Dolphin base

I hope nobody is wondering why I haven’t been posting any word about a number of killed dolphins in Taiji… Because from the day I arrived here no dolphin got killed! And I would like it to stay this way, I don’t need to get the chance to shoot photo’s of blood shed, to hear them scream, the tails clapping on the surface. I’m really ok not having to witness it.

Today the killers decided not to sail out as there was to much swell and “white caps”. That makes at least 3 smiling faces around here.

We went to have a look at the dolphin resort, watch how our imprisoned friends were doing. As usual the image of 3 or 4 dolphins in way to small pens is devastating. Some of them have a lot of rubbish floating inside, wooden boards, plastic, branches, leaves… The only pen that is clean is the biggest one, the one where the tourists have their encounters.

 People get 30 minutes to meet with the dolphins, touch them and swim with them.

I think about my own desire to have an encounter, to get close, look in the dolphin’s eyes, maybe even touch. The only difference is I want that to happen in the open ocean, it has to be the dolphin that comes to me in her(his) own free will. That would make it right and that would make it real.

Here in Taiji and in all dolphinaria around the world the dolphins only do what they are asked to because they have there mind set on the (little) fish they get after it.

You can see it clearly, after every turn, jump, wave, flip they go ask for a fish. It seems they’re really hungry and desperate for food. When the tourists are in the water and they ride on the dolphins back, small pieces of fish are thrown in the water in front of them to tell the dolphin where to swim to. If they come ask for a full fish on the side of the pen they get send back to give the kid another ride. And the nice animals just do it… they just go with it as there no other choice.

The pictures I shot shows again what I can not repeat enough here: these amount of beauty, power and intelligence belongs in the great open oceans, not in a rusted, filthy pen.

Statistics...

I have to mention this:
I post a letter to the people of Japan and for some reason unknown they are now top leading in my view list!

This is necessary, most of the Japanese people don't know what is going on. If we could only reach the Japanese newspapers and throw it in the open... Let them know it is not necessary to continue this horrible act against the dolphins...
If we can get Japanese government to stop handing out licences for killing dolphins than we win this fight. But there is a long way to go and we need everybody's support, WORLDWIDE!
Therefor I ask once more: please forward all what you have on this, put it on Facebook, twitter it, email to all your address book,  whatever, just send it out there!
(Below every post on this blog you can click on email-blog-twitter-facebook)
By the end of next week it would be great to see the whole map turned green on my screen!!!!

Number of page views today November 19, 16:55 (GMT +9)

Don't do this for me, do it for all those dolphins that just want to live and travel the oceans...
Cause why would we take such great thing away from them? Look at it!

Striped dolphins

Dear people of Japan

As I noticed over 50 page-views coming from Japan over the last 2 days only, I believe some of you folks are interested in what I have to say about Taiji. Why else would you read it?

Let me make it clear from the start that I'm not a member of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS), I'm here to support them. I came here and joined Rosie and her followers because I believe in their methods to try to stop the dolphin slaughter.
This is the only thing we want: To bring an end to the horrible, vicious, cruel, pointless and non-ethical killing of these beautiful creatures in Taiji and other places in Japan or in the rest of the world.
I have nothing against the people of Japan, on the contrary, I was mostly surprised how polite and friendly you all are. I believe this is a beautiful country with lots of opportunities and interesting (eco)tourism.
I do have a problem with the 26 dolphin killers here in Taiji and everybody that supports them. Also the ignorant, money brain fools that keep on ordering trained dolphins around the world are no longer people I see as fellow humans.
The next part of this letter is directed to those people.

Dear people of Taiji and all related to the slaughter,

Yes I realize that Japan has a culture of whale hunting and consuming their meat, it's tradition right? Think about it: How about the culture of slavery 200 years ago? Or the Catholic Church’s inquisition?
What about the tradition of the cat burning in Paris in the 16th century? A popular form of entertainment in which a cat was hoisted in a sling on a stage and slowly lowered into a fire. According to historian Norman Davies: "The spectators, including kings and queens, shrieked with laughter and joy as the animals, howling with pain, were singed, roasted, and finally carbonized."
I believe you Japanese have a special bond with cats, as I see them in gift shops all around. Would you agree if this still happens somewhere in the world? Would you look at the you-tube movie, watching a live cat being burned and say: “Oh, it’s their tradition, so it’s ok”?
Tell me honestly please…

THE FACT THAT YOUR WHALING AND DOLPHIN SLAUGHER IS TRADITION OR A PART OF YOUR CULTURE DOES NOT MAKE IT OK!!!
Times change, we humans get smarter, we learn, we can make life better, we EVOLVE and so traditions should evolve too!

