New law on seal hunting

An American law placing conditions on nations selling fish and fishery products to the US has inspired a new bill on organised seal hunting in the Faroes.

The US law requires nations exporting fish to the US to ban deliberate killing of seals in connection with fish farming.

The Faroes do not have any laws regarding seals. But special permissions may be granted for sustainable seal hunting in the Faroes, and fish farmers may be licensed to kill seals in a fish farming context.

Any such licence must, however, be pre-approved by the Faroe Marine Research Institute.

Last year’s amendment to the fish farming law requires fish farmers to notify the authorities of the numbers of seals killed.

Although no seal hunting has taken place in the Faroes since the 1960s, the seal population has declined.