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(Reprinted from ECO, the Environmentalists’ Daily Newsletter at the IWC)
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| Photo by Deborah Adams |
In a surprise move, dolphin expert Ric O’Barry of the Save Japan Dolphins coalition walked into the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting wearing a TV set showing footage of Japan’s violent dolphin slaughter in Taiji and Futo. Without sound or saying a word, O’Barry paraded the footage in front of the astonished Japanese delegation and the entire Commission. Security quickly escorted O’Barry and his TV get-up out of the meeting, followed by a parade of TV cameras and reporters.
The IWC’s annual meeting took place in St. Kitts in the Caribbean June 16-20th, 2006. The IWC is closed to protesters, but O’Barry had authorization to attend as a media representative. He conducted his “silent protest” on the first day of the annual meeting. Needless to say, security representatives of the IWC meeting took back his media credentials.
Animal Welfare Institute and In Defense of Animals joined with Earth Island Institute and Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan in bringing the plight of Taiji’s dolphins to the world’s attention. This coalition seeks to end the tragic slaughter of dolphins in Taiji and other areas of the world.
O’Barry trained the dolphins used in the popular 1960s US television program Flipper. His experience with those dolphins convinced him that dolphins should never be kept in captivity or treated inhumanely. Most Japanese agree with him and are horrified to learn that the Japanese Fisheries Agency still allows the herding and bloody slaughter of thousands of dolphins annually.
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| Photo by Roxana Schteinbarg |
The dirty secret of the inhumane killing is that the international captive dolphin industry, representing aquariums and swim-with-dolphins programs, subsidizes the Taiji slaughter by annually buying a handful of the "best" animals from the drive fishery for captivity at enormous prices. Meat from the slaughtered animals has been shown to be high in mercury, PCBs, and other dangerous toxins, yet it is often sold in Japan mislabeled as "whale meat." A number of representatives from Taiji reportedly joined the Japanese delegation this year to push for renewed coastal whaling of minke and Bryde’s whales, in addition to the annual dolphin slaughter.
O’Barry turned up again outside the IWC meeting as it broke for the evening a few days later. Security again intervened, charging this time that O’Barry could not do what he was doing without permission from the Marriott Corporation. Of course, O’Barry asked what he was doing? This was a peaceful protest in the spirit of Martin Luther King to show the IWC delegates what the slaughter of dolphins looked like, up close and personal, according to O’Barry. A crowd swirled around O’Barry composed of delegates heading to their hotel rooms, members of the public curious to see the footage, media representatives and security agents. O’Barry was slowly escorted back to his room in the hotel.
Later that evening, O’Barry and his wife and baby daughter were awakened by hotel security and told to leave the resort. O’Barry had to find another hotel for the evening and then returned home to Florida.
O’Barry wants the world to see the dolphin slaughter, so the people of the world can decide for themselves whether or not Japan should continue this barbaric hunt. O’Barry hopes his efforts will help get the word out.
