Washington Post article on Japanese Dolphin Hunt

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/19/AR2006111901250.\

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Intelligence

Of Dolphins Cited in Fight Against Hunt Others See Equal Weight In the Value

of Tradition

 

By Rick Weiss <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/rick+weiss/>

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, November 20, 2006; Page A01

 

A coalition of marine scientists has launched a campaign to halt Japan's

annual " dolphin drive, " in which thousands of bottlenose dolphins are herded

into shallow coves to be slaughtered with knives and clubs.

 

The government-sanctioned event, which extends through the fall and winter,

has been under fire for years from environmental and animal rights

activists.

 

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[image: Japan's annual dolphin hunt, shown in this 2003 photo, has faced

opposition for years. A group of scientists and administrators of zoos and

aquariums is asking Japan to put tighter restrictions on the

government-sanctioned

event.]<javascript:void(popitup('http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/post\

photos/orb/asection/2006-11-20/index.html?imgId=PH2006111901253 & imgUrl=/photo/20\

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Japan's

annual dolphin hunt, shown in this 2003 photo, has faced opposition for

years. A group of scientists and administrators of zoos and aquariums is

asking Japan to put tighter restrictions on the government-sanctioned

event.(Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Via Associated Press)

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Of Dolphins Cited in Fight Against Hunt & bodytext=A coalition of marine

scientists has launched a campaign to halt Japan's annual 'dolphin drive,'

in which thousands of bottlenose dolphins are herded into shallow coves to

be slaughtered with knives and clubs.>

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Of Dolphins Cited in Fight Against Hunt: Others See Equal Weight In the

Value of Tradition%22 By Rick Weiss & notes=A coalition of marine scientists

has launched a campaign to halt Japan's annual 'dolphin drive,' in which

thousands of bottlenose dolphins are herded into shallow coves to be

slaughtered with knives and clubs.>

 

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But in a potentially influential escalation of that battle, mainstream

scientists and administrators of zoos and aquariums -- some of whom have

been criticized for buying surviving dolphins for use in their shows -- have

united to condemn the practice.

 

The campaign pits the emerging science of animal intelligence against a

centuries-old cultural tradition.

 

In an online statement being released today, the organizers -- including

many of the world's leading dolphin scientists and the man who trained the

television star Flipper -- say the hunt is nothing less than a ritual

massacre of creatures that, according to a growing body of research, are not

just intelligent but sophisticatedly self-aware.

 

The statement calls for the Japanese government to stop issuing permits

allowing the hunt and for a halt to the purchase of dolphins caught in the

drive. It also aims to get 1 million people to sign an online petition to

the government.

 

Diana Reiss, director of the marine mammal research program at the New York

Aquarium's Osborn Laboratories of Marine Science, said in a statement that

the hunt is " a brutal and inhumane practice that violates all standards for

animal welfare. "

 

With co-worker Lori Marino of Emory University, Reiss showed five years ago

that dolphins can recognize themselves in a mirror, an aspect of cognitive

complexity that previously had been documented only in humans and

chimpanzees.

 

Takumi Fukuda, the fisheries attache at the Japanese Embassy in Washington,

defended the event as a centuries-old national tradition.

 

" It is kind of our cultural activity, " he said. " We think it is important. "

 

Fukuda said the government has already limited the practice to economic

development zones, where fishermen are struggling to get by. And he said the

government issues permits for only the number of animals that can safely be

culled without threatening the species' survival.

 

This year 21,000 dolphins can be killed, Fukuda said, of which 15,000 or

16,000 have already been killed.

 

Although little discussed within Japan, the dolphin drive has gained

international notoriety, especially as opponents have secretly filmed the

event. Fishermen use nets and noise to herd hundreds of dolphins, pilot

whales and other marine mammals into shallow waters, then kill the animals

according to local traditions.

 

Most fishermen use knives to cause them to bleed to death, turning the

waters red.

