By Susan Millward, Executive Director
Animal Welfare Institute
The Save Japan Dolphins Coalition is outraged by the deaths of four dolphins at the Sealanya Dolphin Park in Turkey. The dolphins were captured from the wild in Taiji, Japan in 2008 as part of a notorious annual dolphin drive hunt.
"These dolphins were captured in Taiji in the killing cove as depicted in the documentary The Cove, where they were ripped from their families," stated Ric O'Barry, Campaign Director for Save Japan Dolphins. "Their families were then butchered for meat -- the sale of the live dolphins subsidizes the killing for the fishermen. Under these conditions of extreme stress, the deaths of these dolphins in Turkey's Sealanya Dolphin Park were inevitable. Dolphins die an early death in aquarium tanks due to boredom, disease, and stress."
Their short lives in captivity were a stark contrast to their lives in the wild before they were unlucky enough to stray into the path of Taiji dolphin killers. After being spotted with their podmates, they were chased with boats and driven to shore by the fishermen using noise. In panic they were herded into a shallow bay, cut off from the ocean and their former life. These four were then handpicked for a life in captivity in far off Turkey, while their podmates were horrifically butchered for meat, fertilizer or pet food. The Taiji dolphin hunts are the cruel reality of modern day aquariums and “swim-with-dolphins” tourist programs that source from the wild. The money paid by Sealanya Dolphin park for the dolphins is a direct incentive for the Japanese fishermen to continue the hunts that result in the deaths of thousands of additional dolphins a year.
The Taiji dolphin hunts are the subject of an Oscar-nominated film The Cove which features our Coalition’s campaign director Ric O'Barry, who has spent almost half his life trying to shut down the hunts. The hunts run from September through March and in all around 1000 dolphins are killed or captured in the hunts every year. Later this year The Cove, which received a slew of audience awards during its US run, will open across Japan, and, for the first time, the Japanese public will be exposed to the truth that lies on their shores. A media blackout has prevented the story from reaching the Japanese people, who know little about the dolphin killing operation.
Susan Millward, Executive Director of the Washington DC-based Animal Welfare Institute, stated: "The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) refuses to step in and monitor their members and colleagues: The Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA) who are directly involved in the Taiji dolphin captures. The Taiji Whale Museum is one of several dolphin brokers in Taiji and a member of JAZA. So long as the aquarium industry has paying customers who want to see dolphins, they will provide a market for wild-caught Taiji dolphins, and the hunts will continue."
Eight other Taiji dolphins who were captured with those who died remain at the Sealanya Dolphin Park.
The Save Japan Dolphins Coalition was formed in November 2006 to combat the killing and capture of dolphins and other small whales in Japanese waters.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Music Industry supports Save Japan Dolphins
Already nominated for an Oscar, the environmental thriller THE COVE brings to light the machinations of the Japanese dolphin hunters. More than 1,000 dolphins are brutally killed each year in the fishing village of Taiji. In protest of this crime against marine mammals, Ocean Care and the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition have also received support from the music industry.
"I will never be able to rid my mind of those horrific pictures," recalls musician and composer Rick Laine. "It was back in 1993 when I first saw films on how dolphins are butchered in
Japan and I was appalled." The native Englishman then worked his way through the negative emotions experienced through that event by writing the song "Cruel Heart."
Together with the Swiss music producer Hape Schuwey, Laine revised the catchy song and donated it to Ocean Care for its campaign against dolphin drives. The Swiss organization then produced a video clip to the song that includes some exclusive film material of wild dolphins which it received as a donation from the renowned American video artist, Diana Thater.
Written and composed by Rick Laine, featuring M.G. Grace, "Cruel Heart" can be procured as a song and ring tone over iTunes. The proceeds flow completely into the campaign against the Japanese dolphin drive.
For further information:
Photo CD Cover - Cruel Heart 
Download Cruel Heart on iTunes.
Watch video clip on YouTube.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
"The Cove" Goes to the Oscars
By Ric O’Barry
Campaign Director
Save Japan Dolphins Coalition
Great news! The award-winning documentary “The Cove” is now in the official running for an Oscar for Best Documentary, along with four other documentaries. The next month will see unprecedented publicity for “The Cove” and our Campaign.
