Mid Way statistics through the Dolphin hunt and capture on Taji, Japan!
In Taji, Japan today, there is a concentrated focus on 2 of the 4 newly captured Pacific white sided dolphins. A member of the Fishermans Union and a trainer have again visited these dolphins, though they may have been unresponsive to the training efforts as the skiff left after throwing in only a few fish. A different group of trainers have come to feed the all the other Dolphins being held in the sea pens. 2016-30-01 8:58am #dolphinproject#tweet4dolphins
Narita Airport website is down! In support of Ric O'Barry. Anonymous is Done Seeing Thousands of Dolphins Slaughtered – Now Targeting Japanese Govt.
Ric O’Berry is the dolphin activist appearing in the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove,” which detailed the annual barbaric slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan. The Taiji hunt lasts for six months, killing or capturing up to a quota of 1,873 animals last season alone. The annual slaughter continues to cause international outrage from animal rights advocates.
According to a report from Dolphin Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to stopping the global dolphin slaughter, O’Berry was detained by Japanese authorities upon his arrival at Tokyo’s Narita Airport. Japanese officials refused his entry into Japan, arresting and holding him at a deportee facility. The activist claims he has been repeatedly interrogated and not received proper nourishment during his detention by Japanese authorities.
“The Japanese government is cracking down on those who oppose their war on dolphins.” ~ says Ric O’Barry, through his son, Lincoln O’Barry. He continues, “I’m incarcerated on trumped-up charges, just like in Taiji last August. For the past 72 hours, I have been behind bars in a detention facility, yet I have broken no laws.”
Japanese authorities confirmed that the airport’s website was taken down in the attack, but claim that no flight operations were affected by the disruption. This is not the first time that the Anonymous hacker group has targeted Japan for attack as a result of the annual dolphin slaughter.
According to a report by Hackread:
In October, last year same Anonymous group had shut down Narita and Chubu International Airport websites against the slaughter of Dolphin and trade to aquariums.
In September, the same group of hackers took down the website of the town of Taiji in Wakayama Prefecture in protest of the town’s hunting of dolphins and storing them.
Hunting of dolphins has been protested by many activists around the world and taking down of websites is one of the ways they record their protest.
Anonymous has dedicated itself to protect animal rights around the world. In the past, the hacktivists went against X-Rated animal abuse websites and shut down world’s largest animal abuse forum.
The Anonymous hacker behind the attack, in an exclusive conversation, told Hackread, “The attack on the Airport was done because they detained @RichardOBarry there and denied him into Japan because of the movie he made called ‘The Cove’ in 2009.”
In an effort to put pressure on the Japanese government to end the hunts, in 2010 conservation organization Sea Shepherd began sending “Cove Guardians” to document and record the slaughter. The Japanese government has responded to the increased attention by trying to ban those that would expose this heinous practice to people across the world from documenting the slaughter.
The Japanese government is cracking down on those who oppose their war on dolphins.” ~ Ric O’Barry, Founder/Director, Dolphin Project
According to a report by The Dodo:
Each year, 20,000 dolphins are slaughtered in Japan, hundreds of them in the Taiji hunt alone. The few who survive the blood-red waters are sold into captivity, fated to spend the rest of their lives cut off from family and performing at zoos and marine parks.
Some have attempted to justify the brutality using claims of cultural heritage and tradition. However, the mass killing, using dolphin drives, have only recently become a common occurrence.
The reality of the Taiji hunt is not an overarching cultural tradition, but rather a small group of local men generating large amounts of revenue from the murder of this extremely intelligent, and self-aware being.
The targeted website has since been restored, but the issue has once again garnered international attention thanks to the Anonymous collective.
Jay Syrmopoulos is a political analyst, free thinker, researcher, and ardent opponent of authoritarianism. He is currently a graduate student at University of Denver pursuing a masters in Global Affairs. Jay’s work has been published on Ben Swann’s Truth in Media, Truth-Out, Raw Story, MintPress News, as well as many other sites. You can follow him on Twitter @sirmetropolis, on Facebook at Sir Metropolis and now on tsu.
Free Dolphin Activist Ric O'Barry from Detention in Japan! TEN (10) days he has been detained...aka sitting in a jail.
Ric O'Barry (of Ric O'Barry's Dolphin Project) was detained in the Tokyo Airport on Jan. 18, and has since been held in a deportees facility and repeatedly interrogated.
