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© 2013 AFPDolphin-killing town to open marine park
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© 2013 AFP
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AriesKJJ
A good positive step if the new industry is to replace imprisoning, killing and abducting cetaceans, otherwise it's just demented. As we've seen in North America the Whale Watching Industry is lucrative, fun and educational.
Dolphins and other cetaceans have self awareness, language, families and similar intelligence to humans, don't eat cetaceans or at least research about finding 'spindle cells in cetaceans'.
DudeDeuce
I have driven through Taiji to get to Nachi Waterfall. Don't know where they sell dolphin meat but it is a boring little town. A marine park may be good for them as it is a boring place.
Xeno23
But they're not stopping the harvest - hm. It'll be interesting to see if this really happens. Sounds like an idea cooked up without a lot of proper vetting. I should think added attention is the last thing they want. Besides, marine mammal parks in and of themselves are ethically problematic, especially where entertainment and profit are the driving force.
Swimming with porpoises isn't just a matter of putting them and people together. The reputable venues I've seen have highly trained staff and marine biologists on site, carefully selected animals under constant monitoring, with guest training and guest handlers always on duty; accidents can happen. I've swum, scuba'ed with wild porpoise pods, and they're pretty scary, actually.
CoconutE3
I think this whole town needs a psychiatric evaluation. It's like being offered to play with some cows & calves at a meat butchering factory. Sure we all do eat some form of farm raised animal but will never eat at it's slaughterhouse! The people of Taiji seem to be very violent sick people. Perhaps many of them are psychotic serial killers, rapists, criminals in disguise? Can you imagine the impact these adults have on the children raised in such environments? They become psychos themselves. Tradition or not, it's cruel and needs to be stopped. Perhaps another tsunami will hit Japan & hit Taiji? When that happens the whole world would sigh "good riddance".
Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land
Taiji hunts dolphins. "Dolphin killing town" and "stab them to death for meat" is ridiculously biased journalism.
Does Japan Today still claim to be a news site? Try to disguise your blatant propaganda pieces a bit better.
Cliffy
The marine park will include a restaurant. The catch of the day will be "flipper who could not perform the show today".
ChibaChick
Ah, but, you see, what none of you are understanding is that opening whale and dolphin parks is a very important part of Japanese traditional culture........
Vast Right-Wing Conspirator
Thunderbird; To answer your question, hypothetically "yes" and "yes". The only thing that would stop me from it is if the species is endangered. Any non-endangered animal is fair game to find its way on to my plate, just beside the mashed potatoes. I don't discriminate.
pizzatime
That's cool! Dolphins are not special. Just another delicacy! Dead or alive... I like em!
Thunderbird2
Vast Right Wing... how can you, or anyone, equate a dolphin with food? How can anyone looking at a dolphin, and knowing what we know about them possibly see them as food? Would you also eat a gorilla? An elephant?
Endangered or not, they are sentient beings (self aware as we are) and deserve to be left alone to live their lives... not corralled into a cove for paying visitors and then clubbed to death at a later date.
smithinjapan
Vast Right-Wing: "Fish or mammal doesn't matter, as long as they are not endangered"
Doesn't matter, but yet seemed to weigh heavily in your last 'argument'.
Vast Right-Wing Conspirator
Fish or mammal doesn't matter, as long as they are not endangered.
I like the idea of a park like this. Perhaps people can learn something about how food is made and where it comes from. We forget that too much IMHO.
billyshears
Despite the potentially dangerously high levels of methyl mercury in dolphin meat the "tradition" continues. Why? I think this quote from a Japanese Health Ministry official gives a glimpse of the real reason: “The criticism does not affect the health risk of residents in Japan. We do not have to change our stance just because animal protection groups say something,” Kenji Urakami of the ministry’s Standards and Evaluation Division said. In other words, as with whaling, it's all about not losing face and appearing weak to outside groups.
smithinjapan
Vast Right-Wing: "I thought fish were a good, sustainable source of protein."
Dolphins aren't fish, they are mammals, just so you know.
Junichi
I also believe it's barbaric, don't get me wrong, Thunderbird. At the same time, it's not my prerogative to impose my views on them.
If they stop, it will have to be because they choose to; outside pressure will only keep having the opposite effect.
Disillusioned
I suppose it would be a bit like those restaurants in Korea where you can go and choose which dog you want to eat for dinner. You can go teach your kids, "We are gonna eat this dolphin for dinner."
