Global outrage at the “traditional” Viking slaughter of 1,400 dolphins

In the autonomous territory of Faroe Islands chase away dolphins and Whales It’s common, but on Tuesday, September 14, fishermen killed 1,423 white-sided dolphins and the photos of bathers in the bloody waters caused amazement around the world.

The slaughter took place off Skala, in the region of Eysturoy, one of the 18 islands that make up this basaltic archipelago of North Atlantic where the fjords, the fog and the rich fauna are amazing.

Despite comments from the whole world on the bleeding, spokespersons for Faroese Prime Minister Kai Leo Johannesen validated it.
“There is no doubt that the cetacean hunting In Faroe Islands it is a dramatic show for those who are not used to a chase away and kill mammals. However, these hunts are well organized and fully regulated, ”said a government aide based in the capital, Torshavn.

Dolphin and whale hunting

The economy of the islands was traditionally based on the breeding of lambs and especially on fishing for herring and cod. However, in the 1980s they tried to diversify economic income and attract investment as college-aged young people or the most qualified graduates leave the island and seek a future in Denmark.

Although the Faroe Islands have international relations as if they were independent, they are not and are not part of the European Union. The highest authority in Faroe Islands is Queen Margaret II of DenmarkBut the archipelago, whose nearest Scottish city is Aberdeen, 540 kilometers away, has its own currency and language.

Viking heirs

The hunting of cetaceans and marine mammals is common and ancestral in the islands, but since the Faroe they started to promote the tourism to attract foreign exchange, the practice does not receive approvals.

Most of their prey are pilot whales, also called pilot whales, but this time it is white-sided dolphins, which are also allowed to be hunted.

The animals are cornered with boats and once they cannot escape, the fishermen who are ashore come to kill them with knives. “Grind” or “Grindadrap” is the name of this practice that the Faroes probably inherited from the Vikings, their first colonizers in 800, perhaps under the orders of the famous Ragnar Lothbrok, from which a good part of its current population descends.

Although common, the episode even surprised some of the 13 media outlets in the Faroese community: “We have no tradition of hunting these mammals. [sic]There are usually a few on the hunt, but we usually don’t kill that many», Tried to justify a journalist of the local public television KVF, Hallur av Rana, in front of the image of more than a thousand bleeding cetaceans on the rocky shore. “It seems pretty extreme and it took a while to kill them all when it’s usually pretty quick,” said the journalist, who tried to step aside by claiming that 53% of the archipelago’s population s opposes dolphin fishing.

On several occasions, the NGO Sea Sheperd has opposed the grind to consider it as a “Barbarian practice”, but the Faroese authorities came by saying that it was a “Sustainable hunting”And also that the meat was not marketed but was intended for local consumption.

The archipelago has a total population of around 50,000 inhabitants and 20,000 of them live in the capital, Torshavn, and its surroundings.

According to a local estimate, in the waters surrounding the mountainous, rugged and arid archipelago, there are approximately 100,000 calderons.

mm / ds