JAPANESE fishermen rounded up more than 250 bottlenose dolphins in a secluded cove to kill for meat or sell into a lifetime of captivity, US conservationists warned.
The annual hunting of dolphins at Taiji Cove highlights the rift between conservationists worldwide who see it as a bloody slaughter and Japanese who defend it as a local custom.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society first raised the alarm over the plight of the dolphins on Friday, saying five separate pods of bottlenose dolphins had been “driven into Taiji’s infamous killing cove”.
The group warned that the dolphins would “face a violent and stressful captive selection process. Babies and mothers will be torn from each other’s sides as some are taken for captivity, some are killed, and others are driven back out to sea to fend for themselves.”
By the end of Saturday, 25 dolphins had been removed from their pod and taken “to a lifetime of imprisonment,” the group said. One of them died in the process and will be butchered, it said.
The dolphins will be kept penned in the cove for another night before the selection process begins again today.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society live-streamed video of events in the cove on Saturday and posted frequent updates on Twitter.
“Killers continue to ruthlessly wrap bottlenose dolphins into nets and drag them to the shore for selection,” one update said.
Another, a few minutes later, said, “Panicked, frightened, and fatigued, another portion of the bottlenose pod is driven closer to the shore”.
“Killers and trainers tore half of the pod apart today, and will finish tomorrow,” was the final post on the day’s hunt.
Caroline Kennedy, who was sworn in last year as the US ambassador to Japan, tweeted her condemnation of the process.
“Deeply concerned by inhumaneness of drive hunt dolphin killing,” she said.
The US government “opposes drive hunt fisheries”.
CNN was unable to reach anyone at the town office for Taiji, a community of about 3000 that juts into the Pacific Ocean, or the local fishermen’s union for comment.