I just read in the news this morning that Taiji’s annual dolphin slaughter is on hold, thanks to the publicity generated by the new movie The Cove. While there is nothing official as of yet, the media attention focused on the hunt has the fishermen staying away. It appears that now that the rest of the world is talking about the slaughter, the Japanese media has decided to cover it.
This is definitely good news in the short term, but let’s see what happens when every media outlet isn’t sitting in Taiji cove waiting to film the hunt.
I never thought this would happen! Since the Cove was not allowed to be shown in Japan, I thought nothing would come of it. And the Japanese people will go another year not knowing anything about the dolphin slaughter. Thanks to the power of the internet and international media, the Japanese government really has no control over what information gets out to Japanese people. Hooray for the dolphins!
Anybody else heard the rumour, unsubstantiated as of yet, that the slaughter started up again now that Ric O’Barry left Taiji?
Here’s a story about the resuming of the hunt now that the media is gone: http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=12533.
It does appear to be covered by Japanese press, which hasn’t usually been the case.
Good and bad news for the dolphin slaughter, good-70 freed, bad-50 sold to aquariums, Very bad news for the pilot whates-ALL SLAUGHTERED, just like what the Fareoese do. It’sironic that Austrailia and New Zealand try non-stop to save the Pilot whales when they beach themselves during hteir migration, only to receive their faith in places like Japan, the Solomon Islands and Europe.
Tell all your friends to see “THE COVE” when it is released in Europe in October.
Here is the current blog from Ric O’Barry-”SAVEJAPANDOLPHINS.org
http://savejapandolphins.blogspot.com/?widgetType=BlogArchive&widgetId=BlogArchive1&action=toggle&dir=close&toggle=YEARLY-1230796800000&toggleopen=MONTHLY-1241161200000
we are doing it