Dolphin slaughter in Japan

Slaughter of small whales and dolphins

During the hunting season, pods of small whales and dolphins are herded into the tiny cove by fishermen in small boats and then are brutally slashed and killed with lances and knives. More than 20,000 of these intelligent and social animals are being slaughtered each year and their meat is being sold as food in Japan. A few will be kept alive to be sold into the captive whale and dolphin industry, where they may suffer for years.

Hunt Motivation

The Taiji whale and dolphin hunts continue because the fishermen receive immense profits. Whales and dolphins slaughtered for meat may reach as much as 9000 US dollars each at market. However, scouts from international aquariums and captive dolphin programs are now using the event to procure live dolphins, which trade at upwards of 100,000 US dollars each.

The local perspective

The position of the local fishermen, traders and government appears mixed and confused. Local government claims the slaughter is a cull, designed to reduce the population of small whales and dolphins, so reducing their negative impact on local fish stocks, whilst the fishermen and traders talk of tradition, citing western interference as ethnocentric ideas of acceptable sources of food, dolphin being a local delicacy. This position seems at odds with the fact the dolphin meat is traded as whale. Thereby, hiding its origin from the buying public, who are unaware that the meat is contaminated. Due to interaction with marine pollution, whale and dolphin meat contains high levels of Mercury and PCB's. This poses a real threat to the health and safety of those who consume the meat.

Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Greenpeace are reported to have revealed that Tesco PLC, a large UK retailer has been linked to products from Japan's controversial hunting of whales and dolphins.

EIA Cetacean Campaigns Manager, Clare Perry said: "C Two-Network were selling internationally protected species, and as such, are not only sustaining the market for these products in Japan, but are supporting Japan's refusal to abide by the international ban on commercial whaling."

Their investigations have allegedly exposed Japanese supermarket chain C Two-Network, a member of the Tesco Group, as previously selling fresh whale and dolphin products in 10 stores and canned products in 32 of its 78 stores. Tesco purchased more than 95% of the Japanese company in July 2003.

The products were sourced from the Kyokuyo and Nissui. These companies sell the meat from the hundreds of Bryde's, Minke and Sei whales that are killed each year in the name of science. According to staff working at the supermarkets, fresh meat from 'toothed whales', a generic term for small whales and dolphins, was also sold.

Richard Page, Greenpeace Ocean Campaigner said: "We appealed to Tesco to use its ownership of C Two-Network to bring about an end to the sale of cetacean products in C Two-Network stores. Tesco's UK customers will be appalled to learn that Tesco was so closely linked to the sale of whale meat."

Subsequent to the EIA investigation, Tesco's are reported to have ceased trading these products (source EIA).

The Cove

The Cove is a documentary style film due for release in October 2009. Its aim is to highlight the plight of these deeply sensitive, highly intelligent and self-aware creatures. The film begins in Taiji, where former dolphin trainer Ric OBarry has come to set things right after a long search for redemption. In the 1960s, it was OBarry who captured and trained the 5 dolphins to play the title character in the international television sensation Flipper. His relationship with the dolphins has led Ric to rethink his position on captive dolphin programs.

His search has brought him to the remote cove, surrounded by barbed wire and Keep Out signs, aiming to get at the truth behind this annual slaughter. OBarry joins forces with filmmaker Louis Psihoyos and the Ocean Preservation Society resulting in a provocative mix of investigative journalism, eco-adventure and arresting imagery that adds up to an urgent plea for help. The Cove is written by Mark Monroe, directed by Louie Psihoyos and produced by Paula DuPre Pesmen and Fisher Stevens.

The Protest

If you are interested in joining the protest to stop this barbaric slaughter of these intelligent, sensitive, social creatures, a FACEBOOK group has been launched which you can join. Just log in to your FACEBOOK account, then click on the following link.

Stop Dolphin Slaughter - Facebook Group

1000 new members joined in the 1st week, demonstrating the depth of feeling and public sense of outrage at this cruel and inhumane treatment of one of the natural wonders of the marine world.

If you would like to make a more direct protest, you can send the following sample letter to the addresses listed below.

SAMPLE LETTER

I am outraged by the annual brutal slaughter of whales and dolphins that takes place in Japan. The images of bloody red water clearly show the world that Japan has little respect for the state of the world's oceans and for the conservation of the marine resources it claims to support.

Many scientific studies show that the oceans are in decline. We must take whatever actions are necessary to stop their over-exploitation and to protect the creatures that live in them. These whales and dolphins do not belong to Japan. The status of the species of whales and dolphins that you kill are either endangered, threatened, or unknown. It is an unthinkable waste that they will likely end up as a meat product or deceptively sold as whale meat, polluted with toxic levels of mercury and cadmium, killing people that eat it. It is tragic and unacceptable that the remaining dolphins that are not killed will end up destined for death in an aquarium, water park, or captive dolphin program.

In addition, the methods used to kill these animals are cruel. Corralling the whales and dolphins into bays, then making them suffer a long and painful death by spears, hooks, and drowning is an inhumane way of fishing. This action is disgraceful and has caused much disappointment in the international community.

We demand that Japan permanently and immediately renounce and stop this slaughter. We will work diligently to bring this issue to international light until you have ceased your reprehensible violence.