While an Oscar nomination is a tremendous testament to the skill and art of the filmmakers of “The Cove,” it also sheds a welcome light on the actions of the government of Japan in trying to cover up the dolphin slaughter and the poisoning of Japanese people by mercury-laced dolphin meat.
Big thanks go to all “The Cove” filmmaking Team, especially to Director Louie Psihoyos, Executive Producer Jim Clark, Producer Fisher Stevens, and all the team at the Oceanic Preservation Society.
They took big risks and worked hard to make a brave film, and we at Save Japan Dolphins honor them for their well-earned awards including this nomination!
The March 7th broadcast of the Oscar presentations will reach nearly a billion people around the world! People will see “The Cove,” and will be hearing about “The Cove” over the next month.
Our Save Japan Dolphins Team will be working with the media around the world to highlight our ongoing Campaign to educate the Japanese people and end the slaughter of dolphins, once and for all.
I also want to thank all of you who have volunteered your time and given us donations – your support has meant a lot to all our Save Japan Dolphins Coalition Team and me. Without your support, “The Cove” movie would never have been made. Without your support, all the film festivals and honors gleaned by “The Cove” would never have happened. And without your support, the annual slaughter of the dolphins would still be a big secret.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
It is time now for a big push for our cause, especially in Japan, where the lies and blackouts by the Japan Fisheries Agency and the dolphin killers can at last be pierced.
And we must ensure that “The Cove” shows throughout Japan all spring and summer, working to stop the next killing season throughout 2010.
Thanks for your help and support! If you would like to donate to our efforts to get the word out and keep the pressure on in Japan, please
We are also asking you and your friends and neighbors to sign our petition to end the killing of dolphins. We are seeking 1 million signatures, and now have more that 659,000 online. Go to:
Thanks for all your efforts for the dolphins! I know we can end the slaughter, if we work together and get the people of Japan to see “The Cove”.
--
Ric O’Barry
Friday, January 22, 2010
Japanese Scientist Reveals Study Showing That Taiji Residents have 10 Times Higher Mercury Levels Than Average Japanese Citizens
BREAKING NEWS:
Japanese Scientist Reveals Study Showing That Taiji Residents have 10 Times Higher Mercury Levels Than Average Japanese Citizens.
Message From Ric O’Barry
Campaign Director
Save Japan Dolphins
The dirty secret of the largest slaughter of dolphins on Earth is that the dolphin meat being sold to an unsuspecting public in Japan is poisoned by mercury contamination.
We have brought this to public attention since we began our campaign four years ago. More recently our testing of dolphin meat and the mercury contamination issue (including the Japan government’s cover-up with a compliant media) is receiving global attention in the award-winning documentary “The Cove.”
In Taiji, Japan, the little town that slaughters a thousand dolphins a year and sells the meat in markets around Japan, one brave town council member, Mr. Yamashita, objected to the inclusion of mercury-laden dolphin meat in the town’s school lunch program, a PR gimmick by the dolphin-killers to get another young generation hooked on poisoned dolphin meat. Taiji dropped the school lunches, but unfortunately Mr. Yamashita has been shunned and left Taiji.
However, one of his legacies was a decision by the town council to test the mercury levels in Japanese citizens in Taiji. The results have been held up for months, but now enterprising reporters in Japan are bringing out the story.
The Japan-wide news service, Kyodo News, just published this story, picked up here by The Japan Times, which has been bravely printing the story of the dolphin slaughter and our Coalition work for several years.
The story states that Taiji residents, who eat dolphin meat, are showing mercury levels ten times higher than average Japanese.
The Japan media is finally getting out the story of mercury contamination in dolphin meat. As more stories appear, more reporters and editors will feel safe in investigating further.
Mercury-laden dolphin meat is a crisis that should bring an end to the dolphin slaughter in Japan, and not just in Taiji, but all across Japan.
We still have a long way to go to get this story out to the Japanese public and help organize the protest to their government to end the cover-up and the sale of dolphin meat.
