So I will be changing the name of the blog to Vancouver Animal Defense League. VADL is a group I started years ago in Van and we have been very active with anti fur, foie gras and shark fin campaigns. If you are a follower of this blog make sure you search for us under vancouveranimaldefenseleague.blogspot.com. I have lot's coming up so please stay tuned. I will mostly be using this blog so people can donate to the spay and neuter fund for our Thailand trip. When I am there I will be blogging daily updates.
VADL
Friday, November 25, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Change of plans
It's been a while since my last post when I left Taiji. I have since travelled to Australia and have been volunteering with Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in Sydney and now Hobart. Working with Sea Shepherd has been one of the most physically demanding jobs of my life, taking care of an old ship is a constant never ending job. We just spent 5 days at sea and I saw many dolphins where they should be, free and safe from Japanese dolphin killers. I don't know how you could see these beautiful animals playing with their families in the open ocean and intend to cause harm.
I have also decided I am going to change the name of my blog because my new adventures are not just with cetaceans. I am now going to be raising the funds to spay and neuter dogs or cats in Thailand with the organization Soi Dogs out of Phuket. In the next couple month I will be working and fundraising in Australia so I can travel to Thailand in May 2012.
Any suggestions for a new blog name?
Marley
I have also decided I am going to change the name of my blog because my new adventures are not just with cetaceans. I am now going to be raising the funds to spay and neuter dogs or cats in Thailand with the organization Soi Dogs out of Phuket. In the next couple month I will be working and fundraising in Australia so I can travel to Thailand in May 2012.
Marley
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Genocide
The dolphin meat and offal you see in these pictures came from dolphins who were alive an hour earlier. The meat is probably still warm. We followed the trucks leaving the slaughterhouse to where the meat is hacked up into smaller pieces for sale. The fishermen were not happy about me taking these pictures, one physically assaulted me and tried to push me away from the truck, the other crashed his truck into a wall trying to escape my camera.
The dolphin killing scumbags of Taiji need to know we will not be intimidated, we will not back down. What they are doing is a crime whether their government recognizes it or not and we will continue to document what they are doing so the world won't forget the dolphins of Japan.
We are no longer in Taiji, but we are still calling and emailing the embassy every single day. Please do the same.
Cetacean Defense League
The dolphin killing scumbags of Taiji need to know we will not be intimidated, we will not back down. What they are doing is a crime whether their government recognizes it or not and we will continue to document what they are doing so the world won't forget the dolphins of Japan.
We are no longer in Taiji, but we are still calling and emailing the embassy every single day. Please do the same.
Cetacean Defense League
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Shame on Japan
The day started with an eery bloody sunrise.
These scumbags in small skiffs were helping the banger boats by shouting at the dolphins and throwing things in their direction to scare them toward the Cove.
All of these animals met a violent, painful death in the Cove today.
No chance of escaping once the Cove is secured.
This is what animal abusers look like, no better than child molesters and rapists. Absolute filth, heading into the Cove to kill the pod.
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| This dolphin was so scared it threw itself on the rocks to get away from the fishermen and the sound of the bangers. |
Blood oozing out of the Cove. I will never forget what it felt like to witness this atrocity.
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| A fishermen with his catch for the day. This makes me SICK! |
Blood spilled on our last day in Taiji
Today we witnessed the most violent, cruel, worst thing we have ever seen. Approximately 30 Bottlenose dolphins were murdered in the Cove today.
The day started at 5:30am with all the banger boats leaving the harbor and the harpoon ship staying behind. At approx 8:15 we spotted the boats driving in a pod of dolphins. It took them several hours to drive the dolphins in and we watched them fight for their lives, they were thrashing and fighting, three times they refused to enter the Cove and attempted to escape. There were 5 banger boats dealing with these dolphins and the rest of the boats were attempting to drive in the rest of the pod which eventually escaped.
The banger boats were pounding away on their hideous poles creating a terrible sound that was driving the dolphins into a frenzy. We saw baby dolphins flying completely out of the water attempting to escape the terrible sound. As they were driven into the cove small skiffs came in with nets and roped the area off trapping the animals. They were fighting against the nets and the boats as if they knew what was going to happen to them. I witnessed one dolphin jump out of the water onto the rocks smashing his face causing blood to gush out of his mouth and nose, he fell back into the water and that was the last I saw of him. Several dolphins broke loose and divers quickly grabbed them and dragged them back into the nets and under the tarps.
The Cove is now covered entirely with tarps so we can only see boats entering and exiting. Right away we saw a boat head in and come out with a live dolphin that they obviously picked out to sell to a dolphinarium. The dolphin was sitting on the bottom of the boat and they were pouring water over him.
After the boats left was when we started hearing the thrashing of the tails pounding against the water. This sound is etched into my brain and I will never forget it. The dolphins were thrashing as the dolphin killers were plunging knives into their bodies and then the blood started to ooze out of the Cove. The thrashing went on for 10 minutes at least and we could hear the men yelling and laughing, clearly struggling to hold onto the animals who were fighting for their lives.
I became physically ill at what I saw, I could not contain my emotions. Behind us there was an undercover police officer laughing with a Japanese man wearing a Yushin Maru hat. The Yushin Maru is one of Japan's notorious whale harpoon vessels. Clearly they thought this was entertaining.
The dolphin killers took two and a half skiffs full of dead dolphins to the slaughterhouse where they were loaded and gutted under tarps. Since last year they have sufficiently covered up every visible area with tarps so none of this process is visible.
As the day ended we watched all the dolphin killing scumbags leave with a bag of dolphin meat to take home to their families. Even the smarmy, rude, cranky police officer that follows us around in an unmarked car went in to the slaughterhouse and brought out a bag of meat for himself. Hows that for bribery?
After everything we saw today, and reviewing our footage there were between 25-30 dolphins murdered today. It will stay with us forever. Both of us are very positive people, but it is INCREDIBLY difficult to remain calm or positive in a situation like that. Japan will forever be stained with blood for us.
Out last day here was the hardest day by far! We have both made the commitment to send an email or call the embassy EVERYDAY! I hope you do too.
Marley and Carisa
The day started at 5:30am with all the banger boats leaving the harbor and the harpoon ship staying behind. At approx 8:15 we spotted the boats driving in a pod of dolphins. It took them several hours to drive the dolphins in and we watched them fight for their lives, they were thrashing and fighting, three times they refused to enter the Cove and attempted to escape. There were 5 banger boats dealing with these dolphins and the rest of the boats were attempting to drive in the rest of the pod which eventually escaped.
The banger boats were pounding away on their hideous poles creating a terrible sound that was driving the dolphins into a frenzy. We saw baby dolphins flying completely out of the water attempting to escape the terrible sound. As they were driven into the cove small skiffs came in with nets and roped the area off trapping the animals. They were fighting against the nets and the boats as if they knew what was going to happen to them. I witnessed one dolphin jump out of the water onto the rocks smashing his face causing blood to gush out of his mouth and nose, he fell back into the water and that was the last I saw of him. Several dolphins broke loose and divers quickly grabbed them and dragged them back into the nets and under the tarps.
The Cove is now covered entirely with tarps so we can only see boats entering and exiting. Right away we saw a boat head in and come out with a live dolphin that they obviously picked out to sell to a dolphinarium. The dolphin was sitting on the bottom of the boat and they were pouring water over him.
After the boats left was when we started hearing the thrashing of the tails pounding against the water. This sound is etched into my brain and I will never forget it. The dolphins were thrashing as the dolphin killers were plunging knives into their bodies and then the blood started to ooze out of the Cove. The thrashing went on for 10 minutes at least and we could hear the men yelling and laughing, clearly struggling to hold onto the animals who were fighting for their lives.
I became physically ill at what I saw, I could not contain my emotions. Behind us there was an undercover police officer laughing with a Japanese man wearing a Yushin Maru hat. The Yushin Maru is one of Japan's notorious whale harpoon vessels. Clearly they thought this was entertaining.
The dolphin killers took two and a half skiffs full of dead dolphins to the slaughterhouse where they were loaded and gutted under tarps. Since last year they have sufficiently covered up every visible area with tarps so none of this process is visible.
As the day ended we watched all the dolphin killing scumbags leave with a bag of dolphin meat to take home to their families. Even the smarmy, rude, cranky police officer that follows us around in an unmarked car went in to the slaughterhouse and brought out a bag of meat for himself. Hows that for bribery?
After everything we saw today, and reviewing our footage there were between 25-30 dolphins murdered today. It will stay with us forever. Both of us are very positive people, but it is INCREDIBLY difficult to remain calm or positive in a situation like that. Japan will forever be stained with blood for us.
