Tuesday, 16 June 2015 

Actor Ross McCall joins Operation Sleppid GrindiniScottish actor Ross McCall, star of the television shows 24: Live Another Day, White Collar and Band of Brothers, and of the feature films Green Street Hooligans and Green Street 2: Stand Your Ground, has arrived in the Danish Faroe Islands. McCall joins Sea Shepherd as Campaign Co-Leader for the organization’s 2015 Pilot Whale Defense Campaign, Operation Sleppid Grindini.

It is the second consecutive year that McCall will stand alongside Sea Shepherd’s multi-national crews in protection of pilot whales and other small cetaceans targeted in the infamous Faroese drive hunt, known as the ‘grindadráp’ or simply, the ‘grind.’

A dedicated Glasgow Celtic F.C. fan, McCall will use his profile and his passion for football to engage in outreach programs with Faroese youth and the wider community during his time in the islands.

"It was important for me to return to the Faroe Islands for this year’s campaign. Having spent a short amount of time here last year, I felt I had to re-visit to try and shine a brighter light on the tired tradition of the grindadráp. For such a beautiful landscape, an unfortunate stain has tarnished the Faroese shores. I hope to continue dialogue and find a way to educate myself and others into realizing that 'traditions' can be changed for the good of humanity and of our oceans," said McCall.

Having recently completed a host of indie films including Modern Love, The Beautiful Ones, and In Embryo, McCall arrived in the Faroe Islands yesterday afternoon. He was greeted by members of the Sea Shepherd land team, who themselves had arrived in the archipelago over the weekend.

Operation Sleppid Grindini Land Team Leader, Rosie Kunneke, has extended a warm welcome to McCall. “We are incredibly grateful to Ross for dedicating his time and his talents to exposing the horrors of the grind in the Faroe Islands. We welcome Ross back to the Sea Shepherd crew with open arms and look forward to working closely with him to help bring an end to this bloody slaughter,” she said.

For hundreds of years the people of the Faroe Islands have been herding migrating pilot whales from the sea into shallow water and slaughtering them. The grindadráp wipes-out entire family groups of whales and dolphins at one time.

The 2015 killing season started in a horrific manner on Saturday June 6, when 154 pilot whales were slaughtered on Miðvágur beach on the island of Vágar in the northwest of the Faroe Islands. The grind took place prior to the arrival of Sea Shepherd, and was the largest dolphin slaughter in the islands since 2013.

Operation Sleppid Grindini will be Sea Shepherd’s sixth campaign in the Faroe Islands. Led by the Sea Shepherd ships the Bob Barker, Sam Simon and Brigitte Bardot, and supported by a dedicated land team, the campaign marks the organization’s strongest at-sea presence in the region to date.

Land Team Leader, Rosie Kunneke, greets campaign Co-Leader, Ross McCall. 
Photo: Alexandra Bennaceur

Ross McCall reviews strategy with the Operation Sleppid Grindini land team. 
Photo: Alexandra Bennaceur