Sea Shepherd Supporter Files Police Claim Against the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

At 10:15 on the 31st of August, Sea Shepherd supporter Peter Manthos from Vejle, Denmark filed a police claim against the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for failure to abide by the Berne Convention by allowing the Faeroese pilot whale slaughter to continue.

The police claim reads “I hereby wish to report the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for violation of the Bern Convention (also known as the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats) for allowing to occur, and not preventing, the killing of pilot whales in waters governed under Danish law”.

Every summer, hundreds, and oftentimes thousands, of pilot whales are deliberately stranded in the Faeroe Islands in a cruel method of whaling known as the grind. Their spinal cords are severed with knives.

Pilot whales are strictly protected under the Berne Convention, of which Denmark is a signatory.

Sea Shepherd is particularly concerned with Chapter 3, Article 6 of the Bern Convention which prohibits “all forms of deliberate capture and keeping and deliberate killing” as well as the “internal trade in these animals, alive or dead”.

Also, Chapter 5, Article 10, Section 2, requires all co-signatories to co-ordinate the protection of species [including the pilot whale] whose range extends into their territories”.

The Faeroe Islands are a territory of Denmark, the Faeroese people are Danish citizens, and therefore the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark is in violation of the Berne Convention.

Peter Manthos filed his police complaint at the police station in his native town of Vejle.

Earlier this year, Vejle was made famous when a 15 meter long fin whale stranded in a Danish fjord.

“All of Denmark followed the struggle of this one whale and huge effort was made to reintroduce her to sea. I can’t believe that only 600 miles from Vejle are other Danes who kill every cetacean they come across”, says Peter Manthos.

Sea Shepherd supports Peter Manthos in his efforts to enforce international conservation law in the Faeroe Islands.