Yet more white-sided dolphins killed in the Faroe Islands
News has just reached OceanCare that a large school of Atlantic white-sided dolphins had again been taken in the Faroe Islands. One hundred and thirty individuals were taken in a single hunt and were chased, forced to strand, killed and landed at Skalaflord. This is the same location as the very large kill in September 2021 when over 1,400 white-sided dolphins were taken. This brought cries of concern from all around the world, including in the Faroe Islands themselves.
Eventually this precipitated a parliamentary review there. The report from this review was never made public but it led to the islanders putting a limit on the size of their take of this species. Unfortunately, this self-allocated quota is still very high – currently set at 500 animals per year.
OceanCare sees no reasons for the ongoing killing of any of these dolphins and small whales in the islands. The Faroe Islands are a relatively wealthy part of Europe and the meat generated meets no pressing nutritional or other needs.
For a fuller consideration of these hunts please see this report here.
And also for an independent review of the welfare aspects of this hunt go here.