23/09/2021
Repost
Over 1,400 dolphins were killed in a single hunt in the Faroe Islands on Sunday, in a record catch that angered ocean conservationists and shocked locals calling for an end to brutal traditions.
Footage of the mass slaughter, released by ocean conservationist group Sea Shepherd, shows an entire superpod of white-sided dolphins writhing in pools of their own blood. Hunters killed them with knives and dragged the carcasses onto the beach, where hundreds stood watching.
After capture, the meat is divided among residents in the partially Danish-administered territory.
The hunt, known as the “grindadrap” or just “grind,” has been practiced for over four centuries on the archipelago, and animal rights groups and conservationists have been calling to end the killings.
In this most recent hunt, several laws governing grind were allegedly broken, angering even locals who view dolphin hunting as part of their cultural heritage.
A local broadcaster, Kringvarp Føroya, called the killing “tragic” with far too many slaughtered dolphins. Danish outlet Ekstra Bladet published interviews with locals, who said they were embarrassed to be Faroese.
Olavur Sjurdarberg, the chairman of the Faroese Whalers Association, told the BBC, “When the pod was found, they estimated it to be only 200 dolphins. Somebody should have known better.”
Last year, only 35 of the mammals were slaughtered. In the last decade, fewer than 1,300 were killed.
Sea Shepherd, which has called for an end to the hunt since the early 1980s, said this hunt was excessively cruel and broke several rules.
Rob Read, the chief operations officer at Sea Shepherd’s UK office, called the hunt a “catastrophic mistake,” especially as the local hunt organizer never authorized the killings.
“A massive pod was driven in, the dolphins were left thrashing about in the water for so long, the killing was carried out badly as well and terribly inhumanely. Lots of dolphins, still alive, were thrown on top of other dolphins, just to make space for more to be brought out of the water,” he told VICE World News.
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