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News Headlines
- Whaling peace talks ‘fall short’ [May 11, 2009]
Iceland and Norway recently began exporting whale meat for sale in Japan. Photo: via BBC. Image may be subject to copyright.
- Activists thwart Japan whale hunt [April 13, 2009]
- S Korea says it may start whaling if Japan clinches deal [March 11, 2009]
- Obama toughens US line against whaling [Mar 7, 2009]
Fishermen slaughter a 10m-long bottlenose whale at the Wada port in Minami-Boso city, Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo. Photo: AFP. Image may be subject to copyright.
- Japan may cut back on future whale hunts: media [Mar 5, 2009]
- Seven countries urge Iceland to reconsider whaling quota [Feb 18, 2009]
- Iceland to allow whaling in 2009 [Feb 18, 2009]
- Whale war subsides as Sea Shepherd leaves Japanese fleet, heads home [Feb 9, 2009]
- Sea Shepherd rams Japanese whaling vessel [Feb 6, 2009 ]
- Japan accuses activists of attack (Video Clip) – [Feb 4, 2009 ]
- Iceland Says May Revoke Whaling Extension [Feb 4, 2009 ]
- Japan denies using weapons vs anti-whaling group [Feb 2, 2009 ]
- Anti-Whaling Group Says Closing In On Japan Fleet [Feb 2, 2009 ]
- U.S., Japan discussing whaling trade-off: report[Jan 25, 2009]
- Whaling commission meetings could be halted [Jan 20, 2009]
- Anti-whaling ship in Australia, plans return to Antarctica [Jan 17, 2009]
- Japanese whalers sent a damaged vessel thousands of kilometres to be repaired in Indonesia because they feared arrest if they landed in Australia, an anti-whaling group says. [Jan 11, 2009]
- Australia refuses Japan on whaling activist block [Jan 8, 2009]
- Activists deny disrupting whaler search [Jan 7, 2009]
- Anti-whaling activists leave Antarctica to refuel [Jan 2, 2009]
- The Antarctic Whaling War Continues [Dec 28, 2008]
- Desmond Tutu launched a new global anti-whaling campaign [Nov 27, 2008]
- Japan’s whaling fleet sets out for Antarctic [Nov 17, 2008]
- Mercury warning for Japanese diners who eat pilot whale [dolphin family] meat [October 17, 2008]
- IWC issues media blackout on discussions to lift whaling ban [September 11, 2008]
- Japan seeks to arrest anti-whaling activists [Aug 18, 2008]
Articles:
Videos
- People who eat whales (Video)
- Stop killing whales! (Video)
Steve Irwin Will Chase Japanese Whalers « Fire Earth said
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Fire Earth said
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feww said
Dolphin slaughter in Japan subject of new film
Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:02am EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE56U0V620090731
By Christine Kearney
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A tense new film shows Japanese fishermen luring thousands of wild dolphins into a hidden secret cove in Japan where activists say they are captured for marine amusement parks or slaughtered for food.
“The Cove” follows a team of activists including former dolphin trainer from the “Flipper” television series Ric O’Barry.
They battle Japanese police and fisherman to gain access to a cove in Taiji, Japan, where barbed wire blocks people from filming dolphin killings that begin in September each year.
The documentary opens in the United States on Friday but has yet to receive distribution in Japan, where O’Barry says 23,000 dolphins and porpoises are legally killed each year.
The Japanese government said it has done nothing wrong and cites cultural differences in response to the film.
Dolphin meat is eaten by a very small percentage of Japanese people.
The film has already been praised by critics and won the audience award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. “Eco-activist documentaries don’t get much more compelling than ‘The Cove’,” said Variety’s review.
O’Barry, who has been visiting Taiji several times a year for the past eight years and now wears disguises in the town to avoid the attention of fisherman and the police, predicted the film would have a big impact.
“When the film is seen in Japan, it will shut ‘the cove’ down permanently,” he said in a recent interview.
The 69-year-old says he began fighting against the captivity of dolphins when one of the dolphins he trained for the hit 1960s television show “Flipper” voluntarily stopped breathing until it died.
“Ric is a hero,” said the film’s director, Louie Psihoyos, who has photographed for National Geographic magazine. “He had success, he had fame, he had money and he turned his back on all of that to follow his conscience.”
TOXIC OCEANS
The film turns into a gripping action-adventure using hi-tech cameras to film the efforts of Psihoyos and a team including underwater sound and camera experts as well as champion free divers to film inside the cove.
“The film is about leading an ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ kind of team into this secret cove to try to reveal its dark secrets,” said Psihoyos, referring to the popular Hollywood film about a top notch team who break into impossible places. “It was extremely scary.”
But it largely examines environmental issues, including Japan’s efforts to persuade the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to lift a ban on commercial whaling introduced in 1986. The ban does not apply to smaller cetaceans including dolphins.
It argues that toxic waste dumped into the ocean has caused higher levels of mercury poisoning found in larger species of ocean life, including dolphins.
A spokeswoman for the Japanese embassy in Washington, Izumi Yamanaka, said in an e-mail the area surrounding Taiji had traditional dietary habits of eating dolphin meat and that Japan adhered to IWC rules.
“The Japanese government believes that it is most important to recognize national and cultural differences,” she said.
She added Japan complied with laws that advise pregnant women against eating seafood, including dolphin meat, with high levels of mercury, and would investigate assertions in the film that dolphin meat is sold in Japan disguised as whale meat.
Dolphin hunts are largely driven by a multibillion dollar marine amusement park industry located in the United States and around the world, who pay up to $150,000 per dolphin, according to O’Barry.
“People who see this movie are going to think twice before they buy a ticket to a dolphin show,” he said.
Ultimately the film is part of a larger story of the destruction of the oceans and planet, the filmmakers said.
“‘The cove’ is a microcosm for the poisoning of the oceans,” said Psihoyos. “A hundred years from now they are going to say this is the generation that could have turned things around.” (Editing by Sandra Maler)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
jennymathilde said
As a Norwegian native I am appalled that my country still allows whaling. I hope to change this, by telling the government to rethink what they are doing in their slaughter of these beautiful creatures. But I need support in my case, and I hope that you and everyone you know who support this cause, to sign my petition to stop Norwegian whaling. Thank you!
http://www.petitiononline.com/JMM/petition.html