Faroe Islands

[Khandro]

Has anybody set foot on them ? I've just been reading about them. They have a Queen, their own language and currency and are not part of the EU, but have been embargoed by them for selling salmon to Russia!

[Cloverjo]

Yes, briefly. Very lovely place. I saw Prof Brian Cox there, when he was doing a tv programme about the solar eclipse in 2015.

[Khandro]

Cloverjo; Did you stay, or just pass through?

[rockyracoon]

Is that where they do the annual whale slaughter?

[KARL]

The Faroes are part of Denmark with home rule, the queen of Denmark is the monarch, the Danish Krone in a Faroese guise is the currency, the language is closely related to Icelandic but while Icelandic is essentially Norse, Faroese has developed somewhat away from the origin. The Faroes are not in the EU but they have two bilateral agreements with it, one on free trade the other on fisheries (the latter being why the Faroes stayed outside when Denmark joined). The Faroes also have agreements with EFTA and the other Nordic countries. It is a very small country with a small population.

I have been more than once - a very unusual place and delightfully informal yet organised/focussed, energetic and advanced, in that way not unlike Iceland. Each of the islands is quite small, lots of mountains and cliffs, very little flatland but getting around by car is impressively easy. There are one or two tunnel connections between islands but otherwise it is a case of crossing by boat. The climate is maritime and therefore, given the position, very variable.

[Peter Pedant]

and nothing kinda happens
last event was the measles epidemic 1860
which killed you know zillions - xc there are only a few hundred on the islands

[KARL]

Oh, yes, they hunt pilot whales about this time of year if I am not mistaken. By tradition the meat and blubber is meticulously shared out and forms a part of the local diet which otherwise consists mostly of lamb and fish. Fishing is by far the main national income earner.

[KARL]

Population 56+ thousand.

[DTCwordfan]

I spent three days there between the ferry from Scrabster to Setdisfjordur (East coast Iceland) nipping off to Bergen and back. Very beautiful indeed, the glaciation leaving some islands a few miles long, only 400 to 600 yards wide and 400 to 600 feet straight out of the sea - very dramatic.

[DTCwordfan]

Seydisfjordur....not what I spelt....

[DTCwordfan]

the RAF developed the airport there during WW2!

[Prudie]

re whales yes, this was only a week or so ago
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6079153/Eighty-whales-rounded-killed-second-hunt-season-Faroe-Islands.html

[webbo3]

they slaughter who families of whales and dolphins.

warning. graphic pictures, i make NO apologies for posting this and would not give them my money.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?rlz=1C1DSGL_enGB697GB697&biw=1360&bih=631&tbm=isch&;sa=1&ei=dr-KW7asC6XBgAbu8bm4CA&q=the+grind++faroes&;oq=the+grind++faroes&gs_l=img.3..0i24k1.25261.25661.0.27214.3.3.0.0.0.0.85.232.3.3.0....0...1c.1.64.img..0.1.83....0.rcsIXMXs_J4

[webbo3]

Karl.

\\Oh, yes, they hunt pilot whales about this time of year if I am not mistaken. By tradition the meat and blubber is meticulously shared out and forms a part of the local diet which otherwise consists mostly of lamb and fish. Fishing is by far the main national income earner.//


they dump most of the meat as its contaminated with heavy metals,
ive seen videos and pictures of dead dolphins and whale dumped at sea having not been butchered.

[webbo3]

Karl.

\\Oh, yes, they hunt pilot whales about this time of year if I am not mistaken. By tradition the meat and blubber is meticulously shared out and forms a part of the local diet which otherwise consists mostly of lamb and fish. Fishing is by far the main national income earner.//


they dump most of the meat as its contaminated with heavy metals,
ive seen videos and pictures of dead dolphins and whale dumped at sea having not been butchered.

[Khandro]

Webbo //they dump most of the meat as its contaminated with heavy metals,
ive seen videos and pictures of dead dolphins and whale dumped at sea having not been butchered.//

Why is it contaminated with heavy metals - any more than any sea fish, and how do they identify the heavy metals, as you say they aren't butchered? are you believing that these people go out to sea to kill these creatures for the fun of it?
Where did you pick up this 'information'?

[ichkeria]

Why are they selling salmon to Russia??
It’s a bit like selling oil to Saudi Arabia (!)

[KARL]

Grind is the Faroese word for pilot, as in whale. To my knowledge they do not kill dolphins which in any case do not mingle in schools of pilot whales, it is specifically pilot whale meat they seek. However, there is a lot of emotive mis-information being pressed by various interest groups which see slaughter of whales as being particularly indecent, even when they are eaten and are very abundant in any case. The same communities are known to do their best to re-float individual whales of different species when they beach themselves, for reasons which are a mystery to the scientific community.

[KARL]

Oh, because whales are at the top of the ocean's food chain, mercury and PCBs tend to accumulate in the fat/blubber.

[webbo3]

\\Oh, because whales are at the top of the ocean's food chain, mercury and PCBs tend to accumulate in the fat/blubber// exactly Karl.

white sided dolphins.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/faroe-island-whale-hunts-photos-images-dolphins-pilot-whales-mass-slaughter-grindadrap-a8045571.html

They added that 1,691 pilot whales and white-sided dolphins were killed during 24 individual hunts.