Cetaceans: Faroe Islands

(asked on 28th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether conservation and animal welfare concerns related to Faroese cetacean hunts will be discussed during the annual negotiations under the UK-Faroes Framework Agreement on Fisheries.


Answered by
Victoria Prentis Portrait
Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
This question was answered on 2nd February 2022

The Faroe Islands are in no doubt as to the UK position on cetacean hunts, which we raise at every relevant opportunity, including in person. Minister Goldsmith wrote to the then Faroese Fisheries Minister on 23rd September 2021 to express the UK’s opposition on both animal welfare and conservation grounds to the hunt of Atlantic white-sided dolphins that took place on the 12th September and the continued hunting of cetaceans in the Faroe Islands.

In their response, the Faroese government confirmed that they were launching an evaluation of regulations on the catching of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. While the government welcomed this news, we have advocated to the Faroese government that they expand the scope of the evaluation to incorporate all species of cetacean that are hunted and consider the wider benefits of cetaceans to the ecosystem. I recently reiterated to the new Faroese Fisheries Minister, Árni Skaale, that the UK looks forward to seeing the outcomes of the review.

We will continue to call on all whaling nations, including the Faroe Islands, at every relevant opportunity to cease their whaling activities. Instead, we encourage them to consider the many economic and social benefits that responsible cetacean watching can bring to coastal communities. We also continue to encourage the Faroe Islands to engage in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas (ASCOBANS).

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