The vessel arrived at the port of Sund in the FI last Sunday. Upon docking, Danish Customs and Immigration officers conducted a full ship search and passport inspection. Authorities did not indicate there was any entry issue during the inspection. However, afterwards, all 21 crewmembers were issued with a Refusal of Entry notice and ordered to leave the 12nm limit of the Faroe Islands.
Danish authorities said the notices were issued for suspicion of "affecting public order", although the actual document gives no clear legal reasons for denial of entry. Believing the notices to be unlawful, SS has begun appeal processes to fight the order.
Captain Alex Cornelissen, CEO of SS Global: "Denmark seems to think the best way to divert attention away from its support of the grindadráp is to conduct further legally dubious activity."
Despite the fact that the slaughter of cetaceans is banned in the European Union - including Denmark - the killing continues with the support of Danish police and navy, and with the blessing of the Danish government. Cornelissen: "By denying the crew of the Bob Barker entry to the Faroe Islands, Danish authorities have proven that they are more interested in supporting the slaughter of pilot whales than they are in upholding their EU responsibilities and maintaining their relationships with other EU countries. They have also shown how effective Sea Shepherd has been in holding Denmark accountable for the on-going slaughter of cetaceans."
+ ...meanwhile international pressure against the grindadráp builds from countries within the EU. In early August, two major German cruise-liner companies cancelled tours to the Faroes.
In the past month, politicos from Luxembourg, Italy and the UK have publically expressed disdain for the grindadráp.
On 19 August, the Scottish town of Wick announced it had cut its 20yr.long twin-town relationship with the city of Klaksvík, and would not look to re-instate official relationships until the "disgusting" slaughter of whales in FI is banned.
The writing is on the wall...?
3 comments:
Funny how a person who support criminal acts (Sea Shepherd), now suddenly take notice of such legal trivialities.
I totally understand your frustration. As a person who promotes the idea that you can force your beliefs upon others by committing crimes, hate speech, bullying and other subversive activities, it must be disappointing to realize that in Faroe Islands this tactics didn’t work out so well.
Unlike decent people who work for a cause by familiarizing them with all the aspects of it and try to make ones influence felt by legal and democratic means, you offer your support to an organization who have a long criminal record an who´s founder was thrown out of Greenpeace, http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/about/history/paul-watson/ which will go to great length to distance them from him over his use of violence and who is wanted on a red notice by Interpol for exactly that, use of violence.
You fanatic followers of course auto execute the SS pre-program snippet of your mind and claim martyrdom and that his holy ends justify any means, so earthly laws don´t apply to him.
This morally bankrupt guy is your ideological foundation and it spews out of any article of “yours” about whaling, and no wonder, since they mostly are direct transcripts of Sea Shepherds homepage.
Now your fellow cult of violent vigilantes is met by the law and must pay for their crimes. Sure it hurts but you will get over it, and probably over time adapt to the idea that law applies to everybody and any breaking of it has consequences in a society subject to the rule of law.
Dear BigMac:
Thank you for your comments, the last line of which endorses everything that's being said by those opposed to Faroese whaling: "...the law applies to everybody and any breaking of it has consequences in a society subject to the rule of law."
The European Union (EU) has a body of law that protects whales, dolphins and porpoises, and outlaws commercial whaling and trade in whale products. Denmark (an EU member), has broken these laws.
So what comes first: the chicken or the egg?
It is fair to say that Sea Shepherd, and Greenpeace before it, is only protesting because Denmark is not enforcing the very laws it has signed up to.
As you say, "any breaking of (the law) has consequences".
How come you don´t report Denmark to the EU commission? Sea shepherd claimed they did in 2012, why don´t they come up with the EU Court order/decision? After all whaling in Faroe Islands has been going on for thousand years, so by now you and Sea Shepherd should have a pretty strong case?
Something in your mind ought to trigger some doubts and questions, - where are the proofs for the statements I just throw out only because I read them on some sleazy Sea Shepherd propaganda sites?
Why don´t you go to the source EU and check for yourself?
You will see that pilot whaling in Faroe Islands is explicitly exempted from the Bern/Bonn/CITES/Ascobans conventions. Thus Denmark can´t break any of these EU laws in Faroe Islands since these same laws explicitly mention they do not cover pilot whaling in Faroe Islands.
Below are the question raised by EU parliament member Mojca Kleva Kekus and answered by the European Parliament
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=WQ&reference=E-2014-002160&language=EN
Parliamentary questions
24 February 2014 E-002160-14
Question for written answer
to the Commission
Rule 117
Mojca Kleva Kekuš (S&D)
Subject: Killing of dolphins in the Faroe Islands Answer(s)
Every year, an incomprehensible ritual takes place in the Faroe Islands in which hundreds of dolphins, which are highly intelligent creatures, are killed. This may be a traditional practice but it is unacceptable. Dolphin meat is not an important food source and in fact contains toxic substances which are harmful to human health.
Although the Faroe Islands are not part of the European Union, they are nevertheless part of Denmark, which is a signatory to the Berne and Bonn Conventions, under which it has given an indirect commitment to do everything in its power to protect dolphins.
Has the Commission drawn up a plan to tackle this cruel and unnecessary slaughter of dolphins? What action will the Commission take to bring pressure to bear on Denmark to ban the killing of dolphins in the Faroe Islands?
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?reference=E-2014-002160&language=EN
Parliamentary questions
16 April 2014 E-002160/2014
Answer given by on behalf of the Commission
The hunting of pilot whales is currently not regulated by the International Whaling Commission. Furthermore, while Denmark is a member of both the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention), the Faroe Islands are excluded from their scope of application.
The Convention on Migratory Species (CMS or Bonn Convention) lists long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) in its Appendix II, i.e. migratory species which have an unfavourable conservation status and which require international agreements for their conservation and management. Under the CMS auspices, 10 EU Member States, including Denmark, have concluded the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas (Ascobans). However, it should be noted that the area covered by this agreement does not extend to the Faroe Islands.
The Commission has however already expressed concerns about the annual hunt of long-finned pilot whales in the Faroe Islands and will continue to use all possible opportunities to raise this issue with the relevant authorities.
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