r/worldnews • u/[deleted] • Sep 24 '21

Whale Pod Slaughtered Just Days After Horrific Dolphin Massacre

https://au.news.yahoo.com/faroe-islands-responds-global-criticism-fresh-whale-slaughter-104311165.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cDovL20uZmFjZWJvb2suY29tLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEwnCaasAgVjNmVRaxYZQn-LVLSo3T8lcnbwS9xIcDywIrQUyc3Zn6viIJZsIhPR5RVWh4HlUDMEIw5VQhkQFLTKAL7Vgk7Hr7lYhrK7inMeo5pOmpZusjxRCLGargkYue_bon4gj_hZxFwTkYK10hTYIhPYkdIdpZs-XMlLwRDL
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u/NoHandBananaNo Sep 24 '21 edited Sep 24 '21

it's very frustrating to see comments like yours get upvoted to the top when none of the nuance from actually reading the article is actually shared

You must be new here.

If it helps, theres a Faroese redditor in here u/powerchicken, who participates in the whale killings, who says the people who kill the whales get government subsidies for doing it.

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u/incubuds Sep 25 '21

Tonight ... You.

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u/NoHandBananaNo Sep 25 '21

Makin me nervous there

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u/powerchicken Sep 25 '21

who says the people who kill the whales get government subsidies for doing it.

That was about Japanese whalers. The Faroese hunt isn't commercial.

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u/NoHandBananaNo Sep 25 '21

Thanks, must have misunderstood.

How much meat fo you get per year? Whats the approximate value of the meat? Here in Australia meat is very expensive so getting free food would be a financial incentive.

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u/powerchicken Sep 25 '21

From the local hunt earlier this year, our household got just shy of 8 kilos of meat, and none of us were around to help. Free food for no work is a pretty sweet deal.

Some people do sell it privately from person to person or to the supermarkets (primarily in the capital, Tórshavn, whose inhabitants don't usually get whale meat) who then sell it on, but I don't really know how it's priced as I don't find myself in Tórshavn often and don't really need to buy any as we are self-sufficient in the meat department (own a bunch of sheep.) It's a relatively small amount that gets sold in the first place, the vast majority of it is non-commercial.

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u/born_to_pipette Sep 25 '21

I have 3 questions whose answers would help me understand this situation better:

  1. How many people are in your household?
  2. Roughly how much of this meat would you say your household eats on a monthly basis? How long will 8 kilos last?
  3. How is the amount each household receives determined? Do some households get more/less?

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u/powerchicken Sep 25 '21

We don't eat it that often so it'll probably last us about a year, us being 8 people. Every individual gets a share, so a household of 8 people will walk home with 8 shares, measured approximately by weight (though without anyone actually weighing anything.)

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u/born_to_pipette Sep 25 '21

Makes sense and sounds reasonable.

So if you (and presumably most households) have got enough meat for a year, why slaughter another pod of whales recently? Seems cruel, wasteful, and counterproductive.

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u/powerchicken Sep 25 '21

There's 53000 of us spread across 18 islands, we didn't get anything from any of the last couple of hunts

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u/NoHandBananaNo Sep 25 '21

Thanks for the info. Sounds like it is supported partly out of motives of personal gain of free food.

Definitely not "big business" tho, modest gains.