On Saturday a large pod of pilot whales was slaughtered in the first grindadráp (grind) of the year, on the island of Vágar in the northwest of the Faroe Islands archipelago. The slaughter occurred just two weeks before Sea Shepherd crews are due to arrive in the islands for the commencement of the organisation’s 2015 Faroe Islands Pilot Whale Defence Campaign, Operation Sleppid Grindini. It is estimated 150 individual pilot whales were in the slaughtered pod, making this one of the bloodiest grinds in at least two years. The ordeal commenced at approximately 0400 local time when the Faroese Fisheries Patrol vessel, Brimil, located the pod and over the next four to five hours twenty-five hunting boats herded them on to the beach where the grind eventually took place. For more than four long, grueling hours, these animals fought for their lives. They were harassed, tortured, and then killed in the presence of their family members.