What happens in Taiji

What happens in Taiji

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Who doesn’t know about the massacres of Taiji? Rhetorical question, of course. I thought it would be interesting to show the steps the dolphins go through, from their capture to their transfer into marine parks. I used pictures posted on the Cove Guardians’ Facebook page to create the story with visuals:

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Killing boats leave Taiji harbour to hunt dolphins.
Les dauphins nagent libres au large du Japon. Dolphins swim freely near the Japanese coast.
Dolphins swim freely near the Japanese coast.

The Banger Boats (12 at most) get in formation and trap the dolphins by banging on iron bars to disturb their sonar and get them to the Cove.

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Dolphins are terrified and stay close to each other.
Les pêcheurs déploient les premiers filets pour emprisonner les dauphins vers la Cove. Fishermen stretch out a first line of nets to trap the dolphins within the Cove.
Fishermen stretch out a first line of nets to trap the dolphins within the Cove.
Une deuxième ligne de filets est mise en place. À ce moment, les dauphins sont tous dans la Cove en attente du massacre ou d’être sélectionné pour les parcs marins. A second line of nets is installed. At this time, all dolphins are all in the Cove, waiting to be slaughtered or selected for marine parks.
A second line of nets is installed. At this time, all dolphins are all in the Cove, waiting to be slaughtered or selected for marine parks.
Les plus petits sont absolument terrorisés. Leur mère et d’autres adultes restent à leurs côtés à chaque instant. The calves are absolutely terrorised. Their mother and other adult dolphins stay by their side.
The calves are absolutely terrorised. Their mother and other adult dolphins stay by their side.

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The prettiest of them are selected to be trained and sold to marine parks. The fishermen get in the water to trap them in net and pull them on boatd. They are extremely brutal.

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The youngest ones are often those who are captured.

Then, the slaughter begins…

Sometimes, the fishermen manage to capture two pods of dolphins. While the first pod is being slaughtered, the other one is forced to wait, swimming in their congeners’ blood and hearing their distress calls.

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Some try to escape and find themselves tangled in the nets.

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Others pushed themselves against the rocks in vain attempt of escape, and badly injure themselves.

Bodies are transported to Taiji harbour into the butcher shop.

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Sometimes, there are so many bodies that all of them cannot be put on board. They are dragged in the water. The fishermen use their weight to prevent the bodies from floating. They are hiding their proud “tradition”.

On this picture, we can see the metal rod that the fishermen hammer into the dolphins’ blow hole. This rod paralyses them as they either suffocated by lying on the shore or drowned by having their flukes tied with rope and dragged by skiffs. It guaranties a very slow and painful death.

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Once they arrive at the harbour, everything is hidden behind tarps.

The colour of the water flushing down speaks for itself.

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The meat is bought by local buyers and transported by trucks, always in a « confidential » way.

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January 13, 2013, a piece of meat was found on the floor.

Fresh dolphin intestines and organs are thrown away in bins outside.

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Then, the meat is transported by the buyers to be later sold in supermarkets or eaten in school restaurants, despite their important concentration of mercury.

Let’s come back to the dolphins captured for marine parks:

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They are dumped into captivity pens inside Taiji harbour. Most of them die in those pens because of stress (dolphins are extremely sensitive to stress).

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They are trained to perform during shows.

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If they refuse to feed themselves, they are forced fed.

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When they are « ready », they are moved in a small truck.

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Look at the sadness in his eyes…

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From the small truck, they are brought into a bigger one, and taken into marine parks or dolphinariums of Japan before being sold to international parks.

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This is where the dolphins you see at Marineland or SeaWorld come from.
This is what they went through to entertain us. Us. Those who broke and slaughtered their family in a cruel blood bath. Those who force them to do tricks jumping into hoops or playing with balloons.

Is it really the lesson we want to teach to our children when we buy them a ticket to SeaWorld? …

Un pourcentage élevé de dauphins captures meurent dans les trois premiers mois, et plus de 50% meurent dans les premières années après le début de leur captivité.

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