Yet more white-sided dolphins killed in the Faroe Islands
News has just reached Ocean Custody 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.
Ocean Custody 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.
