Outcry over killing of almost 1,500 dolphins on Faroe Islands

[marmar]

(Guardian UK) Even the staunchest defenders of traditional whaling in the Faroe Islands have condemned the “cruel and unnecessary” massacre on Sunday of a superpod of nearly 1,500 dolphins, which were driven into shallow waters of the Skálabotnur beach on the island of Eysturoy and left writhing for hours before being killed.

The Sea Shepherd group, which has been campaigning to stop the traditional Faroese “Grind” hunt since the 1980s, has claimed Sunday’s hunt was “the largest single killing of dolphins or pilot whales in the islands’ history”, with more animals perishing than in an entire season at the infamous “Cove” at Taiji, Japan.

This time though, the scale of the killing was such that even many Faroese, who frequently view the hunt as part of their cultural heritage, expressed disgust.

“I get nauseous seeing this kind of thing,” said one commentator on the Facebook page of the local broadcaster Kringvarp Føroya, with another describing the massacre as “full-on terrible”, saying: “I’m embarrassed to be Faroese.” ...........(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/14/outcry-over-killing-of-almost-1500-dolphins-on-faroe-islands

[msongs]

1. like they got caught and are embarrased nt

[applegrove]

2. Sick. Sick Sick. I had to walk out of watching the Cove. Some traditions

should not be.

[MustLoveBeagles]

3. Kicking with disgust

[ZZenith]

4. The Aztecs had some traditions, too.

Doesn’t mean a culture has to keep doing awful things.

[rickyhall]

5. No excuse for mass murder.

[Demovictory9]

6. ugh

[XanaDUer2]

7. I don't want to hear culture here

can we do something about this?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. Another link (can link to graphic picture):

Europe

Slaughter of nearly 1,500 dolphins sparks outcry over traditional hunt in Faroe Islands

{I removed the "h" needed to complete the link.}

ttps://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/UVJCXLAVQII6ZIAZZMMTWKFKOM.jpg

The carcasses of dead white-sided dolphins lay on a beach after being pulled from the bloodstained water on the island of Eysturoy which is part of the Faroe Islands, Sept. 12, 2021. (Sea Shepherd Conservation Society/AP)

By Rachel Pannett
Today at 3:31 a.m. EDT

The slaughter of nearly 1,500 dolphins in the remote Faroe Islands has revived a debate about a centuries-old tradition that environmentalists condemn as cruel.

The pod of white-sided dolphins was driven into the largest fjord in the North Atlantic territory by hunters in speed boats and on Jet Skis on Sunday, where they were corralled into shallow waters and killed.

Many locals defend the hunt as an important local custom, with meat and blubber shared by the local community of the semi-independent Danish territory, which is located halfway between Scotland and Iceland.

But the size of this year’s hunt — which conservationists estimate is the largest in Faroese history, and possibly the largest single-day hunt ever worldwide — may be too much to feed the rocky archipelago’s population of around 50,000 people.

“Normally meat from a grindadrap is shared among the participants and any remainder among the locals in the district where the hunt took place,” the Sea Shepherd conservation group, which has been campaigning to stop the traditional Faroese “Grind” hunt since the 1980s, said. “However there is more dolphin meat from this hunt than anyone wants to take, so the dolphins are being offered to other districts in the hopes of not having to dump it.”

{snip}

By Rachel Pannett
Rachel Pannett joined the Post's foreign desk in 2021 after more than a decade with The Wall Street Journal, where she was deputy bureau chief for Australia and New Zealand. Twitter https://twitter.com/rachelpannett