“Our biggest hope for 2021 is that an empathy uprising takes place. Imagine if people from all over the world came together in the realization that whales, dolphins and other non-human beings share our ability to feel pain, grief, and joy, and that they have just as much right to be here as we do.” ~ Ric and Helene O’Barry
Can this be the year that this annual nightmare has run its course for the last time?
Every year, from September 1st to March 1st, the hunters of Taiji engage in the drive hunting of dolphins, under license by the governor of Wakayama Prefecture. They’re given a quota which defines how many individuals they will be permitted to kill or capture from among this species or that. For six long months, normally with exceptions only for holidays or bad weather, they head out to sea in the pre-dawn light to look for dolphins. And every day the world watches and hopes that today will be a Blue Cove Day, rather than a Red Cove Day.
On March 1st, the 2020/21 season came to an end. This year, the all-Japanese Life Investigation Agency (LIA) was on site to document every detail of these tragic events. Working in collaboration with Dolphin Project, these courageous campaigners reported (and live-streamed to the world) 46 occasions where the cove ran red, or entire pods were terrorized and disrupted by the capture of their members – unfortunates destined for a life in captivity entertaining humans. LIA counted at least 547 slaughtered, and 140 taken captive. We also know that an uncounted number died in the drive hunting process itself, and that among the ‘released’ were a number of infants who had no possibility of survival without the protection of their pods.
All so that a handful of men can feast on the riches of the sale of live captures to aquariums around the world, and guests at marine theme parks can be entertained, without the knowledge of how a dolphin came to reside in a tiny concrete tank in the first place.
Consider for a moment what the process of captive selection necessarily involves. These would be the kinds of memories retained for life by those dolphins you see at SeaWorld or Marineland.
Being driven for hours from the open ocean and pushed into a cove to be netted off from any chance of escape. Having another of your pod drown in the nets or die of a heart attack from exhaustion after the chase. Seeing them dragged to the area under the tarps where others are being slaughtered. Mothers panicking as they get separated from their nursing babies. Sometimes it’s the mother selected for captivity. Sometimes it’s the baby. Injuries sustained from the rough handling necessary to be subdued and carried away in the skiffs, to begin a brutal process of food deprivation and conditioning for a life of forced labour.
Nowhere in the world can we treat chimps or elephants this way legally – thankfully. Yet, when it comes to the animal most likely to rival us in terms of sheer brain power, all of this is completely legal. An attempt was made to challenge the legality of this in the courts, insofar as Japanese law does afford a certain level of protection against cruel treatment to mammals. Given that dolphins have been misclassified and come under the jurisdiction of the Fisheries Agency, this seems an obvious and logical conclusion. Unfortunately, so far the courts have found that the plaintiffs lack legal standing, and have denied them the opportunity to make this case in front of a judge.
One has to wonder if the dolphins are expected to file the suit themselves.
So, here we are at the end of another season. Every year we hope that next summer, maybe – just maybe – it will be the year that the permit is denied and the hunts will fail to go forward in September. And every summer we’re sorely disappointed, though not surprised. So why might this year be different? Well, simply put, the answer would be ‘Tokyo 2020′.
Or ‘Tokyo2021’ as it turns out, thanks to the global pandemic. All eyes will be on Japan, and not a detail will escape the spotlight. What happens in the cove at Taiji, or with the whaling ships within Japan’s territorial waters, couldn’t possibly be missed by international observers. Fortunately for the hunters, Taiji’s drive hunting season won’t coincide with the Olympic games, so they won’t hit the radar quite as convincingly. But the spotlight will be there, and activists won’t fail to seize the opportunity.
It’s true that on a number of occasions with this issue, Japanese authorities have been less than impressed with the gaze of foreign observers. For example, late in the season just ended, a minke whale became trapped in the set netting in Taiji. It remained there, without food, seeking a way out for 19 days while authorities did nothing and the world watched. In the end it was killed by fishermen who tied its tail to the edge of a boat and hung it upside down until it drowned. LIA members on site report that the fishermen laughed while working, as the whale violently thrashed about to try to free itself. It died after about 20 minutes.
In most countries this would provoke a harsh response from authorities, and the public would demand it. In Japan, no one felt compelled to lift a finger to help. Not one person in authority thought there would be enough of a price to pay with the voting public. Either they believe that most Japanese wouldn’t become aware of such an event or, if they did they wouldn’t care.
So why would they start to care now? I think there is a chance that the kind of attention that comes with the pageantry and spectacle of the Summer Olympics may well raise the ante sufficiently. We’re talking about global attention, from every other place and all at the same time. It’s a chance to show the world who you are, to put forward your best, and to tell the world you’re ready to take a leadership role as we move towards a brighter and more harmonious future. This isn’t just about sports – not even close.
The ugly taint of whaling and dolphin drive hunting stands in stark contrast to these ideals. Maybe the Olympics will prove to be what tips the balance away from the few who profit from these activities, in favour of democratically elected representatives who’ve become responsive to a Japanese public newly awakened to the horrors taking place on their shores.
Call me ultra-cautiously optimistic.
For The Orca’s Voice,
Chris, Canadian Cetacean Alliance
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