I believe we are getting closer! And we will not stop until the dolphin slaughter ends, period.
Ric O’Barry
Here’s how you can help immediately:
KYODO NEWS/THE JAPAN TIMES
Mercury levels of whale-eating town's residents 10 times average
Friday 22nd January, 06:40 AM JST
TOKYO —
Levels of mercury in hair samples of residents of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, which is known for customarily eating small whales caught by coastal whaling, are about 10 times the average in Japan, possibly due to consumption of whale meat with high concentration of mercury, one of researchers who conducted the survey said Thursday.
Hair samples were collected from 30 men and 20 women living in the whaling town with a population of about 3,400 through local collaborators between December 2007 and July 2008 for testing, Tetsuya Endo, an associate professor at Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, said.
The survey showed the average total mercury levels in the men’s and women’s hair samples were 21.6 parts per million and 11.9 ppm, respectively, while the levels of average Japanese men and women are 2.55 ppm and 1.43 ppm, he said.
The highest concentration level discovered in the survey was 67.2 ppm in a male aged in his 50s, as a total of three people exceeded the level of 50 ppm for no observed adverse effect set by the World Health Organization, Endo said.
Endo expressed alarm that contamination levels among some of the residents appeared to be high enough to develop health problems according to oversea standards.
‘‘It’s necessary to conduct more detailed research on their health conditions and the current status of contamination,’’ he said. ‘‘We should also make efforts to curb consumption of whale meat which is highly contaminated with mercury.’‘
The researchers, also including Koichi Haraguchi at Daiichi College of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Fukuoka, will publish the survey result in an international science magazine on oceanic pollution.
According to Endo, the researchers also discovered high levels of mercury in products made from local marine mammals and fishes, such as pilot whales, dolphins, tunas and skipjack, distributed in and around the community.
In particular, the total contamination levels in the red meat from 22 samples of pilot whales, a cetacean commonly consumed in the town, averaged 9.6 ppm, with the level for methyl mercury alone coming to 5.9 ppm, both well beyond the tentative national regulation figures of 0.4 ppm and 0.3 ppm, respectively.
Among the 50 residents tested, the average total mercury level in those who eat pilot whale once a month or more was 24.6 ppm, while the levels in those who eat it only once every several months or not at all were 15.5 ppm and 4.3 ppm, respectively.
No epidemiologic survey has been conducted in Taiji although health hazards to the residents from the consumption of whale products are suspected, according to Endo.
© 2010 Kyodo News. All rights reserved.
Japanese Scientist Reveals Study Showing That Taiji Residents have 10 Times Higher Mercury Levels Than Average Japanese Citizens.
University of Hokkaido Professor Tetsuya Endo expresses alarm at the high levels of contamination among residents of Taiji, site of the killing of dolphins featured in “The Cove”. Dr. Endo is calling for “efforts to curb consumption of whale meat which is highly contaminated with mercury.”
Message From Ric O’Barry
Campaign Director
Save Japan Dolphins
The dirty secret of the largest slaughter of dolphins on Earth is that the dolphin meat being sold to an unsuspecting public in Japan is poisoned by mercury contamination.
We have brought this to public attention since we began our campaign four years ago. More recently our testing of dolphin meat and the mercury contamination issue (including the Japan government’s cover-up with a compliant media) is receiving global attention in the award-winning documentary “The Cove.”
In Taiji, Japan, the little town that slaughters a thousand dolphins a year and sells the meat in markets around Japan, one brave town council member, Mr. Yamashita, objected to the inclusion of mercury-laden dolphin meat in the town’s school lunch program, a PR gimmick by the dolphin-killers to get another young generation hooked on poisoned dolphin meat. Taiji dropped the school lunches, but unfortunately Mr. Yamashita has been shunned and left Taiji.
However, one of his legacies was a decision by the town council to test the mercury levels in Japanese citizens in Taiji. The results have been held up for months, but now enterprising reporters in Japan are bringing out the story.
The Japan-wide news service, Kyodo News, just published this story, picked up here by The Japan Times, which has been bravely printing the story of the dolphin slaughter and our Coalition work for several years.
