Warning: this a note contains images that may hurt your sensitivity .
Everything seemed to indicate that the dolphin hunt this Sunday in the Faroe Islands it would happen as always.
The “grindadráp” (a term in Faroese that refers to the hunting of marine mammals, mainly whales) is a tradition that has been practiced for hundreds of years. years and that today it is legal in this remote autonomous territory of Denmark.
“When the herd was found, they estimated that there was only 200 dolphins, ”Olavur Sjurdarberg, president of the Faroe Islands Whalers Association, told the BBC.
The boats of the locals led the so-called white-flanked dolphins to the beach of Skálabotnur in Eysturoy. There they were killed with knives.
Only when the slaughter began did they discover the real size of the herd: they were more than 1. 400 dolphins. They all died .
“It was a big mistake,” said Sjurdarberg, who did not participate in the hunt and acknowledged that it was an excessive killing .
“Someone should have noticed,” he said. “ Most of the people are shocked by what happened “.
In numbers
The government of the Faroe Islands says that each year some 600 pilot whales, some cetaceans that can weigh more than 3. 000 kilos.
White-sided dolphins, on the other hand, are caught in lower numbers: they were 35 on 2020 and 10 on 2019.
Supporters of whaling and dolphin hunting claim that it is a sustainable way to collect food from nature , as well as an important component of their cultural identity.
However, animal rights activists disagree and consider these killings to be cruel and unnecessary.
Images from Sunday’s dolphin hunt show the animals struggling to swim in shallow, blood-red waters, while hundreds of people watch from the beach.
The corpses were then brought ashore and distributed among locals for consumption.
Bjarni Mikkelsen, a marine biologist from the Faroe Islands, said that according to records, never have so many dolphins been killed in a single day there.
The previous record or, he assured, was 1. 200 dolphins in 1940. They follow 976 on 1879, 856 on 1873 and 854 on 1938.
That is why the magnitude of the massacre this Sunday caused a commotion and even aroused criticism from groups involved in the practice, something that is unusual.
The national reaction was “ bewilderment and shock due to the extraordinarily large number , “said Trondur Olsen, a journalist with the Faroese public broadcaster Kringvarp Foroya.
TO However, according to Sjurdarberg, the capture was approved by the local authorities and no law was broken.
“Legal but not popular”
Killing dolphins is “legal but not popular,” said Sjurdur Skaale, a Danish MP for the Faroe Islands.
Skaale visited Skálabotnur beach on Monday to speak with locals. “ People were furious “, he assured.
Still, he defended hunting, which he said was “humane” if done the right way.
That implies that hunters have an official training certificate and use a specially designed spear, which cuts the spinal cord of the whale or dolphin before cutting the neck.
With this method, it should take “less than a second to kill a whale” , said Skaale.
In his opinion, “from an animal welfare point of view” this is “much better than keeping cows and pigs in prison” and then eating them.
However, Sea Shepherd activists argue that the massacre of dolphins and whales “rarely as fast” as the Faroese government claims.
“’Grindadráp’ hunts can turn into prolonged and disorganized massacres “, says the group.
“Pilot whales and dolphins can die in long periods in front of their relatives while they are stranded on sand, rocks or simply fighting in shallow water.”
With reporting by Joshua Nevett of BBC News .
Now you can receive notifications from BBC News Mundo. Download our app and activate them so you don’t miss our best content.