Every summer, thousands of pilot and beaked whales are massacred in bays across the remote island as inhabitants prepare for the harsh winter months ahead.
Cambridge University student Alastair Ward, 22, was visiting the archipelago last month to celebrate his graduation when he and a friend stumbled across the bloodbath.
He said: ‘We were walking round this bay when this family of locals ran over and said “you’re lucky, there’s a whale coming”.
‘We thought it would just be one being dragged in but more and more boats kept appearing on the horizon.
‘I couldn’t believe how many whales there were. They were driving them into the bay, prodding them with their oars.
‘Once they got close enough, the whole town sprinted in and started hacking at them.
‘Even the children were getting involved, pulling on the ropes and jumping on the carcasses.
‘We were just sat there speechless and a bit upset but you couldn’t really pull yourself away.’
The whole ordeal lasted around 30 minutes as more than 180 dead whales were cut apart in Sandavágur bay.
Children as young as five were seen lending a hand, using hooked ropes to pull in the highly intelligent marine mammals and then jumping on the carcasses.
Mr Ward said many of the stricken animals were left writhing around on the rocks for a long time before being put out of their misery.
He added: ‘The squealing from the whales was horrible.
‘They were putting hooks on ropes in their blowholes to pull them in and then hacking at them with knives.
‘They didn’t die in a very humane way.
‘A lot of the locals were all saying how it’s the same as farming but I couldn’t rely agree with that.
‘Children were jumping on top of them. They just have such a different attitude to us because they’re brought up on it.’
The hunt, known locally as the grindadrap, provides the Faroese with enough whale meat to last the bitter winter months.
But it has been criticised by animal rights campaigners in the past, who say the ritual is cruel and unnecessary.
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