Dolphins: beautiful, magnificent creatures of the sea. They’re smart, good swimmers, and more importantly are one of the closest animal species to the human race. What justifies the savage act of dolphin slaughtering in the cove of Taiji? Every year, 23,000 dolphins and porpoises are killed just in the cove itself every year. Dolphins are not just like any animals that we have on this earth. They are more intelligent than others. They have families, they raise their young, and have rarely harmed humans. These fisherman in Japan have no right in killing these creatures, and this barbaric crime should not only be banned in Japan, but everywhere else in the world.
In the harbor of Taiji, dolphin meat is the most popular delicacy. The meat of one dolphin is worth about $600 USD and the dolphins that are captured alive are worth about $200,000 USD when they are sold to aquariums or marine parks. During a typical hunt, fisherman peruse pods of dolphins over the water while they bang metal poles under the water to confuse their hypersensitive sonar. They are then driven into the cove where they are sealed of by nets and dragged backward into secluded inlets where they are to be butchered with knives and spears. They are then fished onto the boat where they are to be taken to a warehouse to be sliced up and harnessed for their meat.
The people of Taiji know exactly the cruelty of their actions, but are against stopping it. Some fisherman even bring their children to the hunts, thinking it’s amusing to watch dolphins get butchered right in front of them. however, not all people in Taiji are aware of this. Many in the town don’t even know that the meat they purchase is really mislabeled dolphin meat. Some Japanese have even attacked western critics by calling them racist, and saying that we are no better when in comes to slaughtering animals such as chicken, pigs and cow, and how we are not criticized for those acts.
Although it is true that we do kill animals for meat here in western countries, dolphins are an entirely different species. They are more intelligent and have almost the same emotion as humans do, and overall dolphins have a natural motherly instinct. There have been records of dolphins saving people’s lives from drowning, and even wild shark attacks. Clearly the issue presented is not the same and in my opinion, the fisherman of Taiji are just using racism as a defense.
It’s also not just dolphins they are hurting when they hunt them for meat, but they are also hurting themselves due to the amount of mercury that is in the dolphin meat they are consuming. Dolphins themselves are not just any marine animals, they are also mammals like us. Their blood is red just like ours is, and to witness an entire sea turn red with their crimson blood makes people like me want to do something about it. So for more information please visit the following websites:
