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Japanese Supermarket Chain Permanently Bans Dolphin Meat
Much of the dolphin meat sold in Japanese supermarkets and restaurants is obtained from dolphins who are slaughtered en masse during the drive fisheries that take place in coastal towns every year from October through March. More than 20,000 dolphins, porpoises and small whales are killed annually as fishermen surround pods of migrating marine mammals and bang on metal rods underwater to disrupt their sonar and herd the animals into shallow bays. The fishermen then proceed to slaughter the helpless cetaceans with sharp spears and hooks and drag their carcasses to a nearby processing plant. One of the centers of the massacre is the town of Taiji, home of the Taiji Whale Museum, where visitors can go on a whale watching expedition in a dolphin-shaped boat before dining on dolphin and whale meat in a restaurant that displays dozens of posters showcasing the different types of ocean cetaceans. In this fishing village that has about 500 fishermen, only 26 participate in the drive fishery. The town was made internationally infamous by the documentary "Welcome to Taiji", which shows shocking footage of the bloody slaughter. Excerpts of the film are available for viewing on YouTube. Documenting the slaughter is becoming ever more difficult, as the slaughter site in Taiji is relatively isolated, and the fishermen have taken to erecting barriers made of large tarps to hide their shame. The script for "Welcome to Taiji" was written by Ric O'Barry and his wife Helene. Ric O'Barry is best known as the trainer of the five dolphins who starred as Flipper in the popular 1960s television show of the same name. In 1970, after Cathy (the main "actor" who portrayed Flipper) died in his arms, he realized that it was cruel to train dolphins to perform tricks for people's amusement, and promptly became one of the world's foremost dolphin advocates and marine environmentalists. The O'Barrys were also instrumental in convincing Okuwa to ban dolphin meat from their stores, as was journalist Boyd Harnell, who initiated the random meat sample tests. IDA has long been at the forefront of the international effort to end the Japanese drive fisheries, teaming up with the Animal Protection Institute, Earth Island Institute, the Elsa Nature Conservatory and One Voice to form the Save Japan Dolphins coalition. As an active member of this major campaign, we have joined with Earth Island Institute to coordinate numerous protests outside Japanese Consulates on Japan Dolphin Day and held major press conferences to break this important story to the media. Over the years, we have also sent people to Japan to document the slaughter, including Hardy Jones and the late Ben White, who once dove under water at night to cut the nets in Taiji, single-handedly freeing at least a dozen imprisoned dolphins. IDA also helped Jones and White attend the International Whaling Commission symposium to raise their voices against the massacre of cetaceans. In 1993, IDA and Earth Island Institute took successful legal action under the Marine Mammal Protection Act against the importation of False Killer Whales captured in the Japanese drive fishery to Marine World in Vallejo. This was the major precedent to stop imports from drive fisheries to marine parks in the U.S. The banning of dolphin meat from Okuwa's stores represents a major step in the joint effort to end the drive fisheries. IDA and all members of the Save Japan Dolphins coalition are grateful to the Okuwa Supermarket chain for removing this cruel and contaminated product from their shelves. IDA is dedicated to continuing to work with our allies to bring about a day when dolphins are no longer brutally massacred along the Japanese coast. What You Can Do: 1) Read a recent article from the British newspaper The Independent entitled "Bloodbath: Japan's dolphin cull gets underway". 2) Write to the Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. to demand a permanent end to the drive fisheries and the preservation of dolphins and whales. Please always be polite and respectful in your correspondence. Ryozo Kato Learn more about the Japanese dolphin slaughter at SaveJapanDolphins.org. |
