Under the eyes of the children – used to the scene – the blood-red waters delivered 1,428 white-faced dolphins. The Faroe Islands tend to shock the entire world with their “grind”, a slaughter of cetaceans trapped at the bottom of a bay. But that big catch, Sunday, September 12, shook this ancestral tradition.
For the first time, the local government of the Danish Autonomous Archipelago, lost in the middle of the North Sea, has indicated that it will reassess, not the ban on the practice, but the wild dolphin fishing, a species that can measure up to a little less than three meters. “Although these hunts are considered sustainable, let’s take a closer look at the dolphin hunt and the role they should play in Faroese society.”Prime Minister Bardur told Steig Nielsen.
Last Sunday, “There were 500 of us on the beach. I’ve never seen anything like it before. This is the biggest problem in the Faroe Islands.”, tells AFP one of the hunter-fishermen, Jens Mortan Rasmussen. “This time, the reviews are a little different, he admits. Fish exporters are getting many angry calls from their customers and the salmon industry has mobilized against dolphin hunting. It’s the first time. “
If this traditional fishing practiced in summer often reaches dozens or even hundreds of catches – the total is around 600 per year – the magnitude of last Sunday’s was surprised, even in the archipelago of 50,000 souls, where the population widely supports the practice.
In the deep fjord of Skala, a small village of 750 inhabitants at the foot of the Esturoy cliffs, the immense size of the bank slowed down the killing process that led to it. “much longer than a normal ‘grind'”, according to Jens Mortan Rasmussen. The photos of dolphins lined up on the beach attracted much criticism.
But for the inhabitants of the Faroe Islands, this traditional game resembles an open-air slaughterhouse, little different from all the animals killed by the millions in the world, underlines Vincent Kelner, director of “Sabor da Baleia”, presented next month .
Faroese often recall the abundance of cetaceans in their waters (more than 100,000, or two per inhabitant) and the historical significance of this practice: without this sea meat, its people would have disappeared. Today, the subsistence argument is no longer on the agenda, even though the hunting product is still destined exclusively for consumption.
For the environmental NGO Sea Sheperd, mobilized for decades against the hunting of cetaceans, it is time to end this. “terrible attack on nature”, especially since hunted meat contains dangerous levels of mercury.