating that much meat and blubber in one day, when that's more dolphins than they would normally get in a full year/season?
They didn't even have enough people for the hunt and to kill the animals.

What's the purpose of these Whataboutisms? My criticism of this isn't an endorsement of the mass slaughter and commercial farming in the US, Canada, etc.
Killing for "culture" in 2021 is psycho shit.

You do realize its very difficult to farm on the Faroe islands right? They aren't exactly self-sustaining. The terrain is rugged as shit and they can't grow a variety of crops.The idea that this "cultural" practice emerged for the fuck of it is a strange one. It's not like these people engage in the hunt and tell themselves "we are practicing culture!" The tradition exists because they needed to in the past. And yes they still need to today. Culture is a form of wisdom passed down to the future generations with a purpose and it's serving them well in this instance.

I also find it odd that to you it's worse that they aren't globally shipping this meat but instead keeping it for themselves. I think it's obvious they aren't eating it in one day. They process, distribute and preserve the meat. Are you under the assumption that they are having some grand feast?

 

[Anewt]

It's a managed fishery mate, and they are limited to what happens to swim nearby so a lot of years go by with close to no dolphins taken followed by a year like this. They are in no danger of putting a significant dent in the white sided dolphin population any time soon.

I don't like the fisheries as a whole mate. There's been countless " wild " species that it's fine to hunt and slaughter in bulk. Yet there's also countless animals that are now endangered due to this mentality. Not a fan. Doesn't matter to me if it's a " common " species or not.

I'm not a fan of factory farming either.

But as to your point

But the size of this year’s hunt — which conservationists estimate is the largest in Faroese history, and possibly the largest single-day hunt ever worldwide — may be too much to feed the rocky archipelago’s population of around 50,000 people.

“Normally meat from a grindadrap is shared among the participants and any remainder among the locals in the district where the hunt took place,” the Sea Shepherd conservation group, which has been campaigning to stop the traditional Faroese “Grind” hunt since the 1980s, said. “However there is more dolphin meat from this hunt than anyone wants to take, so the dolphins are being offered to other districts in the hopes of not having to dump it.”

The chairman of the Faroese Whalers Association, Olavur Sjurdarberg, told the BBC that the hunters underestimated the size of the pod, only realizing their error when they began killing the dolphins.

It was a big mistake,” said Sjurdarberg, who did not participate in the hunt. “When the pod was found, they estimated it to be only 200 dolphins.” He said most people were “in shock about what happened.”

Many Faroese consider whale and dolphin meat to be an important part of their food culture and history, dating back to when they first settled the remote islands, although even those who defend the practice worry the size of this year’s hunt will draw unwanted attention.

Killing white-sided dolphins is “legal but it’s not popular,” Sjurdur Skaale, a Danish lawmaker for the Faroe Islands, told the BBC. He visited the beach where the killings took place to speak to locals on Monday. “People were furious,” he said.


Currently whaling is regulated by the Faroese authorities, which is represented by the Home Rule Government since 1948.[5] Around 800 long-finned pilot whales[6] and some Atlantic white-sided dolphins[7] are slaughtered annually during the summer season. The hunts, called Grindadráp in Faroese, are non-commercial and are organized on a community level between the 17 islands of the archipelago. The police and Grindaformenn (foremen of the grind during the hunt), are allowed to remove people from the grind area.[5]

The locals were furious..... " Some Atlantic white-sided dolphins "

Meat is intended to feed local families, however, in the case of the present slaughter, it is likely that there will be too much to feed the 53,000 island inhabitants - meaning a large portion could be wasted.

Licences are required for dolphin and whale hunting in the Faroe Islands to ensure hunters are trained in how to quickly kill the mammals, in order to prevent suffering.

However, the present hunt has also come under fire for breaking several Faroese laws. Many have argued the event was unauthorised and that a great number of participants this weekend were unlawfully involved in the hunt.

Usually reluctant to publish anything against the tradition, the scale of the current slaughter has also caused Faroese news outlets to speak out against the practice, with Hans Jacob Hermansen, a former chairman of the hunt calling the kill unnecessary.

Yeah.... keep defending it while even the locals are outraged.... good stuff mate.

