Every
year in the small Japanese town of Taiji, thousands of dolphins are brutally
killed in scenes like the one above from September to March in the annual
dolphin hunt. The main purpose of killing the dolphins is for consumption,
however, in recent years an increasing number are spared death for the worse
fate of being captured and sold off to live in a tank for the rest of its life
as a show dolphin. This slaughter is brutal, unnecessary, and should be
considered a crime against nature not only in the moral sense but in a legal
sense as well.
The
manner in which the dolphins are killed or captured is horrific. Boats called go
out and find a pod of dolphins then proceed to harass them with the boat in
order to drive them where they want to go (in the same way cowboys and
horseback herd cattle). The boats
push the dolphins close to shore close to the killing cove where a group of
smaller boats takes over. These boats, called bangers, then drop metal poles
into the water, which they “bang” repeatedly scaring the dolphins further and
further into the cove At this point the boats use nets to block the dolphins
from escaping back out to sea. Once the dolphins are far enough into the cove
men in the water and on the banger boats tie ropes to the dolphins’ tails and
drag them up to the shoreline. This process is violent and many dolphins drown
before they are pulled to the shoreline, for those who don’t however an even
more horrific and painful death waits. The killing method is exceptionally
heinous; a metal rod is plunged deep into the back of the fighting dolphins
head to make a wound the dolphin will bleed out from without affecting any of
its meat. The process of bleeding out takes minutes and is incredibly painful
for the victims. No creature deserves such a horrific end. The link below is to
a video of a dolphin hunt caught on tape. By seeing the process play out it is
far easier to understand the treachery of the process over just reading about
it. It is hard to imagine the fear and pain these animals, these families,
endure in their final minutes and these murders must be stopped. Fair warning:
there is a shot in the video of a dolphin being killed in the manner I outlined
above and it is extremely graphic and hard to watch. It is one of the hardest
things to watch that I have ever seen but I feel it is necessary to post here
so you can understand how terrible this brutal killing method is.
Some
dolphins are selected to be spared from the slaughter so they can instead be
sold into slavery as show dolphins. The percentage of dolphins caught in the
fishermen’s trap that are sold as a show dolphins has rapidly increased over
the past few years. While the fishermen get around $600 USD per dolphin killed, they can receive up to $300,000
USD for each bottlenose dolphin sold alive. Life in captivity for show dolphins
is awful. Animals such as whales and dolphins should not be held in captivity,
they are far too intelligent and putting them in a tank for their entire lives
should be equated to torture. These beautiful animals are incredibly similar to
humans in the fact that they need space. They need to be able to swim at top
speed, have stimulating surroundings to investigate. Their minds are incredible
and keeping them in tanks is cruelty.
Plain
and simple this yearly tragedy needs to be stopped. Dolphins are far too
important to their ecosystems to be taking them from the oceans. Multiple
species depend on the dolphin’s success for them to survive. Also eating
dolphins is actually hazardous to the consumer. Dolphins have high levels of
mercury and PCBs in their meat due to our pollution of the oceans and the
process of bioaccumulation. Bioaccumulation is the process of pollutants being
concentrated the higher up the food chain you go meaning that the higher you
are on a food chain the higher the concentration of pollutants in you’re
body. Dolphins are apex predators meaning
they are at the top of their food chain and as such they have very high
concentrations. Another reason killing dolphins should be illegal is their
intelligence. They are not just among the smartest animals on the planet they
are also self-aware. Self-awareness is an incredibly rare trait in animals and
only a few species possess it. Dolphins are brilliant and there is even evidence
that the communication of bottlenose dolphins may be a language. There is
compelling evidence alluding to such a conclusion and many biologists are finding
the concept more and more likely. Dolphins are treasures and need to be protected,
not slaughtered for meat or kept in tanks for our entertainment. The annual
dolphin hunt starts in less than two weeks, lets get our voices out there and
bring this heinous crime to an for good.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/724/210/624/
ReplyDeleteHere's a site to sign a petition. This other is to get involved in other ways: http://savejapandolphins.org/take-action/support-us-on-the-frontlines-in-japan
The cold hard truth is that the Japanese government endorses the killing as a form of "pest control" as they blame the dolphins and whales consuming too much fishes from the ocean so this is just a form of “pest control” which eliminates competitions for their fisheries. As you know, the Japanese population consumes 1/3 of the world's annual seafood supplies, therefore, if any, they are the ones who are guilty of over fishing and over consuming.
ReplyDeleteThat's far too simplistic a take on the issue. Yes its true the Japanese have the greatest annual impact on the worlds fisheries but to place the entire blame on them for overfishing would be incorrect. Yes, the Japanese are over fishing, but so are countless other nations. Secondly you have the economic issue. The culture of whale and dolphin fishing in Japan has given some people an attitude that killing them is their natural born right. Ideas like that will be very hard to break through and it is from those individuals the most stringent opposition will come from. Also it is important to remember that Japan is an island nation, their resources are incredibly limited which drove them to the oceans in the first place. The Japanese fish to survive so reform is going to be difficult to come by. It's like going into the mid-west of America and saying you can't raise beef anymore because some people on the other side of the planet have a problem with it. Progress is going to be hard to come by but i know in my heart we can get there by constantly pushing for reform. The world has rallied behind save whales and dolphins campaigns before so this is a good place to start the fight. The road ahead is going to be long and hard fought but I believe the coming decade will lead to reform in all global fisheries and the stoppage of whale and dolphin slaughter will be where the battle begun.
ReplyDelete