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Dolphin drive hunting, also calleddolphin drive fishing, is a method ofhuntingdolphins – and occasionally other smallcetaceans such aspilot whales – by herding them toward the shore with boats, typically into abay or onto a beach. Their escape is prevented by closing off the route to the open sea or ocean with boats and nets. Dolphins are hunted this way in several places around the world including theSolomon Islands, theFaroe Islands,Peru, and Japan. The captured animals have been used fortheir meat; some animals end up indolphinariums, while in Peru, many are used as shark bait.
Hunts have ended in countries including Iceland and the United States. The practice has attracted protests from animal rights groups in places including the Faroe Islands. There has been concern, too, about the possible health risk from eating meat containingPCB andDDT derivatives andmercury.
Whaling in theFaroe Islands takes the form of beaching and slaughteringlong-finned pilot whales. It has been practiced since about the time of the firstNorse settlements on theseNorth Atlantic islands, and thus can be consideredaboriginal whaling. It is mentioned in theSheep Letter, a Faroese law from 1298, a supplement to theNorwegianGulating law.[1]
It is closely regulated by the Faroese authorities,[2] with around 800 long-finned pilot whales[3][4] and someAtlantic white-sided dolphins slaughtered annually;[5] mainly during the summer. The hunts, calledgrindadráp inFaroese, are non-commercial and are organized on a community level. Anyone who has a training certificate on slaughtering a pilot whale with the spinal-cord lance can participate.[6][7] The police and Grindaformenn are allowed to remove people from the grind area.[2]
Many Faroese consider the whale meat an important part of their food culture and history. Animal rights groups criticize the slaughter as being cruel and unnecessary.[8][9][10] In November 2008, Høgni Debes Joensen, chief medical officer of the Faroe Islands and Pál Weihe, scientist, have recommended in a letter to the Faroese government that pilot whales should no longer be considered fit for human consumption because of the high level ofmercury,PCB andDDT derivatives.[11][12] However, the Faroese government did not forbid whaling. On 1 July 2011 the Faroese Food and Veterinary Authority announced their recommendation regarding the safety of eating meat and blubber from the pilot whale, which was not as strict as that of the chief medical officers. The new recommendation says only one dinner with whale meat and blubber per month, with a special recommendation for younger women, girls, pregnant women and breastfeeding women.[13] From 2002 to 2009 the PCB concentration in whale meat has fallen by 75%, DDT values in the same time period have fallen by 70% and mercury levels have also fallen.[14]
In the mid-1950s, fishermen in Iceland requested assistance from the government to removekiller whales from Icelandic waters as they damaged fishing equipment. With fisheries accounting for 20% of Iceland's employment at the time, the perceived economic impact was significant. The Icelandic government asked the United States for assistance. As aNATO ally with an air base in Iceland, theUS Navy deployed Patrol Squadrons VP-18 and VP-7 to achieve this task. According to the US Navy, hundreds of animals were killed withmachineguns,rockets anddepth charges.[15]
In the late 1970s, after theMarine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, the hunting of killer whales in Iceland resumed, this time aiming to capture live animals for the entertainment industry. The first two killer whales captured went toDolfinarium Harderwijk in theNetherlands. One of these animals was soon after transferred toSeaWorld. These captures continued until 1989 with the additional animals going to several aquariums.[16]
TheTaiji dolphin drive hunt captures small cetaceans fortheir meat and for sale todolphinariums.[17]Taiji has a long connection toJapanese whaling.[18] The 2009 documentary filmThe Cove drew international attention to the hunt.[19] In 2015, Japan's aquariums decided to stop purchasing dolphins from the hunt.[20]
Though it is forbidden under Peruvian law to hunt dolphins or eat their meat (sold aschancho marino, orsea pork in English), a large number of dolphins are still killed illegally by fishermen each year.[21] To catch the dolphins, they are driven together with boats and encircled with nets, thenharpooned, dragged on to the boat, and clubbed to death if still alive. Various species are hunted, such as thebottlenose anddusky dolphin.[22]
According to estimates from local animal welfare organisation Mundo Azul released in October 2013, between 1,000 and 2,000 dolphins are killed annually for consumption, with a further 5,000 to 15,000 being killed for use as shark bait. Sharks are captured both for their meat and for use of their fins inshark fin soup.[23][24][25]
Drive hunting existed inKiribati at least until the mid-20th century.[26]
Dolphins are hunted in Malaita, in theSolomon Islands in theSouth Pacific, mainly fortheir meat and teeth, and also sometimes for live capture fordolphinariums. The hunt onSouth Malaita Island is smaller in scale than Tajai.[27] After capture, the meat is shared equally between households. Dolphin teeth are also used in jewelry and as currency on the island.[28]
On thePenghu Islands inTaiwan, drive fishing of bottlenose dolphins was practiced until 1990, when the practice was outlawed by the government. MainlyIndian Ocean bottlenose dolphins but also common bottlenose dolphins were captured in these hunts.[29]
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From 1644 atSouthampton, New York, onLong Island, the colonists established an organised whale fishery, chasingpilot whales (then known as "blackfish") onto the shelving beaches for slaughter. They also processeddrift whales they found on shore. They observed the Native Americans hunting techniques, improved on their weapons and boats, and then went out to ocean hunting.[30] A significant number of commercial whalers on Long Island were members of theShinnecock nation, who had experience in whale hunting on Long Island and frequently worked under contract for English settler captains.[31] Special whaling privileges were granted to indigenous Long Islanders by colonial law, such as preserved rights to beached whales and legal protections for indentured native whalers.[32]
In ancientHawaii, fishermen occasionally hunted dolphins for their meat by driving them onto the beach and killing them. In their ancient legal system, dolphin meat was considered to bekapu (forbidden) for women together with several other kinds of food. As of 2008, dolphin drive hunting no longer takes place in Hawaii.[33]
Hunting dolphins (at the time still often called fish or porpoises), primarily using harpoons and firearms, was a form of recreation along the shores of theGulf of Mexico inTexas in the late 19th and early 20th century. Pleasure dolphin hunting cruises could be booked inCorpus Christi, Texas in the 1920s, with a promise to tourists that if no successful dolphin kill was made, the excursion would be free of charge.[34] The practice aroused animal welfare concerns; there is no reference of the Texas hunt after theSecond World War.[34][35]
Drive hunting was used to capture orcas inPuget Sound, Washington State in the 1960s and 1970s for the entertainment industry. These hunts were led by aquarium owner and entrepreneurEdward "Ted" Griffin and his partner Don Goldsberry.[36][37] Despite theMarine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, the practice continued until 1976 when the state of Washington ordered the release of some orcas that were being held inBudd Inlet; the state subsequently banned the practice.[38]