Taiji: 7 boats in formation pushing a pod of dolphins. #DolphinProject#Tweet4Dolphins 8:20am and you know something now, I watch the boards at Ric's (O'Barry) and at the Sea Shepherd site and its the same thing every year. The postings are the same every year. Swim Dolphins, Swim. Break Free Dolphins, etc. and we know its not going to happen. These dolphins are mince or they will be stolen into slavery to perform for you people that attend those types of events.
The bottom line is that we need to stop this from happening. Its barbaric. Its insane. It is stealing from our oceans.
All these Dolphins are guilty of if you sill, is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Enough already. We need to stop it from happening and we need to work harder to do it.
Thanks to the people on the ground but we the people here need to stop going to these places that teach them to jump through a hoop so to speak, and we need to change International laws at once.
That is where it starts and where it stops.
This is no different than human slavery because think about it, we took Black people away from their every day life. We put them into slavery for no money while we housed them in small confined places for when they did not work. Or, we killed them.
This is no different.
These people that are part of private companies (if corporations are people too my fiends, well then what about the morals aspect of an individual?) that are kidnapping Dolphins are killing them as a way for them to make money or they are putting them to work so that company can make money.
What we are doing to these animals is just not fair. It is not morally sound at all. It is not cool.
And, we still have a half year more of this being able to happen by law. We need to change the law(s).
Six Years Later: Did 'The Cove' Impact Dolphin Hunting in Japan?
Last Tuesday, a 75-year-old American man named Ric O’Barry was arrested in Japan around 10 PM for driving without a passport. While paparazzi snapped photos, he was taken from his car to a local jail. After calls from the embassy and at least one Congressman, the man was quietly released 24 hours later.
O’Barry, formerly a dolphin trainer for the TV show Flipper, has been a target for Japanese police for years. Rocketed to fame by the Oscar-winning film The Cove in 2009, O’Barry has been trying to convince—or force—local fishermen to stop hunting dolphins for decades. But fishermen set out in boats this week once again, looking for dolphins. Has anything changed in the six years since The Cove came out?
The fishermen of Taiji call the hunt a local tradition. Using speed boats, they corral massive pods of tens or even hundreds of dolphins and push them into a secluded cove on the island, where they are either killed for meat or captured.
Over the past few decades, the hunt’s focus has shifted from butchering dead animals to capturing them alive so they can be trained and sold to aquariums and marine parks. According to the Oceanic Preservation Society, the organization that produced The Cove, just one live dolphin can fetch upwards of $200,000.
Ric O’Barry in Japan with an albino dolphin caught in Taiji. Credit: DolphinProject.net
Now, critics say, the hunt has become part of a large commercial industry. Dolphins, whose complex emotional and cognitive abilities have been demonstrated by scientists, shouldn’t be used for meat or for entertainment, they argue.
The tide may be changing, however.
Last year in Taiji, due to declining demand for meat, increased awareness about the hunt, and pressure from activists, the number of dolphins slaughtered and taken captive hit a record low.
Japan’s country-wide dolphin catch is now down to less than 6,000 animals from 23,000 when the film was released, said The Cove’s director, Louie Psihoyos, in part because of the gruesome images of dying dolphins and blood-red water that splashed across film screens in the US and elsewhere.
Activists also pressured the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) to cut ties with its member group in Japan, the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA), because it certified marine parks that bought captive dolphins from the hunt. WAZA suspended the Japanese branch last April. Shortly after, JAZA released a statement saying that it would officially ban its members from acquiring dolphins from the Taiji dolphin drive fisheries.
Another reason the dolphin hunt is losing supporters is the meat itself, which is widely known to be contaminated with dangerously high levels of mercury and PCBs. One 2010 government report found that Taiji’s 3,500 residents had mercury levels that were above the national average. The country’s Health Ministry has cautioned people about eating dolphin meat before, noting that many samples of dolphin meat in Japan have been found to exceed the safe limit for mercury levels—some as high as 5,000 times over.
Nevertheless, the hunting boats are still heading out. The Taiji Fishermen’s Union, which sets yearly quotas for the hunt, is allowing hunters to capture or slaughter a total of 1,873 cetaceans (whales and dolphins) during the 2015-2016 season. They can take 462 bottlenose dolphins, 450 striped dolphins, 400 pantropical spotted dolphins, 256 Risso’s dolphins, 134 Pacific white-sided dolphins, 101 pilot whales, and 70 false killer whales.
“I wish I could say that you make a movie, and the world changes the next day. But it takes a while for culture to catch up,” Psihoyos told Motherboard.
He and the Oceanic Preservation Society just recently bought the rights to release The Cove for the first time in Japan, where many citizens are unaware about the hunts in Taiji.
“Hopefully, they are just as horrified as western audiences have been,” he said. “Most people there don’t believe it. They just can’t believe the horror that goes on inside their own borders.”
The bottom line is that we need to stop this from happening. Its barbaric. Its insane. It is stealing from our oceans.
All these Dolphins are guilty of if you sill, is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Enough already. We need to stop it from happening and we need to work harder to do it.
Thanks to the people on the ground but we the people here need to stop going to these places that teach them to jump through a hoop so to speak, and we need to change International laws at once.
That is where it starts and where it stops.
This is no different.
These people that are part of private companies (if corporations are people too my fiends, well then what about the morals aspect of an individual?) that are kidnapping Dolphins are killing them as a way for them to make money or they are putting them to work so that company can make money.
