Activists film bloody dolphin kill in Japan

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Activists film bloody dolphin kill in Japan

 

October 29 2003 at 11:30AM

 

Taiji, Japan - An American anti-whaling group trying

to stop the killing of dolphins has released video

footage of a recent hunt in the small fishing town of

Taiji 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.

 

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.

 

" It's a wholesale slaughter, which results in immense

suffering for these animals, " said activist Nik

Hensey. " It's a sight that one just can't imagine. "

 

Requests for comment from the mayor were denied and

other town officials declined to comment. A

fisherman's union representative, who demanded

anonymity, said the kills are conducted as humanely as

possible, and noted that dolphin hunts have been part

of local culture for 400 years.

 

Hunting dolphins is not banned by the International

Whaling Commission, which has maintained a moratorium

on commercial whaling since 1986.

 

Fishermen in this western Japanese town regularly

conduct dolphin hunts during the October to April

season. They've 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 even

erected barriers along the shoreline to discourage

cameramen.

 

The Sea Shepherd activists said they managed to get

the video by camping out in town for several weeks.

They provided Associated Press Television News with a

copy of their footage.

 

Three activists from the Malibu, California-based

conservation group were briefly detained by Japanese

police after allegedly 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 taken in 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.

 

Officials here say the populations of many of the

marine mammals have recovered enough to sustain

limited catches, and have argued that pressure to quit

killing them is based more on cultural biases than on

science.

 

Under a special IWC allowance, Japan is also allowed

to kill hundreds of whales a year. Critics say the

catch is commercial whaling in disguise because most

of the meat ends up being sold in markets and

restaurants.

 

Tokyo counters that the kills are done as part of a

research programme needed to study whale populations

and migration patterns. - Sapa-AP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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