A couple of Sea Shepherd supporters gathered in Copenhagen’s Nyhaven on Saturday to protest whale killings in the Faroe Islands. The activists carried posters reading “Stop Grindadráp” (Stop whale killings).

In a statement to US television news channel CNN on Friday, the Faroese government has openly defended the practice of whale hunting. This comes after several international news organizations on Thursday chided Faroe Islanders for the whale killings, which took place in Sandavágur and Tórshavn last month.

Scottish-filmmaker Mike Day has been given a special award by the Faroese Film Institute and the Pilot Whaler’s Association for his film, “The Islands and the Whales”.

Faroese Fisheries Minister Høgni Hoydal told AFP: ”We base our whole existence and our modernization as a welfare society and as a part of the world on the sustainable use of the living resources of the sea. The pilot whale has been part of that for more than a thousand years.

A new survey conducted by MMR shows that approximately the same number of people in Iceland are for and against whaling. In the Faroe Islands, support for ”grindadráp”, whilst difficult to gauge precisely, remains high within the local population.

Paul Watson, who founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, has launched a scathing attack on Faroese folk metal band Týr, which is currently on a North American tour.

Scottish director Mike Day will take part in a question-and-answer session after April 5’s 6.30pm screening of his documentary ”The Islands And The Whales” at City Screen in York.

”An eye-opening new film reveals how the controversial practice of killing whales in the Faroe Islands may come to an end due to dangerous levels of mercury found in the animals’ meat”, writes British newspaper Daily Mail today

And Sea Shepherd volunteers were horrified. “The whales were dragged onto the shore in a sadistic game of ‘Tug of War.’ We witnessed whales seemingly bashing their heads against the stones in a frenzy”, said one volunteer according to Fox News.