Originally published 2021-09-16.
On 12 September 2021, hunters on the Faroe Islands drove a large pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins into the shallow bay at Skálabotnur on the island of Eysturoy and killed 1,428 of them in a single day. It was the biggest one-day dolphin kill in the islands' records, and it drew criticism from far beyond the usual campaigners, including from Faroese people who defend the traditional pilot whale hunt.
The backlash had a practical result. In July 2022 the Faroese government announced a provisional limit of 500 white-sided dolphins a year. Below is what happened at Skálabotnur, how the hunt known as the grindadráp works, what the law requires, and why this particular kill troubled even its supporters.
What happened at Skálabotnur
The drive followed the familiar pattern of a Faroese hunt. Boats spotted a pod at sea and herded it towards land, closing it into a bay where people waiting on the beach could kill the animals in shallow water. What was unusual was the scale. Most drives involve long-finned pilot whales, and dolphin catches are usually far smaller. In 2020, for comparison, only 35 white-sided dolphins were killed in the whole year, according to figures reported by the Associated Press.
The marine conservation group Sea Shepherd, which has campaigned against the hunt for decades, published the first images and numbers. Its statement, quoted by Euronews, called the kill "possibly the largest single hunt of cetaceans ever recorded worldwide." Some early coverage wrongly presented that line as a boast by the hunt's organisers; it came from the campaigners. Sea Shepherd also said it was the largest single drive in Faroese history, beating a 1940 hunt of about 1,200 pilot whales.
Several things went wrong on the day. The hunt foreman for the district was reportedly not told about the drive and did not approve it, although his approval is required. Local reporting described errors in steering the pod into the bay, which prolonged the animals' distress. There were also complaints that some people on the beach lacked the licence that is now compulsory for anyone who kills an animal during a drive.
How the grindadráp works
The Faroe Islands are a self-governing archipelago within the Kingdom of Denmark, set in the North Atlantic roughly halfway between Scotland and Iceland, with a population of a little over 50,000. People there have eaten pilot whale meat and blubber since the Norse settlement around a thousand years ago. Whale bones have been found in household remains from about 1200, the hunt is regulated in a law code from 1298, and written catch records survive from 1584.
A modern drive works in stages:
- Sighting and approval. When a pod is seen close to shore, the district sheriff (sýslumaður) must authorise a drive, and only at one of the bays approved for killing.
- The drive. Boats form a semicircle behind the animals and push them slowly towards land. Stones on lines are dropped into the water behind the pod to stop it turning back.
- Beaching. Once the animals ground in the shallows, a blunt hook called a blásturongul, introduced in 1993, is fitted into the blowhole to pull each one up the beach.
- The kill. A licensed hunter uses a spinal lance (mønustingari) to cut through the spinal cord and the major blood vessels behind the head. This became a legal requirement in 2015.
- Sharing the meat. The catch is divided without payment among the people who took part and local residents, in a system that goes back centuries.
One common description of the hunt is out of date. Many articles still say the animals are "speared" or harpooned. Spears and harpoons were banned in 1985, and since 2017 only trained men standing on the beach may kill the animals. Supporters argue that the spinal lance kills within seconds when used correctly. Critics answer that the driving, stranding and waiting can last much longer, and that no method is quick when a pod of more than a thousand animals is beached at once.
How large the hunt usually is
Catches vary a lot from year to year because the hunt depends on pods coming close to land. Since 2000 the average has been about 670 pilot whales and nearly 300 white-sided dolphins per season, according to Faroese catch statistics summarised on Wikipedia. The largest pilot whale catch in recent decades was 1,203 animals in 2017.
Neither species is considered endangered. The Faroese government says the pilot whale catch is sustainable, since it takes a small share of a large North Atlantic population. Campaigners point out that good population data for white-sided dolphins in Faroese waters are thinner, which is one reason the 2021 kill raised alarm.
The figure of "40,000 whales" that often appears in coverage needs context. Euronews reported that nearly 40,000 large whales have been killed since the international moratorium on commercial whaling began in 1986, mostly by Japan, Norway and Iceland, with the Faroe Islands also listed. The Faroese drive mainly takes small cetaceans such as pilot whales and dolphins, which fall outside the International Whaling Commission's commercial ban.
Why the 2021 kill troubled supporters too
Inside the islands, opinion on pilot whales and on dolphins is not the same. A survey taken after Skálabotnur found that most Faroese opposed killing dolphins while still wanting the pilot whale hunt to continue. A 2022 report in The Guardian put opposition to dolphin hunting at 53% and support for pilot whale hunting at 83%.
Some reasons came from the hunters themselves. Hans Jacob Hermansen, a former hunt chairman quoted by Euronews, said the kill was unnecessary. Others worried that so much meat could not be eaten by a population of roughly 53,000, and that some of it would be wasted, which goes against the hunt's central argument that it supplies local food.
Campaigners went further. Rob Read, chief operating officer of Sea Shepherd, described the modern hunt as "little more than a sport masquerading as tradition," arguing that fast boats and jet skis have replaced the subsistence hunt of earlier centuries. Defenders reply that the meat is still shared freely and eaten, that the hunt is not commercial, and that killing a whale on a beach is no crueller than industrial meat production.
A figure often quoted in these arguments is that only 17% of Faroese regularly eat whale meat and blubber. That number came from the animal rights group PETA and was reported as its claim, not as an independent survey, so it should be treated with caution.
The health question nobody can ignore
The strongest argument against eating pilot whale may come from Faroese doctors, not from foreign activists. Pilot whales sit high in the food chain and build up mercury and other pollutants. A long-term study of around 900 Faroese children linked mothers' exposure during pregnancy to developmental effects.
In 2008, the islands' chief medical officer Høgni Debes Joensen and the researcher Pál Weihe recommended that pilot whale should no longer be regarded as fit for human consumption. Official advice issued in 2011 told adults to eat no more than one meal of whale meat and blubber a month, never to eat the liver or kidneys, and urged particular care for women who are pregnant or planning a pregnancy. A 2012 follow-up found pilot whale meat averaged about twice the EU limit for mercury in food. Anyone with questions about mercury and diet should talk to a doctor.
The quota and what it changed
In July 2022 the government proposed an annual cap of 500 white-sided dolphins for 2022 and 2023, to be issued as an executive order. It said aspects of the 2021 catch had not been satisfactory and that such a number was unlikely to be sustainable. Pilot whales were not included in the limit.
Campaigners called the quota a token gesture. They noted that, apart from 2021, the dolphin catch had passed 500 in only three years since 1996, so the limit would rarely constrain anyone. Supporters saw it as proof that the islands can regulate the hunt themselves.
For readers trying to make sense of the debate, it helps to keep three questions apart: is the population sustainable, does the killing method cause avoidable suffering, and is the meat safe and needed? A good answer to one does not settle the others, and the Faroese themselves give different answers depending on whether the animal on the beach is a pilot whale or a dolphin.
Sources: Euronews, 14 September 2021: Tradition or torture? Dolphins killed in Faroe Islands hunt; Associated Press via WRTV, July 2022: Faroese put a cap on dolphin hunt after huge 2021 kill; Wikipedia: Whaling in the Faroe Islands. First reported by Sea Shepherd; story via Euronews.
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