Get Tanked Scuba
  • Coral Reef ID
    • Fish
    • Reptiles & Mammals
    • Invertebrates
    • Corals & Sponges
    • Sharks & Rays
  • Certifications
  • Logbook
    • Dive Sites
    • Non-Pro Dive Logs
  • Photos
    • Boat Trip 2011
    • Paintings
    • Videos
  • Bahamas
  • AXA - Anguilla
  • SAB - Saba
  • SXM - St Martin
  • Bio
    • About This Website
  • Contact

The Grind, or Annual Whale Murders 

8/10/2012

1 Comment

 
Today marked the commencement of the murder of hundreds of Pilot Whales in the North Atlantic.  It is an event that takes place every year called “The Grind,” in the Faroe Islands (part of Denmark).  This event is the annual stranding and slaughtering of Pilot Whales.  Each summer about 950 Long Finned Pilot Whales are murdered, an ancient tradition that dates back to Norse ancestry.  
Picture
source: www.facebook.com




The Faroese compile their boats in a semicircle, pushing the whales to the bottom of the fjord and towards shore.  Once the mammals are beached, they are murdered with a special knife, a grindaknivur used to cut the dorsal area through to the spinal cord.  The length of death takes anywhere from a few seconds to …minutes.  While murdering hundreds of mammals, the Faroese sing Raske drenge, grind at dræbe det er vor lyst, translation: tough boys, to slay the grind that’s our desire. Keep in mind in 1985 harpooning and spearing was made illegal because it was cruel to the mammals.


Picture
source: www.wdcs-na.org
The Grind seems to be a modern bastardization of tradition, as in Bequia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines they also have an annual whaling season.  But they only kill a whale or two each year, if they can catch any (which does not happen yearly), and use ancient techniques, of jumping off a long hand crafted canoe with a spear, endangering the humans, as much as the whale in the process.

It should be noted that even the Faroese authorities have released statements saying Pilot Whales are not safe for human consumption because of the high toxins in their meat.  Yet continue to eat this poisonous meat because it is rich in social and cultural identity.

The tradition is engrained into the small Nordic islands’ culture, society and identity, but killing pregnant, pups and unborn whales from the womb of whales certainly cannot be a point of enlightenment.  Pilot Whales are also not the only cetacean that may be murdered, the list also includes, Bottlenose Dolphin (like flipper), White-Breaked Dolphin, Atlantic White-Sided Dolphin and Harbour Porpoise.

Picture
Picture
1 Comment

    Author

    Picture

    Archives

    January 2013
    December 2012
    August 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011

    Categories

    All
    Bioluminescence
    Bonefish
    Bubble Netting
    Bycatch
    Canada
    Cayman Trough
    Conservation
    Coral Bleaching
    Coral Reef
    Coral Reef Fish
    Coral Reefs
    Crustaceans
    D.A.N Insurance
    Dead Zones
    Diversity
    Dolphin
    Dolphins
    Echolocation
    Ecotourism
    Eleuthera
    Extinction
    Fish
    Fishing
    Florida
    Hazardous Marine Life
    Immortal Jellyfish
    Inspirational People
    Interspecies Communication
    In The Media
    Invasive Species
    Jellyfish
    Key Largo
    Key West
    Killer Whale
    Lionfish
    Living Oceans Foundation
    Manatee
    Marine Birds
    Marine Mammals
    Marine Predators
    Marine Protected Area
    Marlin
    Medicine
    Misconceptions
    Murder
    Nassau
    New Species
    Ocean
    Ocean Acidification
    Oil Spill
    Origin Of The Ocean
    Overfishing
    Pilot Whale
    Plastics In The Oceans
    Pollution
    Population Decline
    Population Decrease
    Population Increase
    Products From The Ocean
    Project Aware
    Protected List
    Quiz
    Renewable Energy
    Robotic Fish
    Saturation Diving
    Save The Sharks
    Sea Turtles
    Shark Attacks
    Shark Finning
    Sharks
    Should Be Illegal
    Solutions
    Spanish Wells
    Spearfishing
    Sponges
    Submersed Laboratory
    Symbiotic Relationship
    The Bahamas
    The Ocean
    Threat
    Toronto
    Tuna
    Tuna Tagging
    Turtles
    Turtle Tagging
    Types Of Coral
    Use Of Tools
    Wastewater
    Water Energy
    Whales
    Whale Song Project
    Whaling
    Wrasse
    Zooxanthellae

    RSS Feed


Eleuthera, The Bahamas | Updated: June 2014
Picture
Picture