At first light last Thursday, a fleet of boats left Futo Harbour to conduct the hunt. By noon 100 bottlenose dolphins had been rounded up and brought into the harbour. This occurred at the very same harbour where tourists come to Futo to go on dolphin watching tours in order to enjoy the wonder of dolphins living free without threat in surrounding waters.
Confined in Futo Harbour, the fate of the 100 bottlenose dolphins was determined as representatives of the captivity industry choose 14 dolphins to be sold into captivity, for life-long confinement in marine parks and aquariums. The local newspaper has reported that one dolphin died in the process and three were killed for research purposes.
“The dolphin hunt is a lawful activity in Japan, approved as a fishing activity by the Japanese Government. But it is both unsustainable and horrifically cruel”, said WDCS Australia’s Michelle Grady, who visited Japan this month to investigate the hunts.
For the past four years, Futo has not hunted dolphins. Until this week, the drive hunts were only occurring in one location in Japan – Taiji, following years of international condemnation and the depletion of dolphin populations as a result of hunting. The drive hunts at Taiji are the subject of a BBC documentary broadcast this week.
WDCS Australia, which has just returned from field investigations in Japan on the drive hunts, found that there is little support amongst the locals in Futo for the dolphin hunts, and very little knowledge of this practice amongst the broader Japanese population.
“The excuse of pest control is used to partially justify the hunts, arising from the misconception that dolphins compete with fishermen for their daily catch. Their meat and organs are sold for human consumption in Japan, despite the risk posed by their high levels of contaminants.
“The shocking truth emerging from our ongoing investigations however, is that the captivity industry is increasingly motivating Japan’s dolphin hunts. The high value of dolphins for public display adds a new, high value driver to this unjustifiable industry, which is otherwise in decline.
“The future for the towns that still carry out drive hunts though, is clearly in dolphin and whale watching, where people can partake in the wonder of these intelligent, amazing mammals living wild in the sea. Whale watching is a far more lucrative industry than drive hunting, and the resumption of drive hunts puts Futo’s leading example as an emerging whale watching town, very much at risk”, concluded Ms Grady.
Cathy Williamson
Captivity Campaigner
WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
WDCS Brookfield House 38 St Paul Street Chippenham Wiltshire SN15 1LJ T: 01249 449 523 F: 01249 449 501 http://www.wdcs.org
WDCS is the global voice for the protection of whales, dolphins and their environment.
