Please donate to our online auction!

Do you have anything you could sell on Ebay and donate to our campaign?  We have just set up an Ebay account for our online auction.  If you have something you think you could sell on Ebay let us know and we can set it up on our account and the money would go to our campaign in Taiji.
All money made will directly fund our campaign, from plane tickets to get us there, to transportation to The Cove everyday, our hotel costs and our food budget.
Without your generous contributions we would not be able to go at all, and the dolphins need us there!  We want to keep a constant presence in Taiji to show the government we are not backing down and we will continue to expose their horrific treatment of marine mammals to the rest of the world.  We are hoping that with the pictures and video we take in Taiji we will be able to encourage the public to take action against the Japanese government.

We appreciate all your support!

Marley and Carisa
Cetacean Defense League

Bottlenose dolphin BOTTLE DRIVE #2!

Well we are bottle driving our butts off again!  In two days we made almost $200 which will pay for our food for four days.  Everything is expensive in Japan, the food, rental cars, hotel, and we are thankful for every dollar donated.  If you can pledge $50 which budgets us twenty five dollars each for food for the day in Taiji we would be so grateful!

We are both vegan of course and we plan to save money by staying out of restaurants and sticking to the grocery stores.  During our first trip to Japan I have to say it was a bit of a challenge finding vegan food unless there was a grocery store around.  We were in pretty remote small towns for the most part and several times we tried to eat in a restaurant using our trusty Vegan Passport and were quickly sent away.  Everyone was really nice and made their best effort to check with the chefs and double check ingredient lists, but there was literally nothing that did not have some sort of fish or chicken stock in it at least at all the places we tried to eat at.  The grocery store was a different story!  I swear Japan has the most delicious strawberries I have ever tasted.  Sweet, juicy, ripe and fantastic!  We found cereal, Inari, roasted sweet potatoes, dried fruit, chips, roasted chestnuts, oranges and veggie sushi.

After the earthquake struck that was a bit more challenging of course.  When we were back at our hotel in Tono we quickly realized the size of the disaster and that the entire country was going into lock down.  The streets of Tono were deserted, very little was open but we needed to get food and water because we didn't know how long we would have to wait for a flight home.  We set out to the grocery store and found that it was cordoned off and they had brought food out to the entrance way and were rationing!  They weren't allowing anyone inside and what they had brought out was very limited considering we had no kitchen and a lot of what they had was not vegan.  But what we did have was a water purifier which looked very similar to a rice cooker.  All we needed was a bottle of hoisin sauce, some greens, fried tofu, noodles and we turned that water purifier into a soup pot and I have to say it was the best soup I have ever tasted!  Who says it's hard to stay vegan when traveling?

Please keep checking back, we have more pictures and videos to post soon.

Thank you for all your support!

Marley and Carisa
Cetacean Defense League

Looking back at our first trip to Japan PART 4

Please support the Cetacean Defense League by clicking to donate!  Every dollar donated will allow us to stay in Taiji for 3 weeks in September.  Let's keep up the pressure at The Cove and show the fishermen we are not backing down.  There is plenty we don't know about the dolphin slaughter in Japan and we intend to do our best to expose this filthy business.

We are excited to be joined by fellow Canadian Aster Demone halfway through our stay in Taiji.  We look forward to working with such a dedicated activist and a talented photographer!

As Canadians we understand what it's like to have a small group of violent individuals bloody the reputation of our country.  We know the murderous monsters who are killing cetaceans in Taiji do not represent the Japanese people, just like the seal clubbing psychopaths of the east coast DO NOT represent the rest of Canada.  It's just a shame the the governments of both countries cater to such blood thirsty scumbags instead of listening to the public outcry and demand for marine mammal protection.


SHAME on Japan, and SHAME on Canada.

Cetacean Defense League

Looking back at our first trip to Japan PART 3

This next set of pictures shows the aftermath of the tsunami.  At this point we decided to walk down the hill to see whether the road was still intact.   The road was completely destroyed and there was no way to get the vehicles out.  The water was still surging and at one point it started rising again forcing us to run to run for higher ground.  We were checking all vehicles to see if there was anyone trapped inside but we didn't see anyone, we were completely alone.  After inspecting the washed out road, we realized that we may have to climb through the forest and over the hill to get out.  There were massive islands of debris forming in the harbor, dozens of cars and houses grinding together making the most eerie screeching sound echoing through the hills and the silent wreckage of a city.  

