WDC Blog - From the Front Line

The latest from Taiji.
By Hans Peter Roth - WDCS rep on the ground.
The hunt is over

(27.02.2011) As the drive hunt season in Taiji ends on February 28th, it dawned on me that the hunter won't hunt for the next six month. They dismantled the tarps in the harbor which helped to hide the dead bodies when they arrived for the slaughter house. And the metal rods have been removed from the boats.

In that way the hunting boats are turning into normal fishery boats which shows that there really is an alternative to the drive hunt, because for the next six month, the hunters are fishermen.

In the next step, the green, blue and gray tarps have been removed from the death cove. These should hide the whole massacre from the eyes of the uninvited, hidden observer.

After I added it all up for myself I am able to say, that about 900 dolphins died during the hunting season 2010/2011. That's an impressive decrease to last year when they are thought to have killed about 1,700 dolphins.

There were for the first time several observers from different organizations and from Japan here to report at any one time during the whole period of the hunt. Because of this, this season is the first time possible to get an approximate calculation of the number of dolphins killed and to compare it with the numbers that are published. The number of the captured dolphins is yet unclear. But as we now know for sure, the number is much higher than last year.

The End of the season is now even officially made public and some Japanese newspapers wrote about it.  The decrease of the number of slaughtered dolphins is a sign of hope. But the reason can only be guessed. Is the total number of dolphins decreasing? Are the dolphins beginning to avoid the region? Do the hunters on purpose hunt less animals to kill, because the demand for whale and dolphin meat is decreasing? Probably, it's a combination of all the factors. Fact is, that the hunters left some animals alone at times, instead of killing them.
Hans Peter Roth

Here's a lost blog from Hans Peter Roth we thought needed to get posted.

Once more bottle-nosed dolphins are the victims

(09.02.2011)

"They started before seven o'clock" - This was told to us by the friendly man from the coast guard who has already watched us at the marina of Katsuura. He's speaking of the dolphin hunters. It has been raining the whole night for the first time since I've arrived in Japan for more than four weeks ago...  Just in time as we're going to sail the sun begins to shine.  But today our mood is by far not as good as yesterday.

The sea is astonishingly rough today. But even though they're hunting.  Obviously, they've made a find. Now, all we can do is hoping that the pod is able to escape.  The boat from the coast guard is heading directly towards us, which is unusual. And shortly after, a man, standing on the bow of the armed, fast and maneuverable blue vessel, is giving unmistakable signs.

"Stop!" Michae Yoshiko is shouting. He is sitting at the steering wheel. "Stop!" We bring the ship about and the coast guard approaches us. One man fetches a megaphone. "Massive waves, wind", they shout from the megaphone. "Please drive carefully and not too far off". They are stopped us to tell us that, I ask? "More likely to see if we're going to comply with their orders" Michael answers. Again, a shout from the megaphone: "And please do not approach the dolphin hunters!" Gotcha. We gather speed again. Michael complies with the orders. We keep distance. It's eerie to watch the hunters and their doings.

It doesn't look good for the dolphins. We can't see well what's going on, due to the rough sea and the distance we have to keep. But yet, the formation of hunting boat has passed the narrows between the little lighthouse on the rock and the fishermen's gillnets.  An escape is getting more and more unlikely. Suddenly, everything happens pretty fast. We decide to head to the Marina as soon as possible in order to see what's going to happen in the cove. Florian, Kyoko and I are already taking off, while Michael and Yoshiko moor the boat.

We are too late to see much. And first, Florian is stopped by the police, who wants him to identify himself. From the public viewpoint directly above the cove we become witnesses of a boat who is hiding his dead carriage under green tarps and carrying it out off the cove to the harbor where the slaughterhouse is.

