Hey all,
Today we had a very early start, leaving the hotel at 4:15am to travel to the Cove area and set up before the arrivial of the dolphin molesters. We met up with everyone at The Cove and split off into groups to survey the area. There are 12 wonderfully passionate activists here right now. I went with Elora and Scott to watch over the harbour, viewing the captive dolphin pens, boats leaving the harbour, and the area of the cove in the distance. We had an excellent vantage point to see all the actions of the day. We stood guard in quite an obvious position, taking no precaution to hide our movements, yet we were still not seen.
At around 6:30am the dolphin molesters and dolphin "trainers" left in 4 boats under cover of darkness. One of these boats was using one light and the others sneaked through the night to committ their dirty deeds. In Japan it is illegal to operate a boat without any lighting, but clearly the dolphin killers have no regard for the law which they expect us to abide by. The morning was drawn out as we watched the boats continuously travel to and leave the cove with numerous dolphins. By noon they had transfered 36 dolphins to the dolphin captivity pens to await their life of enslavement. They also took one juvenile dolphin to the Taiji Whale Museum to live out its life in a tiny tank for the amusement of others.
We realized around this time that we had severely underestimated the number of dolphins held captive at the cove. Originally we had thought the number to be around 40-60. Today after the transfer of so many dolphins, we were able to estimate around 100 still left in the Cove. The dolphins went through a stressful morning of watching their family stolen from them, and then were left in different nets to spend another night in fear. We were left pondering the actions of the molesters. There are two species of dolphin in the cove at the moment, seperated from one another.
We will arrive at the Cove tomorrow at 4am ready for action. There are around 45 dolphins in the captive dolphin pens as I write this post. They are worth a huge amount of money for these killers. I believe that they are waiting for intervention. We hope that they will set the other dolphins free tomorrow, but we cannot be sure.
For the Oceans,
Tarah
Hi
ReplyDeleteI am in Tokyo and want to thank you so much for coming to Japan to be a Cove Guardian. You are all heroes. Tomorrow will be a tough day. Stay strong! Those of us who can't be there are with you all in spirit.
Thank you!
ReplyDeleteWe all love these dolphins, and are hoping to be able to save the future geneerations from this same fate. I'm hoping with everything in me that they do not kill those dolphins this morning.