Sincerely,

Letters can be sent to the following:

PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda
1-6-1 Nagata-cho 1 Chome
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. 100-8968 JAPAN

Fax: +81.3.5511.8855
E-mail form:
http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/forms/comment.html

MINISTER OF FISHERIES
1-2-1 Ksumigaseki 1 Chrome
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. 100-8907 JAPAN

Tel:+81-3-5510-3303 (direct) or 3-3502-8111
Fax: +81-3-3502-8220 or +81-3-3502-0794
E-mail: sinsei01densi@nm.maff.go.jp
E-mail form: http://www.voice.maff.go.jp/maff-interactive/people/ShowWebFormAction.do?FORM_NO=5

THE DOLPHIN HUNT IN TAIJI IS CONDUCTED BY TAIJI FISHERY COOPERATIVE
3167-7 Taiji
Wakayama, 649-5171 Japan

Tel: +81.735.59.3517
Fax: +81 735 59 3018

PERMISSION FOR THE DOLPHIN HUNT IS GIVEN BY THE GOVERNOR OF WAKAYAMA
Mr. Yoshiki Kimura
Prefectural Office of Wakayama
1-1 Komatsubaradouri, Wakayama-shi
Wakayama-ken, 640-8269 Japan

Tel: +81-73-441-2034
Fax:+81-73-423-9500
Public comment lines: +81-73-441-2028
Fax: +81-73-431-0462
E-mail: e0006001@pref.wakayama.lg.jp

THERE IS A FISHERY AGENCY POLICY EVALUATION GROUP
WHICH HAS THREE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN CHARGE:
Kawase, Yoshino and Tokura
Tel: +81-3-3502-8111 ext. 7057 and 7058
OR: +81-3-3591-5613 ( direct)
E-mail: sui_hyoka@nm.maff.go.jp

EMBASSY OF JAPAN IN WASHINGTON D.C.
Ambassador Ryozo Kato
2520 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.
Washington D.C. 20008-2869

Tel: (202) 238-6700,
Fax: 202-328-2187
Hours: M-F 9:15-12:30 and 2:00-6:16
E-mail: jicc@embjapan.org
www.us.emb-japan.go.jp

The Faroe Islands, part of the Danish kingdom, have been practising whaling since 1580. Each year during the summer months, hunts called "grindadráp" in Faroese, take place. They are considered a right of passage into manhood on the islands. Small whales and dolphins are surround with a wide semicircle of boats and driven slowly into a bay or to the bottom of a fjord. They are then driven fully ashore or close enough to the shore that they can be secured and killed from land. The whales and dolphins that are not beached were often stabbed in the blubber with a sharp hook, called a gaff. Once ashore the whales and dolphins are killed, by cutting the dorsal area through to the spinal cord with a special whaling knife called a "grindaknívur".

Named after American naturalist W.H. Dall, the Dall's Porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli) came to worldwide attention in the 1970s, after it was disclosed that fishing trawls were killing thousands of porpoise and other cetaceans each year, by accidentally capturing them in nets. With colouration rather like that of an Orca and a unique body shape, they are easily distinguishable from other cetacean species. They differs from other porpoises in that they prefer deep water and the open ocean, ranging across the north Pacific from southern California to southern Japan. It is larger than other porpoises, growing up to 2.3 metres in length and weighing between 130 and 200 kg. Dall's Porpoises live for up to 15 years. Dall's Porpoises appear in small groups (about 2- 10 in number). They feed on a variety of fish and cephalopods. They are the fastest of all small cetaceans and can swim at up to 55 km/h, almost as fast as the Orca.

Following the moratorium on hunting larger cetaceans introduced in the mid-1980s, the number of porpoise killed each year rose dramatically. 1988 saw the greatest number, more than 40,000, killed. International attention to the hunt through a 1990 International Whaling Commission (IWC) resolution resulted in a reduction in numbers killed, however around 15,000 animals are still killed each year making it the largest direct hunt of any cetacean species in the world. The hunt has been repeatedly criticised by the IWC and its Scientific Committee, most recently in 2008. A quota of just over 16,000 individuals per year is now in operation, which is clearly unsustainable. In addition, unknown numbers of animals are caught as bycatch.

Minke Whales

Minke whales live at the surface of the ocean in all but polar seas. They are the smallest of the baleen whales growing to between 25 and 30 feet (7.8-9 m) in length and weighing between 6 and 7.5 tons. Minke whales either travel singly or in small pods of about 2-3 whales. They are often refered to as "sharp-headed finner" because of a snout that is distinctively triangular, narrow and pointed. The minke whale's skin is very dark gray above and lighter below, with a characteristic white band on each flipper. They are stocky, having a layer of blubber several inches thick. They have two long flippers, up to 1/8 of the body size, a small dorsal fin, and a series of small ridges along the its back near the flukes.

Like all baleen whales, Minke whales are seasonal feeders and carnivores. They sieve through the ocean water with their baleen. The baleen plates in the minke whale's jaws have about 300 pairs of short, smooth baleen plates. The largest plates are about less than 12 inches (30 cm) long and 5 inches (13 cm) wide. The fine textured baleen bristles are fringed and are creamy-white with pure white bristles.. They filters out small polar plankton, krill, and small fish, even chasing schools of sardines, anchovies, cod, herring, and capelin.

Caught in only modest quantities for centuries, the minke whale was largely ignored until the late 1960's, when the great baleen whales were all but wiped out. Thousands of minke whales were taken annually until the global moratorium on whaling in 1986, after which Japan continued to hunt minkes for what they claim are scientific reasons. Current minke whale population estimates vary from over 700,000 to less than 300,000. Today they're hunted by Iceland, Norway and Japan

 

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