"They slaughtered about 20 to 25 bottle-nosed dolphins," Nicole explains sadly. She watched the whole scene on behalf of Sea Shepherd. "But they chose no living dolphin". Bottle-nosed dolphins are again the victim. The classic Flipper-dolphins. The girl's voice of the speaker from the whale museum and dolphinarium walks notable in our direction. The childish voice is telling about the show. The show with the bottle-nosed dolphins.

The latest from Taiji.
By Hans Peter Roth - WDCS rep on the ground.

After five weeks my trip to Japan draws to an end. It was by far the most difficult and most shocking trip I have made. But it has also been the most intense, the most exciting and the most hopeful journey.

At this point I once more want to give my sincere thanks to all the people and societies who with all their different efforts made it possible for me to be here.

One special thank is going to the WDCS. Without you, I (literally) wouldn't be where I am now! Thank you so much for your relentless efforts! Many thanks also to OceanCare and Pro Wildlife.

But the ending of my trip to Japan doesn't mean that no one is left to observe what's happening here! One week ago my dear friend from Switzerland, Florian Koch, arrived here. During the time we both were here together I was able to explain the most important details to him and show him everything he has to know. Therefore he's already up to speed.

Florian has been interested in marine mammal conservation for many years. He has already been part of two research trips on the Mediterranean, made one TV-broadcast on the issue of the dolphin hunts and has even met Ric O'Barry in person.

He came to Japan on his own free will and with private capital, without the help of any society, and we are very thankful that he is willing and able to step in and fill the gap. Until the 22nd of February he is going to report the recent events from here - so you will see that future blogs will be from Florian.

Many thanks for your efforts, Florian!

Hans Peter Roth

Latest news from Taiji
By Hans Peter Roth - WDCS rep on the ground

It's a very special feeling if you're suddenly able to leave the harbour of Katsura - nearby village of Taiji - in your 'own' boat. "Welcome!" Michael Dalton smiles friendly and mischievous and signals us to climb aboard. Together with Yoshiko Wada, a young japanese woman, who has been helping us with our efforts to stop the dolphin hunt in Japan since December 2010, we are driving with the boat towards the open sea.

A splendid vessel from the coast guard is already waiting for us. People from the 'West' driving around off Taiji in their own boat is a cause of sensation! The whole story is indeed quite juicy. The boat belongs to Ady Gil, an animal-loving millionaire from Los Angeles. He is the one who in 2009 gave $1million to Sea Shepherd so that they could buy the black powerboat which helped to give the Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean a hard time.

But the futuristic speedboat named "Ady Gil" was rammed by a Japanese whaling vessel and sank one year ago. A rather strange incident. For me - and lots of others - it seems like it was a mistake made by the pilot of the speedboat... Anyway, in the end it all went too far for Ady Gil and he now invests his money in a little project off the coast of Taiji. That's what he told me in person when I met him here in January. The little yacht, in which Michael, Yoshiko Kyoko, my good friend Florian from Switzerland and I are going to drive around off Taiji for a few hours, is part of this project.

The mood is as marvellous as the bright sun of the quiet morning. I wouldn't have believed that such a journey was possible. But here we are and we are suddenly able to observe everything from the ocean perspective. The harbour, the dolphinarium, the cove... And again, we become aware of the beauty of the landscape surrounding us. It couldn't be more perfect for tourists. But then we discover the hunting boats while we are still 'accompanied' by the coast guard. The happy mood gives way to tension. For the first time, we are watching the dolphin hunters from this perspective.


(Nautical map showing the area off Taiji. The harbour, the lagoon of the dolphinarium and in between the cove can be found as the grey coloured peninsula at the right of centre (c) Hans Peter Roth)

The hunting boats are approaching a lighthouse on a rock about 1.5 miles out of Taiji. Is this a drive hunt? Everything seems chaotic. The boats are obviously on their way to the harbour - but this clearly can't be a drive hunt. The hunters are returning without prey. The death cove remained empty for the sixth day in a row. We as well are returning to the harbour - relieved! In front us, a quiet day without new anguish.

