LABOUR District Councillor Julie Douglass (front row second from the left) is spending part of the summer as one of over 500 hundred volunteers from around the world who are taking part in the “Grindstop” campaign organised by marine conservation charity Sea Shepherd.

Every year hundreds of pilot whales, which are protected in British waters, are slaughtered on the beaches of the Faroe Islands as part of a “traditional” whale hunt which sees the animals driven onto beaches by flotillas of small boats, where they are then killed with knives and hooks. Whole families of pilot whales including calves and pregnant females are slaughtered in the “Grind”; something that Sea Shepherd volunteers will be endeavouring to prevent this year.

Although the campaign will continue through the summer and early autumn Julie will be returning later this month to take up other campaigns rather nearer to her Cam West Ward.