Jeremy Rigby
This is disgusting! I've shared the page on fb and hope my Japanese friends share as well.
Vast Right-Wing Conspirator
Last I heard, dolphins weren't endangered. So, who cares if these good people choose to dine on a few every once in a while? It 's their business. I thought fish were a good, sustainable source of protein.
Jimizo
Interesting concept. What next? Minks? You choose it, we skin it.
darkbob
Japanese logic at its silliest and very worst. Like the Hamamatsu yakaza group in the face of public criticism years ago, painted their building white. duh .. The only time I've gotten close to understanding Japanese logic was in a Happy Bob cartoon in the Japan TImes years ago. A salaryman on a train is getting up on a train to sit next to a foreigner and the thought bubble above his head, read; 'He probably never gets the chance to speak with someone who's English is as good as mine'
Thunderbird2
This is just disgusting... I mean what kind of sicko thought this one up? Swim with dolphins - the same dolphins they'll murder in the name of tradition. That's one place in Japan I will never visit.
budgie
I'm actually optimistic. Though I'd like to see an immediate end to the slaughter, this marine park may be more than just lip service: it could be the first of several baby steps needed to wean Taiji off its barbaric practices.
wtfjapan
yes you can view the cute dolphins and for a premium well hook them slice them and serve them too you all while there fresh and still twitching
erikirby
Why do people always think "because it's tradition" is an acceptable defense?? Sometimes traditions can be just plain wrong, like this one.
madmel
SauloJpn Taiji is Taiji, why blanket the whole prefecture under one horrible umbrella? My inlaws in Wakayama city knew nothing of this place or it's practices until I showed them "The Cove". They where ashamed to see this was taking place in their prefecture. I agree with a few other posters that we have to look out for all marine life and treat it with respect. If we treated catle, pigs, or chickens the way we treat/kill marine life we would be (in Canada at least) charged via some sort of animal cruelty law.
Brian Wheway
This article makes me shudder, I understand all about “tradition” etc, but were in modern times now and I have to ask my self is this killing in full view a good thing? And I fear it is not, I’m surprised that now one has suggested a pay to view web cam, the camera could be mounded underneath the boat so you can see all of the action, please don’t take me up on this idea. They seriously need to rethink there concept for the park.
silvertongue
Alex Einz, well said. You should be a DJ or something and make sure your voice is heard by a very large group of people.
Alex Einz
@silvertngue I would not walk a mile ,but I just reckon pointless killing for sake of tradition is dumb and barbaric ....specially since that meat is not fit for human or animal consumption....
silvertongue
Alex Einz, I would walk 500 miles and I would would walk 500 more to save the dolphins.
nath
Fabulous idea. although I was always taught not to play with my food........
Alex Einz
Wait.. so we can actually hunt dolphins in the park ? Will spears be free or extra charge ?
P.S.. yes I am being sarcastic..
Disillusioned
What goes on in Taiji is a disgrace and not just because of the mass killing of dolphins, but because they ignore the mercury content and they warning from WHO that it should not be consumed.
smithinjapan
rickeyvee: "i partially agree with you, but there is only an uproar when people kill the "cute" ones like dolphins and whales. other animals don't really count, i guess."
Not at all. It is the fact that many whale species are endangered, as well as HOW these people kill what they kill that gets people in an uproar, and rightfully so. It's also that whales and dolphins are wild, whereas other animals are bred for food.
In any case, the fact that they want to create a marine park so you can watch dolphins while you eat dolphin is utterly sick. Clearly the mercury has diseased the brains of these people.
pochan
The more foreigners rally against these practices the more entrenched and defiant they will become. I am sorry but with everything going on in the world this is none of our business. It is likely distasteful to the average Japanese person as well but they will take the side of Taiji if they see it as a foreign assault on Japan. Also the Japanese press can very easily conflate this with the whaling issue and present it as another attack on Japanese culture. Foreign pressure on whaling is right because it is being done far away from Japan. This is none of our business.
ChibaChick
Youve seen the show. Now you can eat the cast!
rickyvee
@cleo
i partially agree with you, but there is only an uproar when people kill the "cute" ones like dolphins and whales. other animals don't really count, i guess.
