WHAT DON'T THEY WANT US TO SEE?

"Drive fishing, the method of killing the dolphins, is criticised as particularly cruel. Off the coast fishermen surround a pod (group) of dolphins. They lower long metal poles into the water and strike them to create a wall of sound that scares the dolphins and confuses their navigational skills. In Taiji, the dolphins are then driven into a shallow cove and a net across the mouth of the cove prevents escape. The next day the dolphins are herded into another cove away from prying eyes and camera lenses and are killed with knives or stabbed to death with spears. Japanese officials state that the dolphins die quickly and with minimum pain. NGO observers say the dolphins clearly suffer a prolonged, excruciating death. [In fact largely for use as pet food and fertilizer.]

Until a few years ago, the hunts were carried out in public. Now, due to increased interest, tarpaulins over and around the cove mask the killing, cliff paths overlooking the cove have been put out of bounds, and photographers are chased away...

Such incidents and the hunts in general rarely appear in the Japanese media..."

The Good and Evil of Hunting Dolphins
by Deborah Mantle

Further info:

Save Taiji Dolphins Campaign [What is being hidden]

One Voice

The Ecologist

With thanks to Jeff Bryant...