Cultural identity keeps Faroese eating contaminated pilot whale meat

A new Faroese study has found that cultural identity helps sustain the consumption of pilot whale meat despite widespread awareness of its contamination, KVF reports. Researcher Elsa Helmsdal said 97 per cent of people surveyed knew the meat was contaminated, while 71 per cent said the pilot whale hunt should continue.

Helmsdal’s PhD research examined health risks, media coverage and the cultural significance of pilot whale meat. It combined an analysis of newspaper and radio coverage over the past 40 years, a survey of 1,500 randomly selected people aged 18 to 70, and a study of participants in Cohort 1, a group born in 1986 and 1987 that has been followed since birth.

For more than 40 years, studies by the Department of Occupational and Public Health have found high levels of mercury and PCBs in pilot whales. Yet Helmsdal’s survey found that education and place of residence did not determine people’s attitudes as strongly as cultural identity did. Those who considered pilot whale meat an important part of Faroese culture also tended to eat more of it.

Most respondents did not think pilot whale meat should be eaten several times a month, but half said eating it a few times a year, such as at Ólavsøka or when fresh meat was available, would not cause harm.

People aged 18 to 29 were less familiar with official health advice than older respondents, but were more likely to view pilot whale meat as important to Faroese culture, support the hunt and oppose stopping it. Media coverage of contamination and health recommendations peaked between 2008 and 2011 and has since dwindled, the analysis found. Helmsdal suggested that pressure from outside groups, including Sea Shepherd, may have strengthened some young people’s desire to defend Faroese traditions and identity.

Eating habits have changed substantially since the 1980s, particularly among women of childbearing age. In Cohort 1, hair tests taken from mothers in 1986 and 1987 found that 15 per cent had mercury levels above 10 micrograms per gram, while the average was above four. In the latest study, Cohort 6, conducted in 2021 and 2022, the average level had fallen to 0.5 micrograms per gram. Helmsdal said women of childbearing age had taken the health advice seriously and now had levels comparable to women in other European countries used for comparison.

Men still eat pilot whale meat more often and in greater amounts than women, and have correspondingly higher mercury levels in their blood. Helmsdal said one possible explanation was that health information had focused almost entirely on young women and unborn children, with little mention of men.

She also said official advice had been inconsistent. In 2008, the chief medical officer advised that pilot whale meat should no longer be considered food for people. In 2011, the Food and Veterinary Authority issued a recommendation that adults could eat it once a month. Helmsdal said authorities should revisit the issue and provide clearer information to younger generations.

Helmsdal, who was born in 1987 and was part of Cohort 1, said she stopped eating pilot whale meat in her twenties when she began thinking about childbearing. She said she would not eat it again or give it to her two daughters.