(JP) Film spotlights Taiji dolphin killing

[Guest guest]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

 

 

Film spotlights Taiji dolphin killing

 

TAIJI, Japan--The Cove has not stopped the annual Taiji

dolphin massacres-- not yet, anyhow. But the award-winning film did

appear to slow down the killing at the start of the 2009 " drive

fishery " season, and--even before release in Japan--is bringing the

massacres to the attention of the often shocked Japanese public as

nothing before ever has.

" Moviegoers who have seen The Cove, directed by Louie

Psihoyos, said they were stunned by the cruelty of the killings,

captured by concealed cameras. Many newspapers have blasted the

traditional coastal whaling practice in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture,

which is not subject to the International Whaling Commission's ban on

commercial whaling, " summarized Toshihiro Yamanaka for Asahi

Shimbun. The second largest newspaper in Japan, Asahi Shimbun

reaches about 8.2 million readers daily.

" When I found out, I cried, " Osaka resident Keiko Hirao

told John M. Glionna of the Los Angeles Times.

Director Louis Psihoyos, a former National Geographic

photographer, has pledged to keep the spotlight on Taiji by making

The Cove available in Japan as a free download, if he fails to

secure a commercial distributor. The Cove has won more than a dozen

awards, including the audience award at the 25th annual Sundance

Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and has aired widely in other

parts of the world, but despite much media notice in Japan, has not

yet been screened there.

The Cove star Ric O'Barry, 69, first visited Taiji in 1993

at invitation of the Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan. Founded in

1976 by Japanese animal advocate Sakai Henni, the Elsa Nature

Conservancy was the first organization to oppose the Taiji dolphin

killing, but tends to be overlooked when defenders of the massacres

assert that only non-Japanese object to it.

O'Barry has returned often to Taiji ever since, including

for the scheduled opening of the 2009 Taiji dolphin slaughter on

September 1. " But when I arrived with media representatives from all

over the world, " O'Barry e-mailed, " there were no dolphin killers

in sight. I have often been here alone, or accompanied by a few

environmentalists, " O'Barry continued. " Sometimes I was able to

talk a major media organization into sending someone. But the people

of Japan never learned about the dolphin slaughter, because none of

the media in Japan, with the exception of the excellent Japan Times,

have ever sent reporters. Until today!

" We would not have had a story, " O'Barry added, " except for

the police. Nine policemen came to talk to us. Unlike the fishers, "

O'Barry stipulated, " the Taiji police have always acted

professionally, courteously, and fairly. I have never been

mistreated or threatened by the police here. I think they are a

microcosm of the people of Japan--the very people I am trying to

reach about the dolphins! As I was talking with the police, as the

international journalists stood around listening, suddenly a camera

crew arrived from Japan! And then another! And then still another!

For the first time, they showed up, with cameras rolling. The head

policeman talking with me even said, for the cameras, that the

police are not there to support the dolphin-killing. We shook hands,

and they left. "

Estranged sister city

Japanese media first took an interest in The Cove in March

2008, when photography web sites and Japan Times took notice of the

advanced cameras Psihoyos used in making the film. The coverage

crossed into main news sections after the city council of Broome,

Australia on August 21, 2009 advised Taiji that it will be " unable

to fulfill its pledge as a sister town of Taiji while the practice of

harvesting dolphins exists, " Broome council president Graeme

Campbell told Japan Times staff writer Minoru Matsutani.

" The Broome sister-city story is getting big play in Japan,

one of the first real breaks we have seen in the wall of silence over

there by the media, " exulted Mark J. Palmer, International Marine

Mammal Project director for Earth Island Institute. Palmer visited

Taiji with O'Barry for the opening of the dolphin-killing season.

The first Taiji dolphin roundup of 2009 came on September 9,

after more than a week of delay that Taiji spokespersons attributed

to bad weather. In the interim most of the outside media left Taiji,

and so did O'Barry and the most recognizable activists.

About 100 bottlenose dolphins and 50 pilot whales were driven

into the killing cove for which The Cove is titled, wrote Kyoko

Hasegawa for Agence France-Presse. The pilot whales were killed and

butchered.

