Backlash over dolphin, whale hunting drives Faroe Islands to relook practice

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COPENHAGEN – The Faroe Islands, an autonomous territory of Denmark, said yesterday it will take another look at the practice of dolphin hunting after the slaughter of more than 1,400 of the mammals earlier this week sparked an outcry.

“The government has decided to start an evaluation of the regulations on the catching of Atlantic white-sided dolphins,” Prime Minister Bardur a Steig Nielsen said in a statement.

“Although these hunts are considered sustainable, we will be looking closely at the dolphin hunts, and what part they should play in Faroese society.”

The comments come in the wake of an outcry over the culling of more than 1,400 dolphins on Sunday, in what was said to be the single biggest hunt in the North Atlantic islands.

Traditionally, the Faroe Islands – which has a population of around 50,000 – hunt pilot whales in a practice known as “grindadrap”, whereby hunters first surround the whales with a wide semi-circle of fishing boats and then drive them into a bay to be beached and slaughtered.

Normally, around 600 pilot whales are hunted every year in this way.

But photos showing more than 1,420 Atlantic white-sided dolphins in a fjord near Skala in the centre of the islands on Sunday sparked outrage on social media.


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