Skip to content
All articles
  • All articles
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Green Whale
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Scottish Dolphin Centre
  • Stop whaling
Fishers' involvement is crucial. Image: WDC/JTF

When porpoises and people overlap

We're funding a project in Hong Kong that's working with fishing communities to help save...

Mindful conservation – why we need a new respect for nature

'We should look at whales and dolphins as the indigenous people of the seas -...
A dolphin called Arnie with a shell

Dolphins catch fish using giant shell tools

In Shark Bay, Australia, two groups of dolphins have figured out how to use tools...
Common dolphins at surface

Did you know that dolphins have unique personalities?

We all have personalities, and between the work Christmas party and your family get-together, perhaps...
Leaping harbour porpoise

The power of harbour porpoise poo

We know we need to save the whale to save the world. Now we are...
Holly. Image: Miray Campbell

Meet Holly, she’s an incredible orca leader

Let me tell you the story of an awe-inspiring orca with a fascinating family story...
Humpback whale. Image: Christopher Swann

A story about whales and humans

As well as working for WDC, I write books for young people. Stories; about the...
Risso's dolphin at surface

My lucky number – 13 years studying amazing Risso’s dolphins

Everything we learn about the Risso's dolphins off the coast of Scotland amazes us and...

Stranded pilot whales 'put out of their misery' or killed for their meat by locals in Iceland?

Marine biologist, Megan Whittaker, who lives and works in Iceland, sent us the following guest blog based upon her personal thoughts and observations at the scene of the recent pilot whale stranding off Iceland.  Readers should be warned of distressing content and graphic images. Here is Megan’s blog.

On the evening of Saturday, 7th September 2013, during a strong storm, about 70 long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) began stranding in the small harbor of Rif and along the northern coast of the Snaefellnes peninsula in the west of Iceland.  Sadly, about 20 of these whales either died naturally or were killed by the local community.  Some of the whales’ throats were obviously slit; however there is some debate whether this was to stop their suffering or so that the local people could start butchering the animals for their meat – or maybe both.  It is Icelandic law that beached whales need to be reported to the police and the relevant authorities be alerted. This did not happen and thus an investigation has begun. Most likely, the locals simply did not know that they had to do this. Still, they wasted no time in cutting their share of the meat.

 

    

The next day, Sunday, a few friends and I decided to drive up from Reykjavik to check out the situation. For me, it was a very sad sight for many reasons.  Sad that the whales had a very stressful and traumatic end to their life, but mostly because I felt that a lot of the locals seemed to have no respect for the animals that lost their life.  If the animals had died naturally and the locals wanted to eat the meat – assuming that they didn’t mind feeding their children meat that could have high levels of PCBs and methyl mercury – but it was this total disrespect that really shocked me.

    

 

Children were jumping on the whales’ heads and tails, prodding them with sticks as the parents stood by laughing. One van even ran over a whale, maybe by accident but it looked to be on purpose, with a group of onlookers in hysterics.  A very young calf was butchered with blood running down its smiley face.

There was a time when a beached whale was considered a gift from God when food was scarce.  Nowadays, most attitudes about consuming whale meat have changed and the practice has become a taboo, yet Iceland still practices traditional ways no matter how many protest it.