Looking for information on Dolphin harvesting in Futo

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jagfish

The man behind the fish
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Hey
Does anyone know how recently dolphins have been harvested in Izu? Has the practice been stopped? I thought I heard this was a thing of the recent past.

Here is a video of a dolphin harvest and slaughter in Futo. Looks recent...Pretty graphic...

http://www.seashepherd.org/video/futo_slaughter.wmv
 
To slaughter creatures whose intelligence is beyond reproach in such a barbaric way is reprehensible.
 
Yeah, it's definitely graphic...
Hey as a favor to ask from all those who read this thread...
This video was originally posted here:
http://www.scubaboard.com/t82031-.html
In an effort to ask if it was for real, and to bash at it. If you'd like to complain (understandably) about what takes place in the video, please do it on that thread.

I'd like this thread to be be more of a fact finding mission from the folks here in Japan (or abroad if anyone has the facts about Futo). I fear that an abundance of strong general remarks from the outside will inhibit participation from Japanese nationals, which is what would be needed to find out the history and recency of the video......

Many thanks...
 
jagfish:
Hey
Does anyone know how recently dolphins have been harvested in Izu? Has the practice been stopped? I thought I heard this was a thing of the recent past.

Here is a video of a dolphin harvest and slaughter in Futo. Looks recent...Pretty graphic...

http://www.seashepherd.org/video/futo_slaughter.wmv

Just emailed a contact email in California, when I get a reply will let you know.
Truely a senseless barbaric act if it still is happening.
 
I went to their web page and looked at the Captains log, evidently this occured last year so, it is a current video. Here is the web link to those interested;

http://www.seashepherd.org
 
There was a recent BBC documentary about this in Japan. I believe that there are still two towns in Japan that haven't stopped - maybe one was in Izu, they were south of Tokyo in any event. The reason it has been stopped in about 95% of the places that it used to occur is precisely because Japanese people don't want it to happen - so it's non-productive to say that they haven't learnt anything.:wink:
It's kept very low-key where it does happen and the locals don't want to talk about it or have publicity. The catch is eaten entirely locally - for the rest the dolphins are also sold to the marine parks. As there are also marine parks and dolphinariums all over the planet - including Europe and the US - one has to presume that something like it happens everywhere. How else do these places get their dolphins otherwise.

The places where it does happen are in steady decline as well. This is due to the overfishing of the dolphin populations - so there are simply not many left in those areas to catch.
 
Video was shot 18 November 2003.....I wonder if they still kill whales in the name of science as well?
 
DMP, I truely hope your contact knows of a way to stop this.
 
This is obviously abhorrent. However I think we should keep it in perspective. The people doing this possibly number a couple of hundred - if that. Not all the fishermen from these towns agree with it either. This in a country of 85,000,000.
Who remembers the videos of the seal pup slaughters in Canada? To me they were just as awful, and not even for food - for clothes! Lets face it - people eat meat and fish - and it's not always pretty how they get it. Actually the vast majority of the Japanese people are also against the slaughter - that's why so many places have stopped it. Then the fishermen found out that they could actually make more money than before by taking people out to see the dolphins - so in many places it's win-win.
Actually the fishermen get about 10 times more money for a live dolphin than a dead one. If people stopped going to see the dolphins jumping through hoops etc, then the main reason to catch them would disappear overnight. I very much doubt if it would remain commercially viable to continue catching them just for food. I've lived in Japan for 5 years now and I eat out regularly. I've never seen dolphin on the menu - people don't want it.
 
If operating in U.S. waters, those fishermen would all be jailed for felony offenses, and the vessels impounded. That they continue to operate, despite their small number, points out a lack of interest by their government. A lack of government oversight implies a lack of public support to discontinue the practices seen in the video. A "silent majority" of disapproving citizens bears little political clout.

If this sort of behaviour is truly abhorrent to the japanese people, they should be voicing their concerns to their legislative bodies.
 

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