Out last day here was the hardest day by far! We have both made the commitment to send an email or call the embassy EVERYDAY! I hope you do too.
Marley and Carisa
Monday, October 3, 2011
Day 10 in Taiji
Today the dolphin hunters left the harbor to hunt and came back with nothing, AGAIN. We are so lucky to have been in Japan for almost 2 weeks and still the murderers have not spilled blood in front of us.
Today was intense like yesterday because they did actually locate the pod and attempted to drive them in towards the Cove. The 12 banger boats spent hours zig zagging on the horizon getting into formation and surging full speed towards us obviously driving a pod. We would then see them stop and sit there, clearly they lost sight of the pod and usually one boat will move around until they locate them again and they would get back into formation. When they are in formation they all line up perfectly spaced apart so they can create a wall of sound to drive the animals forward. We knew they were struggling to keep control of the pod and we were cheering the dolphins and begging them to fight for their lives. Finally the filthy molesters limped back after spending so much money on fuel, we love it!
In the afternoon we went to the Taiji Whale Museum and watched the trainers working with the captive animals there. I can't tell you how hard it is to watch them train these dolphins, it makes me sick to my stomach. One of the Pacific White Sided dolphins I nick named Peanut was being forced to jump out of the water onto the cement platform which was about 2 feet above water level. The trainer wanted him to jump out, lie there and hold his tail in the air and take a fish, but once the trick is done he has to slide off the edge back into the water. It was clear that the sharp edge of the pool hurt his stomach and after around 7 tries he couldn't do it anymore and the trainer kept holding the fish above him. To see him struggling so much to do this stupid trick made me want to vomit. It was clearly hurting him and the poor hungry dolphin wanted his food. Many people don't realize that these animals are kept hungry so they will comply.
We then watched these scumbags bring out all these needles and tubes and I guess one of the bottlenose dolphins is sick? We actually watched them put 2 feet of tubing down this dolphins throat and tube some sort of substance into this stomach and they flipped him over and jammed a needle into his tail and pumped him full of some other unknown substance.
We realize more than ever that aquariums and dolphinariums need to be shut down!
For the Oceans,
Marley and Carisa
Today was intense like yesterday because they did actually locate the pod and attempted to drive them in towards the Cove. The 12 banger boats spent hours zig zagging on the horizon getting into formation and surging full speed towards us obviously driving a pod. We would then see them stop and sit there, clearly they lost sight of the pod and usually one boat will move around until they locate them again and they would get back into formation. When they are in formation they all line up perfectly spaced apart so they can create a wall of sound to drive the animals forward. We knew they were struggling to keep control of the pod and we were cheering the dolphins and begging them to fight for their lives. Finally the filthy molesters limped back after spending so much money on fuel, we love it!
In the afternoon we went to the Taiji Whale Museum and watched the trainers working with the captive animals there. I can't tell you how hard it is to watch them train these dolphins, it makes me sick to my stomach. One of the Pacific White Sided dolphins I nick named Peanut was being forced to jump out of the water onto the cement platform which was about 2 feet above water level. The trainer wanted him to jump out, lie there and hold his tail in the air and take a fish, but once the trick is done he has to slide off the edge back into the water. It was clear that the sharp edge of the pool hurt his stomach and after around 7 tries he couldn't do it anymore and the trainer kept holding the fish above him. To see him struggling so much to do this stupid trick made me want to vomit. It was clearly hurting him and the poor hungry dolphin wanted his food. Many people don't realize that these animals are kept hungry so they will comply.
We then watched these scumbags bring out all these needles and tubes and I guess one of the bottlenose dolphins is sick? We actually watched them put 2 feet of tubing down this dolphins throat and tube some sort of substance into this stomach and they flipped him over and jammed a needle into his tail and pumped him full of some other unknown substance.
We realize more than ever that aquariums and dolphinariums need to be shut down!
For the Oceans,
Marley and Carisa
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Day 9 in Taiji, INTENSE
So today was definitely the most intense day we have had in Taiji so far. All the banger boats went out at 5:45 in the morning and the harpoon ship stayed in the harbor again. After 2 hours we saw the worst sight ever, all 12 of the banger boats on the horizon in formation driving a pod. For the next six hours we watched the boats trying to force these poor animals into the Cove to be slaughtered. They seemed to have complete control of the pod until several large ships crossed their path and seemed to allow the animals to get away. There were so many ships in the area that were zig zagging across their path it messed up their drive and allowed the dolphins get away. Several times the dolphins managed to lose the boats and the banger boats would sit there and wait, a couple times they got sight of them again and we could see black smoke puffing up into sky while they attempted to catch the dolphins again. Finally we saw them sitting there, waiting to see the pod, and then the best sight ever they started heading toward the harbor empty handed.
We were so overwhelmed with joy we were in tears. We were absolutely exhausted from the tension we felt for 6 hours, and I cant imagine what the family of dolphins felt after being driven to near exhaustion. We are so elated that the animals are safe and free, hopefully they will never ever come near Japan again. Any cetacean that comes anywhere near this place is in danger of losing their life or their freedom.
Please contact the Japanese embassy in your country and ask them to stop killing whales and dolphins. That is all I can write for now, a 14 hour day has left us ready for bed at 5:30pm!
Marley and Carisa
We were so overwhelmed with joy we were in tears. We were absolutely exhausted from the tension we felt for 6 hours, and I cant imagine what the family of dolphins felt after being driven to near exhaustion. We are so elated that the animals are safe and free, hopefully they will never ever come near Japan again. Any cetacean that comes anywhere near this place is in danger of losing their life or their freedom.
Please contact the Japanese embassy in your country and ask them to stop killing whales and dolphins. That is all I can write for now, a 14 hour day has left us ready for bed at 5:30pm!
Marley and Carisa
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Day 8 in Taiji
Today all 12 of the banger boats left the harbor to hunt, but for some reason the harpoon ship stayed behind. Whatever the reason we don't care, we feel a lot of relief to see this weapon of mass destruction tied to the dock. The banger boats went out for several hours and when they returned they stayed just off shore for about an hour and they looked like they may have been attempting to drive some dolphins in but we could not see what they were chasing. They were in and out of formation, moving irrationally and all over the place then getting into formation again. In the end they came back empty handed AGAIN. THANKFULLY.
It is so hard to be happy for long when the hunting boats return without dolphins because we usually head straight to the Dolphin Hotel to check on the dolphins in the sea pens.
One thing we noticed yesterday is one of the 40ft by 40ft pens actually has 6 dolphins in it. It blows my mind to think these dolphins can actually move in this jail cell without smashing into each other.
The sick dolphin is still very sick and we have named him Jiyu which means freedom in Japanese. We watched the trainers feed again today; as usual Jiyu has no interest in food and they are doing nothing to help him. We are fully expecting to arrive one day and see him floating lifelessly. Out of all the dolphins these are the most recently caught so him and the other dolphins in that pen still must have vivid memories of freedom. After seeing these dolphins in captivity we feel that this is just as cruel as the hunt. We must fight all over the world to keep cetaceans out of captivity! I am having a hard time looking at these dolphins day after day in this hell hole.
Sea Shepherd is asking the public to please contact the hotel and demand the sick dolphin be treated and released back into the wild with his companions. Otherwise it is likely that he may pass away.
Email: info@dolphinbase.co.jp or info@dolphinresort.jp
How to Call Taiji, Japan from the United States:
Phone: 81-73-559-3514
Fax: 81-73-559-281
We also checked on the captive dolphins at the Whale Museum and we watched the trainers feeding. None of the animals get food without being told to do a trick first, the animals must work for their food. We watched one trainer forcing a bottlenose dolphin to spin a hula hoop around his nose and he struggled and struggled and kept dropping it. The trainer would not give him fish until he was able to spin it around but he could not do it, and the trainer walked away without feeding him. They purposely starve the animals so they will do anything for food, it's animal cruelty and it makes me sick.
I think the most important thing we can do to stop this is speak out against any facility that keeps captive dolphins in any country. We must tell our friends and family to BOYCOTT these places and spread the word. Cetaceans belong in the wild, no exceptions.
The next most important thing anyone can do is come to Taiji. Whether with Sea Shepherd, Save Japans Dolphins or on your own as an individual. If we could have a hundred people here at one time standing up for the dolphins I believe we could stop this. Please consider coming here to stand up for these poor animals.
