Why do people hunt dolphins?
When most people think of dolphins, they think of cute, friendly marine mammals that show off their performance skills for visitors at theme parks. They don't realize the way some dolphins forcibly end up in captivity -- or the fate many other dolphins meet each year at the hands of fishermen around the world.
Dolphin hunting is an ancient act that has been outlawed throughout much of the globe for many decades, yet there are some areas where it is still common practice, including Japan, the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific and the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic. With growing controversy over this trade, why do people hunt dolphins? There are several reasons, but most of them come down to money.
Dolphins for Sale
The dolphin business is a lucrative one, and for many fishermen, it's their only source of income. One way to earn a big profit is through the dolphin entertainment industry. Presently, most show dolphins are born in captivity, but some are purchased through dolphin hunts. According to SaveJapanDolphins.org, a live bottlenose dolphin can sell for more than $150,000 to a dolphinarium, theme park or other exhibition center. For the many other dolphins captured in a hunt that don't end up in the spotlight, their destiny is usually death. As for facilities accredited by the U.S.-based Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), because the AZA has a strict code of ethics, no dolphins from these hunts are at your local AZA-accredited aquarium.
Meat Market
Despite the low quality of dolphin meat and the high level of mercury it contains, hunters do kill dolphins for their meat and then distribute it to restaurants, grocers and even schools. SaveJapanDolphins.org reports that the meat is often mislabeled and sold as whale meat, which is more valuable and nutritious. Citizens who purchase dolphin meat are often unaware of its high mercury levels, or believe they are purchasing the healthier whale meat. Fishermen also sometimes buy the meat and use it as bait in crab pots or for other types of fishing.
Pest Control
During a meeting with Taiji hunters in Japan, protesters from Earth Island Institute (EII) were shocked to discover another reason for dolphin hunting. According to EII, fishermen admitted that they conduct dolphin drives as a form of "pest control." They explained that dolphins eat large quantities of fish, so the fishermen view these mammals as a roadblock to a bountiful harvest. The more fish dolphins eat, the less there are for fishers to trap, and the less profit there is to earn from their catch.
Culture Club
Fishermen sometimes cite their culture as a reason they continue to hunt dolphins. Centuries ago, dolphin meat was often eaten for subsistence and in some smaller villages and islands; dolphins still represent a major food source. The dolphin meat is shared among all inhabitants equally, and locals often barter the meat for other necessities. For example, people who live in the mountains of Malaita in the Solomon Islands will bring vegetables and other crops down to the shore where they trade their wares for dolphin meat. One dolphin can often feed an entire village and surrounding areas. In addition, dolphin teeth are considered very valuable and function as currency in both the Solomon Islands and the Faroe Islands.
Local women in small, island villages also use the teeth to make ornamental jewelry for gifts or to trade for other goods.
Since money is most often the primary motivator in dolphin hunting, several nonprofit organizations, such as BlueVoice.org, work to help people in dolphin hunting communities learn about other ways to earn money without harming dolphins, including establishing dolphin-watching tours and sustainable fishing practices. EII, which started the campaign at SaveJapanDolphins.org, also educates the public and tries to dispel the belief that dolphins are eating all the fish -- all in the hopes that the areas that still allow dolphin hunting will one day be able to give it up as other countries have.
Source
Dolphin hunting is an ancient act that has been outlawed throughout much of the globe for many decades, yet there are some areas where it is still common practice, including Japan, the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific and the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic. With growing controversy over this trade, why do people hunt dolphins? There are several reasons, but most of them come down to money.
Dolphins for Sale
The dolphin business is a lucrative one, and for many fishermen, it's their only source of income. One way to earn a big profit is through the dolphin entertainment industry. Presently, most show dolphins are born in captivity, but some are purchased through dolphin hunts. According to SaveJapanDolphins.org, a live bottlenose dolphin can sell for more than $150,000 to a dolphinarium, theme park or other exhibition center. For the many other dolphins captured in a hunt that don't end up in the spotlight, their destiny is usually death. As for facilities accredited by the U.S.-based Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), because the AZA has a strict code of ethics, no dolphins from these hunts are at your local AZA-accredited aquarium.
