On the afternoon of September 13th, the Sea Shepherd crew was alerted by a local Faroese to a grind hunt of about a pod of around 60-70 pilot whales. There were 20 ships chasing the pod for multiple hours until finally driving them into the killing beach at Fuglafjørður at 5:04 pm.

There were only two grind foremen present for the expected pod of 60-70 pilot whales, however the boats had grossly misjudged the number: it was actually a superpod of 300-400 animals. What followed was one of the most chaotic and drawn-out grinds in recent history. 

While waiting for reinforcements from neighboring villages to assist with the killing, our crew witnessed some 20 whales escape, although most of the pod remained trapped between the beach and the boats as they awaited slaughter. The killing lasted 85 minutes—one of the longest on record—with whales visibly panicked, juveniles crying, and many suffering failed or repeated killing attempts. Sea Shepherd documented the improper use of spinal lances, juveniles killed without being dispatched correctly, and whales left paralyzed but not dead, left to drown.

The official count was 285 pilot whales killed, but that doesn’t include juveniles, foetuses and incorrectly slaughtered animals, nor the multiple whales that got away or were left by the whalers. Saturday’s grind at Fuglafjørður is the 10th hunt of 2025, bringing the total to 992 cetaceans killed in the Faroe Islands this year.

Meanwhile on the beach, our crew inspected the whales and found an astonishing amount of injuries from boat propellers and severe abrasions from the driving and beaching. One of the grind participants told us that they were overwhelmed by the size of the pod, and that a lot of the grind foremen that showed up did not have enough experience to effectively deal with the killing. 

Since the kill was much larger than expected, other villages and cities were offered meat from the Fuglafjørður grind. Ten accepted, while the Faroese capital city Torshavn refused the 100 pilot whales offered to them, citing logistical problems. 

“The refusal of meat by the Torshavn municipality was not received well by the other villages and could impact their access to shares of meat in the future,” said Hanus Højgaard, one of the grind foremen in Torshavn, in an interview with Emil Lisberg Jacobsen.

Read more about this and how much whale meat is actually consumed in this commentary by Sea Shepherd’s Faroe Islands campaign director, Valentina Crast: “When the Wholesome Façade Cracks: Fuglafjørður’s Grind Exposes the Truth”

On the following days, Sea Shepherd crew documented the butchering and dumping of the pilot whale carcasses. They witnessed a lot of waste due to some people not knowing how to properly cut the meat, and a lot of whales seemingly damaged for “fun”: eyes poked, graffiti on them, etc. 

Most of the carcasses were dumped at sea, many cut loose with the plastic ropes still attached to their tail fins as they sank to the bottom of the fjord. 

On Monday the 15th, three separate pods of pilot whales and Atlantic white-sided dolphins were spotted in Faroese waters. However, despite at least one pod being chased by speed boats for hours, they all managed to escape to safer parts of the North-Atlantic.

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