Please do your part to help Jiyu and the other captive dolphins. They are all suffering! We understand that not everybody is able to come to Taiji, so please make a serious commitment to call the Japanese Embassy everyday, flood their email and voicemail with your concerns!
For the Oceans,
Marley and Carisa
It is so hard to be happy for long when the hunting boats return without dolphins because we usually head straight to the Dolphin Hotel to check on the dolphins in the sea pens.
One thing we noticed yesterday is one of the 40ft by 40ft pens actually has 6 dolphins in it. It blows my mind to think these dolphins can actually move in this jail cell without smashing into each other.
The sick dolphin is still very sick and we have named him Jiyu which means freedom in Japanese. We watched the trainers feed again today; as usual Jiyu has no interest in food and they are doing nothing to help him. We are fully expecting to arrive one day and see him floating lifelessly. Out of all the dolphins these are the most recently caught so him and the other dolphins in that pen still must have vivid memories of freedom. After seeing these dolphins in captivity we feel that this is just as cruel as the hunt. We must fight all over the world to keep cetaceans out of captivity! I am having a hard time looking at these dolphins day after day in this hell hole.
Sea Shepherd is asking the public to please contact the hotel and demand the sick dolphin be treated and released back into the wild with his companions. Otherwise it is likely that he may pass away.
Email: info@dolphinbase.co.jp or info@dolphinresort.jp
How to Call Taiji, Japan from the United States:
Phone: 81-73-559-3514
Fax: 81-73-559-281
We also checked on the captive dolphins at the Whale Museum and we watched the trainers feeding. None of the animals get food without being told to do a trick first, the animals must work for their food. We watched one trainer forcing a bottlenose dolphin to spin a hula hoop around his nose and he struggled and struggled and kept dropping it. The trainer would not give him fish until he was able to spin it around but he could not do it, and the trainer walked away without feeding him. They purposely starve the animals so they will do anything for food, it's animal cruelty and it makes me sick.
I think the most important thing we can do to stop this is speak out against any facility that keeps captive dolphins in any country. We must tell our friends and family to BOYCOTT these places and spread the word. Cetaceans belong in the wild, no exceptions.
The next most important thing anyone can do is come to Taiji. Whether with Sea Shepherd, Save Japans Dolphins or on your own as an individual. If we could have a hundred people here at one time standing up for the dolphins I believe we could stop this. Please consider coming here to stand up for these poor animals.
Please do your part to help Jiyu and the other captive dolphins. They are all suffering! We understand that not everybody is able to come to Taiji, so please make a serious commitment to call the Japanese Embassy everyday, flood their email and voicemail with your concerns!
For the Oceans,
Marley and Carisa
Friday, September 30, 2011
Day 7 in Taiji
Another beautiful day in Taiji, which unfortunately means that the dolphin hunters were out and about. All 12 banger boats and the harpoon vessel went out this morning. At first glance the area is gorgeous, but after spending a week in Taiji it is difficult to appreciate the beauty of it when there is so much cruelty to animals going on here.
Today the police were a little more aggressive with us as well. We are constantly followed by them and today when we were out at the lookout waiting for the boats to return Rosie spotted 2 men hiding in the bushes staring at her when she was on her way to the washroom. When she spotted them they jumped out of the bushes and pretended they were exercising. When she approached them they ran! Were they police? Or perhaps perverts peeping at woman from the bushes? Who knows, but it would be nice if they identified themselves. We also noted that the dolphin trainers at the Hotel are getting police escorts. It seems at if 2 Wakayama policemen are driving around with them and guarding them when they are training. Although the local Taiji police are very friendly and helpful these Wakayama Prefecture police are smarmy, rude, and they love to laugh and joke with the dolphin trainers, taking pictures of the dolphins when they are doing their tricks. Perhaps for their dolphin scrapbooks? Who knows. Who cares, they can't intimidate us and we will continue monitoring the sick dolphin that the trainers are ignoring. Shame in them!
Marley and Carisa
The hunting boats leaving the harbor, ruining a perfectly beautiful sunrise.
The boats were out for about 3 hours before we spotted them. Once we saw them we were fairly concerned because they were in a formation like they had found a pod of dolphins, although their movements were very erratic/unorganized. We continued to follow their locations for another hour, but ultimately they were unable drive in any dolphins. Hopefully the dolphins continue to elude the fishermen!
We checked on the dolphins at the dolphin hotel, and yet again the sick dolphin is being ignored by the trainers. To make the dolphins do stupid tricks they are deprived from their normal amount of food, by the time the trainers come around they are basically begging for fish, but the ill dolphin has zero interest! It doesn't even acknowledge them at all! When we asked them to help the sick dolphin, the trainers laughed and made jokes about us. These are the people that claim to love the dolphins, yet they don't even care that one of the dolphins lays listless all day, won't interact with the others, and will not eat?! These people do NOT care about the dolphins! They are GREEDY!
The Taiji Dolphin Hotel sea pens where wild dolphins are held prisoner.
Today the police were a little more aggressive with us as well. We are constantly followed by them and today when we were out at the lookout waiting for the boats to return Rosie spotted 2 men hiding in the bushes staring at her when she was on her way to the washroom. When she spotted them they jumped out of the bushes and pretended they were exercising. When she approached them they ran! Were they police? Or perhaps perverts peeping at woman from the bushes? Who knows, but it would be nice if they identified themselves. We also noted that the dolphin trainers at the Hotel are getting police escorts. It seems at if 2 Wakayama policemen are driving around with them and guarding them when they are training. Although the local Taiji police are very friendly and helpful these Wakayama Prefecture police are smarmy, rude, and they love to laugh and joke with the dolphin trainers, taking pictures of the dolphins when they are doing their tricks. Perhaps for their dolphin scrapbooks? Who knows. Who cares, they can't intimidate us and we will continue monitoring the sick dolphin that the trainers are ignoring. Shame in them!
Marley and Carisa
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Day 6 in Taiji
Well the wild cetaceans around Taiji are very lucky again. The hunter boats left the harbor today and came back empty handed AGAIN. Today was a bit different though because the harpoon ship came back much later than the rest of the boats and we were dreading to see why it was so late but it came back empty as well.
Our afternoon consisted mostly of sitting in the harbor for 6 hours waiting for the harpoon ship to return. In that time we were visited at least 7 times by undercover police and sketchy individuals asking totally ridiculous questions pretending to be supporters. The undercover police in Taiji really need to work on their skills because they really do stick out like a sore thumb. Oh well, at least they are entertaining.
While sitting in the harbor we also watched an elderly man who was fishing off the pier and he actually caught a plastic bag on his hook. We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw him take the bag off his hook and toss it back into the ocean. Again, it's clear to us that even the elderly residents of Taiji do not care about marine life and the coastal ecosystems around their home. I can't imagine my own grandparents ever throwing plastic garbage into the water, how shameful.
As always, please call and email the Japanese embassy and tell them what you think of slaughtering dolphins and the sale of wild dolphins for entertainment. For instant updates follow Sea Shepherd on Twitter, Rosie updates frequently!
For the Oceans,
Marley and Carisa
Our afternoon consisted mostly of sitting in the harbor for 6 hours waiting for the harpoon ship to return. In that time we were visited at least 7 times by undercover police and sketchy individuals asking totally ridiculous questions pretending to be supporters. The undercover police in Taiji really need to work on their skills because they really do stick out like a sore thumb. Oh well, at least they are entertaining.
While sitting in the harbor we also watched an elderly man who was fishing off the pier and he actually caught a plastic bag on his hook. We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw him take the bag off his hook and toss it back into the ocean. Again, it's clear to us that even the elderly residents of Taiji do not care about marine life and the coastal ecosystems around their home. I can't imagine my own grandparents ever throwing plastic garbage into the water, how shameful.
As always, please call and email the Japanese embassy and tell them what you think of slaughtering dolphins and the sale of wild dolphins for entertainment. For instant updates follow Sea Shepherd on Twitter, Rosie updates frequently!
For the Oceans,
Marley and Carisa
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Day 5 in Taiji
And yet again another great day for wild cetaceans in Japan, the banger boats and the harpoon ship left the harbor to hunt today and came back empty handed. GO DOLPHINS!
