Long-finned pilot whale  (Globicephala melas)

Strandings and entanglement in fishing nets pose problems for this species, but the main threat is hunting (4), particularly coastal hunts (6). For several hundred years, long-finned pilot whales have been hunted off the coasts of the Faroe Islands, (Danish islands in the northeast Atlantic). Whole pods are rounded up by boats and driven towards the coastline where they are dragged ashore and killed. In the last decade, an average of 1,200 individual pilot whales have been killed each year in this way. The Faeroese people defend this hunt fiercely, and maintain that it is long-standing tradition and a source of free protein (2).

The long-finned pilot whale is a UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981, it is illegal to intentionally kill, injure, capture or harass whales and dolphins in UK waters. As the species is listed on Annex A of EU Council Regulation 338/97, it is treated by the EU as if it is included in CITES Appendix I, so that commercial trade is prohibited (4).