High-tech cameras help to put the Japanese spotlight on Taiji dolphin killing

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:

 

 

High-tech cameras help to put the Japanese spotlight on Taiji dolphin killing

 

TOKYO--Dolphin Project founder Ric

O'Barry thought the 2007 discovery that the

mercury content of meat from dolphins killed at

Taiji is 30 times higher than the Japanese

government-recommended limit might rouse enough

citizen outrage to end the annual " drive fishery "

massacres.

The main reason why Japanese whaling is

not stopped by the Japanese people, O'Barry has

believed since his first visit to Japan in 1976,

is that most Japanese people don't know about it.

Neither coastal whaling as practiced at Taiji nor

so-called " research whaling " on the high seas has

ever drawn much Japanese media notice, so while

Japanese donors strongly support causes such as

saving koala bears, Japanese whaling opponents

remain isolated and underfunded.

The mercury finding got some attention,

especially after Taiji city council member

Junichiro Yamashita warned constituents that

dolphin meat should be considered " toxic waste. "

What really put Taiji in the spotlight in Japan,

however, appears to be the Japanese cultural

fascination with cameras. The trick was using

technology advanced enough to interest electronic

trade magazines.

On March 1, 2008, a web site called

DigitalContentProducer.com: Film & Video

Production in a Multi-Platform World published

one of the most detailed exposés of the Taiji

massacres yet. But the details were highly

technical. Author Kristinha M. Anding packed in

brand names and model numbers of the equipment

that O'Barry and Oceanic Preservation Society

colleagues used ito make a soon-to-be-released

feature film about Taiji. Japanese camera buffs

were soon informed about Taiji as never before.

Japan Times correspondent Boyd Harnell

told the story behind the story on March 30. Few

people have written more about Taiji over the

years than Harnell, but never previously was he

given so much space at once. The pictures were

worth 3,500 words --chiefly about how they were

taken.

" Producers of the OPS documentary are

aiming for a worldwide release in June, "

Harnell wrote, " including a Japanese version

creatively marketed and circulated to ensure

maximum viewing even if major distributors turn

it down. The narrator will be an actor from

Hollywood's 'A list,' they said. "

Taiji officials have been trying to hide

their annual dolphin massacres since 1978, when

U.S. environmental film maker Hardy Jones first

filmed the killing and brought it to global

activist attention.

Other activists have managed to get some

video and still images from hiding places around

the two coves where the dolphins are trapped and

killed. O'Barry himself brought back video from

Taiji as recently as 2004, sponsored by the

French group One Voice.

But nobody managed to get high-quality,

state-of-the-art visual documentation from Taiji

before, because of the combination of high cost

and difficult logistics.

That changed when Netscape founder Jim

Clark invested $5 million to hire a world-class

crew headed by Louie Psihoyos, assisted by

Charles Hambleton.

" From their base in Boulder, Colorado,

the OPS group made six trips to Wakayama

Prefecture, " recounted Harnell, " where they

were constantly followed by local police and

stalked and harassed by whalers. Despite this,

their high-tech film gear was covertly inserted

in the killing coves and extracted 16 times.

Their hidden, high-definition cameras

successfully recorded the horror that unfolded

behind Taiji's blue tarps.

" Captured dolphins were filmed writhing

in pain as Taiji whalers speared them repeatedly

or cracked their spines with spiked weapons, "

Harnell wrote. " Stricken dolphins are also shown

thrashing about wildly, blood pouring from their

wounds. Meanwhile, a number of dolphin trainers

and officials from the Taiji Whale Museum are

shown cooperating in the slaughter, some even

laughing.

" Perhaps the most iconic scene, " Harnell

suggested, " is one in which a baby dolphin leaps

to her death on the rocks after her mother is

killed. "

Psihoyos and Hambleton used cameras

disguised as rocks, underwater microphones, and

an underwater camera assembled by team member

Simon Hutchins.

Seven-time world free-diving champion

Mandy-Rae Cruickshank and her coach and husband,

Kirk Krack planted and retrieved the underwater

equipment. Cruikshank recently free-dived to a

depth of 88 meters and returned in two minutes,

48 seconds, breaking her own world record. The

killing cove is only about 12 meters deep, but

Cruikshank and Krack had to work in silence and

darkness.

" Meanwhile, " Harnell wrote, " Psihoyos'

team was embedded in camera blinds on overlooking

hillsides, sometimes for as long as 17 hours a

day. Dressed in full camouflage and wearing face

paint, they looked like military sniper teams.

Black masking tape covered reflective surfaces on

their cameras to avoid detection. When filming

from the camera blinds, they subsisted on energy

bars and water, " while evading security

personnel.

The yet-to-be-named documentary may

attract an audience in part through the drama of

how it was made. The Japanese edition may

include a lot about the cameras.

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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