Please consider donating to the Cetacean Defense League for our next trip to Japan this September 2011.  We rely completely on your generous contributions and every dollar helps us so much.  We plan to stay in Taiji for 3 weeks monitoring the cruel dolphin slaughter.  If you think you may be able to travel to Taiji yourself feel free to contact us with any questions.  The more people at The Cove the better!

Marley and Carisa
Cetacean Defense League

Looking back at our first trip to Japan PART 2

When activists volunteer for Sea Shepherd they are asked whether they would die to save cetaceans, the six of us nearly had to prove that.  We were 10 km's closer to the epicenter than Sendai, and the tsunami hit the town of Otsuchi 8 minutes after the earthquake hit.  The population of Otsuchi was 17,000 and more than 12,500 people perished.  We missed the deadly rush of water by less than 60 seconds.  If it wasn't for the navigation skills of Scott West, Tarah Shannon and Brian Barnes who were in the car in front of us we almost certainly would have died.  This next set of pictures shows the devastation we barely escaped when we drove to the top of the lookout.

Please support our campaign by donating.  Myself and Carisa will be returning to Japan this September, this time to Taiji.  Without your generous contributions we would not be able to travel to Taiji for the start of the dolphin slaughter.  This year Japanese police are training a task force to prevent activists from filming the capture and killing that takes place from September through March.  Last year there was a constant presence of activists in the Cove and we want to make sure that we keep the pressure on.

Marley Daviduk
Cetacean Defense League

Looking back at our first trip to Japan

This first set of pictures here were taken in Otsuchi this March, an hour before the earthquake struck.  We were in the inner harbor waiting for the harpoon ships to come in when one returned without any porpoises on board.  The police took our passport numbers down and we spent some time watching the fishermen unload a catch of small fish.  The building you see is the fisherman's union building where they brought the porpoises to be butchered.  The FU building was almost completely destroyed and only 4 out of 13 harpoon ships were saved.  We are not sure whether the police officers were able to safely escape the tsunami.

More pictures to come soon, please keep checking back for updates!

Please support our efforts to return to Japan this September.  Myself, Carisa and Aster will be in Taiji for three weeks to help with the dolphin campaign in The Cove.  We rely completely on donations and are very grateful for any contributions!

Marley and Carisa
Cetacean Defense League

PLANS HAVE CHANGED!!!

Well are plans are changing!  Originally our intentions were to travel to northern Japan this September to document the Dall's porpoise slaughter and some coastal whaling on the west coast.  It looks like Carisa, Aster, and myself (Marley) will travel to Taiji instead.  Last year when we made the decision to travel to Japan we were going to go to Taiji but had to change our plans at the last minute when the slaughter ended early.   Instead we went to Northern Japan to document the Dall's Porpoise massacre and the same day we arrived was the day the earthquake and tsunami destroyed much of the east coast.

Unfortunately it looks like the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society may not have an official Cove Guardian campaign in Taiji this year.  This is due to lack of funds especially now that their ship, the Steve Irwin is being held in the UK for 1.4 million dollars bond after they rescued some endangered Bluefin Tuna from some illegal fishing operations- please donate at seashepherd.org to help them get the Steve Irwin back!  Since there will be no official Sea Shepherd campaign, it is even more important that all efforts are directed to Taiji starting this September.  Wouldn't it be great if we could continue the constant presence of activists in the Cove this year sending them a clear message that we will not back down.

If you have the ability to travel to Taiji during the slaughter (September thru March) please join the campaign, the dolphins need us there!  If you have any questions about what you can do please email us and we can tell you everything you need to know about how to get there, where to stay and how to get around.

If you would like to donate to our campaign in Taiji please do!  All money donated will pay for us to stay in Taiji and document the cruel practices of the butchers for 3 weeks.

Please keep your eye on our blog, we will be posting some of our pictures from our first experience in Japan very soon.

Thank you so much for your support!

Marley, Carisa and Aster