The massacre begins again

[Zingtea]

http://seashepherd.org/news/media_061020_1.html
On October 11th the Ito City Fishing Cooperative in Japan announced it will resume its massive annual "drive" hunt of dolphins. See above link.

 

[mislav]

Will this madness ever stop?

 

[Cacia]

heartless.

why? Thanks for posting. The captive dolphin debacle is better avoided. Don't fund these programs.

 

[Zingtea]

Don't fund these programs.

The dolphin captivity programs?

 

[erparamedic]

Terribly sickening! Sad, sad, sad.....

 

[Zingtea]

In Japan, cetaceans that are not "great whales" don't fall under the juristiction of the International Whaling Commision. The "great whales" do fall under the juristiction of the IWC, but they still die in the hundreds for "scientific research" (even endangered species are "researched").
Anyway, the drive-hunting fishermen make their big money from marine parks, not the people who eat dolphins. Their business of death wouldn't survive without the high prices they get for the best-looking dolphins, who are selected by trainers and put into tanks.

 

[Kim]

Their business of death wouldn't survive without the high prices they get for the best-looking dolphins, who are selected by trainers and put into tanks.

That's very true...there aren't many people who eat dolphin. In fact if you REALLY want to affect this trade then you shouldn't support the large marine parks that hold the dolphin shows. Many many of them are in the first world...Europe, Australia, the US etc... They all get their dolphins and orcas from somewhere!

FWIW the dolphin slaughter in Japan has fallen off considerably in the last few years. Many fisherman who used to do it have found that they can make more money taking out tourists for dolphin and whale watching than by hunting them.

The article linked to is rather biased though as it suggests that this practice is still very prevalent in the country. Only at the end does it admit the truth...it's more or less only in Iito and Futo - two rather small fishing towns - that this really happens at all.

 

[Zingtea]

...it's more or less only in Iito and Futo - two rather small fishing towns - that this really happens at all.

I still don't find 20,000 dolphin deaths a year sustainable. The same number already die as bycatch in tuna nets, and they have to cope with this as well? Those dolphins and small whales are migrating from somewhere, so you don't only see less of them in Japan, but also in other countries, because they don't live to return!

 

[Kim]

I still don't find 20,000 dolphin deaths a year sustainable. Those dolphins and small whales are migrating from somewhere, so you don't only see less of them in Japan, but also in other countries, because they don't live to return!

I wasn't defending the practice but I think you should try to understand what's actually happening. The fishing boats that actually take these animals come from only the two places I mentioned - as the article says they mostly get them by herding them into a couple of local bays. What the article DOESN'T say is that probably 95% of them are actually farmed in the bays to start with. (I'd have to check that figure for accuracy but it's by far the most animals - I saw a BBC documentary on the practice last year) Think about it - do you really think that all these creatures would MIGRATE to the waters of Iito and Futo from all over the world? Hmmmm....and I thought they were supposed to have quite high intelligence.
Again - I don't condone this hunt - in fact many Japanese themselves don't according to the BBC documentary interviews. Painting it as some kind of species threatening event is rather over the top IMO however.
Like I said. If you REALLY want to hurt this trade then attack the live dolphin shows - they are the root cause of what's still happening.

BTW. How many species of dolphin are there? Do they all come to Japan?

Just to help everyone understand the real problems for the dolphins qua fishing try this:
http://www.dbc.uci.edu/~sustain/global/sensem/Nunez198.html

 

[Zingtea]

...do you really think that all these creatures would MIGRATE to the waters of Iito and Futo from all over the world? Hmmmm....and I thought they were supposed to have quite high intelligence.

They don't migrate TO those places, they're passing by Japan to go further north. The boats go OUT and herd the dolphins and small whales into the bays.

BTW. How many species of dolphin are there? Do they all come to Japan?

The species targeted include Dall's porpoises, Risso's dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, short-finned pilot whales, striped dolphins, spotted dolphins, false killer whales and Baird's beaked whales. It's a big migration route they all use.