Again we spent the day checking on the captive dolphins at the Taiji Dolphin Hotel. Today we saw something there that really blew our minds, and yet kind of didn't surprise us at all. So firstly I really want to stress how much garbage we see in the water here. Some of it I am sure is from the typhoon, but for whatever reason the water is FILLED with garbage everywhere we go and no one seems to be cleaning it up. Today at the harbor there was so much plastic floating in the water and at least 50 dead fish floating amongst it. We also see a huge amount of garbage floating around the dolphin pens and literally every day we have been there we see dolphins playing with garbage. The last 3 days we have visited the Dolphin Hotel we have seen dolphins pushing around plastic bags which would get caught on their dorsal fins and they would roll around trying to get it off. We also see the trainers picking the garbage out of the pens but today we actually saw a trainer playing fetch with a dolphin using a plastic bag. He was actually throwing a plastic bag into their pen and the dolphin would bring it back to him apparently in an effort to teach the dolphins how to clean their own pens.
But today we saw something that really disgusted us. A large plastic trash can that had been floating around in the water got stuck between two of the dolphin pens. We saw one of the trainers pull the garbage can out of the water and we honestly thought that they would take it up to their dumpster or something but no.... he actually tossed it back into the ocean away from the pens, he THREW A LARGE PLASTIC TRASH CAN INTO THE OCEAN, next to the dolphins no less!!!
Is this what the people of Taiji think of the oceans? That they are just a big garbage dump to put their trash in, to steal animals from, and to totally overfish? Considering the treatment of these dolphins at the Taiji Dolphin Hotel why would we be at all surprised that they would throw garbage into what SHOULD be a beautiful ecosystem. Total and complete disregard for marine life. TOTAL AND COMPLETE DISREGARD FOR MARINE LIFE.
And to top the day off we had to watch the public come and swim with the dolphins twice. The 4 dolphins in the middle pen are the most tame so all of the tourists get to climb in with them and ride around on their backs, grabbing on to their dorsal fins. The first group we saw was 4 adults, but the second group was 27 high school children. There were literally 27 people in a 60 foot by 60 foot sea pen, all at the same time, all grabbing at the dolphins. It is very difficult to watch all this and not spontaneously combust, there are so many things wrong with this place it is almost too much to take.
The best part is we were followed by undercover police officers all day. I am not really sure what these undercover police officers were expecting, but we knew they were police right away and when they were pretending to have a nap in their car we marched right over, tapped on their window and asked who they were. They looked absolutely horrified we had approached them and when they showed us their badges we just started laughing. I can't imagine a town where wild animals are being tortured and abused in the worst way and they follow us around like we are the criminals? It's a joke.
We get the message loud and clear, the people of Taiji have ZERO respect for marine life and the oceans. If they had any at all the beaches wouldn't look like a garbage dump and dolphins wouldn't be getting hacked to pieces and molested in cheap, filthy, roadside dolphinarium hellholes.
This place is really starting to get to me, and I haven't even witnessed a hunt yet.
Marley Daviduk
Cetacean Defense League
Again we spent the day checking on the captive dolphins at the Taiji Dolphin Hotel. Today we saw something there that really blew our minds, and yet kind of didn't surprise us at all. So firstly I really want to stress how much garbage we see in the water here. Some of it I am sure is from the typhoon, but for whatever reason the water is FILLED with garbage everywhere we go and no one seems to be cleaning it up. Today at the harbor there was so much plastic floating in the water and at least 50 dead fish floating amongst it. We also see a huge amount of garbage floating around the dolphin pens and literally every day we have been there we see dolphins playing with garbage. The last 3 days we have visited the Dolphin Hotel we have seen dolphins pushing around plastic bags which would get caught on their dorsal fins and they would roll around trying to get it off. We also see the trainers picking the garbage out of the pens but today we actually saw a trainer playing fetch with a dolphin using a plastic bag. He was actually throwing a plastic bag into their pen and the dolphin would bring it back to him apparently in an effort to teach the dolphins how to clean their own pens.
But today we saw something that really disgusted us. A large plastic trash can that had been floating around in the water got stuck between two of the dolphin pens. We saw one of the trainers pull the garbage can out of the water and we honestly thought that they would take it up to their dumpster or something but no.... he actually tossed it back into the ocean away from the pens, he THREW A LARGE PLASTIC TRASH CAN INTO THE OCEAN, next to the dolphins no less!!!
Is this what the people of Taiji think of the oceans? That they are just a big garbage dump to put their trash in, to steal animals from, and to totally overfish? Considering the treatment of these dolphins at the Taiji Dolphin Hotel why would we be at all surprised that they would throw garbage into what SHOULD be a beautiful ecosystem. Total and complete disregard for marine life. TOTAL AND COMPLETE DISREGARD FOR MARINE LIFE.
And to top the day off we had to watch the public come and swim with the dolphins twice. The 4 dolphins in the middle pen are the most tame so all of the tourists get to climb in with them and ride around on their backs, grabbing on to their dorsal fins. The first group we saw was 4 adults, but the second group was 27 high school children. There were literally 27 people in a 60 foot by 60 foot sea pen, all at the same time, all grabbing at the dolphins. It is very difficult to watch all this and not spontaneously combust, there are so many things wrong with this place it is almost too much to take.
The best part is we were followed by undercover police officers all day. I am not really sure what these undercover police officers were expecting, but we knew they were police right away and when they were pretending to have a nap in their car we marched right over, tapped on their window and asked who they were. They looked absolutely horrified we had approached them and when they showed us their badges we just started laughing. I can't imagine a town where wild animals are being tortured and abused in the worst way and they follow us around like we are the criminals? It's a joke.
We get the message loud and clear, the people of Taiji have ZERO respect for marine life and the oceans. If they had any at all the beaches wouldn't look like a garbage dump and dolphins wouldn't be getting hacked to pieces and molested in cheap, filthy, roadside dolphinarium hellholes.
This place is really starting to get to me, and I haven't even witnessed a hunt yet.
Marley Daviduk
Cetacean Defense League
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Taiji
The Taiji police are very friendly and reasonable... although I think they like to tell us tales. They warn us not to go into the hills because of deadly snakes, and today they saw me eating Inari, a delicious tofu snack and they told me there is an ancient Japanese proverb that says the Osprey from Japan love tofu and are liable to snatch it out of your hands.
This is the lookout where we watch for the killer boats returning.
This picture pretty much shows how we feel when we witness animal cruelty firsthand. Rosie and I are watching tourists swim with captive dolphins. These dolphins were caught in the wild a year ago, they watched their entire families get cruelly slaughtered and now live their lives in extremely small enclosures. These tourists pay to swim with them and molest them like sex slaves being pimped out to perverts. Shame on anyone who supports a company that profits off of captive cetaceans. Keep wild animals in the WILD.
Day 4 in Taiji
Today was another choppy day on the water and the killer boats thankfully did not leave the harbor. We are worried about the weather tomorrow as it looks like it may be a bit more clear but lets hope for the best.
Our days as Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians are long and tiring. We wake at 4, meet the others at 5 and head straight to the hill over looking the Taiji harbor soon after that. We usually wait there until 7 watching the weather and the banger boats to see whether they leave. If they haven't left by 7 they usually do not go out at all.
At around 9:30 we head to the Dolphin Hotel to wait for the trainers to come out and feed the dolphins. If the banger boats do not go out we usually check on the dolphins at the hotel 3 times a day so we can watch the trainers feed and administer drugs.
Sometime in the last week 2 dolphins escaped the sea pens at the hotel by jumping over the edge into the open ocean. It breaks our hearts to see that they will not leave the other dolphins, perhaps out of loyalty we do not know. Over the last several days we noticed that during feeding times the trainers do not feed the dolphins who escaped, and it has become very clear that the dolphins are hungry because as the trainers walk around the pens the free dolphins follow them jumping 6-10 feet out of the water right beside them as if they are begging for food. Once a day the trainers open their pen and throw fish in it to try and lure them inside but they have refused to go in it. Yesterday we took a picture of one of the dolphins as it jumped out of the water and we can clearly see the dolphins ribs. We are not experts on dolphin physiology, we have sent the pictures to an expert to access their body conditions but it seems to me that dolphins need blubber to keep their internal organs warm in the cold water. The dolphins do not have access to the fish they need in the shallow harbor and if the trainers are withholding food from the dolphins in an effort to force them back into the pens they would be knowingly starving them to do this.
We think they may have been successful today in forcing the free dolphins back into the small 40 foot by 40 foot pens this afternoon but we will confirm this tomorrow.
In the afternoon when we checked in at the dolphin hotel we saw a family standing in the pens with the dolphins. They paid money to bring their small child out to the pens so they could stand there and have a dolphin wave his tail at them and put fish in his mouth. These are the very people who are paying for this entire mess. If they didn't pay money to see captive dolphins then they wouldn't be driving entire pods into the cove and capturing the desired ones and killing the rest. SHAME ON THEM.
