It has been seven years since the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove thrust a Japanese town’s annual dolphin hunt into the spotlight and brought international condemnation. Now fishermen from the town of Taiji are speaking to the Western media about how they feel they have been wrongly portrayed.
Their voices are emerging just as the usual battle lines are being drawn this week at the International Whaling Commission as it stages its biennial commission meeting in Portoroz, Slovenia.
As the world marks the 70th anniversary of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling and the 30th anniversary of the global ban on commercial whaling, there are nations that fiercely oppose any changes to these agreements, and there are those wanting a relaxation of the rules.
The IWC meetings attract intense interest from environmentalists, not least for the broader conflict with Japan. Despite the ban on commercial whaling, Japan continued what it called a “scientific” whale hunt. It then lost a ruling on the issue at the International Court of Justice in 2014, but continued its hunt this year on a reduced scale only to face renewed criticism.
Dolphins also fall under the IWC mandate, which is where Taiji Mayor Kazutaka Sangen and the fishermen of Taiji, Wakayama prefecture, come into the equation.
There’s a delegation from the coastal Japanese town in Slovenia this week, as they face continued pressure from environmental groups such as Dolphin Project and Earth Island Institute to end an annual dolphin kill the fishermen say is part of a 400-year-old unique culture.
Taiji gained global notoriety in 2009 when The Cove documentary caused a sensation with its footage of the slaughter of the dolphins after they are driven close to the shore and the sea turns red with their blood.
We don’t necessarily want people to agree with what we do. We just want them to hear our voice
— Kazutaka Sangen
But the fishermen remained quiet, even as the film was criticized in some quarters for the singular way in which they were cast.
Seven years later, though, and Taiji mayor Sangen and the fishermen are speaking to the western media about the impact The Cove had, and about how they feel they have been wrongly portrayed.
They realize the weight of public opinion — internationally at least — might be against them, but they want to have their say.
“We don’t necessarily want people to agree with what we do,” Sangen said. “We just want them to hear our voice. Kids in Taiji grow up wanting to be a hunter, a whaler. We never imagined growing up this way was a bad thing.
“But in today’s world we realize showing the slaughtering of any animals is a bad thing. That’s why you never see the slaughter of cows or chickens. We’ve learned and we are trying to understand people’s sensitivities. We are an isolated area and this change in thinking hadn’t reached us until recently. So maybe The Cove was a wake-up call.”
Sangen was among a delegation from Taiji that traveled to the 21st Busan International Film Festival earlier this month, there for the world premiere of A Whale Of A Tale, which featured in the event’s main documentary competition.
Its director — New York-based Japanese filmmaker Megumi Sasaki who was behind the movie titled Herb And Dorothy on art collectors — said she had seen The Cove, and had thought there was more to the story.
“It’s such a powerful film I knew it would affect world views,” said Sasaki. “I totally understand where The Cove comes from, but the world should know there is another voice.
“There was no voice, no information about this rich culture. I knew it was such a touchy and sensitive subject, but I was really frustrated about why nobody on the Japanese side spoke up.”
Sasaki makes considerable effort throughout her film to present both sides of the story, but what becomes increasingly apparent is that while there are rational arguments presented from both sides, there’s no common ground found for discussion.
“I didn’t want to impose my ideas,” she said. “I wanted to present both sides and let the audience think and feel and decide. It’s a very complicated issue. Not accepting another point of view is a dangerous thing, and it’s happening all over the world at the moment. We have to coexist.”
Yoshiharu Kai, head of the Taiji Fishermen’s Union, was also in Busan and has since traveled on to the IWC gathering in Slovenia.
He said the relatively small annual kill — 2,000 dolphins out of the 20,000 allowed annually under Japanese law — and the fact none of the species targeted were on endangered or threatened lists meant the practice was sustainable. More so, they were part of the fabric of Taiji society.
“This is our culture,” said Kai. “We want people to appreciate this and to listen to our side of this story.”
The power might be in taking something from them that is impertinent.Boycott Japan 2020 Olympics could be one thing.
The part they don’t seem to understand is these creatures have the same social skills &intelligence as humans.Therefore I can’t imagine how horrific it must be for them to witness their families killed or kidnapped from them never to see them again.We seriously need to take this into account.When you see their awareness it truly is like looking into a mirror if you just put aside they come in a different form.
Michael Klopman I have to disagree with your assessment of some Southeast Asians. They are capturing elephants to apease tourists desire to ride them. They beat them into submission. I’m a strong advocate of the dolphins, pilot whales, every living animal that is abused for human entertainment.
https://www.facebook.com/circa/videos/1189010637832326/?comment_id=1356275397750086
Well said Michael Klopman!
