Tragically, 1,428 Dolphins Slaughtered Yesterday In The Faroe Islands

As a water area where dolphins hunt, it turns red. (Source: Sea Shepherd)

JAKARTA - Around 1,428 Atlantic white-sided dolphins were herded for hours on speed boats and jet skis, covering a distance of 45 kilometers to the shallow waters of Skalabotnur Beach, Faroe Islands, Denmark to be 'slaughtered'.

Marine conservation agency Sea Shepherd called the hunt on Sunday night, September 12, the largest in Faroe history. More than the previous largest hunt, 1,200 pilot whales in 1940.

"And probably the largest single hunt for cetaceans ever recorded worldwide", said Sea Shepherd in a statement on its website as quoted September 15.

Struggling to stop 'Grindadrap', the country's dolphin-hunting tradition since the 1980s, Sea Shepherd called last weekend's tragedy brutal and mishandled. It even drew criticism from local media, politicians, and professional whalers.

Rows of dolphins hunted by the Faroe Islands. (Source: Sea Shepherd)

According to locals who shared videos and photos with Sea Shepherd, the hunt violates several Faroese laws governing grind. First, the grinding foreman for the district was never notified and therefore never allowed hunting. On the other hand, it was the other district foreman who summoned the grind without proper authority.

Second, many hunting participants do not have a license, which is required in the Faroe Islands, because it involves specialized training on how to kill pilot whales and dolphins quickly.

"However, the footage shows that many dolphins are still alive and moving even after being thrown ashore with the remains of their dead pods", the organization said.

Third, the photo shows many dolphins having been run over by motorboats, hit by engine propellers, resulting in a slow and painful death. Residents are said to have reported this violation to the Faroe police.

Usually, the meat from the Grindadrap is distributed among the participants and the rest among the locals in the district where the hunting takes place. However, this hunt left more dolphin meat than yesterday's hunt, so it had to be offered to other districts so as not to be wasted.

Illustration of a line of dolphins slaughtered in the Faroe Islands. (Wikimedia Commons/Erik Christensen)

The Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet published interviews with residents, whose full names have been edited for the safety of their families, explaining how many Faroese are outraged by what happened.

"I guess that most of the dolphins will be thrown in the trash or a hole in the ground", said one resident.

"We have to have quotas per district, and we can't kill dolphins", said another.

Meanwhile, a resident has asked Denish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to investigate the matter, saying, "If he expresses his criticism, it will be easier for residents who want this barbaric tradition to be stopped."

Even the local Faroe press, usually reluctant to publish anything against the hunt, quoted Hans Jacob Hermansen, former chairman of Grind, as saying the killings were unnecessary.

Illustration of dolphin hunting in the Faroe Islands. (Wikimedia Commons/Erik Christensen)

"Such a hunt taking place in 2021 in a very wealthy European island community just 230 miles from the UK, without the need for or using large quantities of contaminated meat is outrageous", said Sea Shepherd COO Rob Read.

This cruel and unnecessary hunt was carried out towards the end of the summer when 615 long-finned pilot whales were also slaughtered, bringing the total number of cetaceans killed in 2021 in the Faroe Islands to 2043.

"Considering the times we are in now, with the global pandemic and the world at a standstill, it is absolutely horrifying to see an attack of this scale in the Faroe Islands", said Captain Alex Cornelissen, CEO of Sea Shepherd Global.

"If we learn anything from this pandemic, we must live in harmony with nature, not destroy it", he concluded, adding Sea Shepherd will continue to support efforts to end the region's tradition of killing pilot whales and dolphins.