AFP UK

US President Joe Biden is expected to announce “good news” on addressing a shortfall in a $100 billion global climate fund, a UN official said Monday following a closed-door meeting between countries on the sidelines of the general assembly.

Biden, who will make his first speech to the world body as the American leader on Tuesday, was represented by his climate envoy John Kerry at the meeting convened by Britain and UN chief Antonio Guterres.

Ahead of the Paris agreement, developed countries pledged to mobilize $100 billion a year from 2020 to support poorer nations with climate adaptation, but there is currently around a $20 billion shortfall.

“We did hear from the US representative in the room that… some good news was imminent,” the UN official said, adding there were “really positive views and signals coming from the US representative.”

“We don’t have the details, of course, but hopefully it will help to provide that clarity on how the US intends to step up to support the mobilization of the $100 billion.”

The announcement was a sliver of hope on the climate front following a slew of recent scientific reports painting a bleak picture of the planet’s future, as the world’s top polluters continue to spew greenhouse gases at alarming rates.

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who co-hosted the meeting, took leaders to task over their failure to honor their pledges for the fund, which is meant to deliver $100 billion every year from 2020 to 2025.

“Everyone nods and we all agree that ‘something must be done,'” said Johnson, whose country will host the all-critical COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.

“Yet I confess I’m increasingly frustrated that the something to which many of you have committed is nowhere near enough,” he added, in remarks shared by his office.

Last week, the OECD confirmed that only $79.6 billion was mobilized in 2019. 

“We heard from some of the industrialized countries… the faint signs of progress,” Johnson told reporters after the meeting, mentioning Sweden and Denmark.

Both countries have announced they would allocate 50 percent or more of their climate financing for adaptation in the developing world, another key UN goal.

“Let’s see what the president of the United States has to say tomorrow,” he added, hinting at the news to come.

– Transition from coal –

Britain for its part trumpeted its $15 billion climate finance pledges over the next five years, and announced Monday that $750 million of that would be allocated to supporting developing countries to meet net zero targets and end the use of coal.

“We’re the guys who created the problem — the industrial revolution started more or less in our country,” said Johnson.

“So of course I understand the feelings of injustice in the developing world… But I say to them, that’s why we’ve got to get the funding to help you to make the progress that you need.”

The meeting came days after Guterres warned the world was on a “catastrophic” path to 2.7 degrees Celsius heating, after the latest bombshell report by UN scientists unveiled last week.

The figure would shatter the temperature targets of the Paris climate agreement, which aimed for warming well below 2C and preferably capped at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Guterres told reporters he called the conference with Johnson as “a wake-up call to instill a sense of urgency on the dire state of the climate process ahead of COP26.”

The Paris agreement calls for net zero emissions by 2050, with strong reductions by 2030, to meet the 1.5C goal.

With only 1.1C of warming so far, the world has seen a torrent of deadly weather disasters intensified by climate change in recent months, from asphalt-melting heat waves to flash floods and untamable wildfires. 

Britain’s Boris Johnson took leaders of wealthy nations to task Monday in a closed-door meeting he co-hosted with UN chief Antonio Guterres, saying he is “increasingly frustrated” at their failure to honor ambitious climate fund pledges.

Ahead of the Paris agreement, developed countries pledged to mobilize $100 billion a year from 2020 to support poorer nations to cut their carbon emissions, minimize the impact of climate change and adapt their economies to deal with its effects.

“Everyone nods and we all agree that ‘something must be done,'” said Johnson, whose country will host the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.

“Yet I confess I’m increasingly frustrated that the something to which many of you have committed is nowhere near enough,” he added, in remarks shared by his office.

Last week the OECD confirmed that only $79.6 billion was mobilized in 2019. 

Johnson and Guterres called the meeting to facilitate a frank dialogue between leaders of developed and developing nations, especially those at greatest risk from climate change.

But leaders of the world’s top three polluters — China, the United States and India — did not attend the meeting, according to British officials.