" They plan to sell about 50 dolphins to aquariums and release

the remainder back to the sea, " Hasegawa reported. " Officials said

they would not slaughter any of the dolphins, but denied it was due

to international pressure and did not say whether or not they would

hunt or cull more of the animals this season. " The season will

remain open through March 2010.

Taiji has a federally awarded coastal whaling quota of 2,300

dolphins and small whales this winter. Taiji fishers reportedly

killed 1,484 dolphins and small whales in 2008-2009.

Representatives of the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition said

that they witnessed and filmed 70 bottlenose dolphins being released

on September 13. The coalition, formed by O'Barry, includes Earth

Island Institute, the Elsa Nature Conservancy, In Defense of

Animals, Campaign Whale, Ocean Care, and the Animal Welfare

Institute.

" An official at the Taiji fisheries association, who spoke on

condition of anonymity because the town abhors the publicity its

dolphin-killing has drawn, said that the decision [to release the

dolphins] was made partly in response to the international outcry

created by The Cove, " reported Associated Press writer Yuri Kageyama.

" From the viewpoint of resource control, we've been

occasionally releasing them on our own judgement in the past, "

another official anonymously told Kageyama.

Whale tourism

O'Barry said his aim in visiting Taiji this year was " to

show journalists the good things about Taiji. With The Cove movie

out, we don't have to show the bad things about Taiji. Soon the

whole world will know about the Taiji dolphin slaughter, " he said.

" And all Japanese will soon know about the cover-up by the

government in refusing to stop mercury-contaminated dolphin meat from

being sold to unsuspecting Japanese consumers and children, " O'Barry

continued.

" But Taiji can change this image of shame, " O'Barry

emphasized. " I am telling them that Nantucket used to be the capitol

of the whale-killing industry in the U.S. Now it uses its history

of whaling combined with whale-watching to market tourism very

successfully. Taiji can do this, too. But the killing has to stop. "

Whale-related tourism is already Taiji's main summer

industry, reported Glionna of the Los Angeles Times. Whale Beach,

where freshly slaughtered dolphins are dragged ashore, was in the

summer of 2009 an " aquatic petting zoo, " Glionna wrote, featuring

" two playful dolphins swimming alongside tourists. "

Recounted Glionna, " The local catch once was mostly large

cetaceans, a practice that goes back centuries here. Taiji prides

itself as the birthplace of Japanese whaling. But ancient scrolls

show that dolphins were also hunted here, say officials at the Taiji

Whale Museum. The town is dominated by whale statues, whale-tail

fountains, and a dolphin-themed resort. Public buses are promoted

by cutesy whale cartoon figures. "

Captivity connection

Taiji has a dolphinarium, where O'Barry " was outraged that

the dolphins were kept in tiny tanks, " wrote Kageyama of Associated

Press. The dolphinarium is a tourist attraction too, but appears to

make money mainly from brokering dolphins captured during the

roundups for slaughter. " Meat from one dolphin fetches about $500,

but dolphins can be sold to aquariums for 10 to 20 times that price,

with some kinds going for as much as $150,000, " said Kageyama.

The Cove " is putting would-be amusement park visitors in an

ethical bind and park owners on the defensive, " observed MSNBC

travel writer Brian Alexander.

" The captivity industry keeps the slaughter going, " O'Barry

charges in The Cove, and has told anyone who would listen since his

first visit to Taiji.

" They know who the dealer is: Ted Hammond in Taiji, " O'Barry

told Alexander. " They could get him under control by isolating him

from the rest of the community! Sea World and these other parks know

who traffics from Japan and the Solomon Islands. They should see what

they could do to stop them. "

Noted Alexander, " Hammond has been instrumental in brokering

Taiji sales and has consulted for the Solomon Islands capture

operations. But he remains a member in good standing of major

international organizations. For example, a 2008 Proceedings of the

International Association for Aquatic Animal Medicine, edited by Sea

World's chief vet, lists him as both a founding member and an

honorary life member.

