Dolphin Killers II

Watch this from the Oceanic Preservation Society.
This footage was all filmed undercover and the OPS will be releasing a full length movie documentary in 2009 about Japans dolphin drives called THE RISING. Millions of people across the world will see just how obscene Japan's dolphin drives are.


And here is a video from SaveJapansDolphins.org which shows how and why the dolphin killers hide the slaughter from their own people and the world.
Dolphin Killers Hide slaughter from the Japanese People!


There is also the dolphin dealers
As seen in that video they are shady bastards and above the law.

Of course the most graphic view of the dolphin drive industry remains this one. I don't think its possible to watch without a little bit inside of you dying.
:(


The Japanese Dolphin Killing Fisheries were kicked into high gear after the 1986 ban on whaling. A 1999 Environmental Investigation Agency report revealed that Japan had killed more than 400,000 dolphins and small cetaceans in only 20 years (1979 to 1999) with its dolphin fisheries.

Tuna fisheries, which in the past had high dolphin bycatch levels, are still responsible for the death of many sharks. An estimated 300,000 cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) also die as bycatch each year, because they are unable to escape when caught in nets.

This is a huge percentage of the whales and dolphins killed worldwide, and is a very black and white reason to focus anti-whaling operations on the dominant whaling nation.


When it is released please support the movie

Infact considering past quota has frequently topped 40,000 is a nice surprise to see the 2008 official quota is 20,108. I doubt the whalers will manage to keep it.

No international treaties cover this slaughter other than CITES, which lists some dolphins and porpoises on Appendix I, banning trade, and the rest on Appendix II, which regulates it. The fisheries may be endangering numerous species and eliminating local populations. Japanese fishermen are killing Dall's Porpoises (Phocoenoides dalli) in large numbers. These porpoises are known to "bow-ride" in the wake of their small dories. Taking advantage of this apparent dolphin game, fishermen are harpooning the frolicking dolphins in their backs with steel-barbed weapons, causing a painful and slow death. The meat is then marketed as "whale." At least 560 boats are killing these small black-and-white porpoises off the Japanese coast (Currey 1990). Approximately 111,500 of these porpoises were killed by Japan from 1986 to 1989 (Nowak 1999). In 1990, the IWC passed a Resolution calling for a reduction in the number of Dall's Porpoises killed to at least 10,000, but Japan killed 17,634 the following year (Chan et al. 1995a). The Japanese continue this killing, using 80 fishing boats that pursue migrating herds throughout the year. An estimated 67 percent of Dall's Porpoises have been killed by the Japanese, who killed 65,159 of these porpoises between 1990 and 1993 (Chan et al. 1995a). Annual kill is now about 20,000 and seems to involve mainly immature animals (Nowak 1999). The 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists this species as Conservation Dependent, in spite of the fact that there seems to be little conservation preserving this species.

Striped Dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) have been nearly eliminated along the Japanese coast (Currey 1990). Recent statistics from the IWC show that Japan whales 18 species of small cetaceans, and kills many thousands more as incidental catch in its fisheries (Chan et al. 1995a). The 76,295 of these dolphins killed directly make up only a portion of their human-caused mortality; added to this, 35,002 Striped Dolphins drowned in fishing nets, for a total of 111,297 killed between 1990 and 1993 (Chan et al. 1995a). The combined killing from these two causes is resulting in declines. It, too, is listed as Conservation Dependent by the 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

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Although traditionally hunted for their meat, the Conservation Society said that dolphins in Japan are used for fertilizer and pet food. The drives, the Whale Dolphin Conservation Society argues, "are conducted as a form of pest control."

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Two council members from the whaling town of Taiji, Japan, have come out publicly against the feeding of dolphin meat contaminated with mercury to children in school lunch programmes. It is the first time Japanese elected officials have criticised whaling and consumption of cetacean meat, and issued warnings of a potential public health disaster as the country attempts to boost domestic consumption.

Independents Junichiro Yamashita and Hisato Ryono from Wakayama prefecture recently announced laboratory test results of dolphin meat samples at a press conference. “We tested some samples purchased at the Gyoko supermarket in Taiji and Super Center Okuwa in the nearby city of Shingu,” Japan Times quoted Yamashita saying.


One dolphin sample had a mercury content 10 times above the health ministry’s advisory level of 0.4 parts per million (ppm), while the methyl mercury content was 10.33 times over the ministry’s advisory level of 0.3 ppm. Another dolphin sample tested 15.97 times and 12 times above advisory levels of total mercury and methylmercury, respectively.

Human nervous system is sensitive to all forms of mercury. Methylmercury and metallic mercury vapours are more harmful than other forms.

About 20,000 dolphins are killed in Japan every year; 2,300 dolphins are killed in Taiji alone. The town is planning to construct a us $3-million dolphin processing plant.

The news conference coincides with the annual dolphin hunt that begun in Taiji recently. Conservationists oppose this hunt—the largest kill of dolphins anywhere in the world. Every year, the hunt begins in September and continues for six months.

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A coalition of marine scientists has launched a campaign to halt Japan's annual "dolphin drive," in which thousands of bottlenose dolphins are herded into shallow coves to be slaughtered with knives and clubs.

"We contend that the Japanese drive hunt of dolphins and small cetaceans is a brutal and inhumane practice that violates all standards for animal welfare," said Diana Reiss, director of the marine mammal research program at the New York Aquarium's Osborn Laboratories of Marine Science.

Because dolphins learn from one another, he said, major cullings can have a serious impact on surviving individuals' ability to persevere. "When you remove a bunch of animals, you remove not only them but the knowledge that they have."

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