Please contact the Dolphin Hotel and let them know what you think of cetaceans in captivity and the fact they are withholding food from animals in an effort to make them comply.
Email: info@dolphinbase.co.jp or info@dolphinresort.jp
How to Call Taiji, Japan from the United States:
Phone: 81-73-559-3514
Fax: 81-73-559-281
Marley and Carisa
Cetacean Defense League
Our days as Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians are long and tiring. We wake at 4, meet the others at 5 and head straight to the hill over looking the Taiji harbor soon after that. We usually wait there until 7 watching the weather and the banger boats to see whether they leave. If they haven't left by 7 they usually do not go out at all.
At around 9:30 we head to the Dolphin Hotel to wait for the trainers to come out and feed the dolphins. If the banger boats do not go out we usually check on the dolphins at the hotel 3 times a day so we can watch the trainers feed and administer drugs.
Sometime in the last week 2 dolphins escaped the sea pens at the hotel by jumping over the edge into the open ocean. It breaks our hearts to see that they will not leave the other dolphins, perhaps out of loyalty we do not know. Over the last several days we noticed that during feeding times the trainers do not feed the dolphins who escaped, and it has become very clear that the dolphins are hungry because as the trainers walk around the pens the free dolphins follow them jumping 6-10 feet out of the water right beside them as if they are begging for food. Once a day the trainers open their pen and throw fish in it to try and lure them inside but they have refused to go in it. Yesterday we took a picture of one of the dolphins as it jumped out of the water and we can clearly see the dolphins ribs. We are not experts on dolphin physiology, we have sent the pictures to an expert to access their body conditions but it seems to me that dolphins need blubber to keep their internal organs warm in the cold water. The dolphins do not have access to the fish they need in the shallow harbor and if the trainers are withholding food from the dolphins in an effort to force them back into the pens they would be knowingly starving them to do this.
We think they may have been successful today in forcing the free dolphins back into the small 40 foot by 40 foot pens this afternoon but we will confirm this tomorrow.
In the afternoon when we checked in at the dolphin hotel we saw a family standing in the pens with the dolphins. They paid money to bring their small child out to the pens so they could stand there and have a dolphin wave his tail at them and put fish in his mouth. These are the very people who are paying for this entire mess. If they didn't pay money to see captive dolphins then they wouldn't be driving entire pods into the cove and capturing the desired ones and killing the rest. SHAME ON THEM.
Please contact the Dolphin Hotel and let them know what you think of cetaceans in captivity and the fact they are withholding food from animals in an effort to make them comply.
Email: info@dolphinbase.co.jp or info@dolphinresort.jp
How to Call Taiji, Japan from the United States:
Phone: 81-73-559-3514
Fax: 81-73-559-281
Marley and Carisa
Cetacean Defense League
Monday, September 26, 2011
Day 3 in Taiji
Today was even stormier than yesterday with pounding rain and gale force winds. The banger boats never go out in this kind of weather so the wild dolphins are lucky.
We spent the day checking on the captive dolphins in the city instead. We are very concerned about one dolphin in particular at the Dolphin Hotel in Taiji. The dolphin hotel is a terrible tourist attraction where you can stay there and watch dolphin shows and swim with the dolphins in their pens. They have 7 sea pens in ocean as well as an unknown amount of dolphins in their dolphinarium.
The dolphin we are worried about is the one we saw exhibiting neurotic repetitive behavior bobbing up and down constantly spyhopping. Yesterday we watched as they caught him and pinned him against the side of the pen, injected him with an unknown substance and put what looked like an iodine mixture on these open bloody wounds on his tail fluke. It looks like he is rubbing his tail raw on the bottom of his shallow pen while bobbing.
Today when we arrived we saw that he had received more veterinary care for an injury he received below his eye. We could see that there was a large amount of what looked like a white substance, almost putty like as if it had been spread on this wound, and still the large jagged mark was still clearly visible below his eye. We sat and watched as the trainer fed all the dolphins but the sick dolphin would not eat. While all the other dolphins were jumping at the dead fish, he still bobbed up and down showing no interest in the meal. We could see that the trainers were speaking about him and pointing at him. Rosie from Sea Shepherd said she witnessed them force feeding him the other day so we may see that again tomorrow.
Something else that could be a serious problem is 2 dolphins who have escaped from their pens. We don't know how long these dolphins have been loose, but they just swim around the outside of the pens that keep their friends and family captive. We don't know why they don't head out to sea, perhaps they are loyal and refuse to leave the others. We noticed today that during feeding time the trainers did not feed the two dolphins who are loose and when we inspected some close up photos of them their ribs were clearly visible. When the trainers were walking around the pens with food the dolphins were jumping 6-10 feet out of the water as if to get their attention. We are not experts on dolphin physiology but we have sent the pictures of the dolphins to a professional. I don't think it is a good thing to be able to see the ribs on a dolphin, especially because they need blubber to keep warm, and considering these dolphins won't leave the harbor they may not be getting enough food if the trainers aren't bothering to feed them. We will wait to here more about this dolphins condition and will update soon.
The police were kind of aggressive with us today. They pretty much follow us around where ever we go, and the police we have met so far have been extremely friendly. Today the dolphin trainers called them because they don't want their pictures taken and the police are trying to force us to stop taking pictures when the trainers are out there. They say it is because Japanese morals say it's not ok to take a picture of someone who hasn't given permission. Morals? From these people who are mistreating wild animals? Well this makes it a little bit difficult because we need to take pictures of the trainers feeding and treating these injuries. We will continue to take pictures for the dolphins sake, we will not stop.
Ultimately we are here for the dolphins! If the police would like to be our personal escorts around the town of Taiji, they are welcome to. All of this personal attention is costing a great deal of money!
We will continue to update as much as possible, but if you would like to help please call the Japanese embassy near you on behalf of the captive dolphins. They need to hear that it is NOT okay to treat these sentient creatures like objects for entertainment. They are all hungry and have too little space to move around.
For the Oceans,
Carisa and Marley
We spent the day checking on the captive dolphins in the city instead. We are very concerned about one dolphin in particular at the Dolphin Hotel in Taiji. The dolphin hotel is a terrible tourist attraction where you can stay there and watch dolphin shows and swim with the dolphins in their pens. They have 7 sea pens in ocean as well as an unknown amount of dolphins in their dolphinarium.
The dolphin we are worried about is the one we saw exhibiting neurotic repetitive behavior bobbing up and down constantly spyhopping. Yesterday we watched as they caught him and pinned him against the side of the pen, injected him with an unknown substance and put what looked like an iodine mixture on these open bloody wounds on his tail fluke. It looks like he is rubbing his tail raw on the bottom of his shallow pen while bobbing.
Today when we arrived we saw that he had received more veterinary care for an injury he received below his eye. We could see that there was a large amount of what looked like a white substance, almost putty like as if it had been spread on this wound, and still the large jagged mark was still clearly visible below his eye. We sat and watched as the trainer fed all the dolphins but the sick dolphin would not eat. While all the other dolphins were jumping at the dead fish, he still bobbed up and down showing no interest in the meal. We could see that the trainers were speaking about him and pointing at him. Rosie from Sea Shepherd said she witnessed them force feeding him the other day so we may see that again tomorrow.
Something else that could be a serious problem is 2 dolphins who have escaped from their pens. We don't know how long these dolphins have been loose, but they just swim around the outside of the pens that keep their friends and family captive. We don't know why they don't head out to sea, perhaps they are loyal and refuse to leave the others. We noticed today that during feeding time the trainers did not feed the two dolphins who are loose and when we inspected some close up photos of them their ribs were clearly visible. When the trainers were walking around the pens with food the dolphins were jumping 6-10 feet out of the water as if to get their attention. We are not experts on dolphin physiology but we have sent the pictures of the dolphins to a professional. I don't think it is a good thing to be able to see the ribs on a dolphin, especially because they need blubber to keep warm, and considering these dolphins won't leave the harbor they may not be getting enough food if the trainers aren't bothering to feed them. We will wait to here more about this dolphins condition and will update soon.
The police were kind of aggressive with us today. They pretty much follow us around where ever we go, and the police we have met so far have been extremely friendly. Today the dolphin trainers called them because they don't want their pictures taken and the police are trying to force us to stop taking pictures when the trainers are out there. They say it is because Japanese morals say it's not ok to take a picture of someone who hasn't given permission. Morals? From these people who are mistreating wild animals? Well this makes it a little bit difficult because we need to take pictures of the trainers feeding and treating these injuries. We will continue to take pictures for the dolphins sake, we will not stop.
