Two cruise companies – AIDA and Hapag-Lloyd Cruises – have agreed to stop visiting the Faroe Islands in response to an ongoing campaign by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Forum and the Sea Shepherd.
The animal rights groups have been protesting against the islands for their annual mass killing of whales in a practice known as the Grind. During the Grind, a flotilla of small boats herds whales or dolphins into a shallow bay where they can be easily killed with knives. According to National Geographic, grinds are the “longest continuously practiced and relatively unchanged whaling tradition in the world” and many islanders strongly assert their right to continue the practice without outside interference.
According to Cruise Law News, however, the campaign will now focus on persuading TUI to stop sending vessels there.
