As the International Whaling Commission (IWC) gets underway this week in Slovenia and as Japan commits its first dolphin kill in Taiji, we have gathered in Hervey Bay to urge for whale and dolphin freedom.
Japan’s dolphin killing season started on 1 September and with 15 days of no dolphin kills it was hoped the killing would never start, yet today the terrible news spread around the world that nine Risso’s dolphins where rounded up into Taiji ‘The Cove’ and brutally slaughtered.
(For more information and live streaming events in Taiji see http://www.seashepherd.org/cove-guardians/ and http://www.savejapandolphins.org/)
Japan is also due to face global condemnation at the International Whaling Commission this week over its plan to resume its whaling program in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary despite the International Court of Justice ruling earlier this year that their Scientific Research was illegal and they should stop immediately.
For more info on the first day of the IWC see attached summary by Mick McIntyre from Whales Alive www.whalesalive.org.au.
It’s amazing in this day and age when so many people are enjoying their interaction with wild dolphins and whales that there is still a country such as Japan that kills and captures these amazing and intelligent mammals of the sea.
Japan should take Hervey Bays example and create sustainable businesses doing wild dolphin and whale watching. I’d like to see the Council of Hervey Bay draught a resolution to send a letter to the Japanese Embassy suggesting they follow Hervey Bay’s success and develop dolphin and whale watching instead of killing and eating them and that whales and dolphins are worth more alive than dead.
The dolphin slaughter is supported by the high price they receive for dolphins they sell into captivity often fetching upwards of $US150,000, whereas a dead dolphin sold for meat may fetch around $600.
It’s time Japan let go of this outdated and barbaric practise and joined in with the rest of humanity in seeing the wild whales and dolphins of the ocean as friends and not food.
In Australia we can do our share to help protect marine life by getting rid of shark nets that kill many dolphins and whales every year.
East coast states need to listen to the Environmental Protection Agency’s findings in WA that declared drum baiting sharks as a way of protecting humans from shark attacks is not scientific or acceptable.
And Queensland and NSW need to stop the drum baiting and netting programs currently operating.
Dean Jefferys, marine conservation yacht Migaloo
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