A cruise line has apologized to its passengers after one of their ships arrived in the middle of a whale hunt where dozens of the animals were being slaughtered.
Why even hunt whales in the first place? Sure, it's one big food source when you snag one, but people who have tried whale say it's bland and uninteresting. It's just a bunch of fat. And it takes a lot of effort to kill it, haul it, parse it out, etc.
Fish farms give you much more good quality meat without all of the species endangerment.
There are certain very small remote communities in the far north that are isolated and hard to reach. Whale and seal hunting provides a guaranteed food source for these small communities so that they don't have to depend on incredibly expensive (both resource and moneywise) imports. The Faroe Islands is not one of those places because obviously a cruise ship can easily get to it.
I mean it's partly the passengers desires that lead them there, cruise lines don't just pick arbitrary ports, they go where people want.
They shouldn't have apologized at all, they should have just been like "and this is what Faroe is like at this time of year, you're welcome that we were able to show you this unique experience"
Cruiselines should f off anyway, because we're at the start of an ever growing climate crisis and cruise ships are the worst carbon emitters of all passenger transports. Those meat eating hypocrites aboard need a lesson in how we treat animals and the planet these days.
Well yeah that is what I was talking about, though the articles I saw didn‘t mention any reason at all and if they had said "shits and giggles" I‘d be even more sceptical of that, since I don‘t think animals really fight without a reason.
Now here is where we get to my wild conspiracy theory, I think aquatic species may not like boats, who they can see killing their species or hunting their food sources. Then they react to a predator, so either they flee or attack. Orcas being some of the bigger ones are probably the few who stand any chance whatsoever fighting, so they might try sometimes.
Which made me feel a bit more like at least I‘m not the only one who sees this possibility and also gave me more of an idea of why I might want to see this so much (I think there is an injustice happening).
I mean, the cruise ship and its inhabitants are "guests" so I'm not sure where they get off telling the locals what to do?
While I certainly don't condone hunting and killing whales (I also don't eat meat for the same reasons, ie. animals shouldn't have to suffer just so they can tantalize our taste buds), if these are local customs and it's not harming the environment then maybe people shouldn't be all high-and-mighty about it. Especially if they are chowing down on veal, lamb, or any meat for their meals.
Considering where these people live, I'm guessing historically speaking being fully vegetarian may not have been an option, so I wouldn't really judge them too harshly for customs that were likely built around survival as much as anything else. But maybe I'm off base, just guessing really.
Yeah, if the people on the cruise genuinely cared about the environment, they wouldn't be on a cruise, it's one of the most polluting ways to see the world, it not only directly hurts the ocean and everything in it, and everyone who depends on it (and not many people actually do any more, and like you say, most of those on board are probably eating animals), but the air too, and in a potential shift to battery powered ships, whatever damage making those causes, as well as other shit like by bringing covid to islands.
Blaming the destruction of the ocean on islanders sustaining themselves and not on the companies dumping garbage and pouring sewage and oil and god knows what else in to the sea, and the people who literally profit from dong that (like from them, on the cruise), is quite foul.
i agree. some values are universal, like what should be considered cruel, but slaughtering pigs is pretty cruel too (i eat them anyways!). to me, what's funny here is how privileged first world people just hate to see how the hot dog is made, so to speak.
it's like privileged people hating to simply see homeless people in cities even though the system that makes people homeless is necessary to keep the high property values that they benefit from. the mere witness of the cruelty we benefit from in modern society makes the privileged one feel like a victim.
Indeed. The reason hunting whales etc. could be seen as unethical is because we were driving them to extinction, which doesn't seem to be the case here. Any other lines that people draw for themselves about what animals we should / shouldn't eat is completely arbitrary.
Yeah, I'm a vegan but I don't bother telling you bloodmouths what I really think of you. It won't change your mind and will only make me frustrated if I let myself give a shit.
I'm on the Faroe islands right now. This isn't exactly a climate or geology fit for large scale farming, so you're right in that being a vegetarian would have been rough here. Even now quality veggies seem hard to find in the small villages. Everything needs to be imported.
Not saying I approve, but there's carve outs when the whaling is part of a local tradition. Also, Pilot Whales are in the Least Concern category, so they're not going extinct from this.
They shouldn't have apologized at all. Should have just said something akin to: "This is Faroe at this time of year, you're lucky we were able to arrive in time to witness this unique experience"... passengers can make up their mind if they still want that as a port.
Protection only goes so far and is basically in enforced since no one is going to be willing to go to war to enforce these regs. Look at what the Japanese do.. These hunts also use boats to herd them into inlets that are not in international waters for slaughter.
Additionally the folks in the Faroe Islands may have some type of exemption for certain things as they consider whaling a part of their culture/cultural traditions.
Wealthy, coddled city-dwellers---for each of whom thousands of animals, bred for fatness and compliance, are raised in factories and systematically slaughtered---upset to witness sustainable, traditional harvest practices. Floating corporate safety bubble apologises for failing to protect their naivete.
Nah this article was just written up in a way to hit at the cruise line and not the people murdering the whales.
Cruise lines need to update their practices and figure out ways to not impact the environment.
That said, the writer knew people would dislike hearing/seeing imagery of whaling and instead of using that agaisnt those performing the act they backed down because they likely worried about calling out a cultural history being wrong, so they took the safe route