Faroese Fisheries Minister Árni Skaale said the quota was meant to ensure sustainability. “We have a right to hunt,” he told the Guardian, but added that there is an obligation to protect the country’s resources: “We have to use everything sustainably.” The quota is expected to be implemented at the end of July and the government says it represents a fraction of the 80,000 whales and dolphins estimated to be in the North Atlantic. It will be valid until 2024. Last year’s collection was unique in its size. Since 1996, an average of 270 white-sided dolphins per year have been killed in the Faroe Islands, including 1,428 killed last year. In that period, there were only three other years where more than 500 dolphins were killed – in 2001, 2002 and 2006. “This announcement by the Faroese government is a farce,” said Sally Hamilton, director of marine conservation charity Orca. “What the Faroes have done is to formalize something that had not previously been formalized – by sanctioning the cull when it was never previously clear how many dolphins they would kill annually – if any at all.” He added: “The Faroes have become a slaughterhouse for marine mammals and the country seems unconcerned about the international outrage and condemnation it is causing.” Skaale insisted that the 500 quota was justified. “It will prevent a hunt like the one last year,” he said. Some of the 1,428 white-sided dolphins killed as part of a four-century-old traditional hunting technique that drives the marine mammals into shallow waters, where they are killed for their meat and mud. Photo: AP Steve Jones, head of partnerships at Orca, said the announcement – which sets a quota for the killing of Atlantic white dolphins rather than the traditional “Grindadráp”, as the annual slaughter of pilot whales is known – was “smoke and mirrors”. . mode”. He said: “Establishing a quota means formalizing a hunt that has not existed as a traditional hunt in the past, and which surveys have shown the Faroese people do not want. It is a worrying trend towards a hunt that is not sustainable. There is no market for white-faced dolphin meat.’ The massive slaughter last year sparked an international outcry, but also revealed opposition at the local level. A poll published after the slaughter showed that while 83% of islanders supported the killing of pilot whales, 53% opposed its extension to white dolphins. Companies also came out against the killings. The island’s largest salmon farming company, Bakkafrost, issued a statement saying the slaughter was “totally unacceptable”. In February, the Faroe Aquaculture Association, a body representing fish farmers, called for a total ban on the killing of white dolphins. The Faroese government says it will review the quota in 2024, using updated information on dolphin populations from the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission which represents the four whaling countries in the region – Norway, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
