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WA activist speaks out over Danish arrests

Krystal Keynes.

Exmouth woman Krystal Keynes has spoken exclusively to The West Australian following her arrest by Danish authorities over a whaling protest at the weekend.

Ms Keynes said the image of dead whales had been etched in her mind following the incident.

She was one of 14 Sea Shepherd protesters arrested in the Faroe Islands.

She said Danish police confiscated their boat and camera equipment.

Ms Keynes was driving the boat BS Sheen, donated by actor Charlie Sheen, responding to a call that a pod of pilot whales were being driven towards the shore in Sandoy in the Faroe Islands, where an annual tradition involves locals killing the whales by hacking them to death with hooks and knives.

Locals have defended the hunt as a cultural practice, but Ms Keynes described it as a disgusting, bloody festival and a celebration of killing.

“This is not for food, it is not for survival anymore; the people become crazed, they want blood,” she said.

Ms Keynes said when the whales were close to the shore, locals put a hook in the whales’ blow holes, dragged them up the beach and used a knives to sever the spinal chord.

“The whales scream in agony when they are being killed, it’s not fast or painless as they claim,” she said.

Ms Keynes said 33 whales had been killed by the time the protesters arrived.

She said the crew made their way closer to the beach to get some pictures and video, but wthin minutes were chased down by Danish Navy and were boarded by two Navy officers in full combat gear, carrying weapons.

She said protesters were handcuffed and strip-searched before being placed in a Faroese prison overnight.

The have since been released from prison and are awaiting trial on September 25.

Ms Keynes said it wasn’t clear if the charges they were facing, of entering within one nautical mile of the whale killing to interfere with it, was a law or just a guideline.

She said the protesters didn’t interfere with the killing anyway because the whales were dead by the time they had arrived.

“I just hope that everyone who hears about this and feels something, does something, whether it be to write a letter to the Danish Government, share the story on Facebook or join Sea Shepherd,” she said.

“I think the biggest pressure would be in the form of letters and emails to the Danish Government as they are a European Union nation and they are actively supporting whaling in the Faroes which is a huge hypocrisy because whaling is illegal in the European Union.”