Alexander " contacted Hammond for comment on drive hunts, his

role in brokering animals, his relationship with a new aquarium in

Beijing which has made Taiji's infamous Whale Museum its sister

organization, and the issue of capturing dolphins for tourists. But

after first promising to respond, he later declined, " because

Hammond is a primary witness, he said, in a lawsuit between O'Barry

and one of his clients.

" We stopped [buying from drive hunts] and have not resumed,

not because we are ashamed, but it was not something that we cared

to be involved with any more, " Busch Entertainment spokesperson Fred

Jacobs told Alexander.

" Sea World, part of Busch Enter-tainment, is a division of

Anheuser-Busch, which itself is owned by the Belgian beer giant

InBev, " Alexander explained.

" I do not know how to answer what our position is, " Jacobs

continued. " At one point, we collected animals from one of these

hunts. We do not want to be accused of being disingenuous. If we go

to an aquarium in China and say 'You guys should not be involved,'

the first thing out of their mouths will be 'Well, you did it,' and

we cannot argue that point. "

But O'Barry first won celebrity capturing and training

dolphins for the Miami Seaquarium. He trained the dolphins used in

the Flipper television series (1964-1967). That history is precisely

why he turned to campaigning against dolphin captures and killing in

1970, and has pursued the effort through many ups and downs ever

since.

Gerald Dick, executive director of the Swiss-based World

Association of Zoos and Aquariums, told Alexander that WAZA is now

" in dialogue " with Japan " to sort out the relationship between the

takes for aquaria and the slaughter. " A WAZA representative said

similar to ANIMAL PEOPLE in 1995.

" We are not the only nation that kills dolphins, " Japan

Fisheries representative Shigeki Takaya told Glionna of the Los

Angeles Times, mentioning the similar dolphin slaughters conducted

annually in the Faroe Islands, a possession of Denmark. " Why not

report about that? " Takaya asked.

Animal advocates have in fact documented and protested

against the Faroe Islands dolphin killing almost every year since

1985.

Two Japanese sources who spoke to Psihoyos about the high

mercury content of dolphin meat served in school lunches objected to

how their comments were used on camera, they told Kyoko Hasegawa of

Agence France-Presse, but one of them seemed to have misgivings

about the dolphin killing even while claiming he supported it.

" It's a betrayal. I thought the film was about marine

pollution, but it's about anti-whaling, " said Taiji assembly member

Hisato Ryono, 52.

However, wrote Glionna after interviewing Ryono earlier,

Ryono " first had doubts about the practice [of killing dolphins] on a

kayak trip when he paddled alongside the highly intelligent mammals

and felt what he called a sense of peace and healing. "

Asserted Tetsuya Endo, of the Health Science University of

Hokkaido, " The overall tone of The Cove is an insult to the Japanese

people and the people of Taiji. "

" The Cove is not an attack on the Japanese people, "

responded Psihoyos. " I believe stopping the killing of dolphins is a

win-win situation for both the dolphins and the Japanese people. "

--Merritt Clifton

 

 

--

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

 

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing

original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide,

founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the

decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal protection organizations.

We have no alignment or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year;

for free sample, send address.]

[Guest guest]

" We stopped [buying from drive hunts] and have not resumed,

not because we are ashamed, but it was not something that we cared

to be involved with any more, " Busch Entertainment spokesperson Fred

Jacobs told Alexander.

" Sea World, part of Busch Enter-tainment, is a division of

Anheuser-Busch, which itself is owned by the Belgian beer giant

InBev, " Alexander explained.

" I do not know how to answer what our position is, " Jacobs

continued. " At one point, we collected animals from one of these

hunts. We do not want to be accused of being disingenuous. If we go

to an aquarium in China and say 'You guys should not be involved,'

the first thing out of their mouths will be 'Well, you did it,' and

we cannot argue that point. "

 

 

(What exactly is Mr Jacobs's point? The question is simple, is it not : does

Sea World condone the Taiji capture?

And it is unclear to me where WAZA stands on this just as I am somwehat at

a loss to understand WAZA's stance on many other issues.