The US was represented by climate envoy John Kerry, while his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua appeared virtually.

“We heard from some of the industrialized countries… the faint signs of progress,” Johnson told reporters after the meeting.

“Let’s see what the president of the United States has to say tomorrow,” he added, hinting at a new announcement.

– Transition from coal –

Britain for its part trumpeted its $15 billion climate finance pledges over the next five years, and announced Monday that $750 million of that would be allocated to supporting developing countries to meet net zero targets and end the use of coal.

“We’re the guys who created the problem — the industrial revolution started more or less in our country,” said Johnson on the use of coal.

“So of course I understand the feelings of injustice in the developing world…. But I say to them that’s why we’ve got to get the funding to help you to make the progress that you need.”

The meeting was part of UN climate week, and came days after Guterres warned the world was on a “catastrophic” path to 2.7 degrees Celsius heating, after the latest bombshell report by UN scientists.

The figure would shatter the temperature targets of the Paris climate agreement, which aimed for warming well below 2C and preferably capped at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Guterres told reporters he called the meeting with Johnson as “a wake-up call to instill a sense of urgency on the dire state of the climate process ahead of COP26.”

He singled out Sweden and Denmark for praise, after the two countries announced they would allocate 50 percent or more of their climate financing for adaptation in the developing world, a key UN goal.

“The developed countries need to take the lead, but it is also essential for several emerging countries to go the extra mile, and to effectively contribute to emissions reduction,” Guterres said, referring to the likes of China and India.

The Paris agreement calls for net zero emissions by 2050, with strong reductions by 2030, to meet the 1.5C goal.

With only 1.1C of warming so far, the world has seen a torrent of deadly weather disasters intensified by climate change in recent months, from asphalt-melting heat waves to flash floods and untameable wildfires. 

Throwing a handful of belongings into her car alongside goats, chickens and a turtle, Yahaira Garcia fled her home just before the volcano erupted, belching molten lava down the mountainside.

She and her husband, who live near the Bodegon Tamanca winery at the foot of La Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma, decided to leave on Sunday afternoon just before the eruption kicked off. 

“We decided to leave even before they gave the evacuation order after a really terrible night of earthquakes… my house shook so much it felt like it was going to collapse,” the 34-year-old told AFP by phone.

“We were on our way when we realised the volcano had erupted.” He left in his car and she took hers to go and pick up her parents and their animals: four goats, two pigs, 20 chickens, 10 rabbits, four dogs and a turtle. 

“I am nervous, worried, but we are safe,” Garcia said. 

In residential areas flanking the volcano, hundreds of police and Guardia civil officers were charged with evacuations, with the work continuing well into the night, police footage showed. 

“This is the police. This is not a drill, please vacate your homes,” they shouted through loud speakers, their vehicles flashing blue lights on the drive through dark streets. 

Elsewhere, the footage showed officers evacuating goats in pick-up trucks in an area which is above all agricultural. 

They also filmed the slow collapse of a building whose walls caved in under a wall of red hot lava. 

– ‘700 metres from our home’ –

Although some 5,500 people have been evacuated and “around 100 homes destroyed”, there have so far been no reports of injuries. 

As the lava beat an unstoppable path down the mountainside, Angie Chaux, who wasn’t home when the alarm was raised, rushed back to try and salvage some possessions. 

“When we got there, the road was closed and the police gave us three minutes to get our things,” said the 27-year-old. 

It was 4:30 am and there were people and cars everywhere. 

“Right now, we’re watching the news and the lava is 700 metres from our home. I’m really worried because I don’t know what’s going to happen to it.”

Miriam Moreno, another local resident, said they had been ready to leave when the order came with emergency backpacks stocked with food and water. 

“You can hear a rumble as if planes were flying overhead and see smoke out of the window although at night you could actually see the lava about two kilometres away,” she said, admitting they were worried about “toxic gases”.

– Anguished wait –

For the evacuees, it is an anguished wait to see what happens with no-one sure when they will be able to go home — or what they will find when they get there. 