What we are doing to these animals is just not fair. It is not morally sound at all. It is not cool.
And, we still have a half year more of this being able to happen by law. We need to change the law(s).
Last Tuesday, a 75-year-old American man named Ric O’Barry was arrested in Japan around 10 PM for driving without a passport. While paparazzi snapped photos, he was taken from his car to a local jail. After calls from the embassy and at least one Congressman, the man was quietly released 24 hours later.
O’Barry, formerly a dolphin trainer for the TV show Flipper, has been a target for Japanese police for years. Rocketed to fame by the Oscar-winning film The Cove in 2009, O’Barry has been trying to convince—or force—local fishermen to stop hunting dolphins for decades. But fishermen set out in boats this week once again, looking for dolphins. Has anything changed in the six years since The Cove came out?
The fishermen of Taiji call the hunt a local tradition. Using speed boats, they corral massive pods of tens or even hundreds of dolphins and push them into a secluded cove on the island, where they are either killed for meat or captured.
Over the past few decades, the hunt’s focus has shifted from butchering dead animals to capturing them alive so they can be trained and sold to aquariums and marine parks. According to the Oceanic Preservation Society, the organization that produced The Cove, just one live dolphin can fetch upwards of $200,000.
Now, critics say, the hunt has become part of a large commercial industry. Dolphins, whose complex emotional and cognitive abilities have been demonstrated by scientists, shouldn’t be used for meat or for entertainment, they argue.
The tide may be changing, however.
Last year in Taiji, due to declining demand for meat, increased awareness about the hunt, and pressure from activists, the number of dolphins slaughtered and taken captive hit a record low.
Japan’s country-wide dolphin catch is now down to less than 6,000 animals from 23,000 when the film was released, said The Cove’s director, Louie Psihoyos, in part because of the gruesome images of dying dolphins and blood-red water that splashed across film screens in the US and elsewhere.
Activists also pressured the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) to cut ties with its member group in Japan, the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA), because it certified marine parks that bought captive dolphins from the hunt. WAZA suspended the Japanese branch last April. Shortly after, JAZA released a statement saying that it would officially ban its members from acquiring dolphins from the Taiji dolphin drive fisheries.
Another reason the dolphin hunt is losing supporters is the meat itself, which is widely known to be contaminated with dangerously high levels of mercury and PCBs. One 2010 government report found that Taiji’s 3,500 residents had mercury levels that were above the national average. The country’s Health Ministry has cautioned people about eating dolphin meat before, noting that many samples of dolphin meat in Japan have been found to exceed the safe limit for mercury levels—some as high as 5,000 times over.
Nevertheless, the hunting boats are still heading out. The Taiji Fishermen’s Union, which sets yearly quotas for the hunt, is allowing hunters to capture or slaughter a total of 1,873 cetaceans (whales and dolphins) during the 2015-2016 season. They can take 462 bottlenose dolphins, 450 striped dolphins, 400 pantropical spotted dolphins, 256 Risso’s dolphins, 134 Pacific white-sided dolphins, 101 pilot whales, and 70 false killer whales.
“I wish I could say that you make a movie, and the world changes the next day. But it takes a while for culture to catch up,” Psihoyos told Motherboard.
He and the Oceanic Preservation Society just recently bought the rights to release The Cove for the first time in Japan, where many citizens are unaware about the hunts in Taiji.
“Hopefully, they are just as horrified as western audiences have been,” he said. “Most people there don’t believe it. They just can’t believe the horror that goes on inside their own borders.”
Song Produced by Pat Aeby (Krokus, etc.).
All Video Footage for all Sunset Music videos was done using the GoPro Hero!
Thanks especially to the tireless and what is endless work of the people that are trying to stop all Dolphin Hunting and Capturing in every way, and thanks to any participants who please, if you want to be credited in any way, contact us now at artistdevelopment@sunsetrecordings.com. We will do it that minute.
Also, this video is monetized in some way (ad shares, amounts of plays, amounts of views, etc.) and therefore any and I mean 100% of all revenues made from it, will go to the Oceanic Preservation Society (makers of the COVE). As a matter of fact, we have set up an automated monthly payment which I am matching BTW, every month. Thanks for the help and for your participation in stopping all wildlife crime. Your tax-deductible donation helps the Oceanic Preservation Society often receives requests from supporters of our organization inquiring about their ability to raise money for OPS. Past request have included charitable fundraising programs by students, individuals doing charity walks or hikes, or individuals who were moved by our work and who just want to help us raise funds. Such independent fundraising activities are possible and greatly appreciated. The following is background information on OPS and how that independent fundraising should be conducted:
• Oceanic Preservation Society is a registered 501(c)(3) Public Charity, Tax ID 38-3891081
• Donations from individuals in the form of cash or check can be tax deductible to the donor as a charitable income tax deduction;
• Donations in the form of checks is preferable to donations in cash;
• If a fundraiser is soliciting funding, then any checks should be written to Oceanic Preservation Society, rather than to the fundraiser;
• The fundraiser should provide OPS with the name and address of each donor so that OPS can provide each donor with a letter acknowledging the donation for income tax purposes; and
• The fundraiser should indicate that he or she is merely selecting OPS as his or her charity of choice for his or her fundraising activities and that the fundraiser is not officially associated with OPS.
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