jueves, 11 de abril de 2013
What to do?
Contact the Authorities:
Help us end the brutal Taiji dolphin slaughter by
voicing your concerns to the authorities in Taiji as well as Wakayama
Prefecture and the Japanese Embassy or Consulate in your area.
Mr. Yoshiki Kimura - Governor of Wakayama:
TEL:+81-73-441-2034
FAX:
+81-73-423-9500
Wakayama Prefecture Office, Fishery Division:
TEL +81-73-441-3010
FAX:
+81-73-432-4124
Email: e0717001@pref.wakayama.lg.jp
Email: e0717001@pref.wakayama.lg.jp
Mayor - Taiji Town Hall:
TEL+81-73-559-2335
Taiji Fishermen’s Union:
TEL:
+81-73-559-2340
FAX: +81-735-59-2821
Hotel Dolphin Resort / Dolphin Base:
TEL: +81
0735 59 3514
FAX: +81 0735 59 2810
Contacts via Twitter:
US Ambassador to
Japan @AmbassadorRoos
Japanese Prime Minister
@JPN_PMO US Embassy in Tokyo @usembassytokyo Political Minister at Japanese Embassy in London @norishikata
@JPN_PMO US Embassy in Tokyo @usembassytokyo Political Minister at Japanese Embassy in London @norishikata
Spread the Word:
Follow Operation Infinite Patience on social media and share
with your friends and family. Ask them to help us end this atrocity.
Dolphins
Year after year in the Taiji Bay, between the months of October and April, in which hunt 20,000 dolphins and other small cetaceans to rounding them up in a shallow Cove to catch them. There is video and photographic record that shows the cruel images of families of dolphins squealing, trying to protect themselves and escape from the harpoons and knives and water dyed red by his blood, images that fishermen try to hide from the press and observers who come to the site
The objectives are two: meat production and hunting of exemplary living for captivity.
For meat production the dolphins are loaded live in trucks to nearby abattoirs where die degolladosand desangrados. Meat, labeled 'whale meat', meets Japanese and international population consumption, which has increased demand. For its part, the capture of specimens alive (generally young female) to dolphin aquariums and water parks condemns them to live until the last of his days confined in pools as a central figure of entertainment and the programs 'Swim with the dolphins' aquariums around the world.
The industry of dolphins in captivity is shown as 'Savior' of dolphins, as it prevents these areconverted into meat, but only do so because it is much more profitable to sell a dolphin at an aquarium that kill them to become flesh. The multi-billion dollar industry of dolphins to captivity is not saving the dolphins of death, but it helps keep this cruel practice for the benefit of the industry.
How dolphins are killed on Taiji
There is a small town in
Japan called Taiji, in this town every year thousands of dolphins are killed on
a period of dolphin hunt. The principal goal of killing the dolphins is for
consumption, recently the number of dolphins killed are bigger and all of us
believe that is completely unnecessary and these activities should be
considered as a crime against nature and maybe punished.
The fisherman’s use a
horrible way to kill the dolphins, they guide the dolphins to a certain places
and then they attract them close to the boat, then a lot of small boats called
“bangers” push them with the bigger boats and some drop metal poles into the
water scar the dolphins further and further into the cove. The boats use nets
to block the dolphins and on this way the animals can’t scape. Then, men in the
water and on the banger boats tie ropes to the dolphin’s tails and drag them to
the shoreline. This is an excessive and horrible process and a lot of dolphins
die before they are pulled up to the shoreline.
But for those who still
live, is waiting a worst and painful destiny. The method that the fisherman
uses is horrible, they use a metal rod that is introduced in the animal’s head
being very carefully with this instrument with the objective of don’t affect
any part of the meat. This method takes a couple of minutes and is very painful
for the victims.
Not all the dolphins are
killed, a lot of them are sold as show dolphins, this is a very juicy business
for the fisherman’s, so in few years, the percentage of dolphins sold has
become bigger than the percentage of dolphins killed because they receive a lot
of money more if they sold them. When a fisherman sold a dolphin as food he
obtain around $600 USD per dolphin killed, but when they sold a dolphin as a
show animals, the buyer can pay around $300,000 USD for each bottlenose
dolphin.
Dolphins are very
intelligent animals, so they shouldn’t be kept in captivity, this fact should
be considered as torture. These beautiful animals are incredibly similar to
humans, they need space, they need to be able to swim at top space, when they
are free, they help a lot of scientist on behavior investigations and a lot of
activities. This type of activities should be stopped, all the animals are very
important to the ecosystem and take them from the oceans to kept them in
captivity is a very bad activity. A lot of species depends on dolphins to
survive.
