Whale hunting in the Faroe Islands (may be distressing for some readers)

[ChuckElias]

This was in the news last week. I'm sharing it only because I was on a DCL sailing in 2015 and the Faroe Islands were on the itinerary when we booked. However, the stop was removed from the itinerary and was replaced with Kirkwall, Scotland. And I'm sure that it was replaced for EXACTLY this reason. I was excited to visit the Faroe Islands because that was probably my one chance ever to see them. But in hindsight, I'm glad we didn't go.

Before you click the link, please be aware that the story contains a couple of pictures that may be upsetting.

Cruise line apologizes after dozens of whales slaughtered in front of passengers

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.

abcnews.go.com

If a moderator thinks this is inappropriate for the forum and removes this thread, I will 100% understand. But it is cruise news and DCL did at one time have it as a port of call, so I thought people might be interested.

 

[nickys]

If DCL stopped cruising to the Faroe Islands solely for this reason, then why does it still cruise to Canada, the US (Alaska), Iceland and Norway?

 

[MaryJaneP]

Optics

 

[King Panda 77]

If DCL stopped cruising to the Faroe Islands solely for this reason, then why does it still cruise to Canada, the US (Alaska), Iceland and Norway?

Heck they even visited here the once . So they really aren't fussy

 

[nickys]

Heck they even visited here the once . So they really aren't fussy

Is there a wry smile emoji?

Seriously, maybe the other countries don’t carry out whaling in the areas that cruise ships go. It could be that simple, that the Faroes only have the one port and being so small there’s no way to separate the cruise ships from the hunting areas.

 

[ChuckElias]

The problem for the cruise line (any cruise line) is not that there's whaling. They just don't want 3,000 passengers puking over the railing because the harbor is red.

 

[jaklgreen]

People need to do their research about the culture of the places that they are visiting. The whales have been a food staple for hundreds of years. They use everything that they take and don't do this for sport. It is disturbing to see in person but they don't schedule it. They take the opportunity when the whales come into their bay. Sonny did a show about it if anyone is interested in the local's perspective.