The story states that Taiji residents, who eat dolphin meat, are showing mercury levels ten times higher than average Japanese.
The Japan media is finally getting out the story of mercury contamination in dolphin meat. As more stories appear, more reporters and editors will feel safe in investigating further.
Mercury-laden dolphin meat is a crisis that should bring an end to the dolphin slaughter in Japan, and not just in Taiji, but all across Japan.
We still have a long way to go to get this story out to the Japanese public and help organize the protest to their government to end the cover-up and the sale of dolphin meat.
I believe we are getting closer! And we will not stop until the dolphin slaughter ends, period.
Ric O’Barry
Here’s how you can help immediately:
- Join our Call to Action to Ban the sale of dolphin meat immediately!
Take action at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/4/ban-the-sale-of-dolphin-meat - Help us with a donation to get the word out in Japan. When the Japanese public sees The Cove, and realizes that the dolphin meat is poison, the killing will end. Click here to Donate
- Go to www.savejapandolphins.org where you can sign up to be informed of the latest updates.
- Read the full text of the Mercury Poisoning story at:
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/mercury-levels-of-whale-eating-towns-residents-10-times-japan-average
KYODO NEWS/THE JAPAN TIMES
Mercury levels of whale-eating town's residents 10 times average
Friday 22nd January, 06:40 AM JST
TOKYO —
Levels of mercury in hair samples of residents of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, which is known for customarily eating small whales caught by coastal whaling, are about 10 times the average in Japan, possibly due to consumption of whale meat with high concentration of mercury, one of researchers who conducted the survey said Thursday.
Hair samples were collected from 30 men and 20 women living in the whaling town with a population of about 3,400 through local collaborators between December 2007 and July 2008 for testing, Tetsuya Endo, an associate professor at Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, said.
The survey showed the average total mercury levels in the men’s and women’s hair samples were 21.6 parts per million and 11.9 ppm, respectively, while the levels of average Japanese men and women are 2.55 ppm and 1.43 ppm, he said.
The highest concentration level discovered in the survey was 67.2 ppm in a male aged in his 50s, as a total of three people exceeded the level of 50 ppm for no observed adverse effect set by the World Health Organization, Endo said.
Endo expressed alarm that contamination levels among some of the residents appeared to be high enough to develop health problems according to oversea standards.
‘‘It’s necessary to conduct more detailed research on their health conditions and the current status of contamination,’’ he said. ‘‘We should also make efforts to curb consumption of whale meat which is highly contaminated with mercury.’‘
The researchers, also including Koichi Haraguchi at Daiichi College of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Fukuoka, will publish the survey result in an international science magazine on oceanic pollution.
According to Endo, the researchers also discovered high levels of mercury in products made from local marine mammals and fishes, such as pilot whales, dolphins, tunas and skipjack, distributed in and around the community.
In particular, the total contamination levels in the red meat from 22 samples of pilot whales, a cetacean commonly consumed in the town, averaged 9.6 ppm, with the level for methyl mercury alone coming to 5.9 ppm, both well beyond the tentative national regulation figures of 0.4 ppm and 0.3 ppm, respectively.
Among the 50 residents tested, the average total mercury level in those who eat pilot whale once a month or more was 24.6 ppm, while the levels in those who eat it only once every several months or not at all were 15.5 ppm and 4.3 ppm, respectively.
No epidemiologic survey has been conducted in Taiji although health hazards to the residents from the consumption of whale products are suspected, according to Endo.
© 2010 Kyodo News. All rights reserved.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
What is happening in Taiji now?
By Helene O’Barry
Since the showing of the documentary The Cove, which exposes the slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan, many rumors have swirled around one question: Did The Cove stop the killing of dolphins in Taiji? Some media outlets have publicized statements that would lead the public to believe that dolphins are no longer being hunted there. Sadly, this is not the case. The killing of many dolphins, including bottlenose dolphins, still continues in Taiji. The policy of no killing of bottlenose dolphins apparently did not last long and was most likely nothing but a strategic short-term publicity stunt, aimed at reassuring the international media that bottlenose dolphins would no longer be killed. Bottlenose dolphins are being hunted and killed in Taiji again, along with many other species of dolphin.
