On Tuesday evening, a large pod of bottlenose dolphins was driven into the cove and held overnight, prompting WDCS and other groups to send out a call to supporters to contact the Japanese embassies worldwide to ask for their release and safety. Unfortunately, those calls went unheeded, and another family of dolphins was slaughtered. According to reports from the ground, 10 bottlenose dolphins were taken into captivity, and the remainder (estimates indicate 23 individuals) were killed on Wednesday morning.
The holding of the dolphins overnight, which is a departure from usual procedures where the animals are killed almost immediately after being driven into the killing cove, prompted speculation and rumors that the fishermen were possibly open to negotiating the release or sparing of these animals from death. However, this delayed slaughter could also have been a result of the dolphins being driven in the late afternoon the preceding day, or to allow time for aquarium staff from distant locations to travel to Taiji to conduct their cruel selection of dolphins for their captive programs. Dolphins from the drive hunts are being shipped within Japan and all over the globe to captive facilities for display and swim-with-the-dolphin programs. More recent shipments of dolphins from the Taiji hunts have been sent to Egypt, Ukraine, Armenia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran and China.
The tensions are running high in Taiji where just several weeks ago, a female activist was reportedly accosted by fishermen and threatened with an alleged kidnapping attempt outside of her hotel in Taiji. And, to add to the tensions mounting there, a Dutch activist was arrested on December 16th by prefectural police for allegedly pushing and interfering with an individual involved with the transfer operations of dolphins taken from the hunts and where he remains in police custody. Two days later, after one of the worst slaughters of the season where approximately 34 striped dolphins were killed, activists’ hotel rooms were raided and computer equipment and cell phones confiscated by Wakayama prefectural police.
To this date and midway through the drive hunt season which started on September 1st, a total of 425 dolphins from six species have been driven into the cove in Taiji, Japan. Of this total, 354 have been killed, 38 released, and 28 selected for captive facilities. Approximately 5 have unknown status. Species captured, sold and killed include: bottlenose dolphins, false killer whales, Rissos dolphins and striped dolphins. The species killed thus far have been predominantly Risso’s and striped dolphins. The quotas for this season are 2165 dolphins of mixed species for Taiji, including 652 bottlenose dolphins.
Over 1,200 dolphins were killed in the 2010-2011 hunt season. Figures provided unofficially by Wakayama Prefectural authorities and by observers on the ground indicate that at least 150 dolphins were taken alive for aquaria last season.
WDCS continues to work for an end to these brutal hunts and captures.