Meat Market
Despite the low quality of dolphin meat and the high level of mercury it contains, hunters do kill dolphins for their meat and then distribute it to restaurants, grocers and even schools. SaveJapanDolphins.org reports that the meat is often mislabeled and sold as whale meat, which is more valuable and nutritious. Citizens who purchase dolphin meat are often unaware of its high mercury levels, or believe they are purchasing the healthier whale meat. Fishermen also sometimes buy the meat and use it as bait in crab pots or for other types of fishing.
Pest Control
During a meeting with Taiji hunters in Japan, protesters from Earth Island Institute (EII) were shocked to discover another reason for dolphin hunting. According to EII, fishermen admitted that they conduct dolphin drives as a form of "pest control." They explained that dolphins eat large quantities of fish, so the fishermen view these mammals as a roadblock to a bountiful harvest. The more fish dolphins eat, the less there are for fishers to trap, and the less profit there is to earn from their catch.
Culture Club
Fishermen sometimes cite their culture as a reason they continue to hunt dolphins. Centuries ago, dolphin meat was often eaten for subsistence and in some smaller villages and islands; dolphins still represent a major food source. The dolphin meat is shared among all inhabitants equally, and locals often barter the meat for other necessities. For example, people who live in the mountains of Malaita in the Solomon Islands will bring vegetables and other crops down to the shore where they trade their wares for dolphin meat. One dolphin can often feed an entire village and surrounding areas. In addition, dolphin teeth are considered very valuable and function as currency in both the Solomon Islands and the Faroe Islands.
Local women in small, island villages also use the teeth to make ornamental jewelry for gifts or to trade for other goods.
Since money is most often the primary motivator in dolphin hunting, several nonprofit organizations, such as BlueVoice.org, work to help people in dolphin hunting communities learn about other ways to earn money without harming dolphins, including establishing dolphin-watching tours and sustainable fishing practices. EII, which started the campaign at SaveJapanDolphins.org, also educates the public and tries to dispel the belief that dolphins are eating all the fish -- all in the hopes that the areas that still allow dolphin hunting will one day be able to give it up as other countries have.
Source
Dolphin drive hunting, also called dolphin drive fishing, is a method of hunting dolphins and occasionally other small cetaceans by driving them together with boats and then usually into a bay or onto a beach. Their escape is prevented by closing off the route to the open sea or ocean with boats and nets. Dolphins are hunted this way in several places around the world, including the Solomon Islands, the Faroe Islands, Peru, and Japan, the most well-known practitioner of this method. Dolphins are mostly hunted for their meat; some are captured and end up in dolphinariums.
Despite the controversial nature of the hunt resulting in international criticism, and the possible health risk that the often polluted meat causes, thousands of dolphins are caught in drive hunts each year.
In Japan, Striped, Spotted, Risso's, and Bottlenose dolphins are most commonly hunted, but several other species such as the False Killer Whale are also occasionally caught. A small number of Orcas have been caught in the past. Relatively few Striped Dolphins are found in the coastal waters, probably due to hunting.catches in 2007 amounted to 384 Striped Dolphins, 300 Bottlenose Dolphins, 312 Risso's Dolphins and 243 Southern Short Finned Pilot Whales, for a total of 1,239 animals. These numbers do not include dolphins or other small whale species killed using various other methods, such as offshore harpoon hunts, in which mainly porpoises are killed. Another 77 Bottlenose Dolphins, 8 Risso Dolphins, 5 Southern Short Finned Pilot Whales were captured for use in the entertainment industry in Japan, China, Korea, and Taiwan. The quota set by the government for the species that were targeted in drive hunts that year allowed for the capture of 685 Striped Dolphins, 1,018 Bottlenose Dolphins, 541 Risso's Dolphins, and 369 Southern Short Finned Pilot Whales. The quota applies to all hunting methods.
