The annual butchering of whales and dolphins is well underway in the Faroe Islands. Animals are surrounded as they migrate past the shores of the Danish territory and herded toward the beach, where they are hacked to death.

Sea Shepherd Global said that it was a “Return of the Bloody Fjords" as 252 long-finned pilot whales and 35 Atlantic white-sided dolphins were slaughtered on just one day, sending crimson-tinted waves onto the shore of Sandvik.

Activists have voiced their horror as the killings - a tradition believed to date back 1,000 years - got underway in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It has been described as an "insane blood sport" by charity ORCA, which is lobbying to end the slaughter, carried out with knives by licensed hunters.

Pictures shared by campaign group Sea Shepherd show hunters in the water butchering the whales. It has described the hunts as a "barbaric".

In a statement, Sea Shepherd said: "252 long finned pilot whales and 35 Atlantic white sided dolphins were killed in Hvalba after the huge pod was found off Sandvik.

"This is the first organised grindadrap hunt of 2020 with the meat from the hunt distributed first to the approximately 70 hunt participants from the boats and those killing on the beach - and then the remainder to villages on Suðuroy with all recipients then free to sell their share of the meat if they so wish."