Ecocide for Tradition: Largest Single Slaughter of Dolphins in History.

Traditionally, in the North Atlantic Faroese Islands—which have a population of around 50,000 people, the annual hunt involves pilot whales and not dolphins. Last year, the hunt killed 35 Atlantic white-sided dolphins.  The drive this year hunted over a thousand dolphins toward shore on the central Faroese island of Eysturoy, where the killings took place, which are legal and regulated by Faroese government. The dolphins were killed as part of the 500-year-old traditional drive of cetaceans (dolphins and whales) into shallow water where they are killed for their meat and blubber.  The tradition has been carried out since about the time of the first Norsemen settled there which is approximately the 9th century.

However, this event was the largest slaughter of dolphins in all of the historical records that date back over 500 years, with the largest til now of 1,200 pilot whales in 1940.

The drive hunting technique relies on creating a wall of sound with boats and jet ski's to heard the dolphins ashore inside a "killing bay".  The pod of dolphins are caused to strand on the beach, where they are slaughtered by hand. While the meat from Grindadráp hunts has traditionally been used to sustain the Faroese population over the winter, most agree there is no need for the meat in modern times.  In EU nations, as well as in the UK and many other countries around the world, it is illegal to harass and chase a dolphin or whale using a boat – but the self-governing Faroe Islands have continued to engage in ecocide in the name of tradition and implement its own laws on the issue.