International environmental and animal rights group Sea Shepherd has captured shocking footage of the annual slaughter of pilot whales in a remote corner of the Danish coastline.
Yesterday, around 200 pilot whales were speared through the spine on the “killing beaches” of Denmark’s Faroe Islands.
They’re called ‘killing beaches’ because each beach must be licensed for the annual hunt, and have shallow gradations where the whales can be beached right on the shoreline.
Dozens of boats drive the whales into the shallow coves, before hundreds of local men wade into the shallow waters and drag the wahles further onto the beaches.
A spear is then driven down through the whales’ spines. In the process, they cut the main arteries leading to the whales’ brains, causing them to bleed heavily, and staining the beach and water red with blood.
Yesterday’s slaughters, known by the traditional Faroese term ‘grindadráp,’ – or by their English name ‘grinds’ – took place over two separate drive hunts which ended at the Bøur and Tórshavn killing beaches.
Sea Shepherd reports it’s the single bloodiest day in the archipelago this year.
Three Sea Shepherd crewmembers from South Africa, Belgium and Luxembourg were arrested at the slaughter, and a further two, from Italy and France, have been detained.
The double-slaughter began during the court hearing for another two Sea Shepherd volunteers arrested earlier this week.
Sea Shepherd is currently in the Faroe Islands for the organization’s sixth Pilot Whale Defense Campaign, Operation Sleppid Grindini.
Established in 1977, Sea Shepherd is an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization. Its mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.
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