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From Kansai Time Out (Japanese Magazine) 8/30/2006
by Deborah Mantle
"That creatures kill and sacrifice other creatures so that they can sustain their lives is the law of nature and is beyond any consideration of good and evil."
-- The Taiji Declaration on Traditional Whaling, 23rd April 2006.
Next month, fishermen in Taiji, Wakayama prefecture, will begin their annual hunt of dolphins, as well as small whales and porpoises. The hunters say that the cull is part of their traditional culture. In addition to providing meat, it is a necessary form of pest control to protect local fisheries. Critics say that the six-month hunt, the largest scale dolphin kill in the world, is unnecessary, cruel and covered up.
Taiji is considered the birthplace of Japanese whaling. Community members established a kujira-gumi, an organized whaling company, in 1606, and the hunting of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) in coastal waters has continued from that time. At the fifth Summit of Japanese Traditional Whaling held this year in Taiji, participants agreed on a Taiji Declaration on Traditional Whaling. In what is termed a "new era of whaling’" the signatories state that the killing of cetaceans for consumption and their non-consumptive use (for example, dolphin-watching) can "coexist without conflict". Small-type whaling and dolphin "fisheries" are encouraged "to maintain their sustainable operations and to keep contributing to the local community in the future." Currently, the Japanese government permits the killing of 21,000 small cetaceans in coastal waters.
Critics, including members of Japanese and non-Japanese NGOs, consider the mass slaughter of dolphins "unique, intelligent animals that display self-awareness" as unacceptable. Moreover, they say that the justification for the hunts, that dolphins are eating too many fish thereby jeopardizing local fisheries, is scientifically unproven and the lack of fish in local areas is most likely due to over-fishing by humans not dolphins.
Drive fishing, the method of killing the dolphins, is criticized as particularly cruel. Off the coast fishermen surround a pod (group) of dolphins. They lower long metal poles into the water and strike them to create a wall of sound that scares the dolphins and confuses their navigational skills. In Taiji, the dolphins are then driven into a shallow cove and a net across the mouth of the cove prevents escape. The next day the dolphins are herded into another cove away from prying eyes and camera lenses and are killed with knives or stabbed to death with spears. Japanese officials state that the dolphins die quickly and with minimum pain. NGO observers say the dolphins clearly suffer a prolonged, excruciating death.
Until a few years ago, the hunts were carried out in public. Now, due to increased interest, tarpaulins over and around the cove mask the killing, cliff paths overlooking the cove have been put out of bounds, and photographers are chased away. In November 2003, two members of the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society were arrested and eventually fined for releasing 15 dolphins awaiting slaughter. Meanwhile, other members of the society had their cameras, computers and personal belongings taken by local officials.
Such incidents and the hunts in general rarely appear in the Japanese media so protesters have been seeking international attention. A call for petition signatures was published in the New York Times’ in October last year and at the meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in June, Ric O’Barry, a former dolphin trainer whose work on the 1960s series Flipper’ led him to join the French animal rights organization One Voice’, entered the meeting and made a silent protest by wearing a TV set showing footage of the dolphin kills in Taiji and Futo, Shizuoka. After again protesting peacefully, this time when members left the meeting, O’Barry and his family were awakened that night by representatives of the conference resort and forced to leave.
While the hunting of cetaceans in Japan may be traditional, the sale of dolphins to domestic and overseas aquariums is certainly not. When the dolphins are first rounded up dolphin trainers hand-pick a few specimens, usually young females, to be removed from the pod. It is the sale of dolphins that make the hunts profitable and opponents reserve particular criticism for the way the world zoo and aquarium organizations are directly involved with the hunts, yet in public commit themselves to animal welfare and protection. It could be considered poor taste that Taiji itself has a captive dolphin show and advertise swimming with dolphins as a "fun" experience.
Each country's food culture is a cause for revulsion in another. Whether eating cow, pig, horse, dog or whale, it is offensive to some culture or religion. However, even if it is accepted that dolphin is part of Japan's food culture, increasing ocean pollution world-wide has meant that eating animals which feed on contaminated fish is potentially dangerous. Following increased child development problems in the Faroe Islands (between Iceland and Norway) and other areas where humans depend significantly on cetacean meat for their diet, in 1998 the IWC passed a resolution expressing concerns about the health effects of eating cetacean products. In 1999, an international team of scientists tested 130 samples of whale and dolphin (often mislabelled as whale) meat in six cities across Japan. 52% of the samples exceeded maximum official limits for mercury, methyl-mercury, organic compounds and pesticides, making them unfit for human consumption.
Organizers of the Save Taiji Dolphins Campaign hope that by continuing to monitor and record the hunts, they can bring national and international attention to the issue and encourage an informed Japanese public to reconsider the future of cetacean hunting. Japan Dolphin Day 2005 was marked by actions in 28 countries. This year's Japan Dolphin Day on 20th September will bring together members of 32 NGOs and is a chance for people to show their opposition through various means.
Is the mass slaughter of dolphins good, evil or beyond ethical concern? Rather than trying to conceal the hunts, in a democratic country this "use’ of natural resources’" and its economic, health and moral implications should be open to public debate.
For further information about Japan Dolphin Day/Save Taiji Dolphins Campaign, the effects of captivity on dolphins and the Taiji Declaration on Traditional Whaling see the following websites:
www.earthisland.org/saveTaijiDolphins
www.theecologist.org/archive_detail.asp?content_id=329
www.iwcoffice.org/_documents/commission/IWC58docs/58-11.pdf