It is important to remember that this is the world’s largest dolphin slaughter. Japan issues 23,000 permits annually to fishermen around its shores; in Taiji alone, 1,500 or more dolphins are slaughtered every year. It has been going on for more than 400 years, although the drive fishery has only gone on for the past 70 years or so, and of course the capturing of dolphins for aquariums and swim-with-dolphins programs is a modern, very lucrative addition.
It is not realistic to think that we, or anyone else, can shut it down before this year’s hunting season ends in March 2010. In order to once and for all stop the dolphin slaughter in Japan, The Cove must be viewed by the Japanese people. So far, it has not been. There are 126 million people in Japan. Less than 300 of them have seen the documentary so far. The work, therefore, is now about launching an effort within Japan to ensure that as many Japanese people as possible see The Cove.
The Save Japan Dolphins Coalition is leading that effort, and we are currently finishing up the Japanese translations for The Cove and making copies to distribute around the country, particularly to decision-makers in Tokyo. Additionally, our Coalition will be screening copies around the major cities shortly. We are getting e-mails from people in Japan eager to help us spread the word.
Your donations help our efforts. We want to thank you for all your support. Help us reach those 126 million people in Japan by donating today:
http://www.savejapandolphins.org/donate.php
Working together with our friends in Japan and from all around the world, we can stop the killing. We are already seeing stories in the Japanese media that would never have appeared without our Save Japan Dolphins Campaign. The Japan Times, for example, recently printed a story listing ten important human rights issues in Japan — the Japan dolphin slaughter was number 9! Go to: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/rss/fl20100105ad.html
We don’t know how long this campaign is going to take, but we are in it to win protection for all the dolphins and whales. You can count on that.
Since the showing of the documentary The Cove, which exposes the slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan, many rumors have swirled around one question: Did The Cove stop the killing of dolphins in Taiji? Some media outlets have publicized statements that would lead the public to believe that dolphins are no longer being hunted there. Sadly, this is not the case. The killing of many dolphins, including bottlenose dolphins, still continues in Taiji. The policy of no killing of bottlenose dolphins apparently did not last long and was most likely nothing but a strategic short-term publicity stunt, aimed at reassuring the international media that bottlenose dolphins would no longer be killed. Bottlenose dolphins are being hunted and killed in Taiji again, along with many other species of dolphin.
It is important to remember that this is the world’s largest dolphin slaughter. Japan issues 23,000 permits annually to fishermen around its shores; in Taiji alone, 1,500 or more dolphins are slaughtered every year. It has been going on for more than 400 years, although the drive fishery has only gone on for the past 70 years or so, and of course the capturing of dolphins for aquariums and swim-with-dolphins programs is a modern, very lucrative addition.
It is not realistic to think that we, or anyone else, can shut it down before this year’s hunting season ends in March 2010. In order to once and for all stop the dolphin slaughter in Japan, The Cove must be viewed by the Japanese people. So far, it has not been. There are 126 million people in Japan. Less than 300 of them have seen the documentary so far. The work, therefore, is now about launching an effort within Japan to ensure that as many Japanese people as possible see The Cove.
The Save Japan Dolphins Coalition is leading that effort, and we are currently finishing up the Japanese translations for The Cove and making copies to distribute around the country, particularly to decision-makers in Tokyo. Additionally, our Coalition will be screening copies around the major cities shortly. We are getting e-mails from people in Japan eager to help us spread the word.
Your donations help our efforts. We want to thank you for all your support. Help us reach those 126 million people in Japan by donating today:
http://www.savejapandolphins.org/donate.php
Working together with our friends in Japan and from all around the world, we can stop the killing. We are already seeing stories in the Japanese media that would never have appeared without our Save Japan Dolphins Campaign. The Japan Times, for example, recently printed a story listing ten important human rights issues in Japan — the Japan dolphin slaughter was number 9! Go to: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/rss/fl20100105ad.html
We don’t know how long this campaign is going to take, but we are in it to win protection for all the dolphins and whales. You can count on that.
