
Science of Survival: Line of Blood in the Sand
Outside Podcast
00:00
The Faroe Islands' Pilot Whale Hunt
The Faroe Islands has a law that says if you see a pod of whales off the coast, you have to report it. Volunteer wilders kill around 800 pilot whales a year on one of 23 approved beaches. Wailers bang on their boats and pound metal poles with hammers - creating an acoustic wall of sand which is painful for the whales. They then grab blowholes with dull hooks and dispatch the animals with a spear to the spinal cord so they die instantly.
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