JP dolphins need your help URGENTLY

[Guest guest]

Forwarded for Elsa Nature Conservancy: please forward

this to your friends and colleagues.

 

***Infamous Taiji Dolphin Drive Frishery supplies

victims to Dolphin-Assisted-Therapy Program***

Urgent Request:

 

The following is the latest information concerning the

Dolphin Healing Center in Kagawa prefecture, Japan. I

will itemize what we investigated below.

 

We need LOTS OF protest letters from abroad to be

against the construction of this Center as soon as

possible, for we found that there is a high

possibility that letters from abroad will be able to

stop this project.

 

What we would like to ask you to do:

1)Please write a letter, short or long, and fax/e-mail

it to the place below as soon as possible.

 

To:Mr. Shinya Akazawa, Mayor of Sanuki city, &

Machidukuri-suishin-ka

Fax:+81-87-894-4440

E-mail:hisyo

Address:5385-8, Shido, Sanuki-shi, Kagawa-ken,

769-2195 Japan

 

2)Please send this information to wherever, and ask

people to send faxed letters or e-mails.

 

3)Will you please send the copy of your letter to Elsa

Nature Conservancy, Japan (E-mail:pah03724

 

Fax:+81-29-851-1637) so that we can show it to the

media?

 

Please read the following Background & Information so

that you can understand why we asked you the above.

 

Background & Information:

 

In Sanuki city, Kagawa prefecture, about 500 km

southwest from Tokyo, Japan, a plan to build a big

Dolphin Healing Center is progressing. It already

experimentally started with two dolphins from Taiji

drive fisheries a few years ago. This plan was once

suspended, because the town which started this project

was mergered with other towns to become a city.

However, the project itself was taken over by the new

city, whose name is Sanuki, and a number of scientists

showed interest in it and started to support the plan.

A citizen- organization(NGO) already started sign-on

campaigns to promote this plan.

 

1)Sanuki-city keeps three bottlenose dolphins in the

sea pen at present. This plan started by Tsudamachi

(name of a town) with two dolphins from the drive

fisheries in Taiji. In January, this year, they

brought in additional three Taiji dolphins, but one of

them died in February, and another female died on

August 21, this year.

 

2)The coastal sea area where the sea-pen for dolphins

was constructed is well known as the place hottest in

summer and coldest in winter, and, accordingly, the

temperature of the sea water extremely rises up in

summer, and goes down in winter. The place of the sea

pen is next to the reclaimed land, and often occurs a

red tide. The degree of the transparecy of the water

is very low.

 

3)As mentioned at 2), the environment of the sea pen

is very bad, but the city/people concerned mentioned

that this was an experiment whether dolphins can

survive in this environment or not.

 

4)As I mentioned at 1), dolphins they keep are from

Taiji. If the plan is promoted, they continue to

supply dolphins caught by drive fisheries in Taiji.

 

5)This plan was originally started by Tsudamachi

before the merger of towns. Though former Tsudamachi

insisted that the plan should be taken over and

promoted by the new city, it seems that the city

itself is not so enthusiastic about this project. And

I heard that GAIATSU, the external pressure, would be

very effective to stop the project just like in Futo,

where the drive fishery has been suspended for three

years and dolphin watching started last year. We think

that if we could send many protest letters against the

facilities, or request letters to stop this project,

we might be able to make a complete halt of this

project.

 

6)The city assembly will be opened around September

10, and this issue will be discussed and the budget

for the new fiscal year for this plan will be decided.

(It is needed to make them not to admit this budget,

first.)

 

5)A group named " Tsuda Dolphin Tomo no Kai " (Friends of

Dolphins in Tsuda) already collected about 10,000

signatures to request to promote the plan of this

Dolphin Healing Center. This group is going to submit

them to the mayor of Sanuki-city around September 10

in time for the city assembly.

 

With respect to this issue, the external pressure is

very important. If we could send many letters, faxes

or e-mails to the place, we might be able to stop this

project, which will give significant influence on the

future construction of this kind in Japan.

 

Elsa Nature Conservancy

P.O.Box 2, Tsukuba Gakuen Post Office

Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305-8691 Japan

Tel & Fax: +81-29-851-1637