centuries ago vikings landed on the pharaoh islands a few hundred miles southeast of
iceland they began a way of life dependent on the sea they ate what the
ocean provided including whales their descendants the faroese still do
olivore sureburg learned to hunt whales when he was a boy it's a part of a
diet of our food it is also a big part of our social life in pharaohs and it is
a part of our old traditional culture from former days the faroese hunt pilot
whales which appear off the islands in large pods it's summertime now the
height of whaling season and olivore is eager for the whales to come but nobody
had seen any yet
and this is the blubber this is a slice of this here piece here and this is a
thin slice of this here very good it tastes of that this meat is coming from
the sea it tastes a little bit of fat for us who are grown off with this taste it
is a good taste I tried the whale steak he cooked for his grandchildren it
tasted like liver for some faroese whale is almost a third of their protein but
olivore says it's more than food we're proud that we are living here in
pharaohs and we're proud that we still can continue as we have lived with our
culture for centuries now they're fewer than 50,000 faroese scattered across
18 islands even the young become deeply involved in the whaling culture in the
town of Goethe I met a young singer named Ivor she told me what happens when
the whales are found there's not one person at home everyone goes down even
children run out to the ocean to catch them and it's a very you know it's a
very passionate thing and a very strong thing and yeah to be in a whale hunt is
a you know it's it's amazing one afternoon I saw it for myself
when whales are spotted offshore the call goes out and a dozen or so boats set
out to herd them into a bay men wait on shore for the boats to chase the whales
onto the beach
they use a rope and blunt hook to drag the whales closer to shore and kill
them by cutting the main artery to the brain they say it's a fast and precise
method with only one cut but it is of course bloody the entire hunt is over
in about 20 minutes when pictures of the hunt first appeared in the media in the
1980s the outside world was horrified I have just seen on television your
murderous killing of the whales I and all my workmates agree that you're just
I am a grown man and I cried to see your inhuman acts I would love to stick one
of those hooks in your head and here you scream the way the whales did signed a
normally quiet nonviolent Englishman Kate Sanderson works for the Faroese
government it's her job to respond to anti-whaling protests it started with
quite a bang in the beginning in the mid-80s and and the Faro's had never
experienced anything like this when these campaigns were all in their heyday we
were receiving thousands of these kinds of postcards a week and the feeling was
that the Faro's were were under attack that it was us against them the Faroese
say they've been hunting the whale for nearly a thousand years they have written
records dating back to medieval times but in the outside world attitudes have
changed obviously I think people also are very aware of the effect it can have
on on a on foreigners who haven't seen this kind of thing before there's a
very high awareness of its dramatic nature and people understand that people
from other places can react very strongly when they see it if it's not
properly explained to them what's going on 132 pilot whales were killed in the
hunt this day the Faroese say they stop hunting when they've caught as much as
they can eat about 1,000 whales in a year for some people outside the
Faro's whales are seen as a special kind of wildlife one that should be protected
unconditionally but the Faroese say the pilot whales are not endangered that
they're a resource and that any animal slaughter is bloody many people are angry
about the Faro islands killing the whales and all that but to me I mean
it's important for the the culture of the Faro islands and the people here they
don't they don't kill the whales for fun or anything because it's it's it has
saved many people here when the times have been difficult and people have been
eating the whales
by nightfall hundreds of people from the surrounding villages have arrived at
the docks the sheriff is about to announce how much whale each family will
get
olivore is here with neighbors from his village this is the whale they will
share each man will take home about 100 pounds of meat and blubber tonight
and
I've got a lot for you
Anna Rubikson has been eating whale since she was a small girl.
When Anna became pregnant with her daughter Rocknilt, she received a letter from a local
doctor.
He wanted her to participate in a new study.
Scientists had discovered that pilot whales are contaminated with methylmercury.
Paul Wey, a Faroese doctor, worried that his people had been harmed.
It was well known that mercury in high doses could cause severe brain damage.
There's not enough mercury in whale meat for that.
But what happens at smaller doses over a long period of time?
Wey, with his colleague Philippe Grangeon from the Harvard School of Public Health,
began a study.
He asked every pregnant woman in the Faroes to provide hair and blood samples and to enroll
her child in a long-term study of his or her development.
That was 20 years ago.
I had hoped, of course, that we would find nothing.
Today Wey has tested nearly 2,000 Faroese children.
He found that chronic low-level mercury exposure affects a baby's brain, causing small but
permanent deficits in development, a shortened attention span, delays in language ability,
a decrease in motor speed.
He even found small changes in how the brain regulates the heart.
We did not expect in the Faroes, in the low exposure area, to see any signs of mercury
poisoning, like cerebral palsy, for example.
We were going afterwards if there were subtle effects on the neurodevelopment of the mental
ability, language, reaction time, things like that.
The study established a benchmark for the low end of mercury toxicity, one of the first
to identify the amount, which begins to affect a developing child.
Although some scientists dispute Dr. Wey's research, its impact has been global.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency used Wey's results to issue guidelines on what
mercury levels in fish are safe to eat, especially for pregnant women.
The doctor was born here, on the island of Vauer.
His father was the town harbormaster.
He says he understands the importance of Weyles to the Faroes, better than any outsider could.
The Weyling tradition has been so central in Faroes' culture.
The critical voices I have heard, they are not more than I expected.
He recommended that women cut back on whale meat and give up lubber altogether.
It was a message many people didn't want to hear.
There were many thoughts running through my head when I heard it the first time.
Should I believe it, or should I not believe it, should I forget it, and what to do?
We are putting ourselves in a position where we may end up seeing a traditional food, a
local food stigmatised, and do we want to create a situation where that food is then
rejected completely?
The pilot whale has a long lifespan and ranges far from the Faroes.
It's a carnivore, and with the fish it eats, it accumulates many pollutants, including
PCBs, as well as methylmercury.
For now, plenty of Faroes' families continue to eat whale meat, but some younger mothers
like Ingeborg Berg aren't willing to take the risk.
When I was pregnant, I didn't eat it at all, and when I was breast-giving, I didn't eat
it at all.
And I'm very concerned about my girls eating too much of it.
Her daughter, Ranva, is part of a new generation that does not eat grinned or whale meat on
a daily basis.
In the long run, it could mean that if the young women do not eat grinned, and usually
the women decide what to eat for dinner, the children do not eat grinned.
When they grow up, they are not used to grinned.
I think for some generation, we could see that the Faroes' people do not, maybe not
at all, eat grinned.
We have identified a toxic effect on our children.
We have been forced to change some dear dietary habits, which has been an important part of
our Faroes' identity.
The Faroes' identity has been bound up in their isolation.
But now, even this pristine environment seems vulnerable to pollutants from far away.
Today, I must say, I believe much of the things Palwayer has done in his research.
Palwayer tells us and tells the world that the whales are polluted.
But where are all this pollution coming from?
The only thing we can do is first live with it as it is and try to tell countries on both
sides of the Atlantic Ocean that there is something wrong in the system.
New knowledge has come here, born out of their old and controversial tradition, and in the
death of the whales, a warning to the world.
