Graceful dolphins forced into killing bay for slaughter

Award-winning environmental journalist

- NADA FARHOUD

MORE than 85 Atlantic white-sided dolphins, including four calves, were killed last week in the Faroe Islands, just 200 miles north of Scotland.

Marine conservation group Sea Shepherd documented the slaughter near the village of Skalabotnur, where a large number of speedboats forced the pod into a designated killing bay.

Once driven ashore, the dolphins were killed using knives and hooks, a method that causes prolonged suffering. Last Monday alone, 53 were killed.

The grindadráp, or grind, is a centuries-old practice in which Faroese boats drive pilot whales and dolphins into shallow waters. Around 1,000 pilot whales and other dolphins are killed each year on the islands.