Striped, energetic, gorgeous, playful, intelligent, wild, innocent, free, mysterious, strong... and now dead

Today the dolphins put in a lot of fight. Just past 7 already we saw the banger boats driving a pod of dolphins. During several hours it seems that the killers were getting a hard time: we noticed the pod managed several times to escape by splitting up. Still the fast swimming mammals are no match to the powerful boats. When the killers managed to drive a pod of around 20 striped dolphins towards the shore, the hope on any more escape became smaller by the second.

However, just before they reached the cove the dolphins dove deep and disappeared for a while. You could see the killers looking 360° around as they lost them, the boats backed up... Than a few rised to the surface on the cove's entrance but no more than 7 to 10 of them... These drew the killers attention and they continued the drive. We're guessing half of them got away right there at the last moment.

But if it is 7, 8, 10 or 20 dolphins...each one is one to many. They should never have been there in the first place.
Once they close the net we know that it's over for them.

The thing about these striped dolphins is that they're really energetic and fast. This results in panic reactions that can lead to horrible scenes.
As they get driven further and further into the cove they see there space shrink and seek a way out. They are so in shock that they start jumping on the sharp rocks surrounding the cove. This leads in serious wounds that colors the water instantly.

Due to the fact that the killers placed a lot of bamboo on the hills and that we are being watched by a number of policemen we can't get any closer to see clearly what happens. Not that we ask any questions, we know what happens...
Once a dolphin hit the rocks, the divers go to pull them back in the water, tie a rope around their tale and hand it over to the skiff.

This was the first victim of today's slaughter, a juvenile striped dolphin...

Wounded by the rocks it get's dragged under the tarps where the killers do the rest

The others have no choice but to listen to it happening...and wait their turn

Maybe some of you wonder why I bring this story like this? It maybe all seems pretty sensation minded...but this is what happens, the images don't even show the real horror, they don't even give an idea about the screaming. I don't really want to soften it all up. I would like to share the things that happen in the way that I experience them.

For them who saw "The cove" know that it's horrific. Those who haven't seen "The Cove" yet and want to know the full story of Taiji's dolphin killings, please go and watch it. That documentary made the turn in this violence, it made many including me come to Taiji and will hopefully be the origin for the ending of dolphin killings around the world.