The Japanese town of Taiji on the Kii peninsula is as of now the only town in Japan where drive hunting still takes place on a large scale. In the town of Futo the last known hunt took place in 2004. In 2007 Taiji wanted to step up its dolphin hunting programs, approving an estimated ¥330 million for the construction of a massive cetacean slaughterhouse in an effort to popularize the consumption of dolphins in the country. However, an increase in criticism and the considerable toxicity of the meat appears to be achieving the opposite. During the first hunt of the season in Taiji in 2009, an estimated 50 Pilot Whales and 100 Bottlenose Dolphins were captured. Although all the Pilot Whales were killed, and 30 Bottlenose Dolphins were taken for use in dolphinariums, the 70 remaining animals were set free again instead of being killed for consumption.
An increasing number of dolphin welfare advocacy groups such as Earth Island Institute, Surfers for Cetaceans and Dolphin Project Inc., dispute these official Japanese claims. These groups assert that the number of dolphins and porpoises killed is much higher, estimated at 25,000 per year.
In Japan, the hunting is done by a select group of fishermen. When a pod of dolphins has been spotted, they're driven into a bay by the fishermen while banging on metal rods in the water to scare and confuse the dolphins. When the dolphins are in the bay, it is quickly closed off with nets so the dolphins cannot escape. The dolphins are usually not caught and killed immediately, but instead left to calm down over night. The following day, the dolphins are caught one by one and killed. The killing of the animals used to be done by slitting their throats, but the Japanese government banned this method and now dolphins may officially only be killed by driving a metal pin into the neck of the dolphin, which causes them to die within seconds according to a memo from Senzo Uchida, the executive secretary of the Japan Cetacean Conference on Zoological Gardens and Aquariums. It is not clear if this ban is strictly enforced however, as eyewitness reports of similar throat-slitting and evisceration style killings were reported as late as October and November 2006.
As briefly mentioned above, occasionally, some of the captured dolphins are left alive and taken to mainly, but not exclusively, Japanese dolphinariums. In the past, dolphins have also been exported to the United States for several parks including the well known SeaWorld parks. The US National Marine Fisheries Service has refused a permit for Marine World Africa USA on one occasion to import four False Killer Whales caught in a Japanese drive hunt. In recent years, dolphins from the Japanese drive hunts have been exported to China, Taiwan and to Egypt. On multiple occasions, members of the International Marine Animal Trainers Association (IMATA) have also been observed at the drive hunts in Japan.
Human health risks
The meat and blubber of the dolphins caught has been found to have high levels of mercury, cadmium, the pesticide DDT, and organic contaminants like PCBs. The levels are high enough to pose a health risk for those frequently eating the meat and researchers warn that children and pregnant women shouldn't eat the meat at all. Because of the health concerns, the price of dolphin meat has decreased significantly.
In 2010, hair samples from 1,137 Taiji residents was tested for mercury by the National Institute for Minimata Disease. The average amount of methyl mercury found in the hair samples was 11.0 parts per million for men and 6.63 ppm for women, compared with an average of 2.47 ppm for men and 1.64 ppm for women in tests conducted in 14 other locations in Japan. One hundred eighty-two Taiji residents showing extremely high mercury levels underwent further medical testing to check for symptoms of mercury poisoning. None of the Taiji residents, however, displayed any of the traditional symptoms of mercury poisoning, according to the Institute.Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, however, reports that the mortality rate for Taiji and nearby Koazagawa, where dolphin meat is also consumed, is over 50% higher than the rate for similarly-sized villages throughout Japan.The chief of the NIMD, Koji Okamoto, said, "We presume that the high mercury concentrations are due to the intake of dolphin and whale meat. There were not any particular cases of damaged health, but seeing as how there were some especially high concentration levels found, we would like to continue conducting surveys here."
Due to its low food self-sufficiency rate, around 40%, Japan relies on stockpiling to secure a stable food supply. As of 2009, Japan's 1.2 million ton seafood stockpile included nearly 5000 tons of whale meat. Japan has started to serve whale meat in school lunches as part of a government initiative to reduce the amounts. However, there has been criticism of serving whale meat to school children due to allegations of toxic methyl mercury levels. Consequently, Taiji's bid to expand their school lunch programs to include dolphin and whale meat brought about much controversy. An estimated 150 kg (330 lbs) of dolphin meat was served in Taiji school lunches in 2006.
