Chaotic Pursuit
The latest news from Taiji
By Hans Peter Roth – WDCS rep on the ground.
Chaotic Pursuit
26.01.11
Pacific White-Sided Dolphins are among the fastest and most athletic of dolphin species. These beautiful black and white marked marine mammals usually don’t stray too close to land.
Today the hunters have managed to herd a particularly large school of about 50 dolphins. The baiting doesn’t last long. But eventually the tormentors chase their prey closer and closer to the fatal Cove of Taiji.
But, just as we have settled down in our look-out, something happens that makes me rejoice inside. Suddenly, the dolphin school divides itself up and both groups start tearing towards the open ocean at full speed. The chimneys of the hunting boats release billows of black smoke. The hunters try to regain control of the fleeing dolphins with chaotic manoeuvres. Almost all of the dolphins manage to escape successfully. The baiters give up. Only three dolphins get tangled and caught in the nets.
Beyond the harbour, the nets hang horseshoe-shaped in the open water. One dolphin is thrown, alive, into an enclosure in the harbour. The rest die. The baiters try to transport the lifeless bodies past us unnoticed. But the drive to the slaughterhouse makes everything crystal-clear: captured alive and killed – once again simultaneously.
Hans Peter Roth
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