animal welfare
Protests: Dolphin hunting season begins in Japan
In the waters off Taiji, the first drive hunt of the season for dolphins and other small whales will take place on September 1st, 2020. photo
© -/kyodo/dpa
Taiji Bay in the Japanese prefecture of Wakayama has become notorious for its hunting of marine mammals – according to animal rights activists, the trade in live dolphins is increasing rapidly.
Hunting season has opened in Japan, accompanied by protests by animal rights activists Dolphins started. In the whaling town of Taiji, a group of Japanese activists gathered at the town’s bay on Friday – together with the world’s best-known opponent of the dolphin hunters, the American Richard O’Barry.
They held banners calling for an end to the “slaughter” and battue of marine mammals in Taiji. O’Barry has been mobilizing resistance to what’s going on in Taiji for years. Dolphinaria around the world support the hunt for the animals by rewarding the fishermen for their behavior, O’Barry told the dpa during one of his stays in the whaling town.
Taiji, in Wakayama Prefecture, is the setting for the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, which made the annual slaughter notorious. Once fishermen spot dolphins off the Taiji coast, they herd the animals into a bay.
To do this, the fishermen paralyze the dolphins’ sense of direction by hammering on metal rods that are held in the sea. Young, healthy animals are sorted out on behalf of dolphinariums at home and abroad, the remaining marine mammals are slaughtered in a neighboring bay. Animal rights activists recently complained about a rapidly increasing trade in live dolphins.