Not so holy cross

Van Helsingør!

@ImportViking https://i.imgur.com/6xMbkZo.gif

Faroe Island's expression in the last panel just screams "meme".

@wingweaver84 Finlands expression when we run out of beer.

Faroe islands hair flip gets bigger in every comic he's in.

@AmyCopper It started out big, started getting smaller, and now it's growing again.

I dunno what this means, but it probably means something.

@LuthersMinion Does it mean something that you're DPRK?

The whale is so cute!

The Faroe Islands, Romania and Iceland. Vampire trio

omg that is so true! xD I have read all the Faroese comics and I love them all!! <3

Seems relevant to reintroduce this older strip, which might clear out a thing or two about Faroese whaling:

https://satwcomic.com/the-big-shame

I only support whaling if it involves "traditional" practices, and by "traditional", I mean you have to use ACTUAL traditional methods like non-motorized canoes, throwing harpoons by hand, etc etc. No whale detectors, heck, no heating or AC on your ship, you have to hunt like your ancestors hunted.

Or just eat beef, mutton, pork, and chicken like everyone else. And horse, camel, emu, venison, octopus, clams, lobster, crabs, cockroaches, grubs, grasshoppers, rabbit, squirrel, capybara, guinea pig, llama, alligator, eel...

@CorruptUser the "whaling" in the Faroe islands involves a species that's extremely robust (they typically harvest much less than 1% of the population) and which is technically a species of dolphin. Demanding they hunt in archaic means is absurd, especially since you advocate eating other animals which we hunt or farm in and with modern equipment and environments. This whole "OMG the Faroese eat whales!" is bullsh** and annoying to the extreme.

@Aquilinus

The problems with whaling are numerous

First, whales are among the most intelligent of animals, and generally speaking, we don't like killing smart things, even if every whale killed spares 20 cows.
Second, whales have an extremely important part of the ecosystem, especially today, in the form of combating clime change. Yes, really. Every ton of whale poop is a giant chunk of carbon that sinks to the bottom of the ocean, which can take hundreds to thousands of years for that carbon to make its way back into the atmosphere. The more whales there are, the faster they transform fish and krill into poop to be sent to the abyss below.
Third, and an extension of the above, whales mix the oceans up a bit when they dive and surface, bringing nutrient rich waters up from below.
Fourth, as whales are generally apex predators, they tend to accumulate quite a bit of pollution in their meat; it's much safer to eat tuna than it is to eat whale.

@CorruptUser research has suggested that the faroese grínd has helped prevent inbreeding in the whale population of the north atlantic.... dont see how that is bad

@CorruptUser That is a particularly daft argument. "Traditional" methods are often outdated as more modern methods provide far more humane and painless ways of hunting and killing. As far as food sources go it's no different to the others you mentioned, the key is not to deplete numbers to the point f damaging a species regardless of what it is.

Legit question: Are the Faroe Islands worse at whale... killing... endangering... slaughtering (?)... than Japan? Because I know they're pretty bad at it too.

@lunayoshi Presumably, part of the issue is because the author is Danish and therefore would be more inclined to be upset about the practice in her home country first.

@lunayoshi If I understand it correctly the Faroe Islands only attack whales at a very specific time of year - it's a tradition of some sort, I think. The Japanese hunt whales year around - I think.

@lunayoshi As far as endangering. No. Faroe Island whaling is done traditionally, non commercially and targeted types of whales (long-finned pilot whales mainly) have a stable population of about 750,000 whales in the north atlantic. They also only hunt whales that come close to the traditional Grindadrap beaches (there are about 20 of those).

Opposition to Faroese whaling can't really be done on the basis of "they're endangering the population!" but if done, must be done on ethical grounds.

If we're looking at the real scandinavian whale hunting monster we have to look in another direction (Norway, conducting commercial whale hunting of about 500-1200 Minke whales per year).

@lunayoshi

There are far fewer people on the Faroe islands. Even if they all hunted whales, it wouldn't be as much as just a relatively few Japanese.

Interestingly, the Japanese whaling is OUR fault. When rebuilding Japan, we (the US, Australia, Canada, and everyone else occupying the place) decided that in order to quickly get a cheap source of food while people will still starving half to death, they should hunt whales. A few years later, we decided that whales were more special than other sea creatures for some reason, and told them to stop. Japan had had about enough of being constantly told how to behave, and practically declared whaling to be a sacred tradition. It's a bit of an issue now, since few people actually want to eat whale and most Japanese actually are sick of whaling, but there's said national pride aspect, and that it's an utter humiliation in Japan to ever have to fire people even if it's clear that the department of whaling needs to go.

@lunayoshi some research has in fact suggested that grínd has helped prevent inbreeding in the north atlantic whale population

@lunayoshi Commercial whale hunting has been banned in the Faroes since the Whaling Industry nations imposed a moratorium on whaling back in the 80s. (Of the Nordic countries today only Iceland and Norway have commercial whaling) Interest in whaling at the time in the Faroes was at an all time low, nobody was interested in the smaller whales and there were fewer grindarakstrar and grindadráp (those are the two activities involved in what is referred to as 'at fara í grind' and that practice is non commercial (has been since the advent of electricity, as the only commercial part of Faroese community whaling was the part of the whale that could be melted down to produce whale oil... waste not, want not)). Then in 85 or 86 a terrorist organisation came to the Faroes for the first time. They started provoking people, causing danger to themselves and others. The Faroese authorities were charged with handing over a an official statement asking them to leave... The terrorists responded by pouring gasoline over the unarmed police officers and officials and started firing flares at them. This provocation by these terrorists lead to the Faroese taking a greater interest in non-commercial whaling, and they have continuously developed the practices, so that they are as humane as possible.

@Ayrshireladdie
#9794156
You're not too far off, actually. However, said smoke in fact refers to the steam from hot springs in Reykjavik's surrounding region. But back when Iceland was settled, separate words for smoke and steam didn't really exist in the Old Norse language.

@EricTheRedAndWhite what advice? #9794130