Faroe islanders told to stop eating toxic pilot whales - Mercury poisoning (graphic pic at end)

[Annces]

November 28, 2008 by Debora MacKenzie, New Scientist Magazine



Chief medical officers of the Faroe Islands have recommended that pilot whales no longer be considered fit for human consumption, because they are toxic - as revealed by research on the Faroes themselves.

The remote Atlantic islands, situated between Scotland and Iceland, have been one of the last strongholds of traditional whaling, with thousands of small pilot whales killed every year, and eaten by most Faroese.

Anti-whaling groups have long protested, but the Faroese argued that whaling is part of their culture - an argument adopted by large-scale whalers in Japan and Norway.

But today in a statement to the islanders, chief medical officers Pál Weihe and Høgni Debes Joensen announced that pilot whale meat and blubber contains too much mercury, PCBs and DDT derivatives to be safe for human consumption.

"It is with great sadness that this recommendation is provided," they said. "The pilot whale has kept many Faroese alive through the centuries."

But in "a bitter irony", they said, research on the impact of the pollutants on the Faroese themselves has shown that mercury, especially, causes lasting damage.

The work has revealed damage to fetal neural development, high blood pressure, and impaired immunity in children, as well as increased rates of Parkinson's disease, circulatory problems and possibly infertility in adults. The Faroes data renewed concerns about low-level mercury exposures elsewhere.

The medical officers note that it wasn't the Faroese who created the pollution. But "these results have already led to tightened restrictions on pollution worldwide. We must therefore also ourselves acknowledge the consequences."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16159-faroe-islanders-told-to-stop-eating-toxic-whales.html


From Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been actively fighting the slaughter of pilot whales in the Faeroe Islands since 1983. We have had four campaigns to the islands and during those campaigns we disrupted the killing and focused international media attention on the slaughter. In 1986, the BBC produced the documentary Black Harvest about our campaigns to these savage islands. We have had crew arrested and we have had crew beaten by the whalers. It has been a long, hard, frustrating and vicious fight.


But now it looks like the Faeroese will have to end their bloody tradition of cruelty and slaughter or else inflict further harm upon their own children and themselves.


http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=165320542&blogID=452627335

Graphic picture below

[Bonobo]

1. Whales are cuuuuuuuute! Pwease don't kill them!

Cows aren't cute, chickens aren't cute, hamburgers aren't cute, pork isn't cute.

Angels of the sea!!!!

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. you should add graphic warning to subject line

poor whales :cry:

[Roon]

3. .

:hug:

[Whoa_Nelly]

4. Seriously...you should add warning

you still have time

I was taken quite aback at the photo in your post...it hurt.