Sea of blood as Japan slaughters thousands of dolphins

[BURNING MAN]

Every year, thousands of dolphins are herded into a tranquil cove in Japan where some are captured for sale to marine parks, the rest slaughtered for their meat.


The picturesque cove at Taiji which becomes a bloodbath between September and March each year as 2,000 dolphins are slaughtered

Despite the efforts of the Japanese authorities to keep it hidden, the massacre has been captured on film by a guerrilla documentary team led by the man who trained Flipper.

Until now, the yearly slaughter of 2,000 dolphins in a small town in Japan has been one of the country's most shameful secrets. But The Cove – a new documentary shot in the style of an espionage thriller – is about to change all that. The film follows the attempts of an American documentary team to penetrate the veil of secrecy surrounding the annual dolphin 'drive' in the fishing town of Taiji.

Here, in the drive season between September and March, fishermen set out in motorised vessels to locate the pods of dolphins following their primordial migratory patterns along Japan's south-eastern Pacific coast. Banging on metal poles suspended from the sides of the boats, the fishermen confuse the dolphins' sonar, and drive them into the hidden cove of the film's title. There, dealers size up young females to sell on to marine parks and dolphinaria. The remainder are brutally slaughtered by fishermen using knives and spears in a bloody massacre – which turns the waters red – to be sold either as dolphin, or more often 'whale', meat.

Employing an arsenal of hi-tech gadgetry including thermal-imaging equipment and cameras disguised as rocks, the makers of The Cove capture the slaughter in the face of obstacles that include barbed-wire fences, irate fishermen and an increasingly frustrated local police force. The film has already become an international cause célèbre. Earlier this year it won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival; it has received laudatory reviews in America, and in Australia it has led to Taiji's 'sister town', Broome, temporarily suspending relations following a public outcry. It has yet to secure a distributor in Japan.

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[banannabell]

Poor dolphins.

[kidflash2008]

That is a shame, but the Japanese have been doing that for thousands of years. I don't think our moral outrage will be enough. Their younger generations would have to be against this sort of thing in order for it to stop.

[Truthed]

yikes that pic really gets out the message

[Miskreant]

Originally Posted by Truthed

yikes that pic really gets out the message

Those fucking stinking japs need to get dealt with...

[patrick]

save the animals from the beasts.

us our logo here.(Holland)

[fuck it]

the japs are friggin animals. there bis no reason for this type of cruelty.

[Miskreant]

Originally Posted by fuck it

the japs are friggin animals. there bis no reason for this type of cruelty.

I agree. Animals. They slaughter with reckless abandon. I'm not some Berkeley hippy trying to save a tree, but this is ridiculous. They have other sources of food. Unbelievable.

I hope the global community comes together to squash this event from ever happening again.

Those dolphins are smarter than those japs.

[kidflash2008]

Not much love for Asian peoples, Teslatom

[kidflash2008]

In the USA, I have had turtle, dolphin meat, shark, alligator meat, buffalo and just about any type of critter from all over the country. We eat just about everything here.