Group wants Japan to end dolphin hunting

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - In Japanese villages each year, local fishermen hunt for large numbers of dolphins by herding them into shallow coves and then, scientists say, attacking them with knives and even eviscerating them alive.

Now, a broad-based coalition including marine scientists and aquarium workers is demanding that the Japanese end these government-sanctioned dolphin drives, which opponents criticize as an inhumane annual practice that targets an intelligent and self-aware species.

"They're dying this sort of long, slow, painful, excruciating death," said Dr. Paul Boyle, the former director of the New York Aquarium and current chairman and chief executive of The Ocean Project, a Providence-based coalition that is helping coordinate the effort.

The group is sponsoring an online petition that asks the government to halt the huntings.

The Japanese say the practice is a long-standing cultural and commercial tradition. Takumi Fukuda, fisheries attache for the Japanese embassy in Washington, said fishermen have tried to quicken the dolphins' deaths to lessen their suffering and to maintain the quality of meat.

But it was impossible, he said, to "avoid the cruelty completely."

"We should understand that all killing scenes of animals contain certain cruelty," Fukuda said in an e-mail interview.

In promoting their "Act for Dolphins" campaign, the scientists highlight dolphins' intelligence, keen sense of self-awareness and a cognitive functioning that they say is similar to that of apes.

"They have the intellect to understand what is going on," said Lori Marino, senior lecturer in neuroscience and behavioral biology at Emory University in Atlanta and one of the organizers. "We believe that that means that they undergo a great deal of suffering during this process."

The practice survives in just a few outposts in Japan, primarily in the coastal villages of Taiji, in western Japan, and Futo, 62 miles southwest of Tokyo. It runs through the fall into the spring. Boyle said that while the Japanese contend dolphins compete with fishermen for fish, there is no scientific support for that claim.

The scientists said fishermen are able to corral large numbers of dolphins into nets by banging metal rods into the water, creating a sort of acoustic barrier.

From there, the scientists said, the dolphins are "dispatched in a brutal manner: speared, hooked, hoisted into the air by their tails, and finally eviscerated alive."

Marino and other scientists said the dolphins have been used as pet food and fertilizer, with their meat distributed across Asia.

Animal welfare groups already condemn the practice. The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, for instance, has a code of ethics that prohibits its members from displaying animals acquired through these hunts.

But Marino said this campaign was significant because of its active involvement of marine scientists.

Diana Reiss, director of marine mammal research at the New York Aquarium and one of the coalition leaders, said she met with representatives of Japan's government at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, but that her concerns went unheeded.

"I don't think it's very well-known in Japan by the people themselves," Reiss said.

The coalition is trying to collect one million signatures for a petition it plans to present to the Japanese government.

But Fukuda said countries have varied attitudes about how to handle animals, and that one nation should not force its ideals on another.

"The Japanese dolphin fisheries are conducted not in the U.S. waters but in the Japanese waters," Fukuda said. "There is no international treaty in which Japan is a member and has officially authorized global standards for humanitarian handling of animals."

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[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Dolphin.. the other other white meat.

[almaty 19]

Dolphin.. the other other white meat.

makes your tuna taste so good

[Jenn! 918]

If you saw two guys named Hambone and Flippy, which one would you think liked dolphins the most? I'd say Flippy, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong, though. It's Hambone.

- Jack Handy

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

Dolphin.. the other other white meat.

makes your tuna taste so good

one of the main reasons i don't eat tuna

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Dolphin.. the other other white meat.

makes your tuna taste so good

one of the main reasons i don't eat tuna

What about dolphin safe tuna?

[Jenn! 918]

Dolphin.. the other other white meat.

makes your tuna taste so good

one of the main reasons i don't eat tuna

What about dolphin safe tuna?

And what about Chicken of the Sea? That's chicken, not tuna.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Dolphin.. the other other white meat.

makes your tuna taste so good

one of the main reasons i don't eat tuna

What about dolphin safe tuna?

And what about Chicken of the Sea? That's chicken, not tuna.

...and yet the label deceptively advertises it as mermeat.

[I'm Gone 60]

Once again the do gooders have to stick their nose in the business of something going in another country that has no direct affect on the U.S. and people wonder why the world hates us.

[cmartyn 0]

lol.. yes they hate us because some of us are compassionate towards animals.

It has nothing to with vertically integrating commerce across the world and impovrishing other nations under the guise of free trade.. err LCM.. err.. whatever gets it the cheapest and causes the most damage at the same time.

Our "If you don't like it we have a missile well shove up your ###." foreign policy just can't compete with the Dolphin lovers for it's detrimental effect on the world's opinion of the US.

I know Americans are always bitching about Canadians clubbing seals.. Makes them want to strap on a dozen pounds of TNT and head for the border.

Edited November 21, 2006 by cmartyn

[britty 1]

With any luck there is a group of animal activists spearing some japanese fisherman as we speak.

[MissStacey 1]

That is so sad. Dolphins are such beautiful and amazing creatures.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Dolphin.. the other other white meat.

makes your tuna taste so good

one of the main reasons i don't eat tuna

What about dolphin safe tuna?

1985's "Tunagate" (in Canada--which led to resignation of Fisheries Minister) put me off any kind of tuna.

With any luck there is a group of animal activists spearing some japanese fisherman as we speak.

'twould be better if they could saturate a "ghost-fishing" gillnet with the Jap fishermen.