--- description: The teeth are used as currency or personal ornamentation and valued at 70 cents each. The killings took place between 1976 and 2013. title: 15,000 Dolphins Killed For Their Teeth image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52fba1c391536f1e/6987eebb35ba6fa44bc0b41e/rtr4sjcu.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # People on the Solomon Islands Have Killed Over 15,000 Dolphins For Their Teeth by [Sabrina Toppa](/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 7, 2015 7:03 AM CUT  Dolphins in Minsk, Russia, March 8, 2015 Dolphins in Minsk, Russia, March 8, 2015Vasily Fedosenko—Reuters by [Sabrina Toppa](/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 7, 2015 7:03 AM CUT Villagers in the Solomon Islands killed over 15,000 dolphins from 1976 to 2013 for their teeth, which are used as currency or personal ornamentation, according to a study [published](http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/5/140524 "undefined") Wednesday in _Royal Society Open Science_. In 2013 alone, more than 1,600 dolphins were killed by residents in the village of Fanalei. The extracted teeth are valued at 70 cents apiece. The traditional hunting method involves up to thirty canoes driving dolphins to shore, where they are killed. Such hunts have been going on sporadically since the early histories of the villages. There was a brief respite in 2010 when the Earth Island Institute paid villagers to stop, but the agreement deteriorated in 2013 and 1,000 dolphins were killed. While dolphins are not classified as endangered, the resurgence of these dolphin hunts worries scientists and conservation activists because they claim far more dolphin lives than hunts in Japan and elsewhere. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3849821/dolphins-killed-teeth-solomon-islands/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3849821/dolphins-killed-teeth-solomon-islands/"},"headline":"People on the Solomon Islands Have Killed Over 15,000 Dolphins For Their Teeth","datePublished":"2015-05-07T07:03:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:24:36.305Z","description":"The teeth are used by the islanders as a currency","url":"https://time.com/3849821/dolphins-killed-teeth-solomon-islands/","keywords":["Environment","Conservation"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52fba1c391536f1e/6987eebb35ba6fa44bc0b41e/rtr4sjcu.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sabrina Toppa","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52fba1c391536f1e/6987eebb35ba6fa44bc0b41e/rtr4sjcu.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dolphins in Minsk, Russia, March 8, 2015","caption":"Dolphins in Minsk, Russia, March 8, 2015","creditText":"Vasily Fedosenko—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3849821/dolphins-killed-teeth-solomon-islands/","name":"People on the Solomon Islands Have Killed Over 15,000 Dolphins For Their Teeth"}}]}] ```