One of Our Worst Days

By Tia Butt
Cove Monitor
Save Japan Dolphins
Earth Island Institute

Today was one of the worst ever days I have had in Taiji.  Ten boats had left to go hunting (unlike the usual eleven we had seen recently), and, on walking up towards the lookout point, we felt that today could well be an unlucky day for the dolphins, as the wind had dropped considerably from the night before.  We held hope that the dolphins would be free for a ninth day, but to our dismay we were met with the sight of five boats in formation position.  It was clear to see the dolphin hunters had found dolphins.

As we watched them driving this pod in we noticed that the remaining other five boats had located another pod and were chasing them frantically with the black smoke bellowing out.  It was like looking at a nightmare unfolding before my very eyes.

We moved position and noticed that the first pod was 3-4 pilot whales, and the boats herded them straight over to the entrance of the Cove.  We were expecting the nets to close them in at any moment, but events changed dramatically when the pilot whales seemed to be getting away.  The banger boats did not attempt to make a great effort to chase them down as the second fleet of banger boats driving in the other pod of dolphins were arriving.  It looked like the hunters had decided to concentrate on this second pod of around 16 Risso’s dolphins, which also had two striped dolphins caught up within them.  The Pilot whales got away from the lair of the Cove, so perhaps sadly their lives were spared for the exchange of others.

The Risso’s dolphins were then netted into the Cove with another section netted off with the two striped dolphins also being held – both groups awaiting their fate.  The tarps were up on the shore of the killing Cove, ready for these poor animals to be pushed under them onto the stony beach to be butchered to death.

They were being held for what seemed like forever, and we suspected that some would be taken for a life of captivity.

Finally the skiffs arrived and pushed these poor dolphins under the tarps.  My stomach was turning, and my heart was beating fast knowing the grim death that awaited them.  Other skiffs arrived with slings used to transfer dolphins, and our suspicions were confirmed that some would be selected for a life of slavery.

Watch Tim’s video:

A total of seven Risso’s dolphins were selected for imprisonment.  They were put into slings, then tied to the side of the skiff boats and taken away.  But the most upsetting and shocking thing was that these dolphins went through this ordeal while the rest of their family was being killed.  I was listening to dolphins dying, while the others were being taken away for captivity.  These animals are self-aware, they are extremely intelligent, and they must have been completely terrified witnessing and listening to their family die.  They were doomed to a sea pen in Taiji, and whichever ones survive this ordeal will then be trained for a life to entertain the public.

It went silent in the Cove, and we saw the bodies being taken to the butcher house hidden under tarps on three separate skiffs, the weight of their bodies dragging the side of the boats down.

We stared down at the remaining two striped dolphins which I watched swimming, trapped behind the net, with tears in my eyes.  I watched them swim tightly together in the netted area – they were certainly aware of what had just happened literally a few yards away from them.  I was bracing myself for the same to happen to them and just hoped that it would be over quickly.  I thought I had got used to witnessing this.  But now I know you can never get used to seeing such cold killing of sentient beings that won't fight back.  All for a pile of mercury-poisoned meat unfit for consumption.

But we saw them pulling the killing tarps away, and this was an indication that there would be no more death in the Cove today.  (These plastic tarps are only used to hide the killing from our cameras and from the Japanese people.)  We were unsure what was going to happen to these two poor remaining dolphins.  I was thinking a possible release maybe, and when I saw them pulling the nets up, we were very relieved.  But from what I had just witnessed, the true relief for these animals did not come until two banger boats arrived and pushed them back out to sea.  I thought how ironic it was that these boats were banging their poles, black smoke bellowing from the top of them (the familiar sight that we hate to see most of the time), but this time it was a relief to watch as they pushed these two beautiful dolphins back out into the ocean, their precious lives being spared from the Cove.

They have a story to tell – they witnessed it all, the whole carnage.  It would be like us having a front row seat for a mass murder right before our eyes.  Remember these animals are extremely intelligent animals, which have similar senses to our own, so they were fully aware of what had happened to the others.  They were just a few short yards away from it all.

As I watched the two striped dolphins making a break for it, dashing and leaping away back out to the ocean with the banger boats on their tails, I thought of their lucky escape, and how close they were to death.  And I also thought to myself, I hope they warn their ocean friends to stay away, stay far away from the shores of Taiji.

 

Photo of banger boat belching smoke by Tia Butt.  Video by Tim Burns.