Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Option #4: Donate
Sunday, November 16, 2008
*Option #3: Become an ACTIVIST
Perhaps one of the oldest methods of activism, protesting serves as the most public and emotionally contagious way of spreading awareness for a given cause. Since putting an end to the Taiji drive hunts is a worldwide movement, protests are organized annually in all major cities around the world. If you feel strongly enough about this cause, then make a sign, collaborate with others, and protest against the dolphin massacre.2. Get Friends and Family Involved
If you haven't already spread awareness of this atrocity to your friends and family members, I suggest you share this blog with them immediately. Friends and family are great people to get involved since they are usually supportive of issues that are most important to you. If your passionately contagious attitude isn't enough to get them behind the movement, then the writings and videos on this blog will definitely change their minds. To be honest though, I haven't showed one person this video that didn't immediately feel the urge to do something about this atrocity afterward.3. Risk It All for Reward
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is offering a $10,000 cash reward for the person or persons who can best document the annual slaughter of dolphins and small cetaceans in Taiji, Japan. Due to increasing access restrictions by the Taiji government, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is looking to motivate Japanese citizens to intervene and capture footage of the slaughter. The cash prize goes to the person who captures the most graphic images of the hunt. The photos and/or videos will be utilized by the Society to further expose the annual dolphin massacre.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Option #2: Sign the Petition
Seashepherd.org has organized an enormous online petition that includes signatures from supporters around the world. This petition will be presented to the Japanese Prime Minister, the Japanese Minster of Fisheries, as well as Japanese embassies and consulates around the world.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Option #1: Write to a Government Official
SAMPLE LETTER I am outraged by the annual brutal slaughter of dolphins and whales that takes place in Japan. The images of bloody red water clearly show the world that Japan has little respect for the state of the world’s oceans and for the conservation of the marine resources it claims to support. Many scientific studies show that the oceans are in decline. We must take whatever actions are necessary to stop their over-exploitation and to protect the creatures that live in them. These dolphins do not belong to Japan. The status of the species of dolphins and whales that you kill are either endangered, threatened, or unknown. It is an unthinkable waste that they will likely end up as a meat product or deceptively sold as whale meat, polluted with toxic levels of mercury and cadmium, killing people that eat it. It is tragic and unacceptable that the remaining dolphins that are not killed will end up destined for death in an aquarium, water park, or "swim with dolphins" program. In addition, the methods used to kill these animals are cruel. Corralling the dolphins into bays, then making them suffer a long and painful death by spears, hooks, and drowning is an inhumane way of fishing. This action is disgraceful and has caused much disappointment in the international community. We demand that Japan permanently and immediately renounce and stop this slaughter. We will work diligently to bring this issue to international light until you have ceased your reprehensible violence. Sincerely,
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Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda
1-6-1 Nagata-cho 1 Chome
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. 100-8968 JAPAN
Fax: +81.3.5511.8855
E-mail form:
http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/forms/comment.html
MINISTER OF FISHERIES
1-2-1 Ksumigaseki 1 Chrome
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. 100-8907 JAPAN
Tel:+81-3-5510-3303 (direct) or 3-3502-8111
Fax: +81-3-3502-8220 or +81-3-3502-0794
E-mail: sinsei01densi@nm.maff.go.jp
E-mail form: http://www.voice.maff.go.jp/maff-interactive/people/ShowWebFormAction.do?FORM_NO=5
THE DOLPHIN HUNT IN TAIJI IS CONDUCTED BY TAIJI FISHERY COOPERATIVE
3167-7 Taiji
Wakayama, 649-5171 Japan
Tel: +81.735.59.3517
Fax: +81 735 59 3018
PERMISSION FOR THE DOLPHIN HUNT IS GIVEN BY THE GOVERNOR OF WAKAYAMA
Mr. Yoshiki Kimura
Prefectural Office of Wakayama
1-1 Komatsubaradouri, Wakayama-shi
Wakayama-ken, 640-8269 Japan
Tel: +81-73-441-2034
Fax:+81-73-423-9500
Public comment lines: +81-73-441-2028
Fax: +81-73-431-0462
E-mail: e0006001@pref.wakayama.lg.jp
THERE IS A FISHERY AGENCY POLICY EVALUATION GROUP
WHICH HAS THREE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN CHARGE:
Kawase, Yoshino and Tokura
Tel: +81-3-3502-8111 ext. 7057 and 7058
OR: +81-3-3591-5613 ( direct)
E-mail: sui_hyoka@nm.maff.go.jp
EMBASSY OF JAPAN IN WASHINGTON D.C.
Ambassador Ryozo Kato
2520 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.
Washington D.C. 20008-2869
Tel: (202) 238-6700,
Fax: 202-328-2187
Hours: M-F 9:15-12:30 and 2:00-6:16
E-mail: jicc@embjapan.org
www.us.emb-japan.go.jp
OR FOR A CONSULATE OR EMBASSY NEAR YOU
visit: http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/jicc/consulat.htm
or http://www.mofa.go.jp/about/emb_cons/mofaserv.html
*What Can YOU Do to Get Involved?
Monday, November 10, 2008
Danger: Falling Rocks and Failing Cover Ups
There are some who have called us "terrorists" for saving dolphins here. If we are terrorists for believing that life is more important than property, than what terms does one reserve for those who take life, threaten life, and engage in the wholesale slaughter of innocent life? One must ask her/himself: "What drives someone to the point where s/he feels it necessary to jump into cold waters to save a pod of dolphins?" That pod of dolphins four days ago would have been butchered (except for those that were to be sold into captivity) and the local government, police, and whalers have made it impossible for us to document the slaughter and to educate the public about the massacres of Taiji. We were left no alternative as the Taiji Town Office and local police made it illegal to climb rocks and hillsides, walk near a pod of penned dolphins after 5:30pm, say out overnight in the hills, or go anywhere within eyesight of the blockaded cove as there was a "danger" of "falling rocks" that was only present when a pod was driven in.
The bogus new laws of Taiji and their "Danger: Falling Rocks, No Trespassing" signs are nothing more than a smokescreen for the bloody slaughter that occurs behind those signs and obstructions. Clearly there was no danger of falling rocks, but like their "culture" argument, it is an attempt at a baseless defense for brutality that has no legitimate defense in the 21st century. The fact of the matter is that the dolphin drives of Taiji are big business for a handful of men, and the biggest profit comes not from dolphin and whale meat, but from the live dolphins that are sold into captivity. If aquariums and "swimming with the dolphins" operations are a part of Japanese "culture," than I might stand corrected. But first show me the Kanji scrolls.