Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1992, Page 5

The international research program on the
ecology and status ofthe Long-Finned Pilot
Whale offthe Faroe Islands.
Presentation, Results and Reference.
Genevieve Desportes, Dorete Bloch, Liselotte Wesley Andersen and Rógvi
Mouritsen
Introduction
Long-finned pilot whales have been used
for human consumption by Faroe Islanders
since the earliest settlement of the islands
(Dahl, 1971). The deliberate driving of
whales has always been conducted on an
opportunistic basis, traditional hunting
methods are still in use and the meat and
blubber are shared free among local inha-
bitants for local human consumption. No
factory processing nor exportation occur.
Since 1584, from when regular records of
catches exist, the official number of ani-
mals taken annually ranges from 0 to 4,447
(in 1941), following a long term cycle of
approximately 120 years (Joensen and
Zachariassen, 1982; 1987; Hoydal, 1986).
The catch statistics are unbroken from 1709
and in the period 1709-1992 a total of 1,683
schools representing 239,149 pilot whales
were caught. In this period three years saw
catches of more than 3,000 (1843, 1939,
1941), 25 years saw catches of more than
2,000 whales and there were 44 years with-
out any catches at all. In the nineteen-eight-
ies, an average of 2,063 pilot whales were
landed annually, with a range from 1,258 to
2,973 whales. See Bloch, Desportes,
Hoydal and Jean (1990a) and Sanderson
(1991) for details and references related to
the fishery. The entire catch statistics, in-
cluding all available details, are kept at the
Faroese Museum of Natural History in
Tórshavn.
To date there are no management poli-
cies and drives take place as long as there is
a need. This whaling has been treated in
various ethnological and biological reports
(see Bloch et al. 1990a for references) but
no comprehensive study of the harvested
population and the impact of the fishery
had been undertaken before the Internatio-
nal Research Programme was initiated in
1986.
This international programme was set up
to gather the essential information for an
understanding of the social and ecological
dynamics of the exploited population(s),
Fróðskaparrit 40. bók (1992): 9-29