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Posted in: Whale watching See in context

This breaching beauty looks like it's having a whale of time. Guess we better get used to seeing whales in this form. Not much time left for the real ones, unless we do something, and the Japanese government takes an intitiative for a change and does what I feel most Japanese people really want them to.

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Posted in: Anger and defiance in Taiji after 'Cove' wins Oscar See in context

This offering from the Asahi Shinbun today – “Tokiya Nitta, a lecturer at the School of Marine Science and Technology at Tokai University who has studied the history of dolphin hunting along the Izu Peninsula of Shizuoka Prefecture, said the movie could strengthen the opinions of opponents of the practice. "In Japan, there is a history of hunting the dolphins with feelings of gratitude and respect because it helped the Japanese when they were faced with famine because of the war," Nitta said. "However, foreigners appear to only focus on the cruel reality of the hunt."” Dead right about the strengthening opinions. Rubbish about feelings of gratitude and respect.

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Posted in: Anger and defiance in Taiji after 'Cove' wins Oscar See in context

Cleo is quite right. As a side note, the character for tai can be translated as ‘solid’, and ji, ‘ground’. Paradoxical, now that ground upon which the dolphin slayers stand is now looking decidedly blubbery. May they quake in their little white booties. For the times they are a’changin.

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Posted in: Anger and defiance in Taiji after 'Cove' wins Oscar See in context

The notion that the fisherfolk of Taiji put out in their boats, as they have for hundreds of years, to hunt dolphin for food, and catch a few for the aquarium, is misguided. The local fishermen in the documentary are thuggish, aggressive, and mainly intent on ensuring that their activities remained secret, or at least out of sight. In the winter months, a small flotilla of boats regularly sets out to alarm and confuse dolphin, which end up being herded into a small cove. After selecting good, female specimens, for sale to aquariums such as Sea World in the America, they slaughter the rest, in an inhumane way, whilst keeping a few for their meat. The females dolphins, which end up stressed and being kept alive on medication, and dying prematurely in captivity, fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars. This explains the animosity to all the attention in their activities from the outside world. The dolphin meat contains levels of toxic chemicals well in excess of regulated amounts, not merely ‘trace’ levels. This meat was, until recently (and thanks to The Cove) sold to children in schools in Taiji. This is going on in your backyard.

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Posted in: Anger and defiance in Taiji after 'Cove' wins Oscar See in context

The Japanese fishermen of Taiji, and other Japanese people, deny, and get angry, when others explain ecological realities to them. They are finding it hard now, there will be confusion and depression, but they will one day come to deeper understanding, and will, in the end, accept that this sort of behavior must end.

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Posted in: Anger and defiance in Taiji after 'Cove' wins Oscar See in context

I hope all of you, your family, and friends, have seen The Cove? I recommend you do. I watched the documentary a few months ago, and one image that stays in my mind from it, is a scene near the dock in Taiji, where a couple of young kids, on their way back from school, are walking past a dolphin that has been hacked and fatally wounded. The dolpin is clearly in agonizing distress, but was simply left like that, blood flowing over the concrete floor, to die for over an hour. The kids didn't even bother looking. I suppose this just the culture people live in here ...

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