Skalafjord, Faroe Islands - Hundreds of dolphins have been driven into a fjord and killed on the Faroe Islands, according to media reports and environmentalists.

According to the Faroese radio station KVF, more than 1,400 of the animals were killed in the Skalafjord on Sunday evening.

As reported by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday, the action has reignited the local debate about the traditional whale hunt. This hunt is called "grindadrap" and has been practiced for centuries on the islands in the North Atlantic, which are part of the Danish kingdom but are largely autonomous.

Even the former chairman of the Faroese association for pilot whaling told KVF that the killing of such a large number of dolphins was excessive.

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The current head of the association feared for the reputation of the Faroe Islands. It's time to seriously discuss whether the hunting of dolphins should continue to be allowed, he told the online platform In.fo.

The environmental organization Sea Shepherd posted a long video on Facebook showing men pulling the animals out of blood-red water onto a beach.

The organization spoke of the largest group of marine mammals ever killed in a single action on the Faroe Islands. A school of dolphins is something beautiful to admire and should not be dragged onto a blood-soaked beach, one user wrote in response.

"The hunt is senseless and caused great animal suffering according to eyewitnesses. A line has been crossed here and a new dimension of hunting has been reached," the Swiss-based marine conservation organization OceanCare also objected.

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Whaling on the Faroe Islands dates back to Viking times. The animals are driven by ships and boats into a bay, slaughtered there, and the meat is then distributed to the participants.

Mainly pilot whales are killed, but sometimes also dolphins.

According to Faroese counts, a total of 576 pilot whales and 35 white-sided dolphins were killed in 2020, meaning the number of over 1,400 dolphins killed is exceptionally high.