In 2009, dolphin meat was taken off school menus because of the contamination. The levels of mercury and methylmercury taken from samples of dolphin and whale meat sold at supermarkets most likely to be providing the schools' lunch programs was 10 times that advised by the Japanese Health Ministry. The mercury levels were so high that the Okuwa Co. supermarket chain in Japan permanently removed dolphin meat from its shelves.
Source: Wikipedia
In a small fishing village in Japan, dolphins and pilot whales are being herded into a quiet cove. Fishermen hold large poles underwater and bang them with hammers to create a wall of sound that disorientates the animals and causes them to swim toward the shore. Here, mothers and babies are separated by ropes, some dolphins are tied to boats, some become injured or break their pectoral fins in the watery panic, some die from stress or exhaustion.
The bewildered animals are kept enclosed by nets overnight, and as the sun rises on the cove, the sea turns red as 'drive fishermen' pierce the dolphins and whales with long spears. Some fishermen use hooks to haul live dolphins into the boats where their throats are slashed. The dolphins' screams fill the air …
This modern day atrocity has been captured on film and is the subject of the Academy Award winning documentary 'The Cove'. Yet worldwide condemnation has yet to convince the Japanese government that this brutal butchering should end.
The reasons given by officials are varied. Some say the dolphins and whales are killed for their meat; meat tainted with high levels of mercury and served to Japanese school children. Others say the 'hunt' is a form of 'pest control' insisting the dolphins are competition for the fishing industry.
The killings have also been directly linked to the lucrative trade in dolphins for the marine park industry. Investigators have reported seeing dolphin trainers assisting fishermen in herding the dolphins in order to choose those deemed suitable for a life in an aquarium.
Whatever the reason, there is simply no excuse for such extreme cruelty.
Please let the Japan Tourism Agency know that you will not be visiting a country that has such blatant disregard for life. The beauty and culture of Japan is only strengthened by its amazing wildlife and this should be promoted not destroyed.
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February 2011 - The Sun reports:
FISHERMEN use tarpaulins in a bid to cover up the slaughter of dolphins — as secret filming exposes their horrific killing methods.Officials had claimed the mammals were destroyed humanely after 2009 Oscar-winning documentary The Cove told how 2,000 were killed every year in Taiji, Japan. Fishermen said that piercing the animals' spinal cord with a sharp spike killed them instantly. But video shot using cameras hidden on cliffs overlooking the waters show what really happens. |
Hunters are seen driving a spike into dolphins' flesh before ramming a wooden plug in the wound to stop the blood turning the sea RED.
They then DROWN the animals by tying their fins and pushing them underwater.
Ric O'Barry, 71, who trained TV dolphin Flipper and made The Cove, last night said: "The dolphins thrash in agony for minutes. It is beyond cruel. We knew it was a lie, but couldn't prove it until now."
Activist Dieter Hagmann, who revealed the video for German conservationists Atlantic Blue, said: "The video confirms our worst fears.
"The fisherman work in shielded secrecy and supposedly use a bloodless humane method of killing. The footage exposed the cruel truth."
The Japanese government defends the killings for meat as traditional.
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Please take action!
Please fill out the form at the link to send your letter asking to stop the Taiji dolphin slaughter by clicking HERE!
Thank you!
Thank you!
Sample letter of protest and addresses
If you would like to make a more direct protest, you can send the following sample letter to the addresses listed below.
If you would like to make a more direct protest, you can send the following sample letter to the addresses listed below.
SAMPLE LETTER
I am outraged by the annual brutal slaughter of whales and dolphins that takes place in Japan. The images of bloody red water clearly show the world that Japan has little respect for the state of the world's oceans and for the conservation of the marine resources it claims to support.
Many scientific studies show that the oceans are in decline. We must take whatever actions are necessary to stop their over-exploitation and to protect the creatures that live in them. These whales and dolphins do not belong to Japan. The status of the species of whales and dolphins that you kill are either endangered, threatened, or unknown. It is an unthinkable waste that they will likely end up as a meat product or deceptively sold as whale meat, polluted with toxic levels of mercury and cadmium, killing people that eat it. It is tragic and unacceptable that the remaining dolphins that are not killed will end up destined for death in an aquarium, water park, or captive dolphin program.
