Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Help us return to Japan this September!

The Cetacean Defense League will be heading back to Japan this September!  Our group consists of Mike, Marley, Carisa (3 out of the 6 Sea Shepherd/Save Japan's Dolphins activists who survived the Otsuchi Tsunami this March) as well as Aster Demone from Canada.

We intend to return to Northern Japan this fall to carry out a complete inventory of the island of Hokkaido, driving every inch of coastline to document harpoon ships and investigate companies and individuals who are involved in the slaughter of whales, dolphins and porpoises.  We want to know exactly how many ships are operating, what species they are killing, which companies are involved and when they are carrying out their hunts.  Very little is known about the hunting of cetaceans in Northern Japan, especially since the cities of Otsuchi and Kesennuma were destroyed.  They were two key locations where the bodies of porpoises were brought in for processing, and both cities are gone.  At this point no one really knows if these headquarters have been moved to a different harbor.

BUT, we have a problem.  We have been turned down for funding from every organization we have approached.  Myself, Mike and Carisa fundraised our butts off to get to Japan in March, and after the earthquake and Tsunami our friends and families were so generous with donations when we lost our rental cars and had to buy new tickets home to escape the radiation.  Everyone has given so much already, and yet for the Cetaceans of Japan we have to ask for more.

We don't have administration costs, we don't even need a hotel, we are all prepared to sleep in our rental vehicles!!  During our first trip to Japan in March, the hotel was our biggest cost, we are willing to cut that cost by sleeping in our vehicles with sleeping bags even though it is much more dangerous.  When Scott West (Sea Shepherd) and Brian Barnes (SJD) were in Northern Japan last month they found three harpoon ships hunting in Kushiro, Hokkaido Prefecture.  They were constantly followed by unmarked vehicles, under surveillance by Japanese authorities, fishermen, and mafia.  These people are proven to be violent considering how they stab, slice and dismember dolphins while they are fully conscious.

Every dollar donated will help pay for our tickets, and the rental vehicle which we will drive from one coastal city to another, looking for evidence of harpoon ships and cetacean slaughter.

Please donate whatever you can for the animals!
Thank you!

Marley Daviduk
The Cetacean Defense League