Hans Peter Roth

Latest news from Taiji

By Hans Peter Roth - WDCS rep on the ground

Shocking new Images from the Death Cove are making Waves 

The close-ups are unbelievable. Both in what they are showing and in their quality. One video shows from striking distance how pacific white-sided dolphins where beastly slaughtered. One of the dolphin hunters drives a sharp spike into the back of a dolphin and pokes around in the body. After he extracted the spike from the body he rams a wooden plug into the wound, so that no blood flows out, which could turn the death cove red.
This 'new' way of killing is labeled as 'humane' by the Japanese Ministry of Fisheries. It’s said that the hunter cuts through the spinal cord of the animal and that the dolphins would die instantly. Another cynical lie.

The animal shown in the close-up is still alive, obviously for several long minutes. It even manages to break loose from the rope. This barbaric torture hardly ever kills instantly, as the recordings show. Several sequences, published at different points of time, show the cruelty from different perspectives and are of different origins, where all shot within January 2011.

The owner of the shocking close-ups is the German NGO Atlantic Blue. How they got the video is however left open. This gives leeway to rumors...

Cross cutting sequences in the same video, shot from a different perspective are showing that the black curtains, which are normally used by the fishermen to hide the massacre, were partly left open on the day the video was filmed. A strange 'coincident'… In the meantime, even 'The Sun', England's major daily newspaper, issued the video. (Attention: heavy and disturbing stuff!) As a consequence of the publication, local watchmen, police officers and coast guards once more intensified the measures of safety and observation around the cove. More about this disturbing 'milestone' in the next update.

Hans Peter Roth

Latest news from Taiji.
By Hans Peter Roth – WDCS rep on the ground.
(02.2.2011)

The month February is only 2 days old and already over 20 rissos dolphin had to give their lives in the death-cove of Taiji. I will never get used to the sight of the hunting boats lining up on the sea and starting to chase the dolphins towards the cove, when black smoke rises from their chimneys due to the quick manoeuvres they have to take
too block the paths of the cetaceans.

And I will never get used to the noise when fishermen knock against their boats to stampede the dolphins and to disturb their communication.

Yesterday they killed eight and today around fifteen dolphins. This can't be true – but it is the bitter truth!

At the same time another tragedy happened in Taiji.

At the “Dolphin Base” in Taiji, a dolphin trader complex, about half a mile from the infamous cove, 3 pacific white-sided dolphin where taken from their enclosure and loaded into three small wooden boxes for transport. After several hours on the road, northwest of Osaka, the truck driver came into a snow storm and lost the control over his vehicle and crashed into the guard railing.

It took estimated eight hours before the truck was able to continue his journey. All along the three dolphins had to hold out in their small, cold and dark prison. Members of “Sea Shepherd” followed the truck with a rental car and reported afterwards that the journey, all in all, took over 30 hours. The cruel journey ended at Tsukumi Dolphin Island, a dolphinarium in the prefecture Oita, on the island Kyushu, which shell be opened by April this year. The fact that another dolphinarium will open his doors, sadly shows that the number of dolphinariums - and therewith the demand for living dolphins – is still raising in Japan.

Latest news from Taiji.

By Hans Peter Roth – WDCS rep on the ground.

(31.01.2011) 
A month of horror – and of hope

January 2011 ended in Taiji as calm as it has begun.

During the last three days no dolphin was killed. Today the hunting vessels remain in the harbor. But yesterday there was a hunt. Once more pacific white – sided dolphins were the victims. Again the hunters lined a horseshoe-shaped net, several hundreds of meters away from the harbor. Sadly, two dolphins walked into that trap – and will have to carve out a miserable existence in captivity for the rest of their lives.

It’s time for a quick review of the past month: Approximately 185 dolphins were killed in January. According to our own observations of the killings we counted 25 bottlenose dolphins, 120 Striped dolphins, 38 Rissos dolphins and 2 Pacific White-Sided dolphins. 20 of these animals were selected for aquariums, mainly Bottlenose dolphins and White-sided, but also some Rissos dolphins. These numbers may be not accurate as a precise counting is not always possible from our viewpoints – especially when the hunt get chaotic, like we reported on the Striped dolphins hunts.