Barry is perhaps most known for his role in the 2009 Academy Award-winning documentary "The Cove," which details the horrific slaughter of hundreds of dolphins each year in Taiji, Japan. As a result of this spotlight and his continued work to stop the hunts, he has become a target for surveillance and repeated interrogations by the Japanese government.
Please sign this petition demanding that Japanese immigration officials stop making up reasons to detain Ric O'Barry and release him immediately.Click here to help!
TOKYO SAYS NO TO DOLPHIN HUNTS
On January 29, several Japanese activists assembled outside the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Tokyo to protest the killing and capture of dolphins. The demonstration was intentionally timed to coincide with staff getting off work for the day.
Despite plummeting temperatures, for about 90 minutes, people called for an end to the dolphin hunts. Some held up signs, calling for the release of Ric O’Barry.
Demonstrator calling for the release of Ric O’Barry, Tokyo, 1-29-16
Photo credit: Michael Todd
Photo credit: Michael Todd
One protester with a megaphone made it clear that while she had no criticism of the Taiji fishermen, their license to kill dolphins should be revoked by the Japanese government due to the cruelty of the drives. Ric’s release was also repeatedly asked for.
Sign the petition to free Ric O’Barry
| Disturbing New Details From Former SeaWorld Employee |
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| Adopt a dolphin update Jan 2016 |
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PETITION TARGET: Marine Mammal Commission, North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of Commerce
We've got 113,351 supporters, help us get to 120,000
The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) prohibits the "taking" of marine mammals. The maximum fine for violating the MMPA is $20,000 and one year in jail. "Taking" as defined under the MMPA as "harass, hunt, capture, kill or collect, or attempt to harass, hunt, capture, kill or collect."
Clearly, dolphins living in captivity have been hunted, captured, collected and harrassed to perform tricks for food at many marine parks, in an effort to exploit them for the entertainment of humans.
No captive facility, no matter how much space it provides, how well intentioned it is, or how hard it tries, is able to provide for the complex behavioral and physical needs of dolphins. Certainly there are captive facilities that put more resources into their programs. But, unequivocally, there is no way to do captivity well. All facilities from the largest, state-of-the-art facility to the crudest program all compromise dolphin welfare to an unacceptable degree.
We ask you to BAN the possession of dolphins in captivity, and help fight the brutal dolphin slaughter which happens throughout the world. By banning these facilities it would help reduce the black market of dolphin poaching. Click Here to help!
Quick-Thinking Teenagers Rescue a Baby Dolphin.
When a baby dolphin found itself struggling in shallow waters in Western Australia's Geogrup Lake, it was fortunate that
three quick-thinking teenagers were close by. Zachary, Michael and Ryan rushed to the aid of the stranded animal and calmed it before setting it free in deeper waters.
Video credit: Jantina Sanderson
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three quick-thinking teenagers were close by. Zachary, Michael and Ryan rushed to the aid of the stranded animal and calmed it before setting it free in deeper waters.
Video credit: Jantina Sanderson
Watch More Animal Videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
Subscribe to Storyful for the latest viral videos online!
https://www.youtube.com/user/storyful
To use this video in a commercial player or broadcast, please email licensing@storyful.com
Storyful exclusively manages thousands of videos which have generated billions of views online. We’re open, ethical, transparent and always put uploaders first.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/storyful
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/storyful
OP ED: WHAT HAS OUR INTERFERENCE COST DOLPHINS?
We’re only halfway into January, but have you noticed the ads on television and the internet, filled with happy dolphins? Yes, those ads, where bottlenose dolphins delight in performing and orcas cruise leisurely through plexiglass tanks. There are others too: the swim-with programs, the swim-on programs where you can take hold of a dolphin’s dorsal fin and get towed through the water, and even feed the dolphins programs, where you can toss a dead fish into an animal’s mouth. No matter the marine park or aquarium, the messaging remains the same: it’s a dangerous world out there, and honestly the dolphins are better off under the care of trained staff.
Honest? Not!
Rather than wasting time and money supporting an industry with direct ties to the Taiji drive fisheries, where dolphins are slaughtered or selected for a dead-end existence in captivity, why not spend your winter break engaging in cruelty-free activities? I’m a long time fan of watching whales and dolphins in their natural environments, where both species are free to come and go as they please. But, if this option isn’t possible, you can view the world’s first wild dolphin immersive virtual reality experience from home. It’s like swimming with dolphins from the comfort of your couch.
