Dolphins slaughter of Taiji, Japan

And then the movie came about the dolphins slaughter in Taiji : "The Cove" *

Here, VDO http://tinyurl.com/bpndl7

I saw the movie and interviewed Ric O'Barry (who pays a late tribute to dolphins after using them for his business and popularity and trained "Flipper") I nevertheless think that even though the film is a show with technical talents and is made as a good documentary, there are a lot of discriminating concerns vis a vis the Japanese society. Now, is it really necessary to slaughter such a cleaver mammals as the dolphin and why don't they use dolphins for other human related friendly and environmentally correct activities? Also what a budget : 3 to 5 million $ paid by a sponsor related to an electronics and IT company.

Still, the director of an award-winning documentary about Japan's dolphin slaughter said that he plans to attend the screening of "The Cove" at the Tokyo film festival, early October even though he could be arrested. Japanese police say American director Louie Psihoyos and other members of his crew violated trespassing laws when they documented the hunt in the seaside town of Taiji, where 2,000 dolphins are killed every year, mostly to be sold as meat.

The film shows fishermen on small boats banging on poles to frighten the dolphins into a cove, where they are then killed with spears. The cove is closed off by barbed wire, and the film crew had to film much of the footage covertly. The film has won more than a dozen awards and led to an outpouring of outrage at the hunt.

Initially, it wasn't part of the program for the Tokyo International Film Festival (which opens Oct. 17) but was added partly because of pressure from abroad. Psihoyos said he wasn't concerned about getting arrested if it was for the right cause, saying he sees covert filming as a form of civil disobedience. He also says he disagrees with how Japanese authorities were defining trespassing, because the cove is in a national park.

Taiji, Wakayama, Shikoku

Taiji is a town located in Higashimuro District, Wakayama, Japan. As of 2007, the town has an estimated population of 3,444 and a density of 577.85 persons per km 2 . The total area is 5.96 km². Taiji is the smallest local government by area in Wakayama Prefecture because, unlike others, it has not experienced a merger since 1889 when the village of Moriura merged into Taiji. Taiji shares its entire overland border with the town of Nachikatsuura and faces the Pacific Ocean.

Taiji has been well-known as a whaling town and is considered as the birth place of Japan's traditional whaling method. Taiji is a major center for dolphin drive hunting. 2.000 Dolphins are slaughtered every year or sold to the Marine entertainment business. Dolphin meat was sold in food markets and given to school children when it contains very high levels of mercury and is not fit for human consumption. The Japanese government has been doing it's best to hide this slaughter form public view and keep a needless fishing tradition alive. Help stop the needless slaughter of the worlds dolphins.

pics by strokesonfilm via Google http://www.panoramio.com/user/728061

"The Cove" : "La Crique" in French language. Actually I already talked about this dolphins massacre in January 2008 in a post "Whales, dolphins, tuna exhaust: what is wrong with Japan's taste?" Here http://preview.tinyurl.com/y9frb8p