And now it’s time to talk about the horror. The brutality and the suffering I had to witness surpassed my worst expectations. Every claim saying the new killing method (severing the spinal cord as more “human” and killing the animal in seconds) is a sheer and cynical lie. There is enough evidence from this month the 'new' killing method results in senseless suffering and the slow and painful death of the animals. (I will get back to this in another blog soon).

What the dolphins have to go through before their death is also indescribably cruel. The drive and the associated underwater noise that is created to stampede those dolphins. The fear. The total exhaustion – until death -  due to the hunt. The expectation of their own emanant death, tied up by their flukes while another individual from their group is killed.

And these dolphins – like those Striped dolphins – that strand on the razor sharp rocks in panic. That abrade until they exsanguinate. Once we had to witness stranded striped dolphins half dry writhe due to the pain up to one hour exposed to the sun, bleeding, until the hunters dragged them away from the rocks.

Please apologize my radical language.

January 2011 – a month of hope, too? I’d say: Yes. I got to know several Japanese who now engage actively in the conservation of Japanese dolphins. Courageous women and men with different backgrounds, everyone of them contributing their own part to achieve the common goal. A growing grass-roots movement in Japan! This is very important. Furthermore the number of killed animals in this hunting season is low compared to the last season. In sum 660 to 690 dolphins were killed. In the last hunting season 1,700 animals had to die. It’s very likely that this number will not even be approached.

There is the hope of understanding that it simply is not okay that one single nation – unjustified – is undertaking acts so backward to the majority of the world's public. Although it is just a small group of backward people in a remote village that continues the barbaric killings with the blessing of corrupt officials and subsidized with tax money of a nearly bankrupt* government.

Hans Peter Roth 

* On January 27th the Rating agency Standard & Poors downgraded the solvency of Japan due to increasing national debts.

The latest news from the Cove in Taiji, Japan.
By Hans Peter Roth – WDCS rep on the ground.


The one who escapes
23.01.2011

Today it’s the Rissos dolphins’ turn again. After a long drive a dozen of them were trapped in the killing cove. Outside the harbour of Taiji the dolphin school of approx. 20 individuals suddenly splits up. About 8 dolphins couldn’t be captured. The rest are driven to their deaths.

Rissos dolphins are too heavy to be lifted on board the boats. A hunting vessel drags the dead dolphins tied to the side of the boat with cords and covered with green sheets to the harbour of Taiji. The hunters are forearmed against uninvited guests taking photos or videos here. The place where the dolphins are slaughtered is well covered with blue sheets.

Then I nearly dropped the camera. One surviving Rissos dolphin is swimming in the harbour! He must belong to the group that didn’t get caught and escaped. The individual must have got lost in the harbour. Again and again I could spot its back and dorsal fin with the unmistakable pattern. The dolphin is swimming in circles near the dolphin pens and is not leaving into the open ocean.
I watch nervously to see what is going to happen. It doesn’t take long until the boats with the hunters and nets are arriving. It is easy for the hunters to circle the anxious dolphin with a net. The social animal isn’t moving away from the nets because it hears the calls of his friends. The net is closed and the hunters drag the dolphin out of the water and place him onto a sling. Where will they take him? To the pens? To a dolphinarium? To the slaughterhouse? I wait fearfully.

The boat with the sling is passing – and heading to the open ocean. I hurry to the view point. Approx. one nautical mile from the harbour the hunters release the dolphin – alive – and return. At least one dolphin survived today.

If we were not watching the dolphin, certainly he would have become killed. I am convinced of that. I hope he finds his group soon and warns them: The waters of Taiji are dangerous.