Ultimately we are here for the dolphins! If the police would like to be our personal escorts around the town of Taiji, they are welcome to. All of this personal attention is costing a great deal of money!
We will continue to update as much as possible, but if you would like to help please call the Japanese embassy near you on behalf of the captive dolphins. They need to hear that it is NOT okay to treat these sentient creatures like objects for entertainment. They are all hungry and have too little space to move around.
For the Oceans,
Carisa and Marley
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Day 2 in Taiji
Well today was another great day for the wild dolphins of Japan. The weather was so windy and the water was so choppy that the boats didn't bother leaving the harbor. This gave us a lot of free time today to check out the local fish market as well as the captive dolphins in the city.
At the local fish market we saw hundreds of yellowfin tuna, mackerel, swordfish, and approximately 200 shark fins all stacked in a pile. More than 2 million dolphins are killed every year by tuna fisheries, compare that to the 2000 that are killed in Taiji every year. That is just the purse seiners, MILLIONS more dolphins are killed in drift nets, gill nets and on long lines every single year. Anyone that eats sea life is significantly contributing to the deaths of many dolphins. Go vegan and NO ONE get's hurt including the tuna.
Many of the fish we saw at the market were extremely young, and may not have had the chance to reproduce yet. This is a serious issue that is causing the demise of all the animals in our oceans. The shark fins we saw were extremely upsetting. It was obvious that the sharks had been finned, most likely alive and tossed back into the ocean as there were no shark bodies at the market.
Human beings need to leave the oceans alone along with all the animals in it. PERIOD.
After the fish market we stopped by the Taiji Whale Museum to peak through the fence at their captive dolphins. One of the dolphins is so depressed he doesn't move, just floats there lifelessly. At the Taiji Whale Museum you can watch a dolphin show while eating dolphin at the same time. Next to the museum there is a gift shop that we entered and saw that there was A LOT of whale and dolphin meat for sale. It is so disturbing to see whale meat literally in the flesh. It's is so dark and bloody, and there was even dried whale/dolphin fat with the skin attached. You could see their smooth beautiful skin and the clean slice marks that mutilated the animals beautiful body. HOW SHAMEFUL.
After that we headed to the Dolphin Hotel to check out their captive prisoners. We noticed right away that there was one dolphin in particular who was spy hopping over and over again constantly. We think that the intense confinement has caused him to start exhibiting neurotic repetitive behavior. Then sea pens these dolphins are confined in are no more than 25ft by 25ft square. As we sat and watched these dolphins playing with sticks and garbage that had floated into their pens (3 of the dolphins were playing with plastic bags in three different enclosures) the trainers came down with a bunch of equipment and it was clear they were going to administer something to the dolphin who was neurotically spyhopping. We watched as they jumped into his pen, injected him with something and held his tail out of the water exposing a bloody raw tail fluke. It then became clear to us that because the pen is so shallow that the dolphin is rubbing his tail against the bottom net every time he spyhops. As he holds himself vertically in the tank and bobs up and down over and over again his tail keeps smashing on the rough netting on the bottom showing us his tank is barely deeper than the length of his body. In each of these tanks there are 4-5 dolphins.
While the molesters were administering his drugs the other 3 dolphins in his tank huddled together in the corner, like small children hiding from their perverted abuser. Once they were done the 4 dolphins swam side by side, all touching each other clicking and talking to each other probably communicating about their cruel confinement and treatment.
I can't believe how any person with any kind of intelligence would look at these animals and think that it is acceptable to keep them in such cruel conditions, while they are obviously going crazy like poor confined circus animals.
Anyone who chooses to support the captive cetacean industry, whether in Japan, China, the US, Canada or ANYWHERE else is directly causing animal cruelty. Boycott ALL aquariums, dolphinariums or any kind of park where you can pay to interact with captive dolphins and whales. They belong in the wild with their families and there is not an aquarium on the planet that can provide them with what they need and deserve. That is why cetaceans NEVER live long in captivity just like poor Tiqa the 3 year old Baluga whale who died at the Vancouver Aquarium this month, she was their 8th dead whale and her mother's second dead baby.
Keep checking Sea Shepherd's Twitter for live updates!
The Cetacean Defense League,
Marley, Carisa, Adrienne
At the local fish market we saw hundreds of yellowfin tuna, mackerel, swordfish, and approximately 200 shark fins all stacked in a pile. More than 2 million dolphins are killed every year by tuna fisheries, compare that to the 2000 that are killed in Taiji every year. That is just the purse seiners, MILLIONS more dolphins are killed in drift nets, gill nets and on long lines every single year. Anyone that eats sea life is significantly contributing to the deaths of many dolphins. Go vegan and NO ONE get's hurt including the tuna.
Many of the fish we saw at the market were extremely young, and may not have had the chance to reproduce yet. This is a serious issue that is causing the demise of all the animals in our oceans. The shark fins we saw were extremely upsetting. It was obvious that the sharks had been finned, most likely alive and tossed back into the ocean as there were no shark bodies at the market.
Human beings need to leave the oceans alone along with all the animals in it. PERIOD.
After the fish market we stopped by the Taiji Whale Museum to peak through the fence at their captive dolphins. One of the dolphins is so depressed he doesn't move, just floats there lifelessly. At the Taiji Whale Museum you can watch a dolphin show while eating dolphin at the same time. Next to the museum there is a gift shop that we entered and saw that there was A LOT of whale and dolphin meat for sale. It is so disturbing to see whale meat literally in the flesh. It's is so dark and bloody, and there was even dried whale/dolphin fat with the skin attached. You could see their smooth beautiful skin and the clean slice marks that mutilated the animals beautiful body. HOW SHAMEFUL.
After that we headed to the Dolphin Hotel to check out their captive prisoners. We noticed right away that there was one dolphin in particular who was spy hopping over and over again constantly. We think that the intense confinement has caused him to start exhibiting neurotic repetitive behavior. Then sea pens these dolphins are confined in are no more than 25ft by 25ft square. As we sat and watched these dolphins playing with sticks and garbage that had floated into their pens (3 of the dolphins were playing with plastic bags in three different enclosures) the trainers came down with a bunch of equipment and it was clear they were going to administer something to the dolphin who was neurotically spyhopping. We watched as they jumped into his pen, injected him with something and held his tail out of the water exposing a bloody raw tail fluke. It then became clear to us that because the pen is so shallow that the dolphin is rubbing his tail against the bottom net every time he spyhops. As he holds himself vertically in the tank and bobs up and down over and over again his tail keeps smashing on the rough netting on the bottom showing us his tank is barely deeper than the length of his body. In each of these tanks there are 4-5 dolphins.
While the molesters were administering his drugs the other 3 dolphins in his tank huddled together in the corner, like small children hiding from their perverted abuser. Once they were done the 4 dolphins swam side by side, all touching each other clicking and talking to each other probably communicating about their cruel confinement and treatment.
I can't believe how any person with any kind of intelligence would look at these animals and think that it is acceptable to keep them in such cruel conditions, while they are obviously going crazy like poor confined circus animals.
Anyone who chooses to support the captive cetacean industry, whether in Japan, China, the US, Canada or ANYWHERE else is directly causing animal cruelty. Boycott ALL aquariums, dolphinariums or any kind of park where you can pay to interact with captive dolphins and whales. They belong in the wild with their families and there is not an aquarium on the planet that can provide them with what they need and deserve. That is why cetaceans NEVER live long in captivity just like poor Tiqa the 3 year old Baluga whale who died at the Vancouver Aquarium this month, she was their 8th dead whale and her mother's second dead baby.
Keep checking Sea Shepherd's Twitter for live updates!
The Cetacean Defense League,
Marley, Carisa, Adrienne
Friday, September 23, 2011
Dolphins escaped the banger boats today!
Today was such a great first day in Taiji. We were up at four this morning arriving at the harbor at 5am and watched as all 12 banger boats and the harpoon ship headed off into the sunrise. Unfortunately they were able to locate a pod of dolphins within a half an hour and they were all within sight. We watched anxiously for three hours as they attempted to drive the pod towards the shore and the dolphins fought for their lives. After 3 hours they finally gave up and came back to the harbor empty handed.