Save Japan Dolphins Coalition:
Earth Island Institute, Animal Welfare Institute, Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan, In Defense of Animals, Campaign Whale of the UK, and OceanCare of Switzerland
Earth Island Institute, Animal Welfare Institute, Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan, In Defense of Animals, Campaign Whale of the UK, and OceanCare of Switzerland
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
In Taiji, Japan, Fishermen in the Cove are Still Not Killing Bottlenose Dolphins, but They are Killing Other Species
By Ric OBarry, Campaign Director
Save Japan Dolphins Coalition
http://www.SaveJapanDolphins.org
Ive been here in Taiji, the small coastal town in Japan with the big secret, for several days now. I wanted to get a good idea of what is happening in the Cove, made infamous by the movie The Cove, recently released on DVD. It is imperative that I and my colleagues from Save Japan Dolphins Coalition are here on the ground regularly to judge what is happening and to document the truth that the Taiji dolphin killers and the Japanese government want to hide from the Japanese people and the world.
Ric O’Barry and his son, Lincoln O’Barry, are at the Cove in Taiji, Japan.
Photo by Kate Tomlinson.
The Taiji dolphin-killers, so far as we can tell, are still not catching any bottlenose dolphins for slaughter. Thats the good news. But obviously, this is largely a PR effort on the part of the fishermen to deny the truth shown in The Cove. They can say they are not killing Flipper, but they are butchering many of his dolphin cousins as many as they can get.
And the dolphin-killers are angry, too. They have physically assaulted several of us, although fortunately there have been no injuries. I was assaulted yesterday, but I got the assault on video. Tomorrow I will bring a copy to the police station and file a complaint against the dolphin killers. They will not intimidate me or our Save Japan Dolphins team that is here on site.
As depicted in the award-wining documentary The Cove, Japan issues 23,000 permits annually to slaughter dolphins. Here in Taiji, boats go out to sea and herd dolphin pods into a local cove, where nets are arrayed across the entrance to keep them captive. The dolphin killers work with aquariums from all over the world to pick out the best show quality dolphins for captivity. The rest are killed in the most horrible way imaginable, caught on hidden cameras in The Cove Movie. Roughly two to three thousand dolphins are killed here during the dolphin-hunting season, which runs from September to March.
Ric O’Barry at the Cove in Taiji, Japan.
Photo by Kate Tomlinson.
Sadly, in the Cove itself, I have found it is business as usual, despite the worldwide publicity against the dolphin slaughter. On Sunday, several False killer whales (a large dolphin) were captured and a few were taken by boat around the corner of the bay to the notorious Taiji Whale Museums floating holding cages on the other side. These whales will be trained and then sold for extremely high prices (as much as $150,000US each or more) to other aquariums for their captive dolphin shows. The rest of the pod, their mothers and fathers, their sisters and brothers, will be slaughtered tomorrow at dawn. There are also Rissos dolphins and Pacific white-sided dolphins in the Cove today as well, and they will die too tomorrow. My son Lincoln and I will be on hand to record it. My son and I are working on a new TV project, so we will have a way to show the world the reality here in Taiji.
We will continue to show our presence here, and we will continue to witness and record the brutal dolphin slaughters. We will also show The Cove Movie throughout Japan. We will spread the truth that the government has tried so long to cover up.
One of my goals here this week is to change some hearts and minds here in Taiji. It seems to me that this is ground zero for the fight to change the hearts and minds of all Japan. We know there are people here in town that object to the dolphin slaughter, and this week, I will have a chance to meet them. We have a Japanese version of The Cove DVD with us, and we plan to screen it discretely for as many local people as we can find who want to know the truth.
I want to thank all our supporters for their efforts to contact President Obama and other opinion leaders throughout the world, to contact the Japanese Embassies, and to give donations to our cause to help us with our expenses here in Japan. Your support means a lot to me and the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition.
Dolphins and small whales are still being killed in the Cove in Taiji, Japan.
Photo by Kate Tomlinson.
For further information about the Campaign to Save Japan Dolphins and to take action, go to our website:
http://www.SaveJapanDolphins.org
To donate to the Campaign, click here:
Thanks for all your help! We will stop the slaughter of dolphins in Japan -- I believe it is only a matter of time.
