page_title: Long-finned pilot whale
section_title: Whaling
hierarchical_section_title: Long-finned pilot whale / Conservation / Whaling
context_page_description: The long-finned pilot whale is a large species of oceanic dolphin. It shares the genus Globicephala with the short-finned pilot whale. Long-finned pilot whales are known as such because of their unusually long pectoral fins.
context_section_description: Whaling of this species in the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic has been practiced since the time of the first Norse settlements on the islands. The hunts, called grindadráp in Faroese, are mainly executed during the summer. They are non-commercial - though people may sell their share after the catch has been divided - and organized on a community level. The hunters first surround the pilot whales with a wide semicircle of many boats. The boats then drive the pilot whales into a bay or to the bottom of a fjord. It is regulated by Faroese authorities but not by the International Whaling Commission, which does not regulate the hunts of small cetaceans. As of the end of November 2008 the chief medical officers of the Faroe Islands have recommended that pilot whales no longer be considered fit for human consumption because of the level of mercury in the whales.
  Though the Faroe Islands are home to the only remaining large scale long-finned pilot whale hunts in the world, this species has also been hunted historically elsewhere. An industrial drive fishery was started in the Trinity Bay area of Newfoundland, Canada in 1947 by a Norwegian whaling captain. The catches increased every year until in 1956, there were approximately 10,000 pilot whales successfully captured and killed. This species was also historically hunted along the New England coastline.
  Aside from the Faroe Islands, a few pilot whales are taken opportunistically in Greenland each year.
caption: Killed pilot whales in Hvalba
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