“The worst of it is the anxiety about losing your home. My house on the beach is fine for the moment but I don’t know when I’ll be able to go back,” said 70-year-old Montserrat Lorenzo from the coastal village of El Remo. 

And experts do not know how long the volcano will remain active nor when the flow of lava, which officials said was “about six metres (20 feet) high”, will stop.

“Now they are saying the volcano could continue erupting for three months… we don’t know when the volcano will settle down,” said Garcia.

Volcanology expert Stavros Meletlidis from Spain’s National Geographic Institute said it was too early to say. 

“There are volcanoes in the Canary Islands that have erupted for days and others that have continued for several years,” he told Spain’s public television.

Bill Gates’s nonprofit group Breakthrough Energy announced Monday that it has raised more than $1 billion from seven major companies, including ArcelorMittal and General Motors, to fund clean energy development.

Early participants in the initiative, dubbed “Catalyst,” also include American Airlines, Bank of America, BlackRock, Boston Consulting Group and Microsoft. 

The amount raised so far tops $1 billion and has been given in the form of grants, shares and commitments to acquire the technologies developed, a spokesman for the organization told AFP.  

Launched in June, Catalyst has already forged partnerships with the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, and the US Department of Energy.  

The idea is to support the development of new energy solutions to combat climate change by bringing together the public and private sectors and funding the steps to commercialization. Other companies are expected to join the initiative. 

The project will initially focus on accelerating the deployment of four technologies: direct carbon capture, green hydrogen, long-term energy storage and sustainable aviation fuels.

But it also plans to look at other innovations, to reduce the carbon impact of steel and cement, for example.  

“Avoiding a climate disaster will require a new industrial revolution. Half the technology needed to get to zero emissions either doesn’t exist yet or is too expensive for much of the world to afford,” Gates said in a statement.

“Catalyst is designed to change that and provide an effective way to invest in our clean technology future,” added the Microsoft founder-turned-philanthropist. 

Several of the companies involved specified in separate releases the amounts contributed. The foundation of the investment company BlackRock and Microsoft have each donated $100 million.

American Airlines has pledged $100 million to the program, while ArcelorMittal has committed $100 million over the next five years through its XCarb Innovation Fund.

Throwing a handful of belongings into her car alongside goats, chickens and a turtle, Yahaira Garcia fled her home just before the volcano erupted, belching molten lava down the mountainside.

She and her husband, who live near the Bodegon Tamanca winery at the foot of La Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma, decided to leave on Sunday afternoon just before the eruption kicked off. 

“We decided to leave even before they gave the evacuation order after a really terrible night of earthquakes… my house shook so much it felt like it was going to collapse,” the 34-year-old told AFP by phone.

“We were on our way when we realised the volcano had erupted.” He left in his car and she took hers to go and pick up her parents and their animals: four goats, two pigs, 20 chickens, 10 rabbits, four dogs and a turtle. 

“I am nervous, worried, but we are safe,” Garcia said. 

In residential areas flanking the volcano, hundreds of police and Guardia civil officers were charged with evacuations, with the work continuing well into the night, police footage showed. 

“This is the police. This is not a drill, please vacate your homes,” they shouted through loud speakers, their vehicles flashing blue lights on the  drove through the dark streets. 

Elsewhere, the footage showed officers evacuating goats in pick-up trucks in an area which is above all agricultural. 

They also filmed the slow collapse of a building whose walls caved in under a wall of red hot lava. 

– ‘700 metres from our home’ –

Although some 5,500 people have been evacuated and “around 100 homes destroyed”, there have so far been no reports of injuries. 

As the lava beat an unstoppable path down the mountainside, Angie Chaux, who wasn’t home when the alarm was raised, rushed back to try and salvage some possessions. 

“When we got there, the road was closed and the police gave us three minutes to get our things,” said the 27-year-old. 

It was 4:30 am and there were people and cars everywhere. 

“Right now, we’re watching the news and the lava is 700 metres from our home. I’m really worried because I don’t know what’s going to happen to it.”