Save Japan Dolphins Coalition
http://www.SaveJapanDolphins.org
Ive been here in Taiji, the small coastal town in Japan with the big secret, for several days now. I wanted to get a good idea of what is happening in the Cove, made infamous by the movie The Cove, recently released on DVD. It is imperative that I and my colleagues from Save Japan Dolphins Coalition are here on the ground regularly to judge what is happening and to document the truth that the Taiji dolphin killers and the Japanese government want to hide from the Japanese people and the world.
Ric O’Barry and his son, Lincoln O’Barry, are at the Cove in Taiji, Japan.Photo by Kate Tomlinson.
The Taiji dolphin-killers, so far as we can tell, are still not catching any bottlenose dolphins for slaughter. Thats the good news. But obviously, this is largely a PR effort on the part of the fishermen to deny the truth shown in The Cove. They can say they are not killing Flipper, but they are butchering many of his dolphin cousins as many as they can get.
And the dolphin-killers are angry, too. They have physically assaulted several of us, although fortunately there have been no injuries. I was assaulted yesterday, but I got the assault on video. Tomorrow I will bring a copy to the police station and file a complaint against the dolphin killers. They will not intimidate me or our Save Japan Dolphins team that is here on site.
As depicted in the award-wining documentary The Cove, Japan issues 23,000 permits annually to slaughter dolphins. Here in Taiji, boats go out to sea and herd dolphin pods into a local cove, where nets are arrayed across the entrance to keep them captive. The dolphin killers work with aquariums from all over the world to pick out the best show quality dolphins for captivity. The rest are killed in the most horrible way imaginable, caught on hidden cameras in The Cove Movie. Roughly two to three thousand dolphins are killed here during the dolphin-hunting season, which runs from September to March.
Ric O’Barry at the Cove in Taiji, Japan. Photo by Kate Tomlinson.
Sadly, in the Cove itself, I have found it is business as usual, despite the worldwide publicity against the dolphin slaughter. On Sunday, several False killer whales (a large dolphin) were captured and a few were taken by boat around the corner of the bay to the notorious Taiji Whale Museums floating holding cages on the other side. These whales will be trained and then sold for extremely high prices (as much as $150,000US each or more) to other aquariums for their captive dolphin shows. The rest of the pod, their mothers and fathers, their sisters and brothers, will be slaughtered tomorrow at dawn. There are also Rissos dolphins and Pacific white-sided dolphins in the Cove today as well, and they will die too tomorrow. My son Lincoln and I will be on hand to record it. My son and I are working on a new TV project, so we will have a way to show the world the reality here in Taiji.
We will continue to show our presence here, and we will continue to witness and record the brutal dolphin slaughters. We will also show The Cove Movie throughout Japan. We will spread the truth that the government has tried so long to cover up.
One of my goals here this week is to change some hearts and minds here in Taiji. It seems to me that this is ground zero for the fight to change the hearts and minds of all Japan. We know there are people here in town that object to the dolphin slaughter, and this week, I will have a chance to meet them. We have a Japanese version of The Cove DVD with us, and we plan to screen it discretely for as many local people as we can find who want to know the truth.
I want to thank all our supporters for their efforts to contact President Obama and other opinion leaders throughout the world, to contact the Japanese Embassies, and to give donations to our cause to help us with our expenses here in Japan. Your support means a lot to me and the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition.
Dolphins and small whales are still being killed in the Cove in Taiji, Japan.Photo by Kate Tomlinson.
For further information about the Campaign to Save Japan Dolphins and to take action, go to our website:
http://www.SaveJapanDolphins.org
To donate to the Campaign, click here:
Thanks for all your help! We will stop the slaughter of dolphins in Japan -- I believe it is only a matter of time.
