Oceanographic: Why did you decide to enter the 2024 Ocean Photographer of the Year competition?

Frederik Broogard: “I’ve followed this competition for some years now, and have long dreamed of making it as a finalist. My winning picture in this year’s competition is around two years old, so I didn’t actually think of it as a potential candidate until I got the devastating news that Kristján Loftsson was given quotas for hunting fin whales this year once again. I was dumbfounded to be honest. I had thought that commercial whaling in Iceland was finally coming to an end when the hunt was suspended in 2023 due to an extensive investigation for animal welfare concerns, but here we are with the government still allowing it, albeit with fewer quotas than previously.”

Oceanographic: Tell us about the background behind your winning shot. How did it come about?

Frederik Brogaard: “Let’s start with some history: Hvalur HF, an Icelandic commercial whaling company, with Kristján Loftsson in the lead, started whaling again in 2022 after a break due to the pandemic. The majority of previous  commercial whaling activities in Icelandic waters has been done by other nations. Iceland has never had any tradition in whaling and only in newer times (with Hvalur HF founded in 1948), have they begun commercial whaling. This has been under the influence of Norwegians, with the original crew of Hvalur HF having been trained by Norwegians back then. A few commercial whaling companies had begun operating over time, only to be shut down again some years later. In 1989, Iceland even shut down whaling for 14 years due to international pressure and boycotts. In 2020, whaling for minke whales ended, meaning Hvalur HF is the last Icelandic company to hunt and kill whales, and more specifically vulnerable species like fin whales. Iceland exports most of the whale meat to Japan as it is not on the menu for the vast majority of Icelanders. Most of it is consumed by tourists, wrongly thinking they’re trying a centuries-old local delicacy. All in all, the whaling history of Iceland is messy with lots of periods without whaling and controversy from other countries urging Iceland to cease international trade of whale meat and to work with the international community such as the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to safeguard whale species.

I was working with Sea Shepherd in 2022 to document violations in Iceland’s own laws of animal welfare. As of before 2023, there were barely any control or surveillance measures to document the hunt and reduce the suffering of individual whales. Icelandic whaling ships do not tend to use automatic identification system or AIS that is used for vessel tracking, which is a violation of international maritime law. So, the only option for us was to physically scout for the ships to come back to shore at all hours of the day. Once they came in with the fin whales, we would get in position and document the entire butchering process. This could take hours, and most of the time, they returned with two whales. The two ships Hvalur 8 and Hvalur 9 were on rotation, so that we were on watch all day long. I remember that the smell was unbearable, depending on the wind direction. I assume it was burned whale blubber and tissue – everything that wasn’t meat would be incinerated. We were out documenting every single individual, no matter the weather and no matter the hour. The principle was simple; every single individual deserves to get their story told and their unjust murder shown.

Unsurprisingly, we documented signs of numerous welfare violations during that time. We saw whales with multiple harpoon wounds which suggests that it took a long time for the whales to die. The 2023 investigation confirmed that of 58 whales whose deaths were observed, 41% of them did not die immediately (median time of death was 11.5 minutes). Two of these whales took over an hour to succumb to their wounds. We also documented other horrible practices like developing fetus’ being ripped out of pregnant mothers.

New restrictions on whaling, which came into force in August 2023, did include some new rules about the used equipment, the training requirements of those involved and time of day where whaling is allowed, but these new restrictions were to be expected anyway, and are unlikely to have any real impact on the way whaling is carried out.

I was on the trip for 18 days, and this image was taken 12 days into the trip. Every single day was spent waiting and scouting for the whaling ships to return. This would equate to approximately 276 hours of effort in taking this image, including very limited sleep. When I took the shot, I was positioned on a cliff where I was documenting the process with my camera and drone. While another whale was getting butchered, I saw the whale in my picture waiting for its turn. The seagulls had flocked around it and together with the position of the whale and industrial setting in the background, I took the shot I was waiting for. For this shot, I had to get quite close to the water surface and potentially was a very easy target for the workers throwing rocks or spraying a water hose, which I was accustomed to by now.”