Horror and anger in the Faroe Islands where over 1,500 dolphins were slaughtered last Sunday in the traditional hunt that has taken place in the country for centuries. The terrifying images showing the corpses of mammals on the shoreline of Skalabotnur in Eysturoy, and the blood-red sea have made the rounds of social media, unleashing the ire of environmentalists but also of some organizations participating in the event.
Grindadrap, as the barbaric practice is called, consists in dragging mammals, especially whales, ashore and then slaughtering them with knives. Every year, reports the BBC, about 600 whales and 35-40 dolphins are slaughtered. Sunday's massacre is unprecedented. In 1940, 1200 were killed.
"It was a big mistake," admitted the president of the Whaling Association of the Islands, Olavur Sjurdarberg.
According to local media, the reaction of the population was "of bewilderment and shock due to the extraordinarily large number" of dolphins killed. However, a survey carried out by public TV Kringvarp Foroya revealed that while 50% of people are against dolphin hunting. , 80% are in favor of that of whales.
