Dolphin Drive Hunting

I apologize to who this blog may offend; it is purely for awareness rather than slander of culture.

Lions eating Zebra's is another natural part of the life cycle; an act of survival. As humans evolved gaining higher intelligence and ability we no longer considered the act of survival, it became less of a need, but more of a want; a luxury.

Before reading on please view this short film from Youtube -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wK31g_ufHg&feature=related

Striped, Spotted Risso’s and Bottlenose Dolphins are hunted in the town of Taiji on the Kii peninsula of Japan. The technique of Drive Fishing involves them pushing the Dolphins together with boats and then usually into a bay or onto a beach. The dolphins are hunted this way in several other countries around the world.

In 2007 alone a total of 1,239 animals were killed, yet this number only included the technique of Drive Fishing, excluding Open Ocean Harpooning. On top of this another 84 were taken for use in the entertainment industry in Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan.

Taiji expanded its drive hunting programs in 2007. This consisted of constructing a massive cetacean slaughterhouse in an effort to popularize the consumption of Dolphins in the country, costing an estimated 330 million Yen.

An estimated 150kg of dolphin meat was served in local school lunches in 2006. The meat and blubber of the dolphins caught has been found to have extremely high volumes of Mercury and the pesticide DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane).

…among the Second World War, DDT was used to control Malaria among troops and civilians. Post war it was used as a pesticide and thus its production increased on an exponential rate. It was later found that DDT was carcinogenic and therefore was banned worldwide under the Stockholm Convention May 2001…

The levels are high enough to pose a health risk for those frequently eating the meat and researchers warn that children and pregnant women should totally avoid consuming it.

So with all these health risks why do they keep hunting?

Protestors were labeled by Taiji’s Fishing Cooperative Union that protestor’s agenda’s are ‘based neither on international law nor on science, but rather on emotion for economic self interest.’

Can a society really be desensitized to not recognize the inhumane tasks that they are performing or is the money worth all that indecency and cruelty?

All social movements are founded by, guided by, motivated and seen through by the passion of individuals – Margaret Mead