A welcome announcement this month!  A criminal complaint by Action for Dolphins (AFD) was accepted (likely grudgingly) by the Wakayama Prefectural Police.  This means that law enforcement will start looking into the activities of the Taiji Fishermen’s Association – the people who conduct Taiji’s notorious drive hunts.  Once findings have been submitted, it should not be particularly difficult for the Prosecutor’s Office to make a decision as to whether to bring forward an indictment.

Amazingly, the killing of dolphins is not at issue – that part is perfectly legal in Japan.  The problem for these ‘fishermen’ is that they’ve been selling dolphin meat which is contaminated with levels of mercury and methyl mercury which greatly exceed Japan’s legal limits.  Samples already provided by AFD showed levels as much as 25 times what current regulations allow.  

This is a well conceived legal strategy, accompanied by an effective pressure campaign, and it may well work.  There is, however, a cruel irony in the thought that such an inhumane and barbaric slaughter of fellow sentient beings could be stopped over a violation of food sanitation laws.  But if that’s what it takes, we’ll be beyond happy to get it.  Besides, even if you couldn’t care less about dolphins, this case is worth pursuing because of its important public health concerns.

But of course the dolphins’ wellbeing is of paramount importance, with serious moral implications surrounding these hunts.  So let’s think further about what this case really means.

I expect AFD’s legal effort will be successful.  This is in contrast to an earlier attempt to end the hunts because the killing method employed so clearly violates Japan’s own laws against cruelty to mammals that they would not be permitted in any of the nation’s slaughterhouses.  (Dolphins have been misclassified as fish and fall under the jurisdiction of the Fisheries Ministry, if you can believe that).  That effort failed when the court ruled that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to pursue it.  To this day, the judicial system’s failure to correct this obvious clerical oversight means that dolphins are denied even the (admittedly weak) protections granted to other mammals, and continue to be killed by extraordinarily cruel, painful methods.  

The difference this time?  People are being poisoned.  Human people.  The dolphins, who have personhood rights in India, certainly have none at all in Japan.  But I believe that because of the obvious impact to public health, authorities will have no choice but to act.  I said above that they do so grudgingly, and the reason I think so is that they’ve known for some time about the high mercury levels in whales and dolphins.  Dolphin Project has documented how elected officials admitted in 2007 that they had found “extremely high” levels in samples of meat from pilot whales killed by Taiji hunters.  

So this time should be different.  Regardless of any penalties the fishermen may or may not have levied against them, it’s likely that they will be prohibited from selling contaminated meat from then on.  Assuming that to be the case, it will be very interesting to see how the Taiji Fisheries Cooperative responds.  

One thing we know for certain is that the hunts will continue in some form.  The real money is from live captures, with its victims being sent to various aquaria and marine parks around the world.  To Taiji, a live dolphin destined for a lifetime of servitude and exploitation is worth many tens of thousands of dollars.  A dead dolphin heading for supermarket shelves is worth a few hundred at most.  Live captures will end only when we’ve brought the public up to a general level of awareness that removes most of the demand for dolphin shows and swim-with-the-dolphin programs.

So for the time being there will be much more of this horror to come.  But does that mean that at least the killing will stop?  Not necessarily, though with any luck my concerns will prove unfounded.  We like to imagine that after captive selections are complete the nets will be opened and the rest of the pod will be driven back out to sea.  But then we need to consider the theory put forth in last years’ documentary Seaspiracy.  My hope is that the killing that takes place now is a crime of opportunity, with the dolphins already having been caught, and with the ones not ‘pretty’ enough for sale to an aquarium representing a chance to make a little bit of extra income.  Entirely peripheral to the very lucrative, primary reason for the hunts.  If that’s true, the killing should then stop.

But what if the documentarians are right, and the real motivation for the killing is that the dolphins are perceived as competitors for already depleted fish stocks?  That is to say, the hunters would prefer to go on killing them.  However, what a successful outcome to AFD’s criminal complaint would mean is that the pretense of killing for food would be removed.  Without that cover, the stark brutality of the slaughter would be impossible for anyone to miss.  The additional pressure to completely ban the hunts that this would bring to bear may not be worth the risk.  If they want the world to go on letting them take dolphins in live captures, it’s entirely possible they’ll decide that any benefits from the killing just aren’t worth it.

Regardless of what they decide to do, what we need to continue to do is to keep removing, one by one, the facilities that are willing accept Taiji dolphins.  A number of countries have long since been on board with bans on imports of animals taken in drive hunts.  We need to keep going, until the inevitable end of cetacean captivity altogether.  

Also, let’s not forget that even a decision to discontinue killing deliberately will still mean that dolphins continue to die as a byproduct of the hunting process.  It’s not uncommon for dolphins subjected to prolonged, high-speed chases to die from heart attacks and exhaustion.  The intent is to tire them out so thoroughly that there will be little resistance when they need to be pushed into the cove at the last moment, or wrestled into shallower waters by divers.  The drive itself is very traumatic to the dolphins, and endangers their lives.  Add to that the horror of juvenile dolphins trying desperately to keep up as the pod fleas ahead of the wall-of-sound created by the banger boats.  Many do not survive the experience.

What we have here with this criminal complaint is a thoughtful, well-planned attempt to put a real dent into the Taiji drive hunts.  Not to mention the inevitable stain it could put on the hunters’ credibility within Japan itself.  That, in the end, might be the most helpful thing of all if we’re to ever see a permanent end to the hunts.  Well beyond simply taking the bad guys to court, what I welcome is the potential for seriously ramping up the pressure on lawmakers when the Japanese public learns what kind of people have been permitted to operate so scandalously and recklessly in Taiji all these years. 

AFD expects the legal process in this case to take at least a year, so we’ll have to be patient for a while longer.  But know that if we persist, if we remain relentless in speaking out, and in supporting AFD, Dolphin Project, WDC, Sea Shepherd and others – one day we will see the end of the dreadful and barbaric practice of drive hunting.

That will be one really big win that we can all look forward to.

For The Orca’s Voice, 

Chris, Canadian Cetacean Alliance