The fishermen who hunt the dolphins have already made more than one attempt to catch dolphins and last Friday, 20 bottlenose dolphins were brought into the infamous killing cove, where some were taken alive for display in aquaria.
As we brace ourselves for more reports from the field, we are forced to reflect on the complexity of this issue, and our efforts to ultimately stop these brutal hunts. The dolphin drive hunts occur every year from September through April, and are a brutal reminder that we have a very long way to go towards securing a safe and humane future for all cetaceans. This devastatingly cruel practice involves the corralling of dolphins at sea and driving them into the confines of the cove in Taiji. Here they are slaughtered for meat or kept alive for sale to marine parks and aquaria across the globe. Yearly quotas for these drive hunts reach into the thousands, where small cetaceans of several species including bottlenose dolphins, striped dolphins, spotted dolphins, false killer whales and short-finned pilot whales, are taken.
There is also news that the village of Futo will restart its drive hunts this season. The last drive hunt in Futo was conducted in 2004 where 14 bottlenose dolphins were sold to aquariums, 5 were killed for research purposes and distributed for local consumption and one dolphin was released after attaching transmitters. And at least 5 dolphins died of shock.
Since the release and worldwide distribution of the Academy award-winning documentary, The Cove, WDCS was hopeful that shining a light on these hunts would be the first step towards their end. Unfortunately, both the government and the fishermen remain steadfast in their commitment to kill these animals for their meat or as a means of pest control, or to sell them alive to marine parks. We are hopeful that through continuing awareness and commitment to education and outreach in Japan that the tide will turn and this archaic practice will be abandoned.
Until then, WDCS will continue to work for an end to these brutal drive hunts. We have been active in confronting the dolphin drive hunts in Japan on a number of levels, from raising awareness of the hunts, taking part in peaceful protests and visiting Japan to bear witness to them. We have worked with the marine mammal scientific community to garner a public statement against these hunts, and helped secure a congressional resolution condemning the practice. WDCS has also worked to procure the growing acknowledgement from the public display industry of its complicity in fueling the dolphin drive hunts through the demand generated by marine parks and aquaria that either directly, or indirectly, source live dolphins from these hunts. And within Japan, we have developed an educational campaign with our Japanese colleagues to educate the public about whales, dolphins and their suffering in drive and other hunts. In the next few years, WDCS will seek to expand its education program within Japan and continue its outreach work on location in Taiji. See our report, Driven by Demand.
Things that you can do!
* Watch for our web campaign and video updates from the ground in Taiji and elsewhere in Japan to air in October!
* Join us for the annual International Day of Protest against the dolphin drive hunts! Details will be forthcoming as the time and locations are announced for Embassies and Consulates around the world.
* Sign the Petition to encourage the village of Futo not to return to the drive hunts and end them for good http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/886/322/136/
* Send a letter to your nearest Japanese Embassy or Consulate by using or adapting the following text to send to the following contacts:
Mr. Naoto Kan
Prime Minister of Japan
Fax: +81-3-3581-3883
E-mail: http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/forms/comment.html
Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki
Embassy of Japan in Washington D.C.
2520 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.
Washington D.C. 20008-2869
Fax: 202-328-2187
E-mail: [email protected]
Dear Ambassador ______________:
I recently saw the documentary film The Cove and was alarmed to find out that more than 20,000 dolphins and porpoises are brutally killed each year off the coast of Japan.
Dolphin drive hunts
One method of hunting is the drive hunt, in which large groups of small whales and dolphins are rounded up using boats and driven towards the shore where they are trapped in a bay or cove using nets. The animals are then killed in the shallows with knives or taken away to a slaughterhouse. The hunt can take place over a number of days, with the animals trapped and frightened. The slaughter process itself is crude and brutal. In addition, Japanese consumers are being sold dolphin meat, containing dangerously high levels of mercury, often labeled as whale meat.
Fueled by the aquarium industry
A number of the trapped animals are kept alive and selected by aquariums and marine parks that pay large sums of money for animals to display in their facilities; this is the financial backbone of the drive hunts and is increasingly becoming the motivating factor behind the continuation. The dolphins taken alive are handled crudely, many dying of stress during the process or facing shortened, impoverished lives in captivity.
Hand harpoon hunts
The Japanese hunt of up to 17,700 Dall’s porpoise each year is the largest hunt of any whale, dolphin or porpoise species in the world. Hunters target mothers with calves, as the mothers will not leave their calves and are consequently slower and easier to catch. The calves are left to die.
People in Japan are unaware of the hunts
Many Japanese people are unaware that these hunts occur in their country. Japan’s Fisheries Agency directs fishermen to hide evidence of the hunts from the public eye, erecting tarpaulins and tents behind which the dolphins are slaughtered.
Dolphins are wondrous creatures in many ways. Did you know that the bottlenose dolphin — like great apes and humans — can recognize itself in a mirror? Family bonds are extremely strong, and one dolphin will assist another who is ill, or in childbirth, or unable to care for her young. Today these sentient, caring creatures are very much in need of your immediate action.
I respectfully ask that the Japanese government revoke the permits that allow these hunts to continue.
Sincerely,