Every year in the Faroe Islands, an archipelago which is a protectorate of the kingdom of Denmark situated just 230 miles north-west of mainland Scotland - around 1150 small cetaceans, primarily long-finned pilot whales and Atlantic white-sided dolphins are massacred in drive hunts called ‘grindadráp’ (Faroese for the killing of pilot whales).

 

The grindadráp (or ‘grind’ as the hunts are commonly called) has no season, so hunts can happen at any time of the year at any one of the 26 designated killing bays around the Islands. The grind has no hunting quota and therefore no limits, with the grind foremen of each district almost always authorising a hunt when a pod is spotted near the coastline - unless the weather or sea conditions are too hazardous for their powerboats and jet skis.