Video: Taiji Dolphin Slaughter Season
By Jillian Surdilla
Jillian Surdilla is a student and a psychology major at UC Berkeley, and looking towards law school. As an IMMP intern, she produced the following video of the Taiji dolphin hunts in 2024-25 season, which ended on February 28th.
The only good thing about this year’s dolphin hunts is that the dolphin hunters killed fewer dolphins for meat than in the past – 298 dolphins this season versus last season’s more typical kill of 833 dolphins. About 92 dolphins were captured alive for the global aquarium trade.
The cause of reduced dolphins slaughtered has been ascribed to several different causes. The Taiji hunters insist the lack of dolphins is being caused by changing currents off the Japanese coast.
But others are convinced the decline in dolphin deaths in the hunts represents a decline in the dolphin populations targeted by the Taiji hunters. When you kill whole pods of dolphins, there are none left in the wild to produce more dolphins.
Even when the dolphin hunters release dolphins from the blood bath of the notorious Cove and drive them out to sea, the trauma the dolphins experienced may very well reduce the population by interfering with feeding and mating, and many dolphins die of the stress of capture and confinement.
The Taiji video footage was kindly provided by the Oceanic Preservation Society and activist Kunito Seko. Our thanks to both!
Japan needs to close down the Taiji hunts and stop selling live dolphins for entertainment.
Find out how Japan hunts the dolphins
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Since 2004, the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute has been working to shut down the Taiji dolphin hunts and save the Japanese dolphins. Japan does not need the protein supplied by a few hundred dead dolphins, and the world must end the cruel exploitation of dolphins for entertainment. The drive hunt, the bloody slaughter, and the tragic ripping away of dolphins from their families (who are often slaughtered) and sent to a life of misery in small concrete tanks – all must end. Your donations help the dolphins and whales of the world – we ask that you contribute today.
