1,400 white-sided dolphins killed in Faroe Islands

While Faroe Islands is beautiful, the scenes from the white-sided dolphins killing is anything but.
Grindadrap in Faroese is the hunting of mammals, mainly whales, on these islands. This hunting tradition has been practiced for hundreds of years on these islands that are part of the kingdom of Denmark.

According to the Faroese government each year around 600 pilot whales are caught and only a few dolphins, 35 in 2020. The year before that, they killed only 10 white-sided dolphins. This year however, the dolphins were not as lucky.

To put into perspective, in 1940 1,200 dolphins were killed and 900 is 1879. The 1,428 unlucky white-sided dolphins that were caught on the island on September 12, 2021 makes it the largest killing thus far. This is truly heartbreaking for animal activists and even the chairman of Faroese Whalers Association, Olavur Sjurdarberg agrees it was excessive.

According to the chairman, the hunters thought that they only got a pod of 200 white-sides dolphins. When they started to kill them with knives is when they realized they had a much larger number. A lot of locals are angry about the large killings but will anything be done?

Will Anything Change?

Since this was the largest killing of dolphins on this islands of Denmark, the locals are furious. A survey poll was done and 50% of the locals agree that dolphin killings should stop. Thirty percent of the locals think that dolphin killings should continue. What about the remaining twenty percent? Are they not furious, angered by the violence as well?

According to Olavur Sjurdarberg 80% of the locals still believe in the killings of the pilot whales and want the tradition to go on.

Is there anything that can be done about these killings? Animal activist have been trying for years to stop these traditions but locals say they rely on them for food. This island that has less than 50,000 people should brace themselves for big backlash from all over the world. You don’t have to be an activist to see that killing over 1,400 white-sided dolphins in one day is pointless, wrong and not sustainable.