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

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

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.

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

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

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

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