In addition, the methods used to kill these animals are cruel. Corralling the whales and dolphins into bays, then making them suffer a long and painful death by spears, hooks, and drowning is an inhumane way of fishing. This action is disgraceful and has caused much disappointment in the international community.
We demand that Japan permanently and immediately renounce and stop this slaughter. We will work diligently to bring this issue to international light until you have ceased your reprehensible violence.
Sincerely,
Letters can be sent to the following:
PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda
1-6-1 Nagata-cho 1 Chome
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. 100-8968 JAPAN
Fax: +81.3.5511.8855
E-mail form:
https://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/forms/comment_ssl.html
MINISTER OF FISHERIES
1-2-1 Ksumigaseki 1 Chrome
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. 100-8907 JAPAN
Tel:+81-3-5510-3303 (direct) or 3-3502-8111
Fax: +81-3-3502-8220 or +81-3-3502-0794
E-mail: sinsei01densi@nm.maff.go.jp
THE DOLPHIN HUNT IN TAIJI IS CONDUCTED BY TAIJI FISHERY COOPERATIVE
3167-7 Taiji
Wakayama, 649-5171 Japan
Tel: +81.735.59.3517
Fax: +81 735 59 3018
PERMISSION FOR THE DOLPHIN HUNT IS GIVEN BY THE GOVERNOR OF WAKAYAMA
Mr. Yoshiki Kimura
Prefectural Office of Wakayama
1-1 Komatsubaradouri, Wakayama-shi
Wakayama-ken, 640-8269 Japan
Tel: +81-73-441-2034
Fax:+81-73-423-9500
Public comment lines: +81-73-441-2028
Fax: +81-73-431-0462
E-mail: e0006001@pref.wakayama.lg.jp
THERE IS A FISHERY AGENCY POLICY EVALUATION GROUP WHICH HAS THREE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN CHARGE:
Kawase, Yoshino and Tokura
Tel: +81-3-3502-8111 ext. 7057 and 7058
OR: +81-3-3591-5613 ( direct)
E-mail: sui_hyoka@nm.maff.go.jp
EMBASSY OF JAPAN IN WASHINGTON D.C.
Ambassador Ryozo Kato
2520 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.
Washington D.C. 20008-2869
Tel: (202) 238-6700,
Fax: 202-328-2187
Hours: M-F 9:15-12:30 and 2:00-6:16
E-mail: jicc@embjapan.org
www.us.emb-japan.go.jp
Please go to the following link to find out the email address of the Japanese embassy in your country or any other country you might want to add to your protest-mail: http://www.mofa.go.jp/about/emb_cons/mofaserv.html
Please spare a few moments to share your thoughts with the prime minister of Japan in opposition to the slaughter
http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/forms/comment_ssl.html
Japanese town to build dolphin zoo near site of annual cull
Taiji defies international criticism over cull and plans to populate 69-acre mammal park with dolphins and whales captured nearby
by Guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 9 May 2012
It sounds like it ought to be a sick joke. But in the town made infamous for its annual slaughter of hundreds of dolphins, tourists will now be able to swim and play with the mammals in a zoo near where the cull takes place.
Taiji, featured in the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, is to build a whale zoo. Yet despite the move, officials say the cull will continue.
Local media reports say the picturesque town on Japan's Pacific coast plans to populate the proposed 69-acre marine mammal park with bottlenose dolphins and pilot and other small whales caught nearby.
The town, in the Higashimuro district of Wakayama, has been the target of international criticism for almost a decade over the hunt, in which up to 2,000 animals are killed for their meat or sold to aquariums and marine parks.
The meat from a single animal can fetch up to 50,000 yen (£390), but aquariums have paid more than 10m yen for certain types.
Pressure to end the cull intensified after the 2009 release of The Cove. In order to make the film, directed by Louie Psihoyos, the crew broke into the fenced-off bay and installed hidden cameras to capture footage of the hunt.
