(JP)Dolphin massacre turns sea blood red

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Dolphin massacre turns sea blood red

 

Animal activists have released a video of Japanese

fisherman hacking to death dolphins they had trapped

at a small port.

 

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An American anti-whaling group trying to stop the

massacre took footage of the recent hunt that shows

blood-filled coves and several dead dolphins being

brought ashore in boats.

 

The tape, shot by the Sea Shepherd Conservation

Society, graphically captures the end of a hunt, in

which fishermen pound on the water, causing waves that

confuse the mammals' sense of direction, and then

corral dolphins into small coves where they can be

more easily killed with sickles.

 

Though subject to government-set quotas, the hunts are

not banned under Japanese law and are not subject to

international regulations because they are done near

the shore.

 

Several dead or dying dolphins can be seen on the

boats, bleeding profusely, in the footage. Activist

Nik Hensey said: " It's a wholesale slaughter, which

results in immense suffering for these animals. It's a

sight that one just can't imagine. "

 

The mayor and officials in Taiji refused to comment,

but a fisherman's union representative said the kills

are conducted as humanely as possible and pointed out

the hunts have been part of local culture for 400

years. Hunting dolphins is not banned by the

International Whaling Commission.

 

Fishermen in Taiji regularly conduct dolphin hunts

during the October to April season. They have caught

more than 60 striped dolphins so far this year under

the government quota system. The meat is usually

canned and sold in supermarkets.

 

But because of international pressure for an end to

the killing of dolphins and the bloodiness of their

hunting method, fishermen here have tried to keep out

of the public eye. They do not permit videos of their

hunts, refuse on-the-record interviews and have put

barriers along the shoreline to discourage cameramen.

 

The Sea Shepherd activists said they managed to get

the video by camping out in the town for several

weeks. Three activists from the California-based

conservation group were briefly detained by Japanese

police after trying to stop a dolphin hunt and

scuffling with a fisherman earlier this month.

 

The activists - a Briton, a Canadian and an American

all in their 20s - were held for about nine hours of

questioning before being released. They weren't

charged with any crimes. Japan is one of the few major

fishing nations that continues to support the hunting

of whales and dolphins.

 

© Associated Press

 

Story filed: 11:59 Wednesday 29th October 2003

 

 

 

 

 

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