Fishermen on the Faroe Islands in the northern Atlantic Ocean slaughtered 1,428 white hiped dolphins for meat on September 12 alone
Bloody videos and images showing dolphin carcasses lying on the beach with deep cuts on their bodies are causing outrage on social media. Whale and dolphin hunting charity Sea Shepherd has described it as an “illegal and barbaric practice”.
This action caused the government of the Faroe Islands to receive fierce criticism because international opinion said that this was an unprecedented hunt for large marine mammals in the world.
The tradition of whaling for meat on the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic – an autonomous territory of Denmark – has lasted for centuries. Despite the fierce opposition of 53% of the local population as well as international opinion, the Faroe government still insists that this is a sustainable fishing practice.
Every year, about 1,000 marine mammals are slaughtered on the islands, mainly pilot whales. Neither the pilot whales nor the Atlantic white hiped dolphin are currently classified as endangered.
Usually, whale and dolphin meat after slaughter is divided among the families involved in the fishing. The remainder will be donated to the villagers. However, according to the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet, the demand for Atlantic white hip dolphin meat of the Faroe people is not so much in reality.
According to local estimates, up to 100,000 pilot whales live in the waters around the Faroe Islands and around 600 were killed last year. Meanwhile, the Atlantic white hiped dolphin is also growing sustainably with an estimated population of 300,000.
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