Home / News / Marine Mammals / Brutal images show slaughter of an estimated 150 pilot whales in Faroe Islands

Brutal images show slaughter of an estimated 150 pilot whales in Faroe Islands

On the evening of 22st May the first pilot whale drive hunt of 2018 took place on the Danish Faroe Islands at the killing beach at Syðrugøta, a village on southwest of the Faroese island of Eysturoy.

As long-finned and short-finned pilot whales swim close to the shore during migration, fishermen surround the mammals in motorized boats, herding them towards the beach.

The entire pods of whales are dragged up the beach and slaughtered on the sand or in the shallow water.

The hunt, known locally as the grindadrap, draws large crowds. Many people enter the water to help bring the whales to the sand.

The Faroe Islands is part of the Kingdom of Denmark and an autonomous territory in the North Atlantic. Although Denmark joined the European Union in 1973, the islands chose to remain outside the bloc – thus it is not directly subject to EU laws which prohibit the killing of whales and dolphins.

According to a 2012 study, residents kill an average of 838 pilot whales and 75 dolphins each year.

Media

Check Also

Southeast Asia’s dugongs may disappear soon

In 2019, two baby dugongs were found alive after they washed ashore in Krabi and …