Pilot whales slaughtered in the Faeroes in 2010
photo: Sofia JonssonApproximately 50 to 100 defenseless pilot whales were driven into a fjord at Vestmanna in the Faeroe Islands around noon today where every adult male, female, and calf was barbarically massacred in an orgy of blood that stained the waters a deep scarlet.

This shameful atrocity followed in the recent wake of Sea Shepherd’s departure from the Faeroes after successfully preventing all bloodshed for multiple months during Operation Ferocious Isles Pilot Whale Defense Campaign. Sea Shepherd’s limited budget dictated that we could only spend two months in the Faeroes and not a single whale was killed during this time.

During the months of July and August 2011 when Sea Shepherd vessels the Steve Irwin and the Brigitte Bardot were in the area, the Faeroese police advised all of the local communities to not kill any whales. It is estimated that 668 pilot whales were slain in the Faeroes during July and August 2010, compared to zero during the same months this year as a result of Sea Shepherd’s presence.

“I think that the Faeroese whalers are craven cowards,” said Captain Paul Watson. “They did not kill a single whale when we were there. They waited, knowing we would eventually have to leave, and within a week of our departure, they resumed their grisly and barbaric ritual of cruel and horrific slaughter. I have only one word to describe these killers and that word is – cowards.”

The killings today have vindicated Sea Shepherd’s presence and tactics in the Faeroes this summer. It is quite evident that if the Sea Shepherd ships and crew had not been in the isles for the past two months, hundreds of whales would have likely been butchered.

“They will now sit down to their mercury poisoned meal of whale flesh and blubber and they will snigger and boast of the lives they have so cruelly taken,” said Chief Cook and crewmember Laura Dakin of Australia. “It is easy to kill the defenseless, the babies and mothers, so easy to massacre creatures that can’t fight back. These men are pathetic cowards.”

Sea Shepherd plans to return to the Faeroes Islands next year in the summer of 2012 to once again patrol the waters in defense of the defenseless.

Learn more at our Operation Ferocious Isles site