Taiji is one of four Japanese towns that hunts small cetaceans in coastal waters, but has been the focus of criticism because of the way fishermen capture and kill their prey. Hunters confuse the animals by banging metal poles on the side of their boats and then herd them into a cove before attacking them with spears and knives.
Many of the residents who proposed the whale park realise the mammals are more valuable to the town's economy alive than dead, and only a handful of fishermen in Taiji, a town of 3,500, are involved in the slaughter.
During the most recent cull season, which ran from September to March, 928 dolphins were caught, according to the local fisheries authorities.
Outside a small number of coastal communities, few Japanese people eat dolphin meat, which tests have shown contains high levels of mercury.The government, which allows about 20,000 dolphins to be killed each year, acknowledges that the meat is contaminated but says it is not dangerous unless consumed in large quantities.
Construction of the zoo is not expected to begin for three to five years while authorities try to secure funding and settle rights issues with fishermen who cultivate pearls and other marine products in the area. The zoo will feature beaches and mudflats, with its oceanside entrance in Moriura Bay closed off by a 430-metre net. "We want to send out the message that the town is living together with whales," Jiji Press quoted Taiji's mayor, Kazutaka Sangen, as saying.
He said the construction of the zoo would not coincide with an end to the dolphin hunt. "We will continue hunting dolphins and establish Taiji as a town of whales, however much criticism we get from abroad," he told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
While The Cove drew international praise for its daring attempt to expose the bloody reality of Taiji's dolphin hunt, fishermen and officials said the film was deliberately misleading and ignored the town's historical and cultural attachment to whaling.
The movie made its Japanese debut at the 2011 Tokyo international film festival before going on general release. Several cinemas in Japan decided not to show it, however, after ultra-nationalists threatened to disrupt screenings.
Psihoyos later sent Japanese-language copies of the movie to every household in Taiji with the help of a local ocean conservation group. The American director said the film was intended as a "love letter to the people of Taiji".
It sounds like it ought to be a sick joke. But in the town made infamous for its annual slaughter of hundreds of dolphins, tourists will now be able to swim and play with the mammals in a zoo near where the cull takes place.
Taiji, featured in the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, is to build a whale zoo. Yet despite the move, officials say the cull will continue.
Local media reports say the picturesque town on Japan's Pacific coast plans to populate the proposed 69-acre marine mammal park with bottlenose dolphins and pilot and other small whales caught nearby.
The town, in the Higashimuro district of Wakayama, has been the target of international criticism for almost a decade over the hunt, in which up to 2,000 animals are killed for their meat or sold to aquariums and marine parks.
The meat from a single animal can fetch up to 50,000 yen (£390), but aquariums have paid more than 10m yen for certain types.
Pressure to end the cull intensified after the 2009 release of The Cove. In order to make the film, directed by Louie Psihoyos, the crew broke into the fenced-off bay and installed hidden cameras to capture footage of the hunt.
Taiji is one of four Japanese towns that hunts small cetaceans in coastal waters, but has been the focus of criticism because of the way fishermen capture and kill their prey. Hunters confuse the animals by banging metal poles on the side of their boats and then herd them into a cove before attacking them with spears and knives.
Many of the residents who proposed the whale park realise the mammals are more valuable to the town's economy alive than dead, and only a handful of fishermen in Taiji, a town of 3,500, are involved in the slaughter.
During the most recent cull season, which ran from September to March, 928 dolphins were caught, according to the local fisheries authorities.
Outside a small number of coastal communities, few Japanese people eat dolphin meat, which tests have shown contains high levels of mercury.The government, which allows about 20,000 dolphins to be killed each year, acknowledges that the meat is contaminated but says it is not dangerous unless consumed in large quantities.
Construction of the zoo is not expected to begin for three to five years while authorities try to secure funding and settle rights issues with fishermen who cultivate pearls and other marine products in the area. The zoo will feature beaches and mudflats, with its oceanside entrance in Moriura Bay closed off by a 430-metre net. "We want to send out the message that the town is living together with whales," Jiji Press quoted Taiji's mayor, Kazutaka Sangen, as saying.
