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Saturday, September 4, 2010
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UPDATE FROM TAIJI: Nine Dolphins Held Captive; Dolphin Defenders Grow in Strength in the Town Without Pity
By Michael Dalton
Sea Shepherd Taiji Campaign Leader
Dolphin lovers from around the world are now starting to converge on Taiji. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society crew members will not be the only dolphin defenders here for long. This afternoon, some twenty newly arrived people will be meeting in the town with inflatable dolphins in tow. More westerners, as the Japanese Coast Guard today referred to them, will be arriving over the coming days, weeks, and months, including high profile celebrities.
As an unassuming silver Toyota sedan sits outside with two Japanese Coast Guards inside, it is obvious they take the Sea Shepherd presence here very seriously. After being followed and stopped this morning by the Coast Guard and the Japanese Police we have concluded that they have one concern on their minds: are the Sea Shepherd crew going to cut the nets again as they did in 2003? I was warned subtly that arrest would follow if I did. They know who I am.
Last night, we staked out the harbor where the dolphin pens are located. Guards were positioned in four vehicles on two points overlooking the pens with headlights and spotlights on the pens constantly, guards changing every hour. The fishermen are on red alert here, and they are convinced that Sea Shepherd will once again launch a successful strike against the nets.
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Friday, September 3, 2010
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Update from Taiji, Japan
by Michael Dalton, Sea Shepherd Taiji Campaign Leader
I have just downloaded these pictures from my camera taken this morning. As you can see there is one dolphin in a sea pen waiting to be trained and shipped off to a marine park somewhere for a life of misery, to be fed a cocktail of antibiotics and anti-depressants for the remainder of its natural life.
We are expecting a contingent of 20-30 people shortly arriving from Tokyo, mostly international `tourists` - those who have listened to Ric O`Barry and have now heeded the call from Sea Shepherd to make their presence known in Taiji for the sake of the dolphins.
We have discovered that the publicly accessible cove, next to the killing cove, where the dolphins were being held yesterday is now empty and the nets have been removed.
This appears strange that they will take the nets down but maybe this is because they know that we are in town and are ready to take action to protect them.
Our plans will depend on the actions of the Taiji fishermen. If they plan to start killing dolphins (Risso or bottlenose), false killer whales or pilot whales in front of our eyes, then we will take appropriate action. We do not intend to stand by and see any sentient creatures slaughtered.
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Thursday, September 2, 2010
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Ten Dolphins Captured at The Cove in Taiji, Japan!
Sea Shepherd Crew Calls for Assistance at the Cove to Save the Dolphins
The first dolphins to be caught in Taiji this season were herded into the notorious Cove at Taiji, Japan today. These dolphins will be killed unless people come to Taiji to defend them.
Sea Shepherd has a crew of Australians, New Zealanders, Americans and Japanese in Taiji, but are seriously out numbered.
There are some 100 people in Tokyo who came to Japan to defend the dolphins, Sea Shepherd is calling for these people to come to Taiji immediately. The Dolphins will not be saved from Tokyo.
“The dolphins need defenders at the Cove today and tomorrow,” said Michael Dalton of Sea Shepherd Brisbane who is leading the Sea Shepherd team on the ground at Taiji, “If you came to Japan to save dolphins, the place to be is Taiji and the time to be here is now.”
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010
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Sea Shepherd Supporter Files Police Claim Against the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
 At 10:15 on the 31st of August, Sea Shepherd Supporter Peter Manthos from Vejle, Denmark filed a police claim against the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for failure to abide by the Bern Convention by allowing the Faeroese pilot whale slaughter to continue.
The police claim reads “I hereby wish to report the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for violation of the Bern Convention (also known as the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats) for allowing to occur, and not preventing, the killing of pilot whales in waters governed under Danish law”.
Every summer, hundreds, and oftentimes thousands, of pilot whales are deliberately stranded in the Faeroe Islands in a cruel method of whaling known as the grind. Their spinal cords are severed with knives.
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