Documentary to Reveal Japan's Dolphin Slaughter to the World

Japan's whale hunts are well-known, but its dolphin hunts may not be so familiar to people. A documentary slated for release in late summer of this year aims to reveal to the world the horrific slaughter.

The film is tentatively called The Rising, and is the first documentary by the Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS). As the film's website says:

An annual dolphin massacre in a secret cove in Taiji, Japan suggests a microcosm of a larger picture, man’s disregard for life. The theme broadens – coal-burning facilities multiply across the planet, leading to high mercury levels in seafood, man’s primary source of protein.

I've complained about this before: we humans seem to think we can do anything, kill anything, eradicated anything because we are human. We forget that the world is an ecosystem, and the elimination of a species damages that ecosystem as a whole.

A story exclusive to the Japan Times outlines the secrecy involved in the operation; cameras secreted in the "killing cove" produced graphic and horrific images. The actual operation occurs as follows:

First, hunter boats from the Taiji Isana Union (numbering at most 13 skiffs, with two crewmen each) head out to sea and surround pods of dolphins or pilot whales (which are actually large dolphins). Then they drive them into a "capture cove" by banging on long metal bell-ended poles placed in the water to disrupt the dolphins' sonar, causing them to become completely disorientated and panic.

After these animals have spent a night supposedly relaxing in the netted-off capture cove (in an attempt by the whalers to make their meat more tender), they are driven to the neighboring "killing cove." There, behind huge blue tarps strung across the cove to keep prying eyes away — in much the same way that Japanese police cordon off crime scenes — the dolphins meet their gruesome predawn end.

It is a gory spectacle that Taiji has long striven to keep anyone from seeing — and one that is crucially fueled by the lucrative, worldwide dolphin captivity and display industry.

There is also a Save Japan Dolphins Campaign associated with the OPS.

What's even worse, for those who may recall Minamata disease, which was brought on by eating mercury-contaminated shellfish and fish, is that the dolphins frm Taiji have higher mercury content than in Minamata. As the Save Japan Dolphins website says:

Mercury in the bodies of dolphins in Taiji today is higher than it was in the fish when Minamata disease first struck. Recent independent studies at supermarkets in several areas of Japan show that the meat of dolphins and other whales range from about four times higher to nearly 36 times higher than the Health Ministry’s safe level of 0.04ppm (parts per million).

Yet this information seems to be withheld from the Japanese people.

I don't think I will be able to bring myself to go to see The Rising. The still picture above is enough horror for me. But even if you don't go, I encourage you to contribute to the Save Japan Dolphins campaign.