In a landmark development, campaigners have welcomed the first animal-abuse charges ever filed against dolphin hunters in the Faroe Islands – an archipelago situated roughly 200 miles north of Scotland and long at the centre of global controversy over a traditional practice known as the grind.
Faroese police confirmed that charges have been brought against a former district sheriff and several other officials, following an investigation into a June 2024 pilot-whale drive in the village of Hvannasund. According to police reports, 90 surviving pilot whales were left confined in shallow waters for 27 hours – contravening grind law regulations designed to reduce prolonged suffering – after more than 100 members of their pod were killed.
Authorities also noted propeller-inflicted injuries on many of the whales taken during the hunt.
The hunts – known locally as the grindadráp – take place in 23 designated bays across the islands. The practice involves driving pods of pilot whales and other dolphins toward shore with motorboats before they are killed using hooks and long knives in the surf. So far this year, more than 1,000 dolphins have been killed across 10 separate hunts – figures that exclude foetuses, calves and juveniles.
Although grindadráp hunts are legal under Faroese law, they are subject to specific regulations intended to minimise distress and ensure rapid killing. Campaigners argue that the very structure of the hunts is inherently cruel and represents a mounting pressure on local cetacean populations.
In an unprecedented response to the ongoing investigation, the Faroese Whalers’ Association has suspended all hunts in the northeast of the islands until the legal case is resolved. Conservation organisations Sea Shepherd and Stop The Grind – longtime monitors of the hunts – welcomed the development, emphasising the importance of documentation and sustained international attention.