Next I suppose you come whining with the fact that we take away your income, your recourses? Do you really think you need the meat of dolphins to survive? Ever heard of mercury-poisoning?  Do you really think you can not make money out of living, wild animals? Do we have to capture them, put them in a life time prison for entertainment? No we don’t! It’s not necessary my dear people, it’s not useful and it’s definitely not wanted by millions of people around the world. You make yourself look like fools; you create a negative image over this whole country.
And it shouldn’t be! Because Japan is extremely beautiful and has along the friendliest, hard working people I met around the globe. You deserve a better reputation, so is my opinion.

It’s sad to witness your media culture, how it bends your free mind in a tunnel where you can just look forward to what’s coming to you: manipulated news. (please view “Japanese media at present”: http://www1.doshisha.ac.jp/~twatanab/watanabe/english/japan.html)
We are not terrorists. Sea Shepherds are no terrorists. We love life in any form. Putting us activists under the same name as Al-Qaida is just pathetic and ignorant to do so.

I saw my name with a link to this blog on http://blog.livedoor.jp/pngtaiji/, i know that some of you already started to hate me before having even spoken a word with me. How can you even judge me for the one and only fact that I stand up for the life of dolphins???? Is it not allowed for me to love them?

I invite you to come and meet me, I’m in Taiji every day.

Best Regards,
Christoph

What to do?

You would think that's a smile no? Well, it isn't... it's a common mistake. People intend to think the dolphins are happy as their face has this shape...
What you see here is a dolphin that's just really bored. She (or he, i'm not that good yet) was just lying there, flapping her (his) tail, waiting for something to happen... and nothing happens. Never again.

Nothing.... good!

No catch again today, no murders committed in Taiji... The dolphins out-smarted them :)

The hell with tradition!

Dolphin and whale hunting has been a Japanese occupation for centuries. Large Japanese whaling vessels sail out to the Antarctic’s to hunt and kill whales under the label of science. Things have been improved a lot over the last years; however, what we want is a complete end of global cetaceans killing.
About half a day from Tokyo and only accessible via a coastal road, Taiji escaped the eyes of animal rights activists for years. But internet and modern cheap transportation put an end to the secret.  Now about 26 dolphin killers, a bunch of locals who also make profit out of it and some bow tie business man stand against a group of people that’s growing by the minute. Thanks to Rick O’Barry, and many others after him the world starts to realise what’s going on.

The fishermen consider dolphins as just big fish, like tuna. They find it strange that we believe it cruel and can’t except to hear that dolphins are special, for them it’s just food as any other. It’s a tradition; they have been eating dolphin and whale meat for generations.
Than, if people get questioned about it, different facts are brought to daylight:

Dolphin meat (picture hypenc.com)

“I hate cutting up dolphin,” says Motohata Toshihiro, who runs a nearby whale-meat shop. “The stink stays on you for days, even after several baths.”
“I don’t like the taste of dolphin because it smells,” says 9-year-old Utani Rui, a Taiji kid. “I prefer whale.”
Inside the museum, out-of-towners are often stunned to learn of the local tradition. “I’m shocked,” says Shibuya Keiko from Osaka. “I couldn’t imagine eating dolphin. They’re too cute.”

O’Barry found out that it’s no longer about tradition, he said: “It’s pest-control; they’re over-fishing and want to kill the competition for the fish. That’s unacceptable. These animals don’t have Japanese passports, they belong to the world. They’re just trying to get around this town and these 26 guys.” He calls the town ‘schizophrenic.’ “It’s as pretty as a 1950s postcard and the people are so friendly, but this secret genocide takes place every year.”

The fact remains that still people find it normal to hunt and slaughter free, intelligent and beautiful animals. What’s in a human’s mind if you can go to watch a dolphin perform a show and get the possibility to eat dolphin meat when watching it? It’s far beyond sanity if you ask me.
The people of this town don’t realise that they are hated by the world for the killing that takes place here, it has been a cover-up for decades and it’s still a cover-up today.

In a world that has to deal with wars, greed and environmental destruction, the fate of a few thousand animals might seem not such a big deal, but activists that stand up to this have their reasons.
“The dolphin hunt is a symbol of our utilitarian view of nature,” says O’Barry. “That we can use and abuse the sea. I honestly believe when the world finds out about this it will be abolished. It can’t possibly survive the light of day.”

Today the world starts to find out about it!
Please let everybody know, this can not survive, we have to bring it to an end!

(Quotes taken out of an article that appeared in The Independent on Saturday January 6, 2006)

A real beauty

We took a backside look at the "whale museum". They got about 3 small basins, in which they keep a total of about 8 dolphins, 6 bottle nose dolphins and 2 pacific white-sided dolphins.
It's the first time i see one of this species and i'm astonished of how beautiful they are... they're small with detailed sharp lines... like it was spray painted!

It's pretty awful actually to keep creatures like this imprisoned...
The green is a wicked thing...

Like a convoy, like a parade, like it was something royal!

