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The waters that surround the Danish Faroe Islands, located between Norway and Iceland, recently washed on the shore blood-red.
According toExpress, this wasn’t due to a natural phenomenon — it was because of the area’s annual summer whale culling, which draws local participants as young as 5 years old.
The same report notes a rising concern from conservationists about these kills, since there is no regulated quota for how many pilot whales are allowed to be killed each year. Additionally, sometimes other kinds of whales or porpoises that are illegal to hunt are accidentally killed in the cull.
WARNING: Graphic Imagery Below
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While the winters in the Faroe Islands are difficult, the report notes that pilot whale meat might not be the best answer for survival.
“The meat, intestines, and blubber of the hunted animals are heavily contaminated with mercury and organochlorines, such as polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). These contaminants lead the Faroe Islands Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Physician in 2008 to warn that pilot whales should not be considered fit for human consumption,” reads the recent report.
Still, the Faroese continue to kill and consume hundreds of whales each year.
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Unfortunately, this isn’t the only instance of massive whale kills in the world.
“Most people think ofJapanand the Faroe Islands when talking about dolphin hunts but, numerically, the Faroe Islands are not in the top 10 of small cetacean-killing nations and Japan is only ranked 10th. That is because Peru, Nigeria and Madagascar kill small cetaceans not only for food but also for bait, and are now among the most dangerous places on earth for these animals,” Sandra Altherr, biologist for the Germany-based charity Pro Wildlife,said in a statement.
source: people.com
