Anti-Whaling Activists Hit With Prison Sentence on Faroe Islands

Five activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society were convicted on Friday by a Faroe Islands court of interfering with the islands' traditional whale cull, after they filmed and attempted to stop the region's annual pilot whale hunt.

The five activists said they would be appealing the verdict and the sentence, which mandates their immediate deportation, a move also ordered by the court.

"If we fail in our appeals, we would rather do the time than pay a fine, which would imply that we accepted the Pilot Whale Act," said Rosie Kunneke, one of the five activists who were arrested on July 23 after they sailed from Germany in their vessel, the Sam Simon, to the Faroe Islands, an archipelago of 18 islands, and an autonomous region of Denmark. 

"Denmark allows the Faroe Islands to continue the barbaric practice of the grindadrap (the grind) despite being a signatory to the Bern Convention, which outlaws the slaughter of cetaceans," said the conservation group, which believes oil lies at the root of Danish reluctance to tackle the issue.  

"With oil exploration promising possible profits in the future, Denmark seems quite willing to ignore their own laws protecting the welfare of animals and the EU regulations that outlaw the killing of whales." 

Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson wrote at the end of July, after the activists had been arrested.

According to the activists, the intervention of the Danish navy was key to allowing this year's cull to go ahead. As well as the boats and officers belonging to the Faroese police, the Royal Danish Navy sent two Danish warships, helicopters and a small flotilla of commandos in small fast boats to enable the hunt to go ahead.

On Friday, the Sea Shepherd organization was fined 75,000 kroner ($11,000) by the Faroe Islands court, and slapped individual fines on the five activists, ranging from 5,000 kroner ($735) or eight days in prison to 35,000 kroner ($5,130) or 14 days in prison. 

Whaling has been practiced in the Faroe Islands for hundreds of years, and is defended by locals as a cultural right. The archipelago, which is situated between Norway, Iceland and Scotland, has a population of just under 50,000 people and has been an autonomous province of Denmark since 1948.