Please also note there was a tentative plan floated by Sea World to breed in

captivity Yangtze River Dolphins. It was never implemented because there

were not enough animals left to conduct this experiment in USA importing

animals from China.)

 

 

 

On 9/25/09, Merritt Clifton <anmlpepl wrote:

>

>

>

> From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

>

> Film spotlights Taiji dolphin killing

>

> TAIJI, Japan--The Cove has not stopped the annual Taiji

> dolphin massacres-- not yet, anyhow. But the award-winning film did

> appear to slow down the killing at the start of the 2009 " drive

> fishery " season, and--even before release in Japan--is bringing the

> massacres to the attention of the often shocked Japanese public as

> nothing before ever has.

> " Moviegoers who have seen The Cove, directed by Louie

> Psihoyos, said they were stunned by the cruelty of the killings,

> captured by concealed cameras. Many newspapers have blasted the

> traditional coastal whaling practice in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture,

> which is not subject to the International Whaling Commission's ban on

> commercial whaling, " summarized Toshihiro Yamanaka for Asahi

> Shimbun. The second largest newspaper in Japan, Asahi Shimbun

> reaches about 8.2 million readers daily.

> " When I found out, I cried, " Osaka resident Keiko Hirao

> told John M. Glionna of the Los Angeles Times.

> Director Louis Psihoyos, a former National Geographic

> photographer, has pledged to keep the spotlight on Taiji by making

> The Cove available in Japan as a free download, if he fails to

> secure a commercial distributor. The Cove has won more than a dozen

> awards, including the audience award at the 25th annual Sundance

> Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and has aired widely in other

> parts of the world, but despite much media notice in Japan, has not

> yet been screened there.

> The Cove star Ric O'Barry, 69, first visited Taiji in 1993

> at invitation of the Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan. Founded in

> 1976 by Japanese animal advocate Sakai Henni, the Elsa Nature

> Conservancy was the first organization to oppose the Taiji dolphin

> killing, but tends to be overlooked when defenders of the massacres

> assert that only non-Japanese object to it.

> O'Barry has returned often to Taiji ever since, including

> for the scheduled opening of the 2009 Taiji dolphin slaughter on

> September 1. " But when I arrived with media representatives from all

> over the world, " O'Barry e-mailed, " there were no dolphin killers

> in sight. I have often been here alone, or accompanied by a few

> environmentalists, " O'Barry continued. " Sometimes I was able to

> talk a major media organization into sending someone. But the people

> of Japan never learned about the dolphin slaughter, because none of

> the media in Japan, with the exception of the excellent Japan Times,

> have ever sent reporters. Until today!

> " We would not have had a story, " O'Barry added, " except for

> the police. Nine policemen came to talk to us. Unlike the fishers, "

> O'Barry stipulated, " the Taiji police have always acted

> professionally, courteously, and fairly. I have never been

> mistreated or threatened by the police here. I think they are a

> microcosm of the people of Japan--the very people I am trying to

> reach about the dolphins! As I was talking with the police, as the

> international journalists stood around listening, suddenly a camera

> crew arrived from Japan! And then another! And then still another!

> For the first time, they showed up, with cameras rolling. The head

> policeman talking with me even said, for the cameras, that the

> police are not there to support the dolphin-killing. We shook hands,

> and they left. "

> Estranged sister city

> Japanese media first took an interest in The Cove in March

> 2008, when photography web sites and Japan Times took notice of the

> advanced cameras Psihoyos used in making the film. The coverage

> crossed into main news sections after the city council of Broome,

> Australia on August 21, 2009 advised Taiji that it will be " unable

> to fulfill its pledge as a sister town of Taiji while the practice of

> harvesting dolphins exists, " Broome council president Graeme

> Campbell told Japan Times staff writer Minoru Matsutani.

> " The Broome sister-city story is getting big play in Japan,

> one of the first real breaks we have seen in the wall of silence over

> there by the media, " exulted Mark J. Palmer, International Marine

> Mammal Project director for Earth Island Institute. Palmer visited

> Taiji with O'Barry for the opening of the dolphin-killing season.

