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Updates from Taiji For the past two years, Ric and his wife Helene O'Barry have travelled to Taiji with the support of One Voice and Earth Island Institute in an effort to document the annual dolphin slaughter that occurs as part of Taiji's annual drive fishery. Donate Now! Your Help Can Make a Difference in Taiji

Coalition Sponsors Ad in International Herald Tribune

(click to view or download pdf copy)

Contacts: David Phillips
(415) 788-3666 x145

Mark J. Palmer
(415) 788-3666 x139
(530) 758-6022

Stop International
Dolphin Trafficking

April 2, 2008

The Save Japan Dolphins Coalition and the Humane Society International are sponsoring a new advertisement in the International Herald Tribune today alerting the public that tourist shows with dolphins and swim-with-dolphins programs result in the killing of thousands of dolphins annually around the world.

In several areas of the world, including the Solomon Islands and the town of Taiji in Japan, fishermen hunt and kill dolphins for meat and/or teeth.  Dolphin traffickers, working with aquariums and swim-with-dolphins representatives, use these massive hunts to pick out the “best” show-quality dolphins.

The ad notes that prices for wild-caught dolphins can reach $200,000 per dolphin, subsidizing the brutal slaughter of the rest of the dolphin pod left behind. 

“The dirty secret of popular tourist shows with dolphins is that many dolphins die in the process of capturing a few for the dolphin market,” stated David Phillips, Director of the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute.  “Tourists, when they swim with dolphins or watch a dolphin show in a tank, are unwittingly supporting the slaughter of dolphins in places like Japan and the Solomon Islands.”

The ad features a photograph of dead dolphins, tossed into a garbage dump in the Solomon Islands after they died in captivity, awaiting sale to an aquarium.

The ad calls upon governments to take responsibility and stop the cruel trafficking in live wild dolphins.

The ad is also running in the Solomon Star, Solomon Islands, and La Prensa, Panama.

The Save Japan Dolphins Coalition is Earth Island Institute, Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan, Animal Welfare Institute and In Defense of Animals. In addition to the Coalition member groups and Humane Society International, endorsers of the ad include Born Free USA, Cetacean Society International, Marine Connection, and World Society for the Protection of Animals.

For further information on dolphin trafficking and the dolphin slaughter, go to: www.SaveJapanDolphins.org

© 2006, Earth Island Institute, Elsa Nature Conservancy, In Defense of Animals, Animal Welfare Institute. All Rights Reserved.