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

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. 



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.  



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

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

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

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