Miriam Moreno, another local resident, said they had been ready to leave when the order came with emergency backpacks stocked with food and water. 

“You can hear a rumble as if planes were flying overhead and see smoke out of the window although at night you could actually see the lava about two kilometres away,” she said, admitting they were worried about “toxic gases”.

– Anguished wait –

For the evacuees, it is an anguished wait to see what happens with no-one sure when they will be able to go home — or what they will find when they get there. 

“The worst of it is the anxiety about losing your home. My house on the beach is fine for the moment but I don’t know when I’ll be able to go back,” said 70-year-old Montserrat Lorenzo from the coastal village of El Remo. 

And experts do not know how long the volcano will remain active nor when the flow of lava, which officials said was “about six metres (20 feet) high”, will stop.

“Now they are saying the volcano could continue erupting for three months… we don’t know when the volcano will settle down,” said Garcia.

Volcanology expert Stavros Meletlidis from Spain’s National Geographic Institute said it was too early to say. 

“There are volcanoes in the Canary Islands that have erupted for days and others that have continued for several years,” he told Spain’s public television.

A surge of lava destroyed around 100 homes on Spain’s Canary Islands a day after a volcano erupted, forcing 5,500 people to leave the area, local authorities said on Monday. 

The Cumbre Vieja erupted on Sunday afternoon, sending vast plumes of thick black smoke into the sky and belching molten lava that oozed down the mountainside on the island of La Palma.

“We haven’t had any loss of human life which is the best news,” said Angel Victor Torres, regional head of the Atlantic archipelago, which lies off the coast of Morocco.

According to Involcan, the Canary Islands’ volcanology institute, the lava flows were moving at about 700 metres per hour, and had a temperature of nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,830 degrees Fahrenheit).

Experts expect the lava to reach the coast at around 8:00 pm.

The eruption on this island of some 85,000 people, the first in 50 years, has caused significant damage with “around 100 homes destroyed”, said Lorena Hernandez Labrador, a councillor in Los Llanos de Ariadne which lies northwest of the volcano.

Dramatic images on social media showed huge rivers of slow-moving lava creeping down the mountainside, pockets of flame erupting as it consumed trees and surged over trees and buildings caught in its path. 

Describing the scene as “desolate”, La Palma’s top official Mariano Hernandez Zapata said the lava was “on average about six metres (20 feet) high”. 

“This tongue of lava is engulfing everything in its path. It’s tragic to see how many homes have just gone up in smoke,” he told Spain’s public television.

There was huge anguish among the thousands of people evacuated from their homes, with many wondering if they would have anything to go back to.

– ‘You have three minutes’ –

“Right now, we’re watching the news and the lava is 700 metres from our home. I’m really worried because I don’t know what’s going to happen to it,” Angie Chaux, 27, who left with her husband and three-year-old son, told AFP. 

“The police gave us three minutes to get our things. It was all very fast.” 

La Cumbre Vieja straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma, which is one of the most western of the seven islands in the archipelago. 

Experts had been keeping a close watch on the volcano after observing a recent upsurge in seismic activity and magma displacements.

An “earthquake swarm” — a sequence of seismic events occurring over a short period — began on September 11.

Since then, there have been tens of thousands of tremors, the strongest with a magnitude of nearly four, Involcan said.

The last eruption on La Palma was in 1971 when another part of the same volcanic range — a vent known as Tenegia — erupted on the southern side of the island.

– Fleeing to safety –

Yahaira Garcia, 34, decided to leave her home in the northwestern foothills of the volcano, just before the eruption occurred after a “really terrible night” of continuous quakes. 

“My house shook so much it felt like it was going to collapse,” she told AFP, saying she had rushed over to her parents’ house to help them get out. 

“With us we took four goats, two pigs, 20 chickens, 10 rabbits, four dogs and a turtle,” she said. 

Although she was safe, the worry was making sleep impossible. 

“Now they’re saying the volcano could continue erupting for three months… we don’t know when it will settle down again.”