He said the construction of the zoo would not coincide with an end to the dolphin hunt. "We will continue hunting dolphins and establish Taiji as a town of whales, however much criticism we get from abroad," he told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
While The Cove drew international praise for its daring attempt to expose the bloody reality of Taiji's dolphin hunt, fishermen and officials said the film was deliberately misleading and ignored the town's historical and cultural attachment to whaling.
The movie made its Japanese debut at the 2011 Tokyo international film festival before going on general release. Several cinemas in Japan decided not to show it, however, after ultra-nationalists threatened to disrupt screenings.
Psihoyos later sent Japanese-language copies of the movie to every household in Taiji with the help of a local ocean conservation group. The American director said the film was intended as a "love letter to the people of Taiji".
DANGER!
Dolphin meat is poisoned by Mercury
People should not eat Dolphin or Whale meat!
By Ric O’Barry, Campaign Director, Dolphin Project, Save Japan Dolphins, Earth Island Institute
We know, from Japanese scientists, that dolphins and small whales are heavily contaminated by mercury. No one should be eating meat from dolphins and small whales.
Yet the Japanese government, fully aware of the dangers of mercury contamination, ignores this problem and allows mercury-poisoned dolphin and whale meat to be sold in markets. Japanese consumers are exposed to danger but not warned.
Mercury is the second most toxic poison in the world, second only to plutonium. Mercury attacks the brain and the nervous system, causing horrible damage to eyesight, hearing, and motor-skills, as well as interfering with memory and thought processes leading to dementia. It further attacks fetuses in pregnant women, causing terrible life-long brain damage. Mercury kills.
In Minamata, Japan, poisonous mercury dumped from a factory into Minamata Bay caused severe poisoning of tens of thousands of people in the 1950’s and 60’s and resulted in a whole generation of seriously compromised children. Japanese scientists have told me that the levels of mercury in dolphin meat are higher than the levels they have seen in the fish of Minamata Bay that caused the so-called “Minamata disease”. But it is not a disease – “Minamata disease” is poisoning caused by too much mercury in the human body.
Dolphins and small whales are at the top of the food chain in the ocean. As such, they concentrate pollutants in their meat. Mercury enters the ocean from a variety of sources, especially from the atmosphere, as coal-fired power plants emit tons of mercury into the air. As organisms absorb mercury in the ocean, it gets more and more concentrated the higher up the food chain one examines.
Furthermore, studies of people in Japan who eat dolphin meat on a regular basis, such as in the town of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, show dangerously high levels of mercury when they are tested. According to an article in The Japan Times by Boyd Harnell: “Specifically, the tests of 1,137 Taiji residents last year revealed that average MeHg (mercury) levels were 11.00 parts per million (ppm) for men and 6.63 ppm for women — compared with an average of 2.47 ppm for men and 1,64 ppm for women at 14 other locations in Japan.”
The Japan Times story continues: “In a recent telephone interview, (Dr. David) Permutter (one of America’s leading neurologists) said, ‘To me, these (MeHg) levels found in dolphin meat are absolutely dangerous. A study was just published demonstrating that even low levels of mercury profoundly disrupt the blood-brain barrier and increase the presence of inflammatory reactivity in the brain . . .’ ”
The Japan Times story notes: “Meanwhile, Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research has cited mortality figures in Taiji, for 2007, at 67 deaths from a population of some 3,500 residents — putting the town's overall mortality rate more than 50 percent above other villages nationwide of roughly the same population. However Kozagawa, west of Taiji, where dolphin meat is also consumed, showed an even higher rate — with 82 deaths from a population of 3,426 people in 2007.”
For the full Japan Times story from May 2010: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fe20100523a1.html
Japanese scientists, such as Dr. Tetsuya Endo, have conducted extensive scientific studies of mercury contamination of dolphin and small whale meat. Dr. Endo and his colleagues have found time and time again:
• Mercury levels can be 20 to 5,000 times higher in dolphin and small whale meat than levels recommended by the UN World Health Organization and the Japanese Ministry of Health.
