Spreading Awareness

This video is due to premiere in January of 2009.

I'm excited to see the public reaction.

The following is a write-up taken from the organization's website:

The Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS) presents its first documentary film, The Rising, an examination of our oceans and our hearts. An annual dolphin massacre in a secret cove in Taiji, Japan suggests a microcosm of a larger picture, man’s disregard for life. The theme broadens – coal-burning facilities multiply across the planet, leading to high mercury levels in seafood, man’s primary source of protein.

Louie Psihoyos, recognized as one of the world’s most prominent still photographers, debuts his filmmaking talents in this feature-length documentary film about the oceans. Through photography, he has established himself as one of the most prolific and profound visionaries and social observers. He has circled the globe dozens of times for National Geographic Magazine on photographic missions for 18 years. His imagination, wit, and iconic imagery guide viewers through complex issues.

Throughout history, we have stories of dolphins saving humans. In Ancient Greece, it was a crime punishable by death to harm them. With this film OPS hopes to save dolphins, and ultimately…ourselves.

Mass Slaughter In the U.S.

I have received responses from a few individuals who said that we as Americans are hypocrites. We protest the drive hunts of Taiji saying that it is inhumane, but at the same time, we live in a country that slaughters much greater numbers of farm animals, including cows, pigs, and chickens. Most of these animal processing facilities keep these animals captive in less than acceptable conditions.

I have three things to say about this:

1. The slaughterhouses in the U.S. are a completely separate issue, and not the purpose of this blog.
2. Even so, the animals in the U.S. die much quicker deaths, and thus suffer less.
3. These animals are safe to eat, and we eat them as a primary food source. The same cannot be said for the Taiji dolphins.

*What Right Do We Have...

The fishermen of Taiji have been conducting drive hunts for close to 4oo years. Only a select few fishermen, about 25, are allowed to participate in the hunt every year. This is a very noble position, and they take it with honor. To them, this is not an animal rights issue, it's tradition. Who are we to deny them the right to carry on what has been passed down from generation to generation?

They want you to feel guilty.

They are trying to justify the killing of dolphins by saying that the hunt itself has a deeper meaning for their culture. This is a lie. Some 400 years ago, when the drive hunts first started, the fishermen only hunted for whales. They would utilize every part of the whale, both for food and for supplies. It became tradition to pass down the knowledge of whale hunting from generation to generation. The inclusion of dolphins has been a recent addition to the hunt and they are now the primary species that are targeted and killed every season.

Don't listen to their guilt trip about "culture". The methods of killing that are utilized are inhumane, and must be stopped. There is obviously something fishy going on (no pun intended) if they go to such great measures to hide what they are doing.

It's not about culture. It's not even about whose culture is right or wrong. It's about our responsibility as global citizens to see this atrocity and its negative effects and to know that something must be done to stop it.

*Violating the Constitution

The Japanese Constitution

Article 21:

"Freedom of assembly and association as well as speech, press, and all other forms of expression are guaranteed. No censorship shall be maintained, nor shall the secrecy of any means of communication be violated"

Taiji City Hall Meeting

Activists from SaveJapanDolphins.org attended this meeting, stating that they had come to Taiji to document the dolphin massacres and let the Japanese people know the facts about the hunt. This is the reaction they received:

"The Japanese people have no right to know about the dolphin slaughter. It is none of their business."

This is absolutely ludicrous. They have every right to know.

Many people, when first informed of the dolphin massacre, react by expressing disgust for the Japanese. "How can they do that?", and "They make me sick" are two of the most common responses. Many people become angry and suggest that we boycott the nation of Japan for their actions. However, the truth is, most people in Japan have no idea that this is taking place. It is one small town of 26 whalers and 13 boats in a hidden cove that are giving Japan this negative, worldwide reputation.

What we need to do is work with the Japanese people.

Bringing attention to the dolphin massacre is the best thing we can do to stop it. The people of Japan have a right to know what is going on. The Japanese news organizations must inform their people of this slaughter and the worldwide view of Japan that is happening as a result. It is one thing for foreigners to criticize this event, but it is entirely different when citizens speak out against the actions of their nation.

We must spark change from the inside.

*The New Minamata

The story takes place fifty years ago in Japan in a little village called Minamata Bay.