Even though today was a fantastic day for the wild dolphins, we checked on the captive dolphins at the Taiji Whale museum and the Dolphin Hotel and that was a very upsetting thing to witness. The poor dolphins at the whale museum are in tanks so small, it's amazing that they can even survive in them. I would think that they would die of stress living in these filthy, tiny smelly tanks. You can see the animals showing signs of stress from the intense confinement. Some floating lifelessly, some exhibiting disturbing repetitive movements swimming in tight circles over and over. In the wild these animals would swim for miles and miles yet there they are in an enclosure that is only several lengths longer than their own bodies. I don't know how any normal person could pay money to enter that place to stare at these clearly depressed animals.
In Taiji there is a dolphin hotel where tourists can come and swim with dolphins in the pens and watch their stupid shows. We watched as the trainers were working down on the platforms of the pens and the most disturbing thing we noticed is how these dolphins followed the trainers where ever they went frantically jumping out of the water as if to get their attention. We realize this is because they want food, they are hungry and because these dolphins are all in training they have food withheld from them to force them to learn these circus tricks. In the wild they would have free choice to their food and many of them have only been in captivity for a short period of time.
So although we are full of joy for the wild dolphins that got away today, our heart aches for the ones we witnessed earlier who will be staring at the same concrete walls every second of the day until they pass away from the stress.
Please continue calling the Japanese embassy in your country regularly!!
Please check the Sea Shepherd twitter site for live updates, that is the most current and up to date source of info. Rosie from Sea Shepherd tweets daily as events unfold.
http://twitter.com/#!/SeaShepherd
Marley, Carisa and Adrienne
Cetacean Defense League
We'll be in the Cove tomorrow!
Finally after almost 2 full days of traveling and no sleep at all we have arrived in Katsuura (10 minutes from Taiji) and we start work tomorrow morning at 5am with Rosie a representative from Sea Shepherd. We have no idea what is in store for us tomorrow but we hope there is no violence towards the dolphins.
We spent the afternoon looking for vegan food which is always a challenge in Japan. We ended up settling for white rice, soy sauce, Inari, chestnuts, soy milk and juice. The options were VERY slim and we are hoping tomorrow we can find a bigger grocery store because there is not nearly enough food there to feed 3 hungry vegans.
We are looking forward to getting started tomorrow morning, this is what we have been working towards. We are ready to make a difference for the dolphins here in Taiji!
Now that we are here we will be posting daily updates, stay tuned and spread the word! We are still asking for donations to our campaign, all funds donated will help pay for our hotel and living costs here allowing us to take action for the dolphins.
Thank you so much for your support!
Marley (Canada), Carisa (Canada) and Adrienne (Canada)
Cetacean Defense League
We spent the afternoon looking for vegan food which is always a challenge in Japan. We ended up settling for white rice, soy sauce, Inari, chestnuts, soy milk and juice. The options were VERY slim and we are hoping tomorrow we can find a bigger grocery store because there is not nearly enough food there to feed 3 hungry vegans.
We are looking forward to getting started tomorrow morning, this is what we have been working towards. We are ready to make a difference for the dolphins here in Taiji!
Now that we are here we will be posting daily updates, stay tuned and spread the word! We are still asking for donations to our campaign, all funds donated will help pay for our hotel and living costs here allowing us to take action for the dolphins.
Thank you so much for your support!
Marley (Canada), Carisa (Canada) and Adrienne (Canada)
Cetacean Defense League
Thursday, September 22, 2011
We have arrived in Japan
Well Carisa, Adrienne and I have arrived in Japan minus our bags. Unfortunately our airline didn't transfer our bags in Shanghai which is extremely inconvenient but not the end of the world but we will be without most of our stuff for a couple days at least.
We are taking the train in a couple hours here and hopefully we will be joining Rosie Kunneke of Sea Shepherd by dinner time tonight. By tomorrow morning we will be in Taiji, we will meet the fishermen and the police and spend the day monitoring their actions. We can only hope it will be a violence free day for the dolphins.
The most important thing the public can do to stop this slaughter is phone the embassy regularly. Please keep up the calls, scroll down for embassy contact information.
Marley (CANADA) , Carisa (CANADA), and Adrienne (CANADA)
Cetacean Defense League
We are taking the train in a couple hours here and hopefully we will be joining Rosie Kunneke of Sea Shepherd by dinner time tonight. By tomorrow morning we will be in Taiji, we will meet the fishermen and the police and spend the day monitoring their actions. We can only hope it will be a violence free day for the dolphins.
The most important thing the public can do to stop this slaughter is phone the embassy regularly. Please keep up the calls, scroll down for embassy contact information.
Marley (CANADA) , Carisa (CANADA), and Adrienne (CANADA)
Cetacean Defense League
Monday, September 19, 2011
We have purchased our tickets to Japan!
Please stay tuned! We will be leaving within the week.
Check out the last video I took in Otsuchi in March of this year. This was less than an hour after the initial surge of water destroyed the city. We walked down the hill to find that the road we need to drive out on no longer existed. We ended up having to hike out the next day.
Marley and Carisa
Cetacean Defense League
Check out the last video I took in Otsuchi in March of this year. This was less than an hour after the initial surge of water destroyed the city. We walked down the hill to find that the road we need to drive out on no longer existed. We ended up having to hike out the next day.
Marley and Carisa
Cetacean Defense League
Monday, September 12, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
CALL TO ACTION!
RIC O' BARRY'S CALL TO ACTION:
Ric wants everyone to call your local Japanese Embassy & file an official complaint that toxic meat is being sold to Japanese people. Dolphin meat from Taiji has been tested & shown to be contaminated with 2000 ppm of mercury, accepted level is 0.4 ppm. The meat is poison, this is a human health issue.
Please pledge to call your Japanese embassy on a regular basis, monthly, weekly or daily!! These calls are logged and they do make a difference!
Marley and Carisa
Cetacean Defense League
Ric wants everyone to call your local Japanese Embassy & file an official complaint that toxic meat is being sold to Japanese people. Dolphin meat from Taiji has been tested & shown to be contaminated with 2000 ppm of mercury, accepted level is 0.4 ppm. The meat is poison, this is a human health issue.
Please pledge to call your Japanese embassy on a regular basis, monthly, weekly or daily!! These calls are logged and they do make a difference!
Marley and Carisa
Cetacean Defense League
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
The first dolphins of the season are being killed in the cove right now.
We are sad to report that the first blood has been shed in the cove. As I write this, approximately 12 Risso's dolphins are being slaughtered in Taiji. They were driven into the cove 2 hours ago by the banger boats. That is all we know for now and we are anxiously awaiting updates. Please continue phoning the embassy every single day
.
Shame on the Japanese government for allowing this, only the scum of the earth would commit such a crime against another living creature.
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Shame on the Japanese government for allowing this, only the scum of the earth would commit such a crime against another living creature.
Cetacean Defense League
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Looking back at our first trip to Japan VIDEO 5
Great news! Sea Shepherd returns to Taiji!
Operation Infinite Patience: Return of the Cove Guardians
Check out the Sea Shepherd website to read about this years campaign in Taiji, http://www.seashepherd.org/
Carisa and I are extremely happy to hear that Sea Shepherd will be returning to The Cove this year. Originally we thought there wouldn't be an official campaign so this is great news! We are pleased to volunteer with Sea Shepherd in Japan and are thrilled that the campaign continues! Last year an estimated 750 dolphin and pilot whales were saved as a result of the pressure applied by the Cove Guardians.
Please donate to help us stay in Taiji for three weeks!! Even $5 or $10 helps!
For the oceans,
Marley and Carisa
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Looking back at our first trip to Japan VIDEO 4
After last years Cove Guardian campaign, Sea Shepherd estimates that the amount of dolphins killed in the Cove was cut in half and we hope that this year our presence in Taiji will do the same. This year is going to be a lot tougher to get any possible vantage points on the hunt because of steps taken by the Japanese government to prevent the public from seeing anything. I can't even imagine how much money the Japanese government is putting into security at the Cove right now. We have seen the new 'task force' being trained in Taiji, and we have seen the new security fences. Why are they putting so much effort into protecting this awful hunt? We also know that there is a really good chance our blog is being monitored so I have a few questions for the Japanese government....
Why is it that the Japanese government continues to allow POISON dolphin meat to be sold legally in Japan when they know the mercury levels are well above the limit?
Why is it that the Japanese government continues to allow dolphins and porpoises to be dismembered while fully conscious in a National Park?
And why is it that the Japanese government continues to disregard International laws protecting cetaceans?
This next video I am sharing was taken by myself in Otsuchi, Japan this March. To be honest, I think it's incredibly shameful that the government of Japan would be spending so much money on ridiculous security in Taiji when many of the cities in North East Japan remain in ruins and many citizens are still without a place to live. Wouldn't it be more compassionate to direct those funds elsewhere?
