78 Whales Slaughtered In Front Of Passengers In Faroe Islands, Cruise Ship Apologises

Thousands of cruise ship passengers were left horrified after several pilot whales were slaughtered in front of them on July 9, ABC News reported. The next day, British cruise ship operator Ambassador Cruise Line took to Twitter to apologize to the passengers for docking in the Faroe Islands at the same time a group carried out its regular hunting of pilot whales. 

As per Yahoo News Australia, 78 long-finned pilot whales, a species of oceanic dolphins were killed near the capital of Torshavn on Sunday. Notably, the mass slaughter of pilot whales is a centuries-old hunting tradition in the Faroe Islands. 

ORCA, a marine life advocacy group that seeks to protect whales and dolphins in European waters confirmed that some of its conservationists were also on the ship with tourists when the killings took place.

In a series of tweets, Ambassador Cruise Line apologised for the gruesome incident and wrote, "We strongly object to this outdated practice, and have been working with our partner, ORCA, a charity dedicated to studying and protecting whales, dolphins and purposes in the U.K. and European waters, to encourage change since 2021.''

See the thread here:

1. Ambassador can confirm that the arrival of Ambition in Torshavn in the Faroe Islands today coincided with the culmination of a hunt of 40+pilot whales in the port area. We were incredibly disappointed that this hunt occurred at the time that our ship was in port.

— ambassadorcruiseline (@ambassadorcruis) July 10, 2023

''Sustainability is one of Ambassador Cruise Line's core values, and we fully appreciate that witnessing this local event would have been distressing for the majority of guests onboard. Accordingly, we would like to sincerely apologise to them for any undue upset,'' they wrote in another tweet.

Ambassador CEO Christian Verhounig also added, “We are dedicated to supporting ORCA in their endeavours to collect data and to monitor whales and dolphins and we are extremely disappointed that this has happened after weeks of trying to open constructive dialogue with the Faroese government and Visit Faroes on these issues.

We continue to educate our guests and crew not to buy or eat any whale or dolphin meat and stand against any profiteering from commercial whaling and dolphin hunts.”

According to Visit Faroe Islands, about 800 whales are killed annually and meat is distributed among those who participate.

Activists and conservationists have been against the controversial whaling practice for years, calling it ''unsustainable and cruel.''

Long-finned pilot whales are one of the largest members of the dolphin family, second in size to the killer whale. According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, they measure 19 to 25 feet long and can weigh up to 5,000 pounds.