Swim with wild dolphins in #360Video
The thing I noticed, after watching wild dolphins off the coast of Key West, was their tight, social bonds. Juveniles would brush up against their mothers, and all members of the pod swam close together.” ~ Cara Sands, Dolphin Project Writer/Editor
In Taiji, Japan, these social bonds are callously disregarded, with pods decimated on an oft-daily basis, between the months of September and March of each year. Adult members are either killed for meat or selected for captivity, while babies and juveniles are routinely witnessed being dumped back at sea, their chances of survival, minimal at best. On a Live Stream captured last week by Dolphin Project Cove Monitors, a baby, bottlenose dolphin was seen rubbing against an adult, presumably its mother, seeking comfort from the terror of being brutally driven into The Cove.
Baby bottlenose dolphin seeks comfort from its mother during a brutal drive, Taiji, Japan, January, 2016.
Photo credit: Maria Nangle / Dolphin Project
Photo credit: Maria Nangle / Dolphin Project
Aside from the meat itself being unfit for both human and animal consumption, due to high levels of mercury found in dolphins caught around the waters of Taiji, one must question what sense of tradition the Taiji fishermen believe they are upholding, while systematically destroying the culture of other species? The Japanese themselves are pushing back against this practice, with the first-ever Japanese activist standing in protest at The Cove, back in 2013.
It’s not about tradition or culture. It’s all about profit and greed, powered by the engine of the captivity industry. The real money is made in the trade of dolphins to aquariums and marine parks. Taiji is ground zero for the largest trafficking of dolphins in the world.” ~ Ric O’Barry, Founder/Director, Dolphin Project
Watching the animals engage in “reward-based” behavior (that’s code-speak for performing for food), it’s obvious they are suffering, their existence, abhorrent. On one hand, you’re told by enthusiastic marine mammal trainers that dolphins can swim 50-100 miles a day in the open ocean in their hunts for fish, while on the other hand, what you’re seeing is an entirely different existence, where, day and night, dolphins circle the periphery of the tank, driven to either depression, aggression, or both. Wounds and growths can often be observed on the skin of the animals, as documented in this photograph of a captive pilot whale, taken at the Taiji Whale Museum earlier this month.
Pilot whale, Taiji Whale Museum, January, 2016
Photo credit: Maria Nangle / Oxana Fedorova / Dolphin Project
Photo credit: Maria Nangle / Oxana Fedorova / Dolphin Project
It’s an issue of quality versus quantity, and there is absolutely no quality to these animals’ lives, regardless of their individual life spans reached in whatever facility they have been shipped to.” ~ Cara Sands
With such films as A Fall From Freedom, The Cove, Blackfish and the mini-series, Blood Dolphins, the tide is turning – literally – and we are the collective reason. I have always believed that education equals empowerment. The more people educate themselves on these issues and have access to responsible and balanced information, the more they can make their own decisions and choices as to what they support, or not. Dolphin Project’s study guides are an excellent starting point for all ages, to help educate ourselves and then, others.
Angel is an albino bottlenose dolphin captured during one of Taiji’s drives in January of 2014. At the time she was just a calf, now, two years later, she continues to be displayed at the Taiji Whale Museum, along with other tank mates. She is curious, often responding to the presence of our Cove Monitors, yet with nothing to do, and, with the smell of chlorine strong in the building, swims with her eyes closed for much of the time.
Angel and tank mates, Taiji Whale Museum, January, 2016. Photo credit: Natasha Eldred / Dolphin Project
According to the dictionary, an angel is “an attendant or guardian spirit.” ~ Source: Dictionary.com. Without attaching any religious significance, this seems fitting for dolphins and other whales, whom, throughout history, have been documented rescuing humans and acting as our allies. Yet they expect nothing in return. For beings whom have existed on our planet in one form or another for over 50 million years, our treatment of them is careless, selfish, and by some, unimaginably cruel. It’s time for us to embrace gratitude, kindness, compassion, and respect – all virtues which are attributed to our own species, deserved or not – and apply them in our interactions with theirs.
To me, these are the qualities traditions are made of, passed down from one generation to the next. Dolphins have had millions of years to perfect themselves, and adapt to an ever-changing world. It would seem prudent, ethical, for us to step aside and allow them to continue on their evolutionary path.
What can you do to act as an advocate for dolphins? You can Take the Pledge to NOT Buy a Ticket to a Dolphin Show. Then you can tell your family, friends and colleagues to do the same. Consider this simple, but profound act a contract with yourself to never support the mistreatment of these marine mammals. For other ways to help, please click on the Take Action banner below.
