‘A Taste of Whale’: New documentary examines a bloody tradition in the Faroe Islands
Around 700 pilot whales are slaughtered each year for their meat and blubber in the archipelago that comprises the Faroe Islands, a nation two hundred miles north of Scotland.
DENNIS HARVEY: A whale hunt tradition in the Faroe Islands that’s long been condemned by animal rights activists is given evenhanded examination in Vincent Kelner’s “A Taste of Whale.” This well-crafted French documentary does provide some of the grisly “massacre” footage seen in prior indictments of the seasonal “Grindadrap,” or Grind. But it also lets locals weigh in about something they feel is a part of their cultural identity, while Sea Shepherd campaigners opposed to a practice they deem “monstrous” also get their say. This solid both-sides-now overview also raises wider questions regarding humanity’s sometimes-hypocritical ethics toward what we eat, where we get it, and how…
Around 700 large dolphins called ‘pilot whales’ are slaughtered each year in the archipelago that comprises the Faroes, a nation of about 50,000 that lies in the Atlantic two hundred miles north of Scotland. Their blubber edible as well as their meat, those cetaceans have sustained human life here to a large extent, with the Grind on record as dating back nearly 600 years. That dependency is in the past, and so are some more brutal killing methods…
Nonetheless, that bloodbath (just briefly glimpsed before a long sequence at the one-hour mark) is undeniably a nasty sight that literally turns the sea red. While the creatures’ suffering may be shorter than before, it is still unpleasant to see their panicked crowding, beached in shallow water, and hear the death squeals. One resident speaks for many, however, when he says, “It is bloody, it is barbaric, but that’s (the same) when you kill any animal.” Does this event get the flack simply because it’s out in public, as opposed to hidden behind slaughterhouse walls? A late sequence showing factory abattoirs around the world further underlines his point.
To opponents, such whataboutism is no excuse: Sea Shepherd personnel here eat vegan anyway, and consider this tradition to be straight-up “murder” of “intelligent creatures with complex social structures.” Their attempted interventions may invite local hostility and arrest by law enforcement, but they feel they are helping save a very beleaguered planet…
However, all this may soon be moot anyway, for reasons unrelated to either camp’s more emotion-based pleas. Even the Islands’ chief Public Health official says the pilot whales have been exposed to so much pollution that their meat is now too contaminated (especially by mercury) to be recommended for human consumption, in particular children and pregnant women.
Faroese now enjoy a high standard of living, but it has arrived through countless generations of flinty survival… That provides a sort of perverse happy ending to “A Taste of Whale,” suggesting this divisive issue may soon resolve itself if the citizens decide to end the Grind for the sake of their own well-being…
The fact that this project may be rather long-aborning is suggested by an interview with the Islands’ Prime Minister — only he hasn’t occupied that office since 2015. Nor does “Taste” note the potentially game-changing events of last September, when a whale slaughter over twice the usual annual number stirred widespread criticism, even among local supporters. The current prime minister is purportedly weighing major policy changes towards the Grind as a result. SOURCE…
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