By Lars Nicolaysen Feb 26, 2007, 18:09 GMT
Taiji/Tokyo - The traditional whaling community of Taiji is an idyllic location where groups of dolphins glide past the coast through gently rolling waves.
Naturally the creatures have no idea that an orgy of bloodletting awaits them in two of the picturesque bays of this part of Taiji National Park, 700 kilometres south of the capital Tokyo.
Every year around 17,000 dolphins and small whales are slaughtered here on the Kii peninsula and at a few other places along the coast.
The brutal cull takes place between October and April and according to animal rightists, as many as 20,000 animals lose their lives.
The dolphins are surrounded on the open sea by the fishermen in their motor boats before being herded into coves and stabbed or speared with lances.
This all takes place with the blessing of the Tokyo administration and with only a handful of people aware of what is going on.
Not all the animals are slain and some are singled out to be sold as performing dolphins to aquariums and pleasure parks all over the world.
The culling procedure is a shocking experience for all who witness it and this time around is no exception: Around 150 of the dolphins are penned up in one of the bays by fishermen who have cut off their escape by stringing up nets across the mouth of the cove.
The operation began at dawn as the hunters started banging on metal poles placed in the water.
The wall of sound created is designed to confuse and disorientate the dolphins, driving the fishermen's prey deeper into the cove.
Suddenly the frenzied creatures begin spurting water from their blow holes, many try to escape the nets but in vain.
A few of the dolphins simply drown in front of the countless spectators who watch the spectacle from the nearby road. No one seems unduly perturbed by what they see.
Meanwhile several dolphin trainers are actively involved in the cull. Clad in neopren suits they clamber and wade between the stricken dolphins for hours on end, picking out the best examples for aquariums and other forms of captivity.
'Ones like these are worth between 50,000 and 100,000 US-dollars each,' said Richard O'Barry, a former trainer with the popular television series 'Flipper' in the 1960s.
Since 1970 he has been campaigning for the rights of the creatures. According to O'Barry, the billion-dollar dolphin industry 'encourages what is going by rewarding the fishermen for their bad behaviour', said O'Barry.
The remaining dolphins, which bring in a total of around 600 US- dollars, are done away using a time-honoured method.
Their flippers are bound before the wildly-threshing creatures are dragged into coves in threes and fours alongside motor boats.
Sometimes the fishermen ride their boats roughshod over their captives while other dolphins are simply driven into the bays before being pierced with poles.
In some cases their throats are slit, according to eyewitnesses reports which defy official attempts to shield the activity from the public view.
Since the activists started coming to Taiji to document the 'secret genocide' of the dolphin community town officials have sealed off all routes to the cove.
In the port where the dead dolphins are processed into meat signs have been put up in Japanese and English forbidding the taking of photographs.
Environmentalists accused the Japanese of culling the dolphins and other small whales because these devour too many smaller fish yet the Japanese media has remained silent on the slaughter, laments O'Barry.
The fishermen in Taiji have no time for people like him and the atmosphere in the bay is tense and laden with aggression. The animal rightists see themselves as being persecuted.
Policemen also dutifully write down the registration numbers of the cars used by visiting journalists. 'The people of Taiji are not murderers!' cries Yoji Kita, chairman of the local education committee.
'We only kill the dolphins because we need them in order to stay alive.' The cull is part of the traditional culture of the region.
'Whale catchers don't do it just for fun either', said Kita. In any case, the fishermen are acting with government approval.
Local hunters have been given explicit instructions on how to reduce the time taken to kill an animal to a minimum,' said Hideki Moronuki, a spokesman for the fisheries ministry in Tokyo.
Asked why the doomed creatures are forced to suffer at the hands of fishermen and trainers for days on end, the spokesman replied: 'What you have seen is not what we have instructed the fishermen to do.' There was nothing illegal about the scale of the cull, the spokesman assured.
Quizzed about the extremely high levels of mercury found in dolphin meat, an official of the health ministry was equally anxious to allay fears.
The potential hazards of dolphin meat consumption had been well documented by the ministry on the internet and with the aid of explanatory leaflets, he said. Pregnant women should simply refrain from eating such meat.
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