Each year, in the remote Far Oer Islands ,  850 small cetaceans – mostly dolphins and pilot whales – are brutally slaughtered during the island’s most famous hunting event: the grindadráp .

The grindadráp (or “grind” as hunts are commonly called) can take place at any time in any of the 26 designated killing bays around the islands.

Most hunts occur between June and September . It is a hunting without quotas and there is no distinction between pregnant mothers or young cetaceans.

Whale meat is a thriving market

According to European laws, this practice is totally illegal as cetaceans cannot be hunted and killed.

Still, the Faroe Islands are not part of the European Union , despite being within the free trade market and benefiting from subsidies from Denmark .

The island’s government itself sanctions unauthorized whaling, but “grinds” continue to exist as a national sport and are justified on grounds of maintaining local traditions.

Whale  meat is a thriving sector of the Faroe Islands, whose GDP is comparable to that of the other rich Scandinavian countries. Butcetacean meat is contaminated with DDT, Pcb and other heavy metals, including mercury.  

Thus, in addition to animal health, that of the local population and tourists is also put at risk .

The battles of environmental associations

Several animal protection organizations have launched campaigns to end these pointless slaughters .

Among these is Sea Sheperd , which for the sixth consecutive year launched the “Bloody Fjords” operation : a ground crew is sent to the islands every year to investigate, document and expose these barbaric hunts to public opinion. 

The aim is to make the practice of bloody whaling known to the whole world, to create pressure on the island’s government and put an end to the  grindadráp .

Sea Shepherd claims that, thanks to his intervention, in 2020 there were no hunts between August and September(typically the peak months for grindadraps).

However, three hunts took place despite anti-covid blockades. The total number of cetaceans killed in 2020 was 539 pilot whales , 35 Atlantic white-faced dolphins and 11 hyperodons, a mammal species considered highly vulnerable and  endangered  according to estimates by the environmentalist association.