A Year At The Beach: January 2015 Part 2: #tweet4taiji

A Year At The Beach

January 2015

Continued ~2~

#tweet4taiji

Taiji is a small coastal town in Japan. From all outward appearances that I can tell, it seems to be a scenic town that loves dolphins and whales. But, “don't judge a book by it's cover” comes to mind.

In 2009, The Cove {movie} brought to the attention to anyone who was paying attention the horrific dolphin drive hunting in Taiji, Japan. This hunting has been going on longer than from 2009 but with the knowledge and scientific proof the question is: WHY? This is 2015, and we know better. The only answer I come up with is GREED!

I have never been to Taiji so I can only speak of what I have seen via photographs and the Live Stream of the Sea Shepard’s Cove Guardians.

The dolphin drive hunting is a daily practice during September through March, which is the migration period of dolphins and small whales following their food {fish} and warmer waters. Each morning just as the sun rises, an average of 12 banger boats leave the Harbor and head out on the ocean for their thirst of blood money.

January has been and is known to be a horrific month for dolphins as it is a busy migration month right past Japan. Sometimes within an hour, sometimes a few hours, these hunters locate a pod on the horizon and begin the drive back in to the cove. As we, as humans, depend on our sight, dolphins depend on their sonic hearing. The hunters use this against them by dropping metal poles into the water and bang on the poles with metal creating a wall of sound that is horrible above water, so imagine how it is under water and frightening to the dolphins. Above ground, it sounds like a construction site. The boats surround the pod all the time banging their poles as the frightened dolphins try to flee by swimming away from the sound but towards Taiji. They swim as hard, as fast as possible away not realizing they are swimming towards more horror.

This is where I have asked you to “Think Blue”. This is when I pray to God that these dolphins will swim deep, swim away, swim fast and get away from the monsters on the boats before it is too late... and sometimes they do, just not often enough.

Imagine how frightened they must be and how exhausting. By the time the drive is right outside the Harbor, I still hope and pray but it's not usually good. A couple of banger boats usually go into the Harbor to switch into skiff boats and come back to continue to help with the driving of the pod to the cove.

Once they reach the cove, their fate is sealed with nets.

This is a RED COVE DAY!