Volcanology expert Stavros Meletlidis from Spain’s National Geographic Institute said it was too early to say. 

“There are volcanoes in the Canary Islands that have erupted for days and others that have continued for several years,” he told Spain’s public television.

“We are following the volcano’s activity very closely.”

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who flew into La Palma on Sunday after cancelling a trip to New York for the UN General Assembly, said the priority was “to ensure people were safe”. 

“The volcano is still active,” he warned, predicting there would be “some very long days ahead,” he told a news conference. 

Britain’s Boris Johnson took leaders of wealthy nations to task Monday in a closed-door meeting he co-hosted with UN chief Antonio Guterres, saying he is “increasingly frustrated” at their failure to honor their climate fund pledges.

Ahead of the Paris agreement, developed countries pledged to mobilize $100 billion a year from 2020 to support poorer nations to cut their carbon emissions, minimize the impact of climate change and adapt their economies to deal with its effects.

“Everyone nods and we all agree that ‘something must be done,'” said Johnson, whose country will host the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.

“Yet I confess I’m increasingly frustrated that the something to which many of you have committed is nowhere near enough.”

Last week the OECD confirmed that only $79.6 billion was mobilized in 2019. 

Britain for its part trumpeted its $15 billion climate finance pledges over the next five years, and announced Monday that $750 million of that would be allocated to supporting developing countries to meet net zero targets and end the use of the goal.

“Richer nations have reaped the benefits of untrammelled pollution for generations, often at the expense of developing countries,” said Johnson, according to a statement.

“As those countries now try to grow their economies in a clean, green and sustainable way we have a duty to support them in doing so — with our technology, with our expertise and with the money we have promised.”

The meeting is part of UN climate week, and came days after Guterres warned the world was on a “catastrophic” path to 2.7 degrees Celsius heating, after the latest bombshell report by UN scientists.

The figure would shatter the temperature targets of the Paris climate agreement, which aimed for warming well below 2C and preferably capped at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Though the UN has not yet published a list of leaders who attended the meeting, US President Joe Biden’s public schedule said he would be at his beach house.

China’s President Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi were also absent, according to reports, meaning none of the world’s top three polluters were represented.

A surge of  lava destroyed around 100 homes on Spain’s Canary Islands a day after a volcano erupted, forcing 5,000 people to leave the area, local authorities said on Monday. 

The Cumbre Vieja erupted around 3:00 pm (1400 GMT) on Sunday, sending vast plumes of thick black smoke into the sky and belching molten lava that oozed down the mountainside on the island of La Palma. 

The island is one of the most westerly of the Atlantic archipelago off the coast of Morocco.

“Right now we have evacuated 5,000 people and around 100 homes have been destroyed,” said Lorena Hernandez Labrador, a councillor in Los Llanos de Ariadne, a town several kilometres from the volcano.

Images on Twitter showed slow-moving lava creeping down the mountainside, pockets of flame erupting as it rumbled ever closer towards a group of homes standing just metres away. 

Elsewhere, piles of glowing lava surged onto the patio of a house. 

Describing the scene as “desolate”, La Palma’s top official Mariano Hernandez Zapata said the lava “on average about six metres (20 feet) high”. 

“This tongue of lava is engulfing everything in its path. It’s tragic to see how many homes have just gone up in smoke,” he told Spain’s public television.

It also consumed a local primary school where 25 children were enrolled, the headmistress told Cadena Ser radio. 

“Up to about two hours ago, we thought it was going to be saved, but unfortunately it has been completely engulfed. It’s totally destroyed,” said Angeles Nieves, her voice breaking.

There was huge anguish among the thousands of people evacuated from their homes, with many wondering if they would have anything to go back to.

– ‘You have three minutes’ –

“Right now, we’re watching the news and the lava is 700 metres from our home. I’m really worried because we don’t know I don’t know what’s going to happen to it,” Angie Chaux, 27, who left with her husband and three-year-old son, told AFP. 