Shawn Mason I am not vegan, but you need to do a little more research on this issue as you are wrong. I know vegans who live and thrive. Their are many super foods, that contain the iron, vitamins, and minerals that are needed to live healthy. A vegan diet may not be for everyone, but many do just fine.
A little hard to take you seriously as you are," lead Trojan tester for condoms".
If tradition is their only response to this issue I don’t buy it, nothing is mentioned about the thousands of dolphins that are sold around the world to live, in cement boxes. This particular point is a very big part of what I find so offensive. It isn’t tradition that drives the unbearable life that such an intelligent creature lives being in captivity. The studies and very vocal voices of marine biologists as to what these poor mammals are forced to endure in captivity. They do not thrive and must be given sedatives so as not to go insane or self harm, or just die from the trauma of it. It is not tradition that has Taiji keeping Angel, an albino dolphin in a very small, filthy black water tank.
So their credibility is not to be trusted, this hunt is about the money made from selling the dolphins to the captivity trade. These magnificent animals suffer beyond what you can imagine, as the scientific research has proven.
If they want to be believed that the tradition of eating dolphins is why this hunt takes place, then the first step tonwards being creditable, would be to stop selling live babies to a life in captivity.
I generally think most western intellectual views are hypocritical. It OK as long as west does it. NOT OK if anyone else does?
It’s a vast subject. CAN’T be bothered making a point on pompous self serving arrogants.
Shawn Mason You are almost funny
Some Petitions that are current:
https://www.change.org/p/ban-the-killing-of-dolphins-in-taiji-japan
https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-annual-slaughter-of-dolphins-in-taiji-japan
http://dev.eii.org/take-action/take-action-save-japan-dolphins/
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/en-gb/703/054/124/dolphin-trainers-help-stop-the-taiji-dolphin-slaughter/
https://takeaction.takepart.com/actions/dont-bite-hand-feeds-you
https://takeaction.takepart.com/actions/support-ric-o-barry-s-fight-to-end-the-taiji-dolphin-slaughter
https://secure.animalsaustralia.org/take_action/Ban-Taiji-Dolphin-Hunt/
https://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Kenyans_against_the_slaughter_of_dolphins_and_other_cetaceans/
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/dolfijnen/
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Save Japan Dolphins (Facebook Page)
https://www.facebook.com/SJDolphins/
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Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians Page (official)
https://www.facebook.com/SeaShepherdCoveGuardiansOfficialPage/
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We will not stop until the slaughter ends! We invite you to follow and support Sea Shepherd’s Cove Guardians and Operation Henkaku. With your help, we will bring an end to Taiji’s unnecessary hunt and capture of these incredibly intelligent, sentient beings.
http://www.seashepherd.org/henkaku/
LIVESTREAM at Taiji – http://livestream.seashepherd.org/
This may interest many of you. Izumi was a dolphin hunter (6th generation one), now he offers Whale and Dolphin watching from Futo, which incidently stopped hunting due to his actions and hard work of getting it stopped.
http://brightsea.jimdo.com/
This page (https://sv361.xserver.jp/~tes-sev/kohkaimaru.com/?l=2) is where you can book the tours. This (https://www.facebook.com/brightseaizumiishii/) is his facebook page for his business.
"Izumi Ishii is a reformed Japanese dolphin hunter from the town of Futo. The town has a long history of dolphin drive hunting, he was a 6th generation dolphin hunter after his grandfather and father. Seeing tears in a dolphin he killed, he decided to stop hunting and launched his Whale and Dolphin Watching business in 2002." and "Dolphin hunters say the presence of his watching business with his beloved fishing boat kokaimaru makes it impossible for them to continue the commercial killing."
This is neither about fishing or culture. This is about greed and sadism. The killing of an intelligent being who does not want to die? How can they justify this in any way? No animal wants to die….
Nothing cultural about the terrifying way these animals are driven into the cove then brutalised while having complete familes ripped apart and murdered. These animals are even more intelligent than us and we think we are so special. Thry understand completely what is happening to them. This is the horror of what continues to happen in Taiji even now. It is wrong to treat humans this way and it is wrong to treat dolphins this way. Completey unethical and immoral.
The atrcocities that are taking place in Taiji are well-documented. This isn’t "fishing" this is genocide! The captivity industry is the driving force behind this brutality that lasts six long months.
http://www.seashepherd.org/cove-guardians/livestream.html
Shawn Mason What a stupid thing to say. I am diagnosed bipolar type 2 and my mental health has improved immensely since I stopped eating other sentient life. I get everything my body and my mind need from a plant based diet.
A 400 year old culture of culling some dolphins for dolphin shows? Really that has been going on for 400 years? I somehow doubt that very much.