Save Japan Dolphins Coalition:
Earth Island Institute, Animal Welfare Institute, Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan, In Defense of Animals, Campaign Whale of the UK, and OceanCare of Switzerland
Earth Island Institute, Animal Welfare Institute, Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan, In Defense of Animals, Campaign Whale of the UK, and OceanCare of Switzerland
Monday, December 7, 2009
Cruelty in the Name of Tradition
By Helene O’Barry
A popular argument used by the dolphin hunters in Taiji when asked why they kill dolphins by the thousands every year is: “We’ve been doing this for hundreds of years; it’s our tradition.” Some people immediately accept this explanation and back off without asking any further questions. “If killing dolphins is their tradition, then it must be OK,” seems to be their line of reasoning, and it is a dangerous one -- it makes it too easy for those who inflict pain on others to continue doing it unchallenged.
The term “traditional dolphin hunt” glorifies the dolphin slaughter, creating images of proud men carrying out courageous deeds to ensure the survival of their tribes. But the dolphin hunters of Japan are part of modern society. They do not live in tribes, what they do requires no bravery, and they certainly are not proud of what they do, which is illustrated by the tremendous amount of time they spend hiding their activities from the world. Any person capable of forcing large groups of marine mammals into a tight space, from which there is no escape, can do this job. We have heard the dolphin hunters’ laughter as they held up their tools before turning to finish their work concealed behind tarp, barbed wire and chain link fences.
The dolphin hunters’ argument that the hunt is justified by being “traditional” illustrates a fundamental hypocrisy: While the dolphin hunters apparently want to waste time standing still and refusing to accept today’s knowledge about dolphins as an intelligent, self-aware and highly evolved species, they are not against progress as long as they can benefit from it. They use modern technology to carry out their so-called “traditional dolphin hunt,” thereby turning it into something entirely different from what it was hundreds of years ago. Taking advantage of high-speed motorized boats, radios and walkie-talkies, they are able quickly to locate and hunt down thousands of dolphins and other small whales during the six-month-long hunting season. But as soon as anyone questions the justification of the hunt, they immediately revert back to their argument of keeping things the way they have been for hundreds of years. So while the dolphin hunters hide behind “tradition,” their modern dolphin killing machine marches on, eradicating entire dolphin schools in its destructive path.
We urge everyone never to accept the term “tradition” as valid reason for any action. Tradition is no excuse for cruelty.
A popular argument used by the dolphin hunters in Taiji when asked why they kill dolphins by the thousands every year is: “We’ve been doing this for hundreds of years; it’s our tradition.” Some people immediately accept this explanation and back off without asking any further questions. “If killing dolphins is their tradition, then it must be OK,” seems to be their line of reasoning, and it is a dangerous one -- it makes it too easy for those who inflict pain on others to continue doing it unchallenged.
The term “traditional dolphin hunt” glorifies the dolphin slaughter, creating images of proud men carrying out courageous deeds to ensure the survival of their tribes. But the dolphin hunters of Japan are part of modern society. They do not live in tribes, what they do requires no bravery, and they certainly are not proud of what they do, which is illustrated by the tremendous amount of time they spend hiding their activities from the world. Any person capable of forcing large groups of marine mammals into a tight space, from which there is no escape, can do this job. We have heard the dolphin hunters’ laughter as they held up their tools before turning to finish their work concealed behind tarp, barbed wire and chain link fences.
The dolphin hunters’ argument that the hunt is justified by being “traditional” illustrates a fundamental hypocrisy: While the dolphin hunters apparently want to waste time standing still and refusing to accept today’s knowledge about dolphins as an intelligent, self-aware and highly evolved species, they are not against progress as long as they can benefit from it. They use modern technology to carry out their so-called “traditional dolphin hunt,” thereby turning it into something entirely different from what it was hundreds of years ago. Taking advantage of high-speed motorized boats, radios and walkie-talkies, they are able quickly to locate and hunt down thousands of dolphins and other small whales during the six-month-long hunting season. But as soon as anyone questions the justification of the hunt, they immediately revert back to their argument of keeping things the way they have been for hundreds of years. So while the dolphin hunters hide behind “tradition,” their modern dolphin killing machine marches on, eradicating entire dolphin schools in its destructive path.
We urge everyone never to accept the term “tradition” as valid reason for any action. Tradition is no excuse for cruelty.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
