A Risso Dolphin, Photo provided by Izumi Ishii ex-dolphin hunter

Yesterday a pod of Risso dolphins with a baby were brutally slaughtered in The Cove. The of  dolphin hunters of Taiji show no mercy when it comes to the woman and children of the people of the sea. On October 4th The Taiji Dolphin Hunters drove a pod of striped dolphins in the cove with a newborn infant among the pod. Get Educated Legg recounts the moments before slaughter,  We watched as they rounded the dolphins into the cove but not before we saw something magical, a baby dolphin, a newborn! jumping 3 metres into the air. they were then taken to their death. only one was chosen for a life of captivity and to me, he was the unlucky one. we could hear the screams.” http://geteducatedlegg.blogspot.com/2011/10/red-october-begins.html

Now again today another pod of Risso dolphins has been driven into “The Cove” every dolphin in the pod brutally slaughter with their suffering lasting almost ten minutes. This Dieter Hagmann video secretly captured last season got behind the blue tarp to reveal how the people of the sea were being murdered:

This blood curdling video shows suffering beyond what any person should ever have to endure. Each dolphin that dies behind the blue tarp is a mother, a father, a child, an infant. These pods of dolphins are communities of sea people. Within their highly social and complex framework these families live symbiotically with the oceans, and the earth.

“Bottlenose dolphins have convincingly demonstrated that they use a mirror to investigate their own bodies, showing that they have a sense of self (Reiss and Mrino, 2001). These findings are consistent with further evidence for self-awareness and self-monitoring in dolphins and related cognitive abilities (see Marino et al, 2008, for a review). In particular, the highly elaborated cingulate and insular cortex in cetacean brains are consistent with the idea that these animals are highly sophisticated and sensitive in the emotional and social -emotional sophistication not achieved by other animals including humans.

All of the above factors provide cause for concern over the vulnerability of whales and dolphins when placed in stressful situations, including  capture, drive hunts, and the disruption of social networks. Moreover, conservation measures that do not take into account the psychological complexity of these animals will do little to alleviate suffering on an individual level. Beyond our scientific understanding, our current knowledge of cetacean brains and cognitive abilities demands we develop a new ethic of respect and coexistence with them” (Phillip Brakes and Mark Peter Simmonds, Whales and Dolphins Cognition, Culture, Conservation and Human Perceptions, Washington, DC, Earthscan, 2011).

Surely the dolphin hunters have family and children. Why they cannot show the people of the sea mercy, why they will not recognize cetacean intelligence is a mystery to the world. Why they would rather murder, than explore the many lessons the people of the sea offer us as humans. “One of Taiji’s excuses for killing dolphins is “pest control” – they claim the dolphins are eating all their fish. I’ll point out that Risso dolphins primarily hunt deep sea squid at night. The squid are so deep, it’s highly unlikely that Taiji’s fishermen would ever catch these squid in the first place. So, perhaps – they should consider what Risso dolphins actually eat before making these statements.”(Brian Barnes, 10/24/2011, FB).

Photo of the Dolphin Hunter provided by Martyn Stewart October 23 2011

The dolphin hunters want to be understood by the world but all the world can see is a sea of blood. All the world can hear is the dolphins crying out for mercy as the hunters shove bamboo nails in their blow holes, while slowly severing their spinal cords. It makes us wonder why these men cannot see themselves through the worlds eyes. They know they are hated, they know the world sees them as monsters yet they continue murdering the people of the sea.

As slaughter after slaughter goes on we the activists, the voice of the dolphins, will continue to document the atrocities of the Taiji dolphin hunters taking place in “The Cove” and we will broadcast to the world until public out cry forces the hunters to end the systematic slaughter of dolphins migrating past Taiji, Japan.

Please join us as we fight to save the people of the sea before it’s too late. The links below all have take action links to help save the dolphins of Taiji.

http://savemistythedolphin.blogspot.com/p/taiji-urgent-contact-list.html

http://www.savejapandolphins.org/

http://www.seashepherd.org/cove-guardians/