Nessie
I'll have that one, mummy!
catseye97
Fun and feast ... with Flipper!
smithinjapan
"...where you can enjoy watching marine mammals while tasting various marine products, including whale and dolphin meat,”
Does this guy actually KNOW what he is saying? This is far worse than, say, opening a new aquarium with a sushi shop inside where people can eat sushi while watching the fish. I've never had even an ounce of respect for this town and the people who engage in and/or support the hunt, but now I have even less. These people are disgusting.
gogogo
Good luck with that, prepare for even more hate your way. You are celebrating the killing. I hope it blows up in your face
dbr26354
I wonder what will be on the menu at the on-site cafeteria?
Scrote
How about a complete boycott of Taiji and anything it produces? Let the mercury-addled dimwits fester in poverty for a while and see if that changes their behaviour.
paulinusa
"They'll need a cute mascot that can walk around shaking hands with the visitors."
And they could have daily mock stabbings and fake blood. That'll be a good lesson in local tradition and culture.
kurisupisu
Kill 'em and exploit 'em.....sounds like the worst kind of horror movie!
dbsaiya
They forgot the "mascot!" They'll need a cute mascot that can walk around shaking hands with the visitors. Make it look like a dolphin and name it Iru-chan or something like that. Hey, use the money for the Tohoku area right? They can even use the five ring Olypmic logo on a bib on the mascot; that would be kawaii! Sorry for being so jaded, getting old and cranky I guess.
AkashiAussie
There's been one there for years. I went swimming with dolphins in Taiji in 2011.
paulinusa
A good question is what will be the reaction of Japanese families frolicking with dolphins when they realize those same mammals were being stabbed to death in an adjacent bay?
rickyvee
why such compassion for dolphins? they are neither endangered nor protected. at least taiji only kills once a year.
AramaTaihenNoYouDidnt
HEY!!!...Town of Taiji in Wakayama Prefecture.... leave them defenseless dolphins and whales alone!! These mammals are just passing through.
Disillusioned
Interesting to see this article appearing right next to the Minamata mercury accord meeting. Why do they keep annoying the fact that dolphin and toothed whale meat contain extremely high rates of mercury? They also ignore the results of a recent study done on the people of Taiji who have 10-15 times the safe mercury levels in their body. And, they feed this stuff to their kids? Has the mercury effected their brains?
Probie
And I am sure this guy is busy going around to every zoo in the country saying exactly the same thing. Typical glorifying of whales and dolphins like they are somehow better than any other living thing on the planet.
Dennis Bauer
Taji Dolpin Slaughter park! I am looking forward to the Park's Dolphin mascot running around saying Slay me!
Pukey2
tokyogas:
You forgot the afternoon, when you can bring the kids along to watch the dolphins get bashed to death in a sea of blood. Experience everything!
Abhorsenaube
I can see the annual event continuing due to cultural nostalgia and on a very small scale but this is just dumb. I'm not gonna say it needs to go all together, there are some far more atrocious things out there but this seems sadistic and weird.
aralia
Who eats the meat? If the demand (much like the demand for whale) is dwindling then why kill so many? Just because they can? I will never understand this. This, as well as Japan's whaling practice needs to end. I agree with cleo, yet another reason I don't eat meat.
TumbleDry
Stop whining.
CrazyJoe
Although the culture and history of Taiji is understandable, this is impassable. The killing of dolphins must be stopped.
Andreas Zachcial
They have no shame! But this behaviour is very typical to Japan and it's people. In the name of "tradition" everything is allowed.
cleo
A bit like the 'bokujo' park we visited years ago, where families play with cute rabbits, lambs and kids, have a go at milking a cow - then are offered barbecue for lunch. Ugh. (One more nail in my now long-deceased meat-eating habit).
WilliB
Cute! So why not expand on this and let visitors kill and eat the dophins they swim with. There should be a market out there.
wildwest
O goody. I can't wait to swim in all that blood and squeeling
TokyoGas
I can see their brochure now...
"Swim with flipper in the morning and dine on him in the evening"
ugh
sf2k
so basically moving up to farming dolphins
Mirai Hayashi
This town disgusts me! They are the North Korea of Japan.
SauloJpn
This has got to be a JOKE!!! A park to help sustain the practice of killing dolphins!
I have not spent one yen in Wakayama Pref since the movie and expect to continue. I go out of my way to avoid anything made or produced there. I am NOT going there!!!