 

[Anewt]

In 2013, a total of 1524 cetaceans were killed: 1104 pilot whales and 430 white-sided dolphins.[87]

In 2014, at total of 53 cetaceans were killed: 48 pilot whales and 5 northern bottlenose whales which stranded by themselves and after that were butchered for food.[86]

In 2017,[88] 1203 pilot whales were killed, and 488 white sided dolphins.

In 2018,[88] a total of 624 pilot whales, and 256 white-sided dolphins were killed. 5 bottlenose whales have also been caught during the spring and summer drives.

In 2019,[88] 682 pilot whales and 10 white-sided dolphins were killed and also 2 bottlenose whales.

No accident you say... completely normal you say ? Ffs

 

[ocean size]

The culture/tradition seem to be a bigger part of it then food.

I dunno man, I don't see that as such a negative as long as it isnt causing an extinction, or involves eating them alive or something. Culture is important and certainly intersects meaningfully with food. If they are averaging a 2-3 kilos of whale sandwich per person per year, I wouldn't insist they need to swap that for imported lunch meat.

In terms of processing, if they intended to get it done, I'm sure their is a cold store on island if they were getting time limited.

However I'll be happy to stand corrected if I learn that they actually waste most and could have let half the pod go.

 

[SammyPops]

There should be a worldwide outpouring of rage against this shit . !
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newsweek.com/horrific-footage-shows-1500-dolphins-slaughtered-largest-massacre-ever-recorded-1628871?amp=1

agreed. Awful.

 

[SmilinDesperado]

You do realize its very difficult to farm on the Faroe islands right? They aren't exactly self-sustaining. The terrain is rugged as shit and they can't grow a variety of crops.The idea that this "cultural" practice emerged for the fuck of it is a strange one. It's not like these people engage in the hunt and tell themselves "we are practicing culture!" The tradition exists because they needed to in the past. And yes they still need to today. Culture is a form of wisdom passed down to the future generations with a purpose and it's serving them well in this instance.

I also find it odd that to you it's worse that they aren't globally shipping this meat but instead keeping it for themselves. I think it's obvious they aren't eating it in one day. They process, distribute and preserve the meat. Are you under the assumption that they are having some grand feast?

When did I say the cultural practice emerged for the fuck of it?
It's 2021, and we aren't beholden to cultural practices of 400 years ago. We get our food from all over the world today.
As I said, if this was just about food, that would be a different discussion.
I'm sure I can think of a lot of cultures that you wouldn't consider "wisdom" today that need to be passed down.

My issue is mostly about waste. So if they were shipping the meat, at the very least, it would be feeding hungry people. I'd rather that, than it just going to waste, or it being killed to "pass on wisdom".
Obviously, I'm not saying they eat it all in one day as a grand feast. But if they didn't have enough people to hunt and kill the animals in the first place, how would they have enough people to process the meat, which would take far longer?

 

[SmilinDesperado]

I dunno man, I don't see that as such a negative as long as it isnt causing an extinction, or involves eating them alive or something. Culture is important and certainly intersects meaningfully with food. If they are averaging a 2-3 kilos of whale sandwich per person per year, I wouldn't insist they need to swap that for imported lunch meat.

In terms of processing, if they intended to get it done, I'm sure their is a cold store on island if they were getting time limited.

However I'll be happy to stand corrected if I learn that they actually waste most and could have let half the pod go.

Fair enough, I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.
I don't think all culture is worth preserving though, and I think most people would agree with that on some level.
I would be curious for a followup to the story to see if they actually were able to process it all. I'm guessing they're going to want to keep that under wraps though so that they don't get any more unwanted public attention.

 

[D3THRONED]

God I fucking despise humans more and more each day.

 

[EL CORINTHIAN]

When did I say the cultural practice emerged for the fuck of it?
It's 2021, and we aren't beholden to cultural practices of 400 years ago. We get our food from all over the world today.
As I said, if this was just about food, that would be a different discussion.
I'm sure I can think of a lot of cultures that you wouldn't consider "wisdom" today that need to be passed down.

My issue is mostly about waste. So if they were shipping the meat, at the very least, it would be feeding hungry people. I'd rather that, than it just going to waste, or it being killed to "pass on wisdom".
Obviously, I'm not saying they eat it all in one day as a grand feast. But if they didn't have enough people to hunt and kill the animals in the first place, how would they have enough people to process the meat, which would take far longer?