“The police gave us three minutes to get our things. It was all very fast.” 

La Cumbre Vieja straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma, which is home to around 80,000 people.

Experts had been keeping a close watch on the volcano after observing a recent upsurge in seismic activity and magma displacements.

An “earthquake swarm” — a sequence of seismic events occurring over a short period — began on September 11.

Since then, there have been tens of thousands of tremors, the strongest with a magnitude of nearly four, the Involcan volcanology institute said.

The last eruption on La Palma was in 1971 when another part of the same volcanic range — a vent known as Tenegia  — erupted on the southern side of the island.

– Fleeing to safety –

Yahaira Garcia, 34, who runs a winery in the northwestern foothills of the volcano, decided to leave just before the eruption after a night of continuous quakes. 

“My house shook so much it felt like it was going to collapse,” she told AFP, saying she had rushed over to her parents house to help them get out. 

“With us we took four goats, two pigs, 20 chickens, 10 rabbits, four dogs and a turtle,” she said. 

“The images are really disturbing. Now they are saying the volcano could continue erupting for three months. 

“I haven’t slept for two nights, I can’t even shut my eyes.”

Local officials believe the lava were likely to move southwest towards inhabited and wooded areas, before reaching the coast.

According to Involcan, the lava flows were moving at about 700 metres per hour, and had a temperature of nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,830 degrees Fahrenheit).

Ahead of the eruption, local authorities had urged the public to stay away from the areas surrounding the volcano. 

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez cancelled a scheduled trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly after the eruption.

He arrived at the scene late Sunday evening to assess the situation. 

The Canaries last recorded a volcanic eruption in 2011, undersea off El Hierro island.

A volcano in Spain’s Canary Islands destroyed houses as it spewed out lava and ash, authorities said Monday, a day after it erupted, forcing some 5,000 people from their homes. 

The Cumbre Vieja volcano sent huge plumes of thick black smoke into the sky after it erupted Sunday around 3:00 pm, churning up molten lava that oozed down the mountainside on the island of La Palma. 

A regional government spokeswoman told AFP “a number of houses have been destroyed”, saying they were still surveying the area to determine how many properties had been engulfed. 

Sergio Rodriguez, mayor of the nearby village of El Paso said at least 20 homes were completely destroyed by the volcano. 

“The lava left absolutely nothing in its path”, Rodriguez told TVE broadcaster, saying residents were living in uncertainty. 

They will “not be going home for a while, that’s for sure”, he added.

Spanish media said as many as 100 homes might have been affected. 

Cumbre Vieja straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma island, home to around 80,000 people.

Experts had been keeping a close watch on the volcano after observing a recent upsurge in seismic activity and magma displacements.

An earthquake swarm under La Cumbre Vieja began a week ago and since then there had been thousands of tremors, the strongest with a magnitude of nearly four, the Involcan volcanology institute said.

– PM at the scene –

An earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in one place within a relatively short period of time.

On Tuesday, the authorities raised the alert level from green to yellow in certain areas around the volcano. 

According to the local government’s projections, lava flows from the volcano, located in the centre of La Palma island, were likely to move southwest towards inhabited and wooded areas, before reaching the coast.

The lava flows were moving at about 700 metres per hour, and had a temperature of nearly 1,000 Celsius (1,830 Fahrenheit), according to the Canaries Islands Institute of Volcanology.

People had been asked to stay away from the area in the days leading up to the eruption in the areas surrounding the volcano, which are sparsely populated, 

As of Sunday evening, flights to and from the island had not been disrupted, though some 200 members of the security services had been mobilised, including a helicopter as back up.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez cancelled a scheduled trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly after the eruption.

He arrived at the scene late Sunday evening to assess the situation. 

“Given the situation (on) La Palma island, the head of government has delayed his scheduled departure today for New York,” to attend the UN General Assembly, a statement said earlier.

“All services are prepared to act in a coordinated fashion,” Sanchez wrote on Twitter.

