The victims included 98 adults, an unborn baby and a young calf, according to conservation group Sea Shepherd, which said it was the largest bottlenose dolphin hunt in more than 120 years. It is believed that the creatures were killed with knives or other sharp implements after being driven ashore in a bay. Last September, Faroese hunters slaughtered a record 1,428 Atlantic white-sided dolphins in one go, sparking a wave of global disgust and outrage and calls for the UK to cut trade ties with the islands. But conservationists say the latest killings show poachers are turning their noses up at the rest of the world. The dolphins were driven into the bay at Skálafjörður, the same bay where 1,428 were killed last year. Sea Shepherd, which filmed the latest slaughter, said: “This hunting of dolphins, and indeed the killing of all pilot whales and dolphins in the Faroe Islands, is simply disgraceful and will rightly provoke further national and international outrage. “Once again, some of the animals show cut marks from boat propellers where boats have crashed into or onto them.” Experts from the organization OceanCare, which condemned the “powerless” act, said the nose usually lives in close-knit social units and the hunt has potentially wiped out an entire social group forever. Earlier this month, Faroese officials who led a review of dolphin hunting in response to the backlash announced they would allow the practice to continue, with a limit of 500 dolphins for this year. Ed Fox, director of the charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), said it appeared the hunters were deliberately snubbing conservationists with the latest cull. “Minor dolphins are one of the most beloved and well-studied dolphin species,” said Astrid Fuchs, policy officer at WDC. “Killing 100 of these dolphins is a political message to show the world that the dolphin hunters in the Faroe Islands do not care about the opinion of their own people or the international community. “We very much hope that the UK and the EU will respond to this position with the necessary diplomatic and economic pressure.” UK conservationists are lobbying the government to end trade with the Faroes while the killings continue. They say imports from the Faroe Islands to the UK reached £864m at the end of last year, mostly fish products. In the first hunt this year in May, 63 pilot whales were killed by Faroese hunters, including 10 pregnant women and their unborn calves. Later that month, another 119 pilot whales were killed. The WDC says that hunting dolphins is not traditional in the Faroes, but the capture of the creatures has long been incidental to the hunting of pilot whales. Bottlenose dolphins are strictly protected under the EU Species and Habitats Directive which applies to Denmark, but the Faroe Islands are not a member of the EU. Mark Simmonds, director of science at OceanCare, said: “The intelligence of the bottlenose dolphin is well known. Thus the members of this large group would know that they were being hunted, and would know, when stranded on the shore, that the members of their social groups were also distressed and killed around them.’ The UK government says it opposes whaling, but that with strong diplomatic and economic ties, it can better influence the Faroese government. “We need to take the global campaign to stop this slaughter at the International Whaling Conference in Slovenia in October,” said wildlife campaigner Dominic Dyer.
