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Article: Hear The Dolphins Cry

by theanimalwelfarestation

By: Dabria Yiong

Every September through March, Dolphins and Whales in Taiji, the whaling village of Japan, are slaughtered. The term 'slaughtered' may be a grave understatement as the horrors that occur in the coastal region of Japan are brutal and awfully revolting. Today is the 1st of September, and the boats in Japan have sailed to begin this massacre. Read on to understand more about this horrifying event and how you can help to stop this nightmare.

Until Japan stops this hunt, every 1st of September marks the start of a six to seven months long dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan. These dolphins are driven from the deep waters to the shallow coast by fishermen in boats. Equipped with knives and nets, dolphins are either brutally slaughtered in the waters or captured alive. This bloody hunting event has seen coverage by predominantly Western media, and the documentary The Cove won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Most recently, the Netflix documentary Seaspiracy revisited the problem of fishing, and the dolphin hunts in Taiji was unsurprisingly mentioned.

Before diving into the painful facts about this hunting event, it would be important to understand why dolphins are important stakeholders in the ocean. To begin with, dolphins are social animals that live in distinct subgroups. Scientists have found that dolphins have similar personality traits as humans given that both are intelligent and live in social groups! In addition, dolphins are in the middle of the food chain in that they are food sources to bigger marine animals such as sharks, and are also predators to smaller fish like cod and mackerel. As such, by removing dolphins from the waters, shark populations will be sure to deplete while smaller fish populations will increase. This imbalance in marine animal population will thus harm the entire ecosystem.

As dolphin hunting has been an integral part of Japan's history, it comes as no surprise that there are several reasons driving the six months slaughtering event. Do note that the reasons stated in this article may not be exhaustive:

Food Consumption

During the 20th century, Japanese living along the coastal regions of Japan, such as Taiji, had to consume dolphin and small whale meat due to the inability for them to grow vegetables and rice. Although demand for dolphin and small whale meat has fallen drastically in modern days, many traditional locals in Japan believe in the upkeep of such hunts which were widely practiced by their ancestors.

Scapegoat for Overfishing

Highlighted by Seaspiracy, fishermen have blamed the falling numbers of fish in the ocean on bigger marine animals such as dolphins and small whales. As such, the killing of the dolphins has been deemed as 'pest control' to lower the competition. This thus raises the question of whether human consumption of fish is the reason for the killing of these innocent marine creatures.

While sustainable fish farming has been introduced in recent years to maintain fish population levels, the methods used for farming are not entirely beneficial for the animals and humans. Ranging from the feed of the animals to diseases, fish farming does not seem like the best solution.

Economic Support

Dolphin meat has been valued at approximately $10 to $15 per pound (0.45kg) which is significantly higher than other cattle meat like beef that costs approximately $4.45 to $6 per pound. That said, the high levels of mercury in dolphin meat coupled with the changes in diet preferences have resulted in the low demand for dolphin meat. With that, how does the removal of dolphins from the oceans bring Japan economic growth?

Well, aquariums. The increased demand for marine entertainment has led to the drastic increase in prices of dolphins, with a trained dolphin priced at approximately $150,000. This has thus stirred a lot of anger from the public as the hunting of dolphins in Taiji seem to have little to do with tradition.

With all of that said, what should we do?

Type in 'Taiji' in your Google search bar. Your search results would not be relaxing pictures of mountains or even a map of Japan – what you'll see are images of scarlet red waters and lifeless bodies of dolphins on tiny boats. However, it is also worth bearing in mind that the killing and consumption of dolphins has played a central part of Taiji's history and livelihoods of the people living there. This multifaceted problem thus calls for deep research and reading. If you have decided to be an advocate for the dolphins, check out Ric O'Barry's Dolphin Project and sign this position to stop the killings in Japan!