• These levels raise grave issues of poisoning Japanese citizens who consume dolphin and whale meat with mercury.
• In addition to mercury, other dangerous pollutants like PCBs and cadmium can be found in dolphin and small whale meat bought for food in Japanese markets.
• The results of Dr. Endo’s and his colleagues’ research are published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
For example, in Dr. Endo’s 2002 study Mercury and selenium concentrations in the internal organs of toothed whales and dolphins marketed for human consumption in Japan published in the journal The Science of the Total Environment, he and his colleagues concluded: “The provisional permitted level of T–Hg (mercury) in marine foods set by the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare is 0.4 mgyg, and the provisional permitted weekly intake (PTWI) set by WHO (World Health Organization) is 5 mgykg bwyweek. The maximal T–Hg detected in boiled liver (1980 mgyg) exceeds the permitted level by approximately 5000 times and the consumption of only 0.15 g of liver exceeds the PTWI of 60 kg of body weight of the consumer, suggesting the possibility of an acute intoxication by T–Hg even after a single consumption of the product.” See full paper here.
In a 2004 paper in the same scientific journal, Dr. Endo and his colleagues stated in their study Contamination by mercury and cadmium in the cetacean products from Japanese market: “The contamination levels of T-Hg and M-Hg (mercury compounds) in odontocete (toothed whale) red meat, the most popular whale product, were 8.94Å} 13.3 and 5.44Å} 5.72 lg/wet g, respectively. These averages exceeded the provisional permitted levels of T-Hg (0.4 lg/wet g) and M-Hg (0.3 lg/wet g) in marine foods set by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare by 22 and 18 times, respectively, suggesting the possibility of chronic intoxication by T-Hg and M-Hg with frequent consumption of odontocete red meat.” See full paper here.
In the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Dr. Endo and his colleagues concluded in a paper looking at mercury and PCB levels in dolphin and small whale meat: “For sensitive consumers and those with high-level consumption (e.g., whaling communities), exposure to mercury and to a lesser extent PCBs from certain whale blubber and bacon and striped dolphin liver products could lead to chronic health effects. The Japanese community should therefore exercise a precautionary approach to the consumption of such foods in excess, particularly by high-risk members of the population.” From Human health significance of organochlorine and mercury contaminants in Japanese whale meat (2002). See full paper here.
Earth Island’s Save Japan Dolphins Campaign and several other environmental organizations have asked Japanese laboratories to test dolphin and whale meat for mercury and other contaminants. These scientific studies by Japanese experts prove that dolphins and small whales contain levels of mercury that are extremely large – often thousands of times higher than levels considered healthy by the Japanese Health Ministry.
In tests conducted on behalf of our colleagues at the Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan and The Japan Times in 2006-07, levels of mercury in dolphin meat was 4 to 13.5 times higher than the maximum level set by the Japanese Health Ministry. Mercury in pilot whale and Risso’s dolphin meat were even higher, ranging from 9.6 to 30 times higher than health maximums. The samples of dolphin and small whale meat were purchased randomly in markets in Japan.
You can see the full results of these dolphin meat tests by Japanese scientific labs here .
As I’ve noted, other environmental organizations have also had dolphin and small whale meat tested by scientific labs in Japan with similar results.
Reports from our friends the Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan can be found on their website (in English and Japanese):http://en.elsaenc.net/
Other organizations that report on testing of dolphin and whale meat:
Blue Voice: http://www.bluevoice.org/
Environmental Investigation Agency: http://www.eia-international.org/
Source: savejapandolphins.org
Sign the petition to the Prime Minister of Japan
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Title: Make the Prime Minister, his cabinet and families eat this poisoned meat - started by Thomas O'Brien
The Prime Minister is allowing his people to be poisoned by mercury filled cetacean meat. This meat is being barbarically harvested by fishermen in Taiji, Japan. They are destroying entire pods of dolphin and whales to sell to aquariums and sell the rest to the meat markets in Japan including schools. I want to see if the Prime Minister will show his people that he really thinks it is safe and ok to allow this to happen. You can sign using the widget or directly at change.org |
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