Quick Links
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
Merritt Clifton, Editor
More than 60 organizations demonstrated outside Japanese embassies and consulates in 32 cities against "traditional" coastal whaling on September 20, 2006, the second annual Japan Dolphin Day declared and coordinated by Ric O'Barry. Most notoriously practiced at Taiji, the coastal whaling method consists of driving dolphins into shallow bays from which they cannot escape and then hacking them to death en massé, after some are selected for live capture and sale to swim-with-dolphins attractions and exhibition parks.
The so-called "drive fisheries" have been protested for more than 30 years by marine mammal advocates including Sakae Hemmi of the Elsa Nature Conservancy/Japan, film maker Hardy Jones, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson, and Steve Sipman, who invented the name "Animal Liberation Front" in connection with releasing two dolphins from a Hawaiian laboratory in 1976. The Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks & Aquariums and the American Zoo & Aquarium Association finally issued statements of objection to the "drive fisheries" in March 2004, as did the World Association of Zoos & Aquariums in June 2006.
"The Japanese dolphin drive hunts are an abominable violation of any standard of animal welfare," said New York Aquarium marine mammal research director Diana Reiss in a September 21, 2006 media statement, announcing "a new campaign to end the drive hunts." A supporting statement came from Emory University neuroscientist Lori Marino.
Responded O'Barry, after thanking activist groups for their support, "I am very happy that the captivity industry is getting involved. If the industry started policing itself, that would be helpful. It could change the economics of the dolphin drive. A dead dolphin is worth $600; a live show dolphin is worth $ 100,000."These corporations make hundreds of millions of dollars displaying wildlife, including dolphins," O'Barry fumed. "The Wildlife Conservation Society," which operates the New York Aquarium and the four major New York City zoos, "has enough money and clout to stop the dolphin slaughter, and the related dolphin captures, any time they want to," O'Barry contended in a series of e-mails to ANIMAL PEOPLE.
Response:
Letter to the Editor
ANIMAL PEOPLE
October, 17, 2006
We invited the New York Aquarium, the Alliance of Marine Parks and Aquariums, American Zoo and Aquarium Society, the four New York Zoos and other members of the marine mammal exhibitors mentioned in the above article to join us in protesting the dolphin slaughter. None of them did. In fact, not one of these zoos or aquariums -- or their related NGOs -- even mentioned the demo to their huge membership. Had they posted a simple message about Japan Dolphin Day on their various websites, it would have helped a great deal. That simple effort could have resulted in a huge turnout of protesters at the Japanese consulate office in New York City on September 20th where less than six people showed up. None of them were from the captivity industry.
So far, the involvement of the captivity industry in this urgent issue seems to be nothing more that a token effort to look politically correct now that they have been exposed for fueling the dolphin slaughter by rewarding the fishermen for their bad behavior. As of this writing, the only tangible thing that they have done is start up yet another petition and sign it.
Let's be positive in spite of this. I suggest that we give them the benefit of the doubt. Let's wait and see what else they are willing to do besides signing another petition. We will monitor the situation to see how real this so-called "new campaign to end the drive hunt" develops. This is a multi-billion dollar industry. They can make a difference by committing some of the huge profits they are making off the backs of these captive animals.
Let's be patient with them but let's continue to hold their feet to the fire.
Richard O'Barry
Marine Mammal Specialist