Stop Taiji Dolphin Slaughter and import of Live Dolphins to Entertainment venues to Australia

Taiji is located in a protected nook off of a bay.  The rocky land soars up from the water along the coast there.  The water in the bay is shallow and there are many rock spurs and islets.  Near the entrance to Taiji harbor is the entrance to the infamous Cove.  The rock spurs, islets, and shallows create a natural funnel right into the entrance of the Cove.

There are a dozen small fishing boats in Taiji equipped with metal poles on their sides.  Once a hunting boat finds a pod of dolphins, they will herd using their boats and by banging with a hammer on a flange on top of the poles. This banging creates a wall of sound from which the dolphins and small whales swim away.  This is the “drive hunt.” 

Entire extended family units – pods – are caught this way.  Elders, reproducing age adults, pregnant females, adolescents, and babies are all driven into the Cove.  Sometimes, the pod will slip away from the boats or the pod will get separated, but more often than not, the entire pod is driven into the Cove.

Once the dolphins are driven into the Cove area, they are then herded into a southern finger off of the Cove.  This is a narrow and shallow beach area and the site of the slaughter.  It is also the site of the documentary film, The Cove.  The barricades keep the activities of the killers from view.  Often, marine mammal trainers from the nearby Dolphin Base (swim-with-dolphin program) and from the Taiji Whale Museum (and live dolphin show) will move among the captured dolphins and select individuals for the captive entertainment industry.  Sometimes, the others will be released, but more often than not, they are all killed.  Grandparents, parents, pregnant females, and babies are all killed.  When the movie was made, they were killed by spear thrusts.  This created a lot of blood in water.  Now, in an effort to reduce the amount of blood, the hunters push a metal rod into their spinal cords.  Once the rod is removed, a wooden plug is then hammered into the hole.  The insertion of the rod sometimes causes death, but mostly causes paralysis.  The dolphins are still alive and very much aware of what is happening to them and to their family members.

A rope is tied around their tails and they are hauled out to the waiting gutting barge by small skiffs.  Most of them slowly drown and die during this towing activity.  For those that do not die with the insertion of the rod or by drowning on the way to the gutting barge, their deaths come when they are cut open and their entrails and organs are removed on the gutting barge.  There, the massive amounts of blood are unavoidable.

The dolphins chosen for the entertainment industry are taken by skiff/sling to pens in Taiji Harbor.  The gutted dolphins are towed to the butcher shop in Taiji Harbor.

We, the voting public of Australia and our International friends, implore you to ban the live import of Dolphins to marine entertainment venues and work with the Foreign Affairs minister, Australian Ambassador to Japan and their departments, to urge the outlawing of this practise today.