 

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[image: Japan's annual dolphin hunt, shown in this 2003 photo, has faced

opposition for years. A group of scientists and administrators of zoos and

aquariums is asking Japan to put tighter restrictions on the

government-sanctioned

event.]<javascript:void(popitup('http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/post\

photos/orb/asection/2006-11-20/index.html?imgId=PH2006111901253 & imgUrl=/photo/20\

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Japan's

annual dolphin hunt, shown in this 2003 photo, has faced opposition for

years. A group of scientists and administrators of zoos and aquariums is

asking Japan to put tighter restrictions on the government-sanctioned

event.(Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Via Associated Press)

**

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- Alexi Holford <http://alexiholford.blogspot.com/>

- Alexi

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Of Dolphins Cited in Fight Against Hunt & bodytext=A coalition of marine

scientists has launched a campaign to halt Japan's annual 'dolphin drive,'

in which thousands of bottlenose dolphins are herded into shallow coves to

be slaughtered with knives and clubs.>

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drive,' in which thousands of bottlenose dolphins are herded into shallow

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Of Dolphins Cited in Fight Against Hunt: Others See Equal Weight In the

Value of Tradition%22 By Rick Weiss & notes=A coalition of marine scientists

has launched a campaign to halt Japan's annual 'dolphin drive,' in which

thousands of bottlenose dolphins are herded into shallow coves to be

slaughtered with knives and clubs.>

 

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Sometimes live dolphins are hoisted on ropes tied around their tail fins,

said Paul Boyle, a former director of the New York Aquarium and now chief

executive of the Ocean Project, an umbrella organization for more than 800

institutions worldwide working to increase awareness of oceanic issues

through collaborations with zoos and museums.

 

Dolphins are essentially weightless in water but weigh as much as 800 pounds

on land, Boyle said. When they are hung, their backbones, which resemble

human spines, are wrenched apart.

 

" It must be excruciatingly painful, " Boyle said, noting that humans complain

bitterly when experiencing pain from a ruptured disc in the spine. " When we

show people video from past events, every person has the same response. They

say it is the most inhumane thing they have ever seen. "

 

The hunt -- centered largely on the towns of Taiji and Futo -- has in recent

years been visually obscured by the erection of white tents on floating

platforms.

 

It is " quite natural . . . no one wants to expose the killing scene to the

public, like no meat company wants to release pictures from the killing

scene in their slaughterhouses, " Fukuda said. " We should understand that all

animal killing scenes contain certain cruelty. "

 

The new move to use public pressure caps two years of talks between a

committee of marine mammal experts and Japanese government officials. The

scientists presented peer-reviewed scientific information about dolphin

brain anatomy, intelligence, social behavior, ecology and physiology -- all

of which ultimately proved pointless, said Reiss, who was involved in the

negotiations.

 

Details, including the citizens petition and a statement from scientists,

are being posted at http://www.actfordolphins.org.

 

Adding to the controversy is the fate of the meat obtained from the hunt. In

years past, most was eaten in Japan. Opponents say dolphin is not popular

among Japanese and the meat is mostly used for fertilizer or pet food, a

claim Japanese officials deny.

 

Fukuda said the hunt is consistent with Japanese philosophy. " Our way of

thinking is that marine resources should be used, based on a sustainable-use

basis, " he said.

 

He added that there is a growing awareness among fishermen of a need for

more humane methods.

 

" We understand and think it is necessary to shorten the time until the

dolphin dies, so we have been trying to shorten the times, " he said.

 

But critics said there is no appropriate way to hunt animals as smart and

complex as dolphins.

 

Hal Whitehead, who studies whale and dolphin social systems at Dalhousie

University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, said dolphins are among the few animals

known to live in multicultural communities, in which groups of individuals

that have been taught to do things -- such as catch prey -- in different

ways live together.

 

" Whales and dolphins are at least as sophisticated as the nonhuman great

apes, " Whitehead said, noting that Japan has been a leader in gaining

protections for monkeys and apes.

 

Because dolphins learn from one another, he said, major cullings can have a

serious impact on surviving individuals' ability to persevere. " When you

remove a bunch of animals, you remove not only them but the knowledge that

they have. "

 

The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which represents more than

12,000 zoos and aquariums globally, passed a resolution in 2004 prohibiting

the procurement of cetaceans from dolphin drives. But a number of smaller

enterprises, many of them in Asia, have reportedly continued to do so.