On September 12, 2021, a bloody storm broke out on the ocean. Hunters on Denmark's Faroe Islands ambushed and slaughtered more than 1,400 dolphins in speedboats and motorboats. Geographically located between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic, the Faroe Islands are located in the middle of Norway and Iceland, with only 48,000 people living on land in the entire archipelago in 2018.
It is understandable that, with the level of civilization in today's society, there are still some places that prey on marine animals in such a bloody way, which is a tradition on this island for hundreds of years. After a round of porpoise carnage, the beach is filled with dolphin blood and carcasses.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > dolphin hunting</h1>
Whaling is the more commonly heard human marine hunting behavior, historically in Europe and many countries in the Americas whaling activities have been prosperous, maintained for a long time, people will be tied with ropes or forks, darts, etc., and then use shooting or throwing into the whale body for hunting, the main objects of hunting are blue whales, sperm whales, humpback whales and fin whales, the target is the whale oil on these whales. Countries such as Japan, Great Britain, Norway, the Soviet Union and the Netherlands are known for their whale hunting.
In short, whaling is more familiar, while dolphin hunting is less understood. After all, dolphins have always been considered in human culture to be a very friendly animal that will help friends who are stranded in the ocean.
Dolphin hunting in the Faroe Islands dates back to the Viking Era, and in fact the activity has always been controversial. Ways were found to drive the dolphins out of the island's fjords in order to kill them with specially tailored spears, the only remaining indigenous whaling operation in Western Europe.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" Where did the dolphins go after > died? </h1>
Usually, the slaughtered dolphin meat is processed and distributed to the residents of the local community, but is it a bit too outrageous to slaughter 1400 dolphins at once?
The human beings living in the Faroe Islands are not actually poor, they can even be said to be quite rich, and they are also very close to developed regions such as Britain. So slaughtering so many dolphins at once to serve as a source of meat is completely unnecessary.
Local hunters said the "massacre" was actually a misunderstanding. They drove the dolphins into the bay by leading the way, and then they netted all the dolphins. When the hunting team saw the dolphins, it was estimated that there were only about 200 dolphins in the group, but when they began to hunt, they could not stop until all the animals were killed.
In previous years, the Faroe Islands killed about 600 pilot whales and 250 white dolphins a year. This year, however, was the largest massacre on record, killing 1,400 dolphins at once, compared to the previous record of 1,200 dolphins killed in 1940.
You know, overfishing of whales since the middle of the last century has led to a massive decline in marine resources, which is why massacres of such magnitude today are so unbelievable.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="13" > no-catch order</h1>
Whales, as a large mammal, have a very long growth and offspring reproduction time, so their population size expands very slowly, and large-scale hunting will directly put the species into the danger of extinction. In fact, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) issued a ban on commercial whaling in 1982 and adopted the Global Convention on the Ban on Whaling in 1986, but Japan, Iceland and other countries continue to engage in commercial whaling activities under the name of "scientific research whaling". Every year, Japan slaughters thousands of whales in the Southern Ocean, the only remaining habitat of cetaceans, and some populations are already vulnerable and endangered.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > why whaling is repeatedly prohibited</h1>
However, whaling in the Faroe Islands is not a commercial whaling practice, and dolphin hunting is legal and compliant in the local area, but requires the support and permission of the authorities. A moral judgmental eye alone is not enough to get these people to stop whaling. As a "folk custom", does this cruel hunting need to be banned?
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