Well, that was the cruise from hell

Maybe a cruise around Alaska. Maybe a river cruise: Rhine, Moldau, Danube. Maybe something from Portland, Maine to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Maybe.

Mostly, I have zero desire - make that less than zero desire - to go on a cruise. 

So there's no way in hell or heaven that I would have been aboard the Ambassador Cruise Line's good ship Ambition tootled into Torshavn in the Faroe Islands, only to find that their port o' call “coincided with the culmination of a hunt of 40+ pilot whales in the port area."

Oopsa doopsa. 

Certainly nothing that would have been planned for by the Ambition's version of The Love Boat's Julie. (If everyone will gather on the Aloha deck at 0-14-hundred hours, you're in for a real surprise!)

Ambassador Cruise Lines was especially upset, given that they partner with ORCA (the Ocean Research and Conservation Association) to try to get whale hunts to cease and desist.

In their apology, Ambassador said that sustainability is one of the cruise line’s “core values” and that the company fully appreciates that “witnessing this local event would have been distressing for the majority of guests onboard. Accordingly, we would like to sincerely apologise to them for any undue upset.”

“We are dedicated to supporting ORCA in their endeavours to collect data and to monitor whales and dolphins and we are extremely disappointed that this has happened after weeks of trying to open constructive dialogue with the Faroese government and Visit Faroes on these issues,” Christian Verhounig, Ambassador’s CEO in their statement. “We continue to educate our guests and crew not to buy or eat any whale or dolphin meat and stand against any profiteering from commercial whaling and dolphin hunts.” (Source: ABC News)

For their part, the Faroe Islands is not offering any apologies. To the contrary, they gamely pointed out that the Faroese - there are about 53,000 of them living in what is a remote, self-governing archipelago - are whalers, and have been sustaining themselves on whale eat and blubber since the jump, which in their case was over 1,000 years ago when the islands were first settled by Irish monks. (The other dietary mainstays are mutton and potatoes, so the Islands aren't exactly a gourmet paradise. There is, however, a Burger King in Torshavn.)

In their statement, the government said:

"Today, as in times past, the whale drive is a community activity open to all, while also well organised on a community level and regulated by national laws.”

So, while I'm not in a lot of favor of the slaughter of pilot whale innocents, and while killing whales doesn't sound to me like all that swell a community activity, I understand that for the Faroese, pilot whales are their lifeblood. 

Anyway, pretty poor planning on Ambassador's part. Bet that on future runs to Torshavn, they'll call ahead and check whether there's a whale roundup scheduled. Which there well may be.

In 2023 alone, the Faroe Islands has registered 646 whale killings to date, including the 78 on Sunday when the Ambition arrived.

I wonder whether Ambassador Cruise Lines offered its passengers anything more than an apology. Free drinks maybe? Anything but a Bloody Mary...

Anyway, always good to have a reminder of why I have no intention of going on a cruise. On the other hand, if there's a way to actually get to Torshavn, I wouldn't mind spending a couple of days there. (Cuisine aside.) Looks beautiful and wildly interesting.