The Canaries, an archipelago of seven islands off northwestern Africa, last recorded a volcanic eruption in 2011, undersea off El Hierro island.

Cumbre Vieja erupted twice in the 20th century — in 1971 and in 1949.

Every summer in the Faroe Islands hundreds of pilot whales and dolphins are slaughtered in drive hunts known as the “grind” that residents defend as a long-held tradition.

The hunt always sparks fierce criticism abroad, but never so much as last week when a particularly bountiful catch saw 1,428 dolphins massacred in one day, raising questions on the island itself about a practice that activists have long deemed cruel.

Images of hundreds upon hundreds of dolphins lined up on the sand, some of them hacked up by what appeared to be propellers, the water red with blood, shocked some of the staunchest supporters of the “grind” and raised concern in the archipelago’s crucial fishing industry.

For the first time, the local government of the autonomous Danish archipelago located in the depths of the North Atlantic said it would re-evaluate regulations surrounding the killing of dolphins specifically, without considering an outright ban on the tradition.

“I had never seen anything like it before. This is the biggest catch in the Faroes,” Jens Mortan Rasmussen, one of the hunter-fishermen present at the scene in the village of Skala, told AFP.

– Open-air slaughterhouse –

While used to criticism, he said this time round it was “a little different”.

“Fish exporters are getting quite a lot of furious phone calls from their clients and the salmon industry has NOW mobilised against dolphin-hunting. It’s a first.”

The meat of pilot whales and dolphins is only eaten by the fishermen themselves, but there is concern that news of the massacre will hit the reputation of an archipelago that relies considerably on exporting other fish including salmon.

Traditionally, the Faroe Islands  — which have a population of 50,000 — hunt pilot whales in a practice known as “grindadrap,” or the “grind.”

Hunters first surround the whales with a wide semi-circle of fishing boats and then drive them into a bay to be beached and slaughtered by fishermen on the beach.

Normally, around 600 pilot whales are hunted every year in this way, while fewer dolphins also get caught.

Defending the hunt, the Faroese point to the abundance of whales, dolphins, and porpoises in their waters (over 100,000, or two per capita).

They see it as an open-air slaughterhouse that isn’t that different to the millions of animals killed behind closed doors all over the world, said Vincent Kelner, the director of a documentary on the “grind”.

And it’s of historical significance for the Faroe Islanders: without this meat from the sea, their people would have disappeared.

– ‘Overwhelmed’ –

But still, on September 12, the magnitude of the catch in the large fjord came as a shock as fishermen targeted a particularly big school of dolphins.

The sheer number of the mammals that beached slowed down the slaughter which “lasted a lot longer than a normal grind”, said Rasmussen.

“When the dolphins reach the beach, it’s very difficult to send them back to sea, they tend to always return to the beach.”

Kelner said the fishermen were “overwhelmed”.

“It hits their pride because it questions the professionalism they wanted to put in place,” he added.

While defending the practice as sustainable, Bardur a Steig Nielsen, the archipelago’s prime minister, said Thursday the government would re-evaluate “dolphin hunts, and what part they should play in Faroese society.”

Critics say that the Faroese can no longer put forward the argument of sustenance when killing whales and dolphins.

“For such a hunt to take place in 2021 in a very wealthy European island community… with no need or use for such a vast quantity of contaminated meat is outrageous,” said Rob Read, chief operating officer at marine conservation NGO Sea Shepherd, referring to high levels of mercury in dolphin meat.

The NGO claims the hunt also broke several laws.

“The Grind foreman for the district was never informed and therefore never authorised the hunt,” it said in a statement.

It also claims that many participants had no licence, “which is required in the Faroe Islands, since it involves specific training in how to quickly kill the pilot whales and dolphins.” 

And “photos show many of the dolphins had been run over by motorboats, essentially hacked by propellers, which would have resulted in a slow and painful death.”

Faroese journalist Hallur av Rana said that while a large majority of islanders defend the “grind” itself, 53 percent are opposed to killing dolphins.