Dolphin drive hunt
It takes place every year from September to April, for human consumption or resale to dolphinariums, and most of these were caught at Taiji. The annual dolphin hunt provides income for local residents, but has received international criticism for both the alleged cruelty of the dolphin killing and the high mercury levels of the dolphin meat.
Eating dolphin meat has a lot of consequences. Scientific's have found that dolphin meat and whale meat are high in concentration of mercury.
People in Japan don't know what is happening with dolphins, and when they eat those meat they would have high concentrate of mercury in the hair and in all the body.
However this type of hunting is the worts, Japanese people kill dolphins really aggressive, they make the dolphin suffer, there are a group of artists that have made a video asking for help to stop this kind of hunting, and also people in Japan want to stop this.
Atrocity in Taiji.
Taiji, Japan is located on the eastern shore of Wakayama Prefecture. The coastal area there is stunning in its beauty, but unfortunately is tainted by the blood and suffering of thousands upon thousands of dolphins and other small cetaceans. There is evidence that whale and dolphin hunting has occurred in the area for centuries. What is new though is the “drive hunting.”
Just a mask in front the truth.
The authorities in Taiji and Wakayama would like for you to believe that this form of hunting is just as ancient, but that simply is not true. The drive hunt was developed in the 1970s. It is not even as old as most of the men who practice it. Humans like to make a big deal about “culture” and old customs. Japan is particularly attached to this ideal. However, just because a practice has been going on for a long time does not make it right neither does it give it special status to continue doing that awful action if it is found to be wrong. In the case of the hunting of cetaceans though, there is not even a legitimate claim to antiquity. To claim it is cultural is a lie.
Only a few countries today allow the commercial killing of cetaceans. Countries that were once major whaling nations have ended the practice. Iceland, Norway, the Danish Faroe Islands, and Japan continue to practice the cetacean hunting. Japan is the country that has more numbers of cetacean deaths. The nation of Japan sends commercial whaling fleets into the North Pacific and Southern Ocean each year. Japan also authorizes and supports the hunting of whales and smaller cetaceans in its coastal waters.
Numbers
As many as 20,000 dolphins and porpoises are killed in Japanese waters each year. Most (18,000 of that number) are Dall’s porpoises killed at sea by harpoon in the northern part of the country.
In recent years, the killed and captured numbers as reported by the fishermen have been averaging about 1,600. The killing season is actually 12 months long, beginning on September 1. Usually, the drive-hunts end in March and the fishermen target other species. This year (September 2011 – August 2012) the Taiji FU has a permitted quota for 2,165 dolphins and other small whales.
The actual numbers each year vary. 20,000 are on the high end.
- Bottlenose dolphin – 652
- Striped Dolphin – 450
- Spotted Dolphin – 400
- Risso’s Dolphin – 275
- Long-finned Pilot Whale – 184
- Pacific White-sided Dolphin – 134
- False Killer Whale – 70.
They have a permission to kill?
The Fishermen’s Union (FU) will submit a request for a permit to the Governor of Wakayama Prefecture. The Governor then issues the permit. There is no evidence that is given any serious consideration in the permit process. It appears that the FU simply tells the Governor what it wants to take and the Governor give the permit.
Health risks from eating dolphin meat
The bottlenose dolphin is the most coveted species to capture and resale to dolphin cages. Since 2000, researchers and Tetsuya Endo (Professor, University of Health Sciences of Hokkaido), found high concentrations of mercury in whale meat and dolphin sold throughout Japan. In their studies, Taiji residents who eat dolphin meat had elevated mercury levels in their body hair from the evidence.
An investigation by the National Institute for Minamata Disease (NIMD) in 2008 to test mercury levels in 7 pieces of whale meat (two of which were from Taiji). Their results showed that meat from Taiji had more than 13ppm of mercury, more than 65% of which was methyl mercury. The entrails of whales (which are also consumed in the city) had high concentrations of mercury primarily caused by inorganic mercury. The Japanese Ministry of Health issued consumption advisories for some fish species, whales and dolphins since 2003. It is recommended that children and pregnant women to avoid eating them on a regular basis.
Most of the dolphins and small whales captured in the Taiji FU drive hunts are killed and the meat is sold in for human consumption. Respected scientists the world over report on the high levels of mercury and other contaminants in the meat of these animals, but many Taiji locals ignore these warnings. They often say that there are plenty of old people around who ate dolphin all their lives, and they unfortunately accept the propaganda served to them by the Japanese government that the levels and threat of mercury in the meat is not significant.
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)