> The first Taiji dolphin roundup of 2009 came on September 9,

> after more than a week of delay that Taiji spokespersons attributed

> to bad weather. In the interim most of the outside media left Taiji,

> and so did O'Barry and the most recognizable activists.

> About 100 bottlenose dolphins and 50 pilot whales were driven

> into the killing cove for which The Cove is titled, wrote Kyoko

> Hasegawa for Agence France-Presse. The pilot whales were killed and

> butchered.

> " They plan to sell about 50 dolphins to aquariums and release

> the remainder back to the sea, " Hasegawa reported. " Officials said

> they would not slaughter any of the dolphins, but denied it was due

> to international pressure and did not say whether or not they would

> hunt or cull more of the animals this season. " The season will

> remain open through March 2010.

> Taiji has a federally awarded coastal whaling quota of 2,300

> dolphins and small whales this winter. Taiji fishers reportedly

> killed 1,484 dolphins and small whales in 2008-2009.

> Representatives of the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition said

> that they witnessed and filmed 70 bottlenose dolphins being released

> on September 13. The coalition, formed by O'Barry, includes Earth

> Island Institute, the Elsa Nature Conservancy, In Defense of

> Animals, Campaign Whale, Ocean Care, and the Animal Welfare

> Institute.

> " An official at the Taiji fisheries association, who spoke on

> condition of anonymity because the town abhors the publicity its

> dolphin-killing has drawn, said that the decision [to release the

> dolphins] was made partly in response to the international outcry

> created by The Cove, " reported Associated Press writer Yuri Kageyama.

> " From the viewpoint of resource control, we've been

> occasionally releasing them on our own judgement in the past, "

> another official anonymously told Kageyama.

> Whale tourism

> O'Barry said his aim in visiting Taiji this year was " to

> show journalists the good things about Taiji. With The Cove movie

> out, we don't have to show the bad things about Taiji. Soon the

> whole world will know about the Taiji dolphin slaughter, " he said.

> " And all Japanese will soon know about the cover-up by the

> government in refusing to stop mercury-contaminated dolphin meat from

> being sold to unsuspecting Japanese consumers and children, " O'Barry

> continued.

> " But Taiji can change this image of shame, " O'Barry

> emphasized. " I am telling them that Nantucket used to be the capitol

> of the whale-killing industry in the U.S. Now it uses its history

> of whaling combined with whale-watching to market tourism very

> successfully. Taiji can do this, too. But the killing has to stop. "

> Whale-related tourism is already Taiji's main summer

> industry, reported Glionna of the Los Angeles Times. Whale Beach,

> where freshly slaughtered dolphins are dragged ashore, was in the

> summer of 2009 an " aquatic petting zoo, " Glionna wrote, featuring

> " two playful dolphins swimming alongside tourists. "

> Recounted Glionna, " The local catch once was mostly large

> cetaceans, a practice that goes back centuries here. Taiji prides

> itself as the birthplace of Japanese whaling. But ancient scrolls

> show that dolphins were also hunted here, say officials at the Taiji

> Whale Museum. The town is dominated by whale statues, whale-tail

> fountains, and a dolphin-themed resort. Public buses are promoted

> by cutesy whale cartoon figures. "

> Captivity connection

> Taiji has a dolphinarium, where O'Barry " was outraged that

> the dolphins were kept in tiny tanks, " wrote Kageyama of Associated

> Press. The dolphinarium is a tourist attraction too, but appears to

> make money mainly from brokering dolphins captured during the

> roundups for slaughter. " Meat from one dolphin fetches about $500,

> but dolphins can be sold to aquariums for 10 to 20 times that price,

> with some kinds going for as much as $150,000, " said Kageyama.

> The Cove " is putting would-be amusement park visitors in an

> ethical bind and park owners on the defensive, " observed MSNBC

> travel writer Brian Alexander.

> " The captivity industry keeps the slaughter going, " O'Barry

> charges in The Cove, and has told anyone who would listen since his

> first visit to Taiji.