Hans Peter Roth

As the drive hunt season continues, and comes nearer to its end in April, we are still left with the challenge of how to expose these hunts, and work for their end.  International protests, embassy meetings, media exposure, on-the-ground negotiations and dialogue, and even an Oscar award-winning documentary seem not enough to change the course and put an end to these hunts.  All sorts of creative and inspired ideas have fallen short, as the hunts are a complex combination of nationalism, pride, pest control, food, profit, tradition and most importantly, resistance.

And yet, there has been some response to the pressure, however frenetic and temporary. The reaction we have seen from the fishermen and local authorities ranges from at times  releasing  some of the dolphins after selecting others for slaughter; developing a ‘new’ killing technique that may actually prolong the suffering of dolphins, but is an attempt to keep blood out of the water; and even trying to round up dolphins offshore, out of view from the killing cove. Ultimately, the only response we will accept is for the killing to stop.  And whether the government of Japan will continue to ignore world opinion, and the growing preferences of its people, and continue the hunts in spite of all of us, will define the long road ahead.

Being on the ground in Taiji, being present, is important. Showing the world what is happening in Taiji is necessary, and the spotlight needs to continue to shine on these activities.  However, bearing witness is only part of the story, and what is happening behind the scenes is even more important.  Video footage of the slaughters has been coming from Taiji for decades, along with direct action.  WDCS has been on the ground in Taiji, and continues to be, including most recently through our support of Hans Peter Roth.  However, often it is the quiet back story of campaign work not often seen by the public, that is the critical component in the work to change the hearts and minds of Japanese authorities and the Japanese public.  Outreach and engagement through our diverse Japanese partners is guiding our attempts to connect with hearts and minds in Japan, to open the dialogue, to instill the love and appreciation for these animals that will bring about change.

WDCS will continue to work for an end to these brutal drive hunts.  We have been active in confronting the dolphin drive hunts in Japan on a number of levels, from raising awareness of the hunts, taking part in peaceful protests and visiting Japan to document them.  We have worked with the marine mammal scientific community to garner a public statement against these hunts, and helped secure a congressional resolution condemning the practice.  WDCS has also worked to secure the acknowledgement of the public display industry of its complicity in fueling the dolphin drive hunts through the demand generated by marine parks and aquaria that either directly, or indirectly, source live dolphins from these hunts. And within Japan, we have developed an educational campaign with our Japanese colleagues to educate the public about whales and dolphins, their beauty, their biology and the threats that they face.  And most recently, we contributed to the development of the Beautiful Whale Project, an attempt to bring art, science and communities together in search of common ground in our love and appreciation for whales and dolphins. 

Bryant Austin with children in Japan. (c) Moses Hoyt

So what is the answer?  Don’t give up. It will take all of us, and all of our solutions and strategies working in that hopeful elixir that eventually can move mountains and eradicate inhumane practices and traditions that have plagued humanity since its inception. We will continue to expose these hunts, resolute in our call for their end on the grounds of welfare of the animals, the complex ecosystems being devastated by these activities, and the human health implications of consuming mercury-laden meat. These practices wear the cloak of tradition, but ultimately destroy our humanity, and the amazing web of life that sustains us all.

And in the end, the only thing that may stop Japan killing whales and dolphins is the realization and acknowledgement that its people no longer want these practices to continue.  The tide will turn when the Japanese policymakers face the full force of international pressure and also look inward to what the people of Japan want and need for the 21^st century.  And that change must happen in Tokyo, not just in Taiji.

Many of us have had the opportunity to come to know the individuality and character of dolphins, to know their personalities and stories behind their lives, and as campaigners, we are compelled to honor their intelligence and sentience with our humanity and best efforts toward their protection.  Because of these videos, and the personal accounts of individuals in Taiji, the dolphins are not just statistics and numbers.  It is now not just thousands of dolphins dying every year in Japan, but rather individuals, babies, mothers and families thrashing against the nets, crying out as they are lifted out of the water for marine parks, or as they are separated for slaughter.  Dolphins have complex social lives, have families, and science has shown us that they even have culture and traditions, too.  The videos and images coming from Taiji provide us with the stories of these individuals, and all of us become campaigners as we continue to call for an end to these hunts.

