Every year, 700 pilot whales are slaughtered on the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and the Shetland Islands. It’s called “grindadràp” or the “Grind,” and it turns the fjord’s water blood red every year. It’s also attracted the protests of animal rights activists.
The Faroese don’t kill whales for the fun of it. They eat them. It’s become a ritual: The whales show up in season, and the Faroese catch and eat them.
Whaling used to be the islanders’ only means of survival in what was once a desolate place. But now the island is a modern, wealthy nation. Still, the Grind continues. It’s almost a fiesta: the hunters bring their children to watch. After all, someday it will be their turn to kill and distribute the whale meat.
We meet Jens and Torik, two especially dedicated Faroese whalers, who defend the Grind as a tradition. We also watch them in action – a particularly hideous sight of which I’ll spare you the details.
Vincent Kelner, writer/director of the documentary “A Taste of Whale,” also gives us some breathtaking shots of the sheer beauty of the islands – a truly green environment, with high rolling hills and water cascading down to the sea – quite a contrast with shots of the Grind.
This year, Sea Shepherd activists (the Greenpeace types) have landed to request an immediate end to the killing. Two members in particular – Lamya and Antoine – are willing to do anything to end the practice.
The local Faroese are hospitable folks, but they are not willing to drop the Grind because somebody asks them to. They point out that the meat is shared communally, and they don’t profit from it because pilot whale meat is considered too polluted for export anyway.
It’s difficult not to feel sorry for those whales, but by extension the film makes us consider what other unnecessary and perhaps environmentally destructive habits we have adopted through time. What about meat eating in general? Environmentalists tell us meat eating – especially beef – is environmentally disastrous. Cows contribute carbon dioxide to the earth’s atmosphere with their farts and excretions. Pigs and sheep likewise, though perhaps not as much. And most chickens have a pretty short and unpleasant life.
A journalist and DOP, Vincent Kelner has worked for several TV productions in France and around the world over the last 20 years. “A Taste of Whale” is the second documentary feature he has written and directed.
Nearly 200 million land animals and seven billion fish are killed daily for human consumption. And we are all responsible.
Paul McCartney once put it this way: “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.”
Think about it. And go see “A Taste of Whale.”
Opens in theaters May 27.
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