The 12 hunting boats sailed out Taiji harbor again this morning. The weather conditions are: Sunny, 21°C, wind 10km/h, visibility 19km, the sea is a babbling brook...  most would say: great weather mate! Well, not in Taiji. This means perfect conditions for the killers to track the herds, follow/chase them & drive them in the cove...

For a couple of hours we watched the boats going north and south, accelerating, turning around, grouping, spreading out... they were definitely chasing the poor mammals. It took them about 4 and hours to return back inland.  As they approached the harbor it became clear they weren't in formation, but just scattered apart. Big smile on our faces, Rosie's hands in the air: no catch today!

Taiji is real!

Today I met Rosie and Thomas, 2 fellow humans that devoted themselves to bring an end to the Taiji slaughter. Next to the fact that we have a common goal here, I'm happy to feel the large passion flowing out of them!

 (looking in a Japanese local magazine that has an a picture of Rosie + an article about her in it)

I arrived just after midday and didn't hesitate to fire them a bunch of questions (sorry, the enthusiasm). I got to know that about 7 Risso's dolphins got killed today... that everything is pretty well covered with tarps and fences to keep whatever is happening behind it away from the world's eyes... that security is on a really high level with 3 different police forces and that the guardians are being watched like criminals on the loose.

I've got introduced to Taiji, I saw the cove being deceptively  peaceful and quite. The town itself is full with dolphin/whale statues and images. It's like you're entering the "we love whales-village"... the coves, the whale museum, the dolphin resort, the butcher house, the view from the hill, the police and 1 nasty dolphin killer driving by with his middle finger up in the air....very mature mate...

We drove up the mountain pass to get a full view on Taiji harbour and the entrance of the cove. I noticed13 pens floating. We watched a couple divers that had placed a large tarp inside one pen so 4 false killer whales were forced to stay on the surface. This apparently makes it easier for them to take pictures, check them, weigh them... just gather some data for future sales agreements.
Rosie told me they've been there for a couple of weeks already, after being chased inside the cove, watched there family got murdered. And now they will be forced to paddle in an aquarium for the rest of there lives, entertaining people that believe the animal is happy with it.
What if we put 2 men in a toilet for a couple of years? Having to do tricks to get food..."Here you go buddy, jump from the lid, yes, yeeeezzzz, you're a good boy, here, have a banana"

We were up there for maybe 10 minutes when a police car pulled over, red lights flashing. 5 police officers walked up to us and got a warm greeting from Rosie, seems along the way there was a nice understanding build up. As they were informed that there would be a new activist arriving they came to check me out. They asked for my passport and made me fill in a list with some questions. We had a pretty nice chat with the lads, I promised my cooperation the next couple of weeks and that was that.

On the ride back, Rosie kept telling me things that pushed reality a little deeper in my face. Like the part of a Japanese TV show where a dolphin killer is telling that the heart is the best part. "You should cut it in small blocks and eat it while it's still warm..."

Tomorrow morning we're going back.

Wakayama

Japan impresses me so far. Warm toilet seats, super friendly folks, great food and interesting details everywhere!When I left Tokyo on the domestic flight to Osaka I noticed when the plain started taxiing to the runway that the 3 traffic guys on the tarmac were waving the plain goodbye. This was really a strange view for me... Nevertheless, it brought me a smile and I waved back.
I'm aware of the contrast Japan is giving me now with the image I have of Japanese whaling and the dolphin slaughter I'll be witnessing in a few days myself.

Tomorrow I'm taking the train to Ki-Katsurra. At least i hope so, if it goes that far. Apparently a lot of railroads are closed due to damages on bridges caused by a typhoon 2 months ago.
Anyhow, my destination is Taiji and my mind is set on getting there soon.
I don't have that much of a clue of what i'm expecting to see there. It doesn't frighten me, my motivation is endless now... now let's transform that into something useful for these animals.

Operation infinite patience will get a new member soon

Flights are booked, hotels are booked. It's just a matter of days now before i set off for Japan.

So far my experience with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society doesn't reach any further than donating or buying some merchandising. Just like the most of you guys I'm only reading about their projects, looking at Youtube and hoping things will change.
Speaking of Youtube, this is the footage that persuaded me to really get into it...

Sure I know whales got killed, sure i knew it happens illegally and sure i knew it's not just 3 or 4, or 150...
Out of sight out of mind plays to big of a part in men's brains. Do you ever think about the many young girls and women getting raped in Congo? Do you ever let your sleep for the numbers of children dying everyday on undernourishment? Not really i guess... I don't blame no one here, it's our daily western social habits that makes us wonder about less painful things.
Anyhow, the fact that you're reading this means your mind is set to make a change, to bring a stop to these horrible and useless practices. And SSCS can use a mind like that!

So what to do? Let's start with showing things, send out pictures, movies, spread the word...
I got started with this, hope you do the forwarding or better, come join us!

Christoph