Animal rights activists say that more than 250 whales are killed every year in the “grindadráp,” which is a traditional hunt involving the herding of whales. They’re then slaughtered. Whaling in the region goes back to the earliest Norse settlements from more than 1,000 years ago, and the community-organized hunts date to at least the 16th century, according to The Local.
Critics say the hunt is cruel and unnecessary.
Proponents of the hunt say that it’s regulated and the average annual catches don’t endanger the whale population in the long-term, according to EuroNews.
Mass slaughter of Pilot Whales in the Faroe Islands - https://t.co/p1gdt4USLn pic.twitter.com/89bBvE3SKP
— SOFTeam.Ru (@viralmedialife) January 29, 2016
Pilot whales are not considered endangered.
Sea Shepherd, a militant conservation organization, said: “As many as 1,000 long-finned pilot whales are brutally killed in the Faroe Islands each year.
“The slaughter occurs mainly during the summer months in so-called ’traditional‘ communal drive hunts that locals refer to as ’grindadráp‘ or simply, ’the grind’, but more accurately this practice should be called what it truly is – mass slaughter.”
In a report from Sea Shepherd last year, there was at least one pregnant calf mother who was killed and ripped open during the hunt. It was photographed by the conservation group.
“It was perfectly clear that the Danish navy ships Triton and Knud Rasmussen were present to guard one grindadráp, and that the slaughter [only] proceeded with the full consent of the Danish navy,” Wyanda Lublink, captain of the Sea Shepherd boat Brigitte Bardot, told The Guardian.
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