More than 700 cetaceans, including pilot whales and dolphins, were killed in three separate drive hunts across the Faroe Islands shortly after the Faroese Parliament approved legislation exempting whale and dolphin hunting from the country’s Animal Welfare Act, a move that has reignited criticism from animal welfare groups.
“The timing is not coincidental,” said OceanCare, a marine conservation NGO.
The Faroese Parliament voted unanimously to amend the Animal Welfare Act, redefining its provisions so that they no longer apply to the hunting of whales and dolphins.
Soon after the legislation was passed, three drive hunts, known locally as the “grind,” took place at separate locations across the archipelago, situated approximately 200 miles north of Scotland. In each hunt, pods of marine mammals were herded toward the shoreline before being killed.
The largest single hunt occurred in Tórshavn, where 406 animals were killed. The total toll across all three sites reached 706.
Approximately 1,000 marine mammals were killed across the islands over the course of the previous year. The latest hunts therefore accounted for more than two-thirds of that annual total within a single day.
According to conservation group Sea Shepherd, a shortage of spinal lances—the designated killing implement required under existing hunting regulations—meant that a number of animals were killed using knives alone.
Accounts from the hunts describe dolphins being held for extended periods before death, as well as animals sustaining injuries from rocks and vessel propellers amid what observers described as disorganised conditions.
The Faroe Islands’ traditional whale hunt has long been a source of controversy, drawing criticism from animal welfare and conservation groups while remaining defended by many islanders as a cultural practice and source of food.