Albert Schweitzer said that a thinking person must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition or surrounded by a halo.   We should not give up, and opposing cruelty on ethical grounds alone does not require an explanation or even justification. Traditions and cultures evolve, and we are hopeful that the hearts and minds in Japan will move towards a kinder and gentler future for dolphins.

The videos coming from Taiji, Japan are horrifying.  They are posted to YouTube and circulated through our networks around the globe on a daily basis.  They are posted by Sea Shepherd, and Leah Lemieux, and through the vigilance of a multitude of other individuals that have traveled to Taiji to bear witness to the activities of a handful of dolphin fishermen, and to spread the images that have disturbed and saddened so many.   And they are enough to make even a seasoned campaigner come to her knees again and again.   Many of these current videos can be seen on Leah’s YouTube channel, and they are more than difficult to watch.  

The dolphin drive hunts occur every year from September through April, and are a brutal reminder that we have a very long way to go towards securing a safe and humane future for all cetaceans. The hunts involve the corralling of dolphins at sea and driving them into the confines of small coves in Taiji and Futo, Japan.  They are then slaughtered for meat or kept alive for sale to marine parks and aquaria across the globe. This is not a subsistence kill but a small industry regulated by the Japanese government. Yearly quotas for both villages are in the thousands, where small cetaceans of several species including bottlenose dolphins, striped dolphins, spotted dolphins, false killer whales, short-finned pilot whales, and others, are taken. Futo has not conducted a hunt since 2004.

 Many did not know that these drive hunts were taking place until The Cove brought the issue to the movies and won an Oscar. Almost a year after winning the Oscar for best documentary, it is a natural question to wonder whether The Cove has made a difference, and whether it is making a difference, particularly when the hunts continue unabated.  However, in fact, these hunts were first acknowledged by the media in the 1970s when activists and filmmakers shared the killing with the world. Filmmaker Hardy Jones initially exposed the dolphin drive hunts at Iki Island, Futo and Taiji throughout the 1980s and the hunts were the focus of a National Geographic filmed entitled ‘When Dolphins Cry’, shown worldwide in 2004.  Although only a part of Japan’s larger hunts that kill up to 20,000 small whales and dolphins annually, the drive hunts are particularly controversial, if only because they can be witnessed so near to shore. What is hard to accept for most of us is that despite the decades of exposure, and despite the recent and intense scrutiny and attention, as a result of The Cove, the hunts continue, and perhaps with more determination than ever.

As a campaigner who has been to Taiji and witnessed the hunts, spoken to the fishermen as they poked their fingers in my direction within inches of my face, and tried desperately to convey the passion and concern for the dolphins, I searched for a way ‘in’ to a common understanding, a way to communicate that there can be another way--and a way out.  And I am still searching, along with many, many others.  The problems in Taiji are complex.  What appeared to be a practice in decline, conducted in only a few coastal towns in Japan, has been revived by the demand for live dolphins for marine parks in Japan and elsewhere.  And because Taiji is the birthplace of whaling, it is steeped in the politics of whaling, and the drive hunts are just a piece of this larger political and psychological drama.

What The Cove did do, and continues to do, is catalyze a grassroots movement that has been felt the world over.  It has launched thousands of individuals into action, from sending postcards and heartfelt messages to authorities in Japan, to staging protests and peace picnics, to showing up and documenting these heart-wrenching scenes.   Local communities are even challenging the construction of new captive dolphin facilities in Japan, such in Kyoto where an aquarium has been approved, and will likely hold dolphins from the Taiji drive hunts. And more importantly, it is not just westerners showing up at the cove in Taiji and questioning the hunts, but the Japanese public, too.