> " They know who the dealer is: Ted Hammond in Taiji, " O'Barry

> told Alexander. " They could get him under control by isolating him

> from the rest of the community! Sea World and these other parks know

> who traffics from Japan and the Solomon Islands. They should see what

> they could do to stop them. "

> Noted Alexander, " Hammond has been instrumental in brokering

> Taiji sales and has consulted for the Solomon Islands capture

> operations. But he remains a member in good standing of major

> international organizations. For example, a 2008 Proceedings of the

> International Association for Aquatic Animal Medicine, edited by Sea

> World's chief vet, lists him as both a founding member and an

> honorary life member.

> Alexander " contacted Hammond for comment on drive hunts, his

> role in brokering animals, his relationship with a new aquarium in

> Beijing which has made Taiji's infamous Whale Museum its sister

> organization, and the issue of capturing dolphins for tourists. But

> after first promising to respond, he later declined, " because

> Hammond is a primary witness, he said, in a lawsuit between O'Barry

> and one of his clients.

> " We stopped [buying from drive hunts] and have not resumed,

> not because we are ashamed, but it was not something that we cared

> to be involved with any more, " Busch Entertainment spokesperson Fred

> Jacobs told Alexander.

> " Sea World, part of Busch Enter-tainment, is a division of

> Anheuser-Busch, which itself is owned by the Belgian beer giant

> InBev, " Alexander explained.

> " I do not know how to answer what our position is, " Jacobs

> continued. " At one point, we collected animals from one of these

> hunts. We do not want to be accused of being disingenuous. If we go

> to an aquarium in China and say 'You guys should not be involved,'

> the first thing out of their mouths will be 'Well, you did it,' and

> we cannot argue that point. "

> But O'Barry first won celebrity capturing and training

> dolphins for the Miami Seaquarium. He trained the dolphins used in

> the Flipper television series (1964-1967). That history is precisely

> why he turned to campaigning against dolphin captures and killing in

> 1970, and has pursued the effort through many ups and downs ever

> since.

> Gerald Dick, executive director of the Swiss-based World

> Association of Zoos and Aquariums, told Alexander that WAZA is now

> " in dialogue " with Japan " to sort out the relationship between the

> takes for aquaria and the slaughter. " A WAZA representative said

> similar to ANIMAL PEOPLE in 1995.

> " We are not the only nation that kills dolphins, " Japan

> Fisheries representative Shigeki Takaya told Glionna of the Los

> Angeles Times, mentioning the similar dolphin slaughters conducted

> annually in the Faroe Islands, a possession of Denmark. " Why not

> report about that? " Takaya asked.

> Animal advocates have in fact documented and protested

> against the Faroe Islands dolphin killing almost every year since

> 1985.

> Two Japanese sources who spoke to Psihoyos about the high

> mercury content of dolphin meat served in school lunches objected to

> how their comments were used on camera, they told Kyoko Hasegawa of

> Agence France-Presse, but one of them seemed to have misgivings

> about the dolphin killing even while claiming he supported it.

> " It's a betrayal. I thought the film was about marine

> pollution, but it's about anti-whaling, " said Taiji assembly member

> Hisato Ryono, 52.

> However, wrote Glionna after interviewing Ryono earlier,

> Ryono " first had doubts about the practice [of killing dolphins] on a

> kayak trip when he paddled alongside the highly intelligent mammals

> and felt what he called a sense of peace and healing. "

> Asserted Tetsuya Endo, of the Health Science University of

> Hokkaido, " The overall tone of The Cove is an insult to the Japanese

> people and the people of Taiji. "

> " The Cove is not an attack on the Japanese people, "

> responded Psihoyos. " I believe stopping the killing of dolphins is a

> win-win situation for both the dolphins and the Japanese people. "

> --Merritt Clifton

>

> --

> Merritt Clifton

> Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

> P.O. Box 960

> Clinton, WA 98236

>

> Telephone: 360-579-2505

> Fax: 360-579-2575

> E-mail: anmlpepl <anmlpepl%40whidbey.com>

> Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

>

> [ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing

> original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide,

> founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the

> decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal protection organizations.

> We have no alignment or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year;

> for free sample, send address.]

>

>