Bloody Seas: Gruesome Pictures Show Water Near Faroe Island Turning Red As 23 Whales Are Killed

In what's being called?a centuries-old tradition on the Faroe Islands, 23 Pilot whales were brutally slaughtered turning the Island's sea red with blood.

The scenes?from the 'Whale Killing' annual festivities are absolutely gruesome and reports state that the tradition helps feed the population of the remote Atlantic island over winter.?

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The method of hunting the mammal is equally disconcerting, reports state that when locals spot a pod of pilot whales off the coast, they drive the pod towards the shore and forcefully beach them.?

For those unaware, the?Faroe Islands are located in the North Atlantic between Norway and Iceland and are made up of 18 tiny islands

After this, villagers descend onto the beach and kill the whales en masse, using special tools. The pilot whales had been slaughtered for their meat and blubber.

Sea Shepherd U.K., a marine conservation charity, documented this recent hunt and believes this is the tenth whale hunt at the Faroe Islands this year,?reports The Sun.?

The charity released a statement, obtained by The Sun, about the 2019 whales hunts (called grinds by locals) and their concerns that the tradition is turning into a spectacle.

"The Faroese often talk of the tradition behind the grindadrap and specifically the respect shown to the pilot whales. Video and photographs from the 10th grind of 2019 clearly show this not to be the case, with images of people and tourists taking selfies with the murdered pod," a spokesperson from Sea Shepherd U.K. said in a statement.

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"Children were playing with fins, kicking and punching the bodies, walking on them and worryingly seen running around the dock carrying the traditional knives that are used as part of the grindadrap"

According to The Mirror, this year around, 23 whales, including a pregnant pilot whale, were recently driven on to the shore by boats and then slaughtered.

Children reportedly took part in the tradition while tourists looked on and took photos.

Ironically, the Faroese people claim the practice to be sustainable and regulated by law, but campaign groups have, for years, slammed this ghoulish practice.

In contrast to the utterly gory festivals, a few weeks ago, beachgoers in Georgia island got together and did everything in their power to help a pod of stranded pilot whales.?

According to reports, beachgoers stepped in to help several pilot whales that beached on a coastal Georgia island. Facebook user named Dixie McCoy, who witnessed the incident posted videos of the rescue effort online.?