You implied it when you disassociated the culture/tradition with the need for food. I already explained to you how difficult it is for them to farm and their reliance on surrounding wildlife. You can't just isolate culture from their needs. Tradition isn't produced in a vacuum. These people practically live off of this shit and yes they eat dolphin sandwiches everyday.

"We get our food from all over the world today." And you think freighting over food to a relatively isolated chain of islands that carry meat from industries doing the exact same thing but on a grander scale is somehow more efficient than just hunting locally?

If primary issue with this is waste then your argument is incredibly weak. The meat is distributed amongst the population, the meat can be aged for years, blubber is used for cooking/eating. Im not really sure why this isn't registering. It's not wasteful.

The biggest issue as far as I can see is the mercury levels. Despite the levels though they continue to eat it. Outside of that there really isn't any reason this is unethical. You are just grasping for straws at this point.

 

[WhiteMousse]

Why — because they are cute? Sounds like this particular hunt was botched, but they aren't an endangered species. If you mean because they are intelligent, you should probably be spending that energy decrying the US slaughtering over 250,000 pigs with similar intelligence levels, every day of the year.

I think the suffering of pigs is reprehensible. They're extremely intelligent, and feel love and pain. The hell that we unleash upon them is begging for a karma kick

 

[Cid]

Either they're pieces of shit letting the animals go to waste (highly likely given population numbers)

Or they're fucking morons consuming massive amounts of mercury because of outdated traditions.




Hopefully the latter, but probably the former.

 

[SmilinDesperado]

You implied it when you disassociated the culture/tradition with the need for food. I already explained to you how difficult it is for them to farm and their reliance on surrounding wildlife. You can't just isolate culture from their needs. Tradition isn't produced in a vacuum. These people practically live off of this shit and yes they eat dolphin sandwiches everyday.

"We get our food from all over the world today." And you think freighting over food to a relatively isolated island chain of islands that carry meat from industries doing the exact same thing but on a grander scale is somehow more efficient than just hunting locally?

If primary issue with this is waste then your argument is incredibly weak. The meat is distributed amongst the population, the meat can be aged for years, blubber is used for cooking/eating. Im not really sure why this isn't registering. It's not wasteful.

The biggest issue as far as I can see is the mercury levels. Despite the levels though they continue to eat it. Outside of that there really isn't any reason this is unethical. You are just grasping for straws at this point.

That wasn't what I was implying.
Do you think the year is 1840? The US imports about 30% of its vegetables and about half of its fruit. There are plenty of island nations that don't have sprawling farm land and wildlife.
I'm not making an argument for what is better, I'm just shutting down this argument that their only choice is whale and dolphin or they starve to death. They aren't some tribal island that is disconnected from the rest of the modern world. They are not just subsiding on dolphin sandwiches, dolphin casserole, and sauted dolphin blubber. But that's a separate argument altogether.

You're trying to read into more than what I am presently arguing.
We are talking about this particular day where they killed 1,500. If they didn't have enough people to hunt, how could they have enough people to process?
And I am curious if you found something that talked about their eating habits.
In something I read, it doesnt seem to be what you said. Granted, the information is dated. And when I checked the official site, they don't have this particular information there anymore.

In the FAQ (18 February 2014) it is stated: “Whale drives in the Faroe Islands take place to provide food (whale meat and blubber).”

This is a very interesting statement. “…to provide food…” suggests pilot whale (meat and blubber) is an essential and substantial part of the Faroese diet. In the link on this page, “Revised dietary recommendation, 1 June 2011” we find:

• “Adults should eat at most one meal of pilot whale meat and blubber per month.”
• “Special recommendations for women and girls:
• Girls and women should refrain entirely from eating blubber as long as they are still planning to have children.
• Women who are planning pregnancy within the next three months, who are pregnant or who are breastfeeding should refrain from eating whale meat.”
• “The kidneys and liver of pilot whales should not be eaten.”

https://seashepherd.org/2014/06/27/why-are-whales-and-dolphins-killed-in-the-faroe-islands/

https://www.whaling.fo/en/q-a/

I'm not seeing how they are avoiding damage from mercury if all they've been eating is whale and dolphin for the past few generations.
If there are dolphins and whales in the water, then there are also fish and other seafood.

 

[DizzyKronic]

It’s HUMANS that need to have their population reduced, not animals.

 

[Broken arrow]

Fuck man I’m not clicking that link