More than 1,400 dolphins were killed on Sunday off the coast of the Faroe Islands in a single day as part of the Danish traditional Grindadrap hunt, the environmental organization Sea Shepherd said in a press release.
“A super-pod of 1428 Atlantic White-Sided Dolphins was driven for many hours and for around 45 km by speed boats and jet-skis into the shallow water at Skálabotnur beach in the Danish Faroe Islands, where every single one of them was killed,” they said.
Sea Shepherd said the slaughter of 1428 Atlantic white-sided dolphins is considered to be the largest single hunt of the animals ever recorded worldwide.
The annual dolphin drive, where several hundred pilot whales are slaughtered for their meat and blubber, is part of a 1,000-year-old tradition in the North Atlantic archipelago.
The dolphins are herded towards land by motorboats before being killed by whalers on the shore.
Images of local residents slashing dolphins, turning the water red with blood, have fuelled protests from environmental activists who say the hunt is cruel.
But this year, the number of dolphins slaughtered prompted an outcry from animal rights groups for the excessive killing, producing “more dolphin meat from this hunt than anyone wants to take,” Sea Shepherd said.
According to Sea Shepherd, not every person killing the whales was trained to kill them quickly. “Many of the dolphins were still alive and moving even after being thrown onshore with the rest of their dead pod,” they said.
Faroe Islanders fight to preserve their tradition of killing dolphins, which they say sustains a key part of their diet.
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