Dolphin Hunt in violation at Futo '96

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Created on Thursday, 31 October 1996 11:23

False killer whales were captuered illegally.

Our first protest against the dolphin hunt which took place Oct., 1996 at Huto off the coast of Izu Peninsula was the first attempt taken by the Japanese NGO to disclose violation regarding the dolphin hunt.

We managed to have the fishermen release about 130 bottlenose dolphins and false killer whales back to the sea, and even 6 false killer whales that had been taken to the aquarium as well. It was a great success.

Dolphins are still being hunted commercially for food in Japan. The hunt usually takes place from Sept. till March based on the quota set by the Fisheries Agency.Recently the dolphin and orca performances at the aquariums in Japan have been attracting more and more people and because of that, the dolphins and some kinds of whales have been purchased often these days by the aquariums at high prices!

Release of 6 false killer whales from aquarium:

After conducting a research on the dolphin hunt, we found out the following violations and released the facts to the media.

They were:
The number of bottlenose dolphins chased into the bay was much larger than the limited quota. The false killer whale was one of the species that are not allowed to be hunted. We submitted the footage and photos to the Fisheries Agency that one of our members shot at the bay as evidence of the affair, so that they had to release the dolphins and false killer whales.

The next year, we heard a new testimony by a former regular administrator of the Fishermen's Cooperative Association that the number of slaughtered false killer whales was not the reported number, five. It was actually 22.

We asked a person in charge of the Fishery Department of Shizuoka Prefecture about this over the phone. However, he gave a vague answer and it sounded annoyed and dishonest. Since then, no investigation has been implemented.