Marley Daviduk
Cetacean Defense League
Monday, August 22, 2011
Looking back at our first trip to Japan VIDEO 3
We are down to the crunch now and we are really in need of donations for our trip to Japan. Less than a month and we will be in Taiji documenting one of the most brutal violent marine mammal massacres on the planet. If you feel like you would like to see the dolphin hunt stop, but you can't travel to Taiji yourself, then please help us get there. When in Taiji we will spend every daylight hour watching the fishermen and filming their every move so the world can watch.
Please click to donate,
Thank you so much for your support,
Marley and Carisa
Cetacean Defense League
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Looking back at our first trip to Japan VIDEO 2
Thank you so much to Gordo at Armani's restaurant in Nanaimo BC for donating all the restaurant empties to us until we leave! We appreciate it so much! Gordo helped us out the last time we were fundraising by hosting an amazing dinner and silent auction 'An Evening for the Dolphins'. Armani's is the best place in Nanaimo for vegan food, check them out on http://www.happycow.net/.
Marley and Carisa
Cetacean Defense League
Cetacean Defense League in the news AGAIN!
COLUMN: How did you help the world today?
There are a lot of crazy things happening on our little blue planet these days.
Starvation in Africa, riots in London, flash mobs in the U.S., global economic uncertainty, and devastating natural disasters are among some world issues we hear about daily.
For some, it might feel like our world is falling apart at the seams.
Here in Canada, we’re fairly sheltered to what can be considered the real world. We doze through our daily schedules, oblivious of the monsters that lurk beyond our boundaries.
Quite a few people I’ve come across lately have expressed deep concern about the direction the human condition is taking, not to mention our natural environment.
The only thing that seems to be thriving is cynicism.
My response is usually: “What are you going to do about it?”
It’s a question that often draws a blank stare.
I know, one person can’t control starvation in Somalia. One person can’t fuel the stock markets. One person can’t stop the riots. True enough.
But one person can make a difference. I’m not really asking any person to solve a massive problem, I’m asking what have they done today to make the world we live in a better place.
In a lot of cases, the answer is nothing.
I understand not everybody is geared toward volunteering, or able to make a cash donation to a worthy cause. Everybody is busy just trying to stay afloat.
That’s why I marvel at the actions of Nanaimo’s Marley Daviduk and Carisa Webster. Determined to be a voice to help dolphins being slaughtered in Japan, Daviduk and Webster have put aside what many of us work for every day – car payments, mortgage – to follow their passion to protect these animals.
They recognize something that is wrong and they are trying to make it right. It’s what motivates them to get out of bed every day.
And because they choose not to look away, the world is a little better off.
Last March, Daviduk and Webster travelled to Japan with the intention of filming dolphins being slaughtered for meat in Taiji. When the killing season ended early, they travelled 1,000 kilometres up the coast to Otsuchi to document the slaughter of porpoises. While there, a massive earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami which wiped out the entire town and swept it and its residents out to sea right in front of Daviduk and Webster, who had sought refuge on a nearby hillside.
They watched the disaster unfold right before them (see photos at www.cetaceandefenseleague.
blogspot.com).
They were forced to come home early, but even that experience didn’t scare them off. The team is heading back to Taiji in September come hell or high water (donations will help immensely, check the above website) to continue their work and hold those responsible for the dolphin slaughter accountable.
Why? Because they understand it’s not only compassionate, it’s the right thing to do.
Daviduk and Webster are committed to following their chosen path to make the world a better place. It’s a dangerous and risky path.
You might be sitting on your comfortable couch right now reading this, possibly thinking that dolphins aren’t worth making such sacrifices over. That’s fair, saving dolphins isn’t everybody’s thing, but it’s theirs.
If dolphins were being slaughtered at Piper’s Lagoon Park, however, you may have a different opinion. Daviduk and Webster are just going the extra mile to fight for what they believe in.
This is a global village, after all, and it’s important to sometimes stop and ask yourself how you spent your time and money today to make the world a better place.
Thank you so much to Toby Gorman at the Nanaimo News Bulletin for his support and generosity!
Marley and Carisa
Cetacean Defense League
Friday, August 19, 2011
Looking back at our first trip to Japan VIDEO 1
There is now less than 2 weeks before the Taiji dolphin slaughter resumes. Thousands of dolphins are killed in the infamous COVE every year starting September 1st. Last season the annual catch was the lowest it has ever been in Taiji and we know it was because of the constant presence of activists who were documenting this hunt and asking people around the world to contact their Japanese embassy. Carisa and I hope to continue this pressure by documenting the hunt for 3 weeks. We are traveling to Taiji mid September but we need your help to stay there for the full three weeks. Without your generous contributions we would not be able to travel there at all. Every dollar donated to the campaign allows us to be in Japan and take action for the dolphins.
Thank you so much to the individuals who have contributed so far!
Marley and Carisa
Cetacean Defense League
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Looking back at our first trip to Japan PART 6
This is the last set of pictures I took in Otsuchi. I don't think any of our cameras could really capture the situation we were faced with. The smells, sounds and the sheer size of the disaster was something we had difficulty absorbing, it was overwhelming to say the least. Once we made it out of Otsuchi we had to walk for another hour or so to get through a tunnel to the town of Kamaichi which was also destroyed. At that point there were vehicles making their way in moving supplies and the deceased, there were camps being set up for people who lost there homes and medical care for any who were injured. We knew we couldn't become a burden to these people and our hotel was a 45 minute drive from there so we made the decision to try and get a ride. After asking around we met a kind man who motioned for us to follow him and after about a half hour he had organized a ride for us back to Tono. One of the women who drove us in her van told us she had lost her business in the tsunami and we offered her money for the ride but she refused it. I will never forget the kindness and generosity of the locals we met after the tsunami hit Otsuchi. I am dreading the horror that awaits me in The Cove this fall, but I also look forward to experiencing more of the Japanese culture and meeting more kind Japanese citizens who will hopefully help me speak out against these crimes.
Marley Daviduk
Cetacean Defense League
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Cetacean Defense League in the news!
Nanaimo activists plan return trip to Japan
The last time Marley Daviduk and Carisa Webster travelled to Japan to document the slaughter of dolphins, they barely escaped with their own lives after a massive earthquake and resulting tsunami destroyed much of the coastline along northern Japan.
The team sought refuge on a hill and watched as the sea flooded in, tearing apart the town of Otsuchi. What wasn't destroyed by water was on fire, and the pair watched as human bodies swirled in the devastation.
Forced to abandon their mission last March, Daviduk and Webster are returning to Japan in September, this time to Taiji, their original destination, to document and observe dolphins being butchered for meat. Those that aren't slaughtered are abused into submission and sold in the live dolphin trade.
"Taiji, made famous through the movie The Cove, ended the slaughter a month early last season so we changed our plans and went 1,000 kilometres up the coast to Otsuchi," said Daviduk. "We're going back to do what we had intended to do in the first place and that is expose the slaughter."
With a country on edge as a result of the earthquake damage and nuclear radiation concerns, Daviduk and Webster are prepared for a much different Japan.
But the country's challenges doesn't give it licence to continue butchering dolphins, said Webster.
"We don't intend to cause too much trouble, we just want people to be aware of the dolphin slaughter," she said. "We're very considerate of the problems that they've had in the last while."
According to friends who have been at the site Daviduk and Webster plan to document from, Japanese police are ramping up drills to deal with activists who disturb the fishermen.
"All we're planning on doing is filming and asking questions," said Daviduk. "We saw they were preparing to deal with activists who jump on the nets and cut them, but we're not planing anything like that."
Webster said she believes the police are there practising as much for activists' safety as for the fishermen.
They plan to stay in Taiji filming for three weeks.
In March, Daviduk and Webster were working with activist group Sea Shepherd. With that organization unable to provide members to film this fall, Webster said it's as important as ever to have "compassionate eyes" documenting the slaughter and sending the story out to the world.
The pair established their own blog (at www.cetaceandefenseleague.blogspot.com) to share their stories and experiences, including photos of the devastation from their first trip. They both took on multiple jobs to help pay for their travel and accommodations, but have established donation options on the blog site to provide them with financial assistance.
Webster said despite the risks, their efforts are worth it.
"We're very determined and compassionate people, so I think we'll get done what we need to get done," said Webster. "We feel we need to go to Japan in particular because our oceans are in dire condition and nobody is really talking about that. Large animals like dolphins are an important part of our ecosystem which we all depend on. We're devastating the dolphin population and it needs to be known."
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