It started off slowly. The villagers first started noticing their cats wobbling around on the docks. They would randomly go into conniption fits, and keel over into the water. The villagers couldn't understand why, and named the phenomenon the Minamata Disease.

Scientists began to study the cats, and after thorough testing, they found that the felines had ingested high levels of mercury, and were exhibiting all the classic signs of mercury poisoning.

Unfortunately, the disease didn't stop at the cats. It began to affect the villagers as well. They contracted the poisoning from eating fish and shellfish from the bay, which had been contaminated from years of factory run off. The disease would affect their central nervous system, causing people to twitch and jerk around uncontrollably, inhibiting their speech and even causing death. Furthermore, pregnant women and their babies were highly susceptible to mercury poisoning, which led to a high number of severe birth defects. Needless to say eating from the bay was banned.

That was fifty years ago. Since then, the amount of mercury in our environment has increased dramatically due to worldwide industrial production and factory run off. In fact, the level of mercury found in Dolphins today is anywhere from 4 to 36 times higher than the Health Ministry's "safe level" of .04 parts per million.

Youji Kaneko, pictured above, suffers from fetal mercury poisoning and has to be cared for till this day. If this is the result of the Minamata Disease when the levels were dangerous then, imagine the potential consequences that could come from eating meat thats 35 times more contaminated! This very meat is being fed to Japanese citizens through school lunch programs and in supermarkets. Most are unaware of the dangerous levels of contaminants the meat contains.

This is more than an animal rights issue. The people of Japan must be informed.

SaveJapanDolphins.org is demanding that a warning label be placed on each and every package of dolphin meat, warning Japanese consumers of the serious health hazards associated with mercury consumption.

Help make a difference. Write a short, respectful letter to Ms. Seiko Noda, Japan's Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food Safety, and Science and Technology, and ask for her cooperation with this issue. Her email address is: seiko@noda-seiko.gr.jp

Make sure to CC The World Health Organization as well.

Dr. Maria NEIRA, Director

Department of Public Health and Environment

World Health Organization

Email: neiram@who.int

Celebrity Wonder-Girl Takes a Stand

In the Fall of 2007, Heroes star Hayden Panettiere personally took a stand against the dolphin massacre by joining the Sea Shephard activist group and staging a protest in the Taiji Bay.

The following is a news segment covering the event.

Can I Please Have a Side of Dolphin With My Mercury?

Looks tasty doesn't it?

Hopefully the last post helped you to see why this massacre is such an outrage... It's not about food!

If it got you fired up... then good. But that's only half the issue.

Interestingly enough, the next reason correlates with the first.

We confirmed and established that the dolphins weren't being killed for food. However, the fishermen of Taiji realized that they would have no reason to kill dolphins if they weren't doing anything with the dead carcasses, so they came up with a brilliant solution... start eating them!

I use that phrase loosely. The wording should be more like, "Start selling the meat to the Japanese school systems!"

That's exactly what they started doing.

If only the kid's knew what they were eating... and if only the parents knew the effect this would have on their children.

We'll go more into depth on this issue with scientific findings and history lessons in the next post.

Happy Fishing!

*Let's Clear a Few Things Up

I may not have made it clear in my last post as to exactly why this dolphin massacre is an outrage. Hopefully this post will clear things up.

Ok, so first we established that dolphins are awesome. I think everybody can agree... Great.

Then we established that killing dolphins is wrong. However, some people disagreed, stating that while killing dolphins for food may seem wrong to Americans, it's a part of Japanese culture and must be respected. We kill hundreds of thousands of pigs and cows in the United States to feed our people, so who are we to decide which animals are or aren't okay to eat?

This is where the misconception lies.

IT IS NOT ABOUT FOOD.

The massacre is an outrage because it is a form of pest control.

"As shocking as it sounds, some Japanese government officials view dolphins as pests to be eradicated in huge numbers. During a meeting at Taiji City Hall, the fishermen of Taiji admitted this to us. "We don't kill the dolphins primarily for their meat. We kill them as a form of pest control," they told us. In other words, killing the competition is their way of preserving the ocean's fish for themselves."

-SaveJapanDolphins.org

Makes you look at the situation in a whole new way, doesn't it?