Dolphins: To kill them or let them be

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DEADLY DEBATE

Dolphins: To kill them or let them be

 

By ERIC PRIDEAUX

Staff writer

 

Japanese, just like anybody else, love dolphins.

At theme parks, they line up to watch dolphins leap

through hoops and do pirouettes in the air. They ride

out to sea on tourist boats, applauding as the animals

frolic above the waves. And the most devout dolphin

fans pay good money to swim alongside the agile

creatures in giant pools or in their natural habitat.

 

Adoration for what is widely considered the world's

most adorable creature comes as little surprise. What

catches even well-informed Japanese off-guard, though,

is Japan's other relationship with dolphins -- not as

spectator and performer, but as hunter and prey.

 

Japanese kill almost 20,000 dolphins every year for

food. (Though it is difficult to compare Japanese

demand for dolphin meat with other consumer countries,

Japanese are likely the largest overall buyers of

cetacean -- or whale and dolphin -- meat, according to

officials at the agriculture ministry.)

 

The custom, which may date back further than Japan's

centuries-old whaling tradition, is nowadays only a

tiny niche market. Nonetheless, in recent years it has

attracted growing attention amid criticism from

animal-rights activists at home and abroad.

 

The annual hunting season began on Sept. 1, and will

end on March 31. Slaughter takes two basic forms. At

sea, workers pierce the animals with harpoons and haul

them aboard their ships with hooks. In a less common

practice called " drive fishing, " small fleets of boats

drive pods of the mammals up on beaches -- sometimes

dozens at a time -- and either stab them in the brain

or cut their throats.

 

The meat of an ishiiruka, or Dall's porpoise, fetches

about 20,000 yen. The flesh is boiled in a stew or

made into jerky, while the heart is often eaten raw.

 

Time for change

Though government officials and industry groups

adamantly defend dolphin hunting -- calling it an

inherent part of Japanese culture -- there are

Japanese who insist it's time for change.

 

" Killing dolphins is simply outdated, " said Izumi

Ishii, a sunburned 54-year-old fisherman who, after

hunting dolphins for decades, finally called it quits

in 1996 and became a leading campaigner for the

protection of dolphins.

 

Ishii acknowledged that dolphins were once an

important source of protein in resource-poor Japan,

but contends that that is no longer the case. " There

are so many other things to eat nowadays. "

 

Ishii said he loved dolphins even as a toddler, but as

the son of a dolphin hunter it was a natural choice,

at first, to engage in the trade himself.

 

The yearly slaughter, however, finally became

unbearable to him. The dolphins, blood spurting from

their throats, took as long as six minutes to die.

" They cry, " he said. " They thrash about with their

eyes wide open. "

 

But Ishii has to make a living. So a year ago this

month, he started shuttling tourists out to sea to

watch dolphins in the wild, a business he says earns

him far more than the 10,000 yen a day he once earned

hunting the animals. Ishii is marking his enterprise's

first anniversary with a series of speeches and

briefings for the press aimed at increasing awareness

about dolphin hunting.

 

Ironically, Japanese demand for dolphin meat --

highest among fishing-community old-timers -- at first

rose after whale meat went off the market as a result

of the country's 1988 enforcement of the International

Whaling Commission moratorium, say experts.

 

To prevent consumption from decimating dolphin

populations, the government monitors hunting and has

allowed local authorities to demand jail sentences and

fines for fishermen who violate regulations, said

Fisheries Agency official Kiichiro Mitsutomi.

 

In principle, though, the official stance is that

eating dolphins is as acceptable as eating cows or

pigs.

 

" Japan is surrounded by ocean, so we have the right to

use ocean resources to live, if this causes no

scientific problems, " said Takanori Nagatomo, chief of

the pelagic -- or open-sea -- whaling section at the

agriculture ministry in Tokyo.

 

It's a point on which critics, particularly foreign

ones, disagree. Perhaps the most outspoken is Richard

O'Barry, 63, an American who captured and trained the

dolphins used in the 1960s hit television series

" Flipper " -- before becoming a celebrity animal-rights

activist.

 

 

Question of ethics

O'Barry, who is now visiting Japan to support Ishii's

campaign, argues that dolphins possess

" self-awareness " similar to humans and other primates,

and thus should be spared death by the blade.

Government data, he said, miss the point. " It's not a

question of science. It's a question of ethics, " he

stated.

Activists say they oppose not only the slaughter of

dolphins, but their captivity at theme parks and

aquariums as well. During a drive-fishing hunt, a

select few dolphins are routinely spared for shipment

to aquariums. About 80 percent of these survivors,

said O'Barry, are young females chosen for breeding.

 

But, according to activists, living in a tank causes

severe psychological stress in dolphins, as the walls

of the pools make a confusing jumble of their

navigational sonar. O'Barry also criticized

dolphin-assisted therapy, in which captive dolphins

are used to help human patients overcome autism or

other disorders. " There's no scientific, empirical

evidence that dolphins can heal us. They can't heal

themselves. It's bogus, " said O'Barry.

 

For now, activists appear to have made only a little

headway in their campaign to spare dolphins from human

interference. Though dolphin hunting in Ishii's

hometown of Futo, Shizuoka Prefecture, has dropped to

zero, that could be explained by the dolphins'

migration patterns rather than any reluctance among

fishermen. Hunting in other areas, meanwhile, seems

likely to continue for the time being at current

levels, Ishii said.

 

All the same, Ishii has some cause to be optimistic.

For one, a fellow villager has offered to support his

dolphin-watching business. When too many tourists sign

up for Ishii's boat, the friend ferries the extra

passengers on his own vessel. Other locals, though

wary of his newfangled venture, are also offering

moral support. And most of the hunters are now

approaching retirement, with few youngsters willing to

follow in their path.

 

" In the past, Japanese killed dolphins, but that era

is over, " he says, with a smile. " The new tradition

will be of friendship between the species. "

 

The Japan Times: Sept. 11, 2003

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