This is a representative image. (Photo credit: AP)More than 700 cetaceans, including pilot whales and dolphins, were killed in three separate drive hunts across the Faroe Islands on May 28.The hunts took place less than 24 hours after the Faroese Parliament approved legislation exempting whale and dolphin hunting from the country's Animal Welfare Act, a move that has reignited criticism from animal welfare groups.“The timing is not coincidental,” wrote OceanCare, a marine conservation NGO. The Faroese Parliament voted 28 to 0 in favour of amending the Animal Welfare Act on May 26, redefining its provisions so that they no longer apply to the hunting of whales and dolphins. The amendment passed unanimously.The following day, three drive hunts, known locally as the ‘grind,’ took place at separate locations across the archipelago, which is situated approximately 200 miles north of Scotland. In each hunt, pods of marine mammals were herded toward the shoreline before being killed. The largest single hunt occurred at Tórshavn, the islands' capital, where 406 animals were killed. The total toll across all three sites reached 706.Approximately 1,000 marine mammals were killed across the entirety of the previous year on the islands. The 27 May figure therefore represents more than two-thirds of that annual total, recorded within a single day.A shortage of spinal lances, the designated killing implement required under existing hunting regulations, meant that a number of animals were killed by knife alone, according to Sea Shepherd.Accounts from the hunts describe dolphins being held for extended periods before death, as well as animals sustaining injuries from rocks and vessel propellers amid what observers described as disorganized conditions.