In the Faroe Islands, passion after killing 1,400 dolphins

The local government of the Faroe Islands defended the killing of 1,400 dolphins in a single day during a traditional hunt on Tuesday, despite the sentiment aroused by the extraordinary size of the massacre, even for the northern archipelago.

For those unfamiliar with hunting and killing mammals, the Cetacean hunt in the Faroe Islands is without a doubt a spectacular sight. However, these hunts are well organized and fully regulated, ”a Torshavn government spokesman told AFP.

The heritage tradition in the Faroe Islands includes the lost Danish autonomous region in the North Sea, surrounded by a school of small Cetaceans in a bay with “grinding” or “grindtrop” boats. Then they fall into the hands of fishermen on the beach and they are killed by knives.

These are also commonly known as pilot dolphins and pilot whales, but on Sunday 1,423 white-winged dolphins, which are authorized to hunt, were caught this way at Fjord, near Scala in the center of the archipelago.

“We don’t have a tradition of hunting these mammals, there are usually a few on the hunt, but we don’t usually kill many,” said a local public television reporter. KVF, Hallur Av Rana.

According to him, there has never been such a big catch in the archipelago.

Photos showing more than a thousand bloody Cetaceans on the beach drew widespread criticism.

“It seems very serious, it took a long time to kill them all, whereas it would be very fast,” Mr. Ava Rana said 53% of the island’s population was opposed to fishing. Of this breed, but it has no intention of giving up grinding for the Pharaohs.

Described by the environmental NGO Sea Shepherd as a “barbaric practice,” Pharos officials say “grinding” is a standard hunting system.

The product of this fish is not marketed, but is used for its meat.

According to local estimates, there are about 100,000 pilot whales in the water around the archipelago, which has a population of about 50,000.

In 2020, 600 Cedaceans were killed.