The Dolphin Slaughter in Taiji, Japan Continues
The end of February marked the end of the six-month-long Taiji dolphin drive hunts, one of Japan’s most shameful and inhumane practices.
But for the next two months, Taiji hunters can still hunt dolphins using harpoons on the high seas.
The Japanese government and local hunters claim the hunts as Japanese tradition. But according to Taiji town’s written history, the hunts only began in 1969.
There are dozens of dolphinariums in Japan, and the expansion of aquariums in China has led to a demand for Taiji dolphins. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to the closures of many aquariums, may eventually dampen the enthusiasm of Japanese and Chinese people for live dolphin shows.
One example of a captive dolphin is the albino dolphin named “Angel”. In January 2014, Angel’s mother was killed for the meat market, along with all her other relatives in the pod, but the white calf was taken into captivity and remains confined inside a small tank at the Taiji Whale Museum.
During the brutal Taiji hunts, a dozen boats fan out from Taiji harbor to scour the sea for dolphin pods migrating past the shores. Once found, the dolphins are herded into a small cove, made internationally famous by the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove. Dolphins are chosen for captivity in the cove, while the rest of them are slaughtered for meat markets.
The dolphin hunters only get around $400-500US for a dead dolphin in the meat market but can garner $80,000US or more by selling a trained dolphin. The town itself pockets some of the money from brokering dolphins overseas.
The International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) of Earth Island Institute and other organizations have been testing dolphin meat caught in drive hunts, revealing that the dolphins, at the top of the food chain, are heavily contaminated by mercury and PCBs. The meat is not fit to eat, but the corrupt Japanese Fisheries Agency turns a blind eye to such pollution.
There has been one major change in Taiji this hunting season – due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, no international volunteers have been able to go to Taiji. Instead, a group of Japanese volunteers monitors the hunts daily.
IMMP and other organizations continue to protest the Japan dolphin drive hunts, commercial whaling, and other attacks on marine mammals perpetrated by the Japanese government. All these activities are highly subsidized by the government.
