Shocking! Nearly 1,500 dolphins slaughtered in Denmark within a day

The practice of dolphin hunting in the Faroe Islands has come under scrutiny after more than 1,400 of the mammals were killed in what was believed to be a record death toll.

Even the staunchest defenders of traditional whaling in the Faroe Islands have condemned the "cruel and unnecessary" massacre on Sept. 12 after a pod of nearly 1,500 dolphins, which were driven into shallow waters on Skálabotnur beach on the island of Eysturoy, were left writhing for hours before finally being killed.

The Sea Shepherd group, which has been campaigning to stop the traditional Faroese "Grind" hunt since the 1980s, has claimed Sunday's hunt was "the largest single killing of dolphins or pilot whales in the islands' history", with more animals perishing than in an entire season at the infamous "Cove" at Taiji, Japan.

This time though, the scale of the killing was such that even many Faroese, who frequently view the hunt as part of their cultural heritage, expressed disgust.

Sea Shepherd Australia's managing director Jeff Hansen said the footage is the "most shocking and disturbing" he has seen since joining the group in 2007.

Describing the scenes as "the stuff of nightmares", he has urged the global community to call for an end to the annual hunt.

"I feel sick to my core seeing such cruel, heartless, barbaric, and prolonged suffering of such highly intelligent socially complex beings," he said.

Bjarni Mikkelsen, a marine biologist from the Faroe Islands, put the reported death toll into perspective.

He said records showed that this was the largest number of dolphins ever killed on one day in the Faroe Islands, an autonomous territory of Denmark.

He said the previous record was 1,200 in 1940. The next-largest catches were 900 in 1879, 856 in 1873, and 854 in 1938.