Just this past week, the annual Taiji dolphin hunt began in Japan. This tragic and cruel practice in which dolphins are killed for meat or captured and sold to aquariums all over the world, was the subject of the award-winning documentary, The Cove. Dolphins are culled in the Taiji Bay where the ones who will be sold are selected and then the remaining ones are murdered with a spike through the spinal cord. And unfortunately, the dolphins don’t die immediately. It can take up to 30 minutes of the animal to pass, and they often perish from suffocation and drowning.
photo: Sea Shepherds
And now the US Ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, is creating more awareness about this issue. She tweeted over the weekend, “(I am) deeply concerned by inhumanness of drive hunt dolphin killing.” She also added that the US Government opposes drive hunt fishing. The dolphins were rounded up over the weekend, and are expected to be slaughtered on Tuesday. The Sea Shepherds have been following the hunt and are live streaming it on their website. The conservation group estimates that over 200 dolphins have been trapped in the cove by the Japanese fisherman. Click here to learn more about the efforts of the Sea Shepherd in Taiji and how you can help.
