The Cove – Taiji dolphins

September/October is the beginning of the Dolphin hunting season in Taiji, Japan.

So far the hunters have been out on a numerous of occasions herding back several dolphins that are now left in man-made sea pens within the cove.   To the fishermen of Taiji, the dolphins and small whales are merely big fish to be captured, sold and forced into an unnatural life in dolphin shows and aquariums for the amusement of humans — or slaughtered inhumanely for their significantly lesser value as meat. These animals are laden with toxic chemicals including PCB’s and methyl-mercury that have permeated the oceanic food chain since the start of the industrial revolution.

Despite scientific evidence highlighting levels of contaminants in the meat that exceed the recommended levels safe for human consumption, it is still sold in supermarkets and served in school lunches. Local Taiji townspeople, and those of neighbouring areas, are being exposed to chemicals that were linked to catastrophic neurological problems (known as Minamata disease) endured by people in Minamata as mercury from industrial waste contaminated their drinking water with poison.

The mayor of Taiji has commented publicly that as long as he holds office the killing of dolphins and other cetaceans will continue. He argues that tradition and custom warrant the continuation of the dolphin drives and refuses to acknowledge that profiteering from these mammals in the name of human entertainment is only a recent phenomenon.

In Futo, further up the Japanese coastline, dolphin species were also slaughtered like dolphins in Taiji up until 2003.  Mr. Izumi Ishii was once one of the most outspoken advocates of the capture and killing of dolphins, but Mr. Ishii had changed.  “I heard the sound of the dolphins crying as they were killed.  I could not bear it,” he said in describing his reasons for converting from dolphin killing to dolphin watching, “The value I now see in dolphins is not the value of their meat but of the wonder they incite in us.”

Most Japanese citizens are as horrified by the killing of these dolphins as any Westerner.  Taiji is not representative of the views of most japanese people.  Taiji is a town that is slowly dying and is not prospering from these unnecessary, inhumane acts.

A few days ago a group from the Sea Shephard Conservation Society caught the trainers and fishermen loading two dolphins into crates and onto a truck.  Almost 300km later they were seen delivering the two dolphins to the Suma Aqualife Park in Kobe, Japan.  Sea Shephard now have proof that dolphin shows are tied to the slaughter in Taiji and there are at least two more dolphins remaining in the pens in Taiji harbour.  What awaits their destiny is yet to be seen.

Extracts have been taken from the Sea Shephard Conservation Society’s report from Taiji.