Taiji, the Japanese town made infamous by Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, is to open a marine park where visitors can swim with dolphins, but officials yesterday said its annual slaughter of the creatures will continue in a nearby bay.
Unrepentant organizers say they want tourists to be able to eat dolphin and whale meat as they watch the captive mammals frolic.
The town has begun researching a plan to section off part of a cove and turn it into a place where people can swim in the water and kayak alongside small whales and dolphins, local government official Masaki Wada told reporters.
Photo: AFP
Wada insisted that, far from having caved to pressure from conservationists who want an end to the yearly hunt, the project was aimed at helping to sustain the practice.
“We already use dolphins and small whales as a source of tourism in the cove where dolphin hunting takes place,” he said. “In summer, swimmers can enjoy watching the mammals that are released from a partitioned-off space, but we plan to do it on a larger scale. This is part of Taiji’s long-term plan of making the whole town a park where you can enjoy watching marine mammals while tasting various marine products, including whale and dolphin meat.”
The park will be separate from Hatakejiri Bay, the place into which the fishermen of Taiji corral dolphins, select a few dozen for sale to aquariums and marine parks, and stab the rest to death for meat.
The plan calls for the creation of a whale safari park stretching about 28 hectares by putting up a net at the entrance to Moriura Bay in northwest Taiji, Wada said.
The 2009 film The Cove brought Taiji to worldwide attention after graphically showing the killing of dozens of trapped animals.
Taiji, in Wakayama Prefecture, is looking to open part of the park within five years, Wada said.
Black whales and bottlenose dolphins caught in waters near the town would be released into the area, which would be developed as a nature park that also includes beaches and mudflats, he added.
Wakayama said the town caught 1,277 dolphins last year and has a license to capture 2,026 this season, which began last month and runs until August next year.
Tokyo-based conservationist group Iruka & Kujira (meaning “dolphin” and “whale”) Action Network (IKAN) said the plan was “unfortunate” for the town.
“The whole plan is based on the concept that they can exploit dolphins and whales freely as their resource, but the mammals don’t belong to Taiji,” IKAN secretary-general Nanami Kurasawa said.
“Marine mammals migrate across ocean, and international public opinion is that wildlife should be allowed to live as they are. The plan will only ignite more protests over dolphin-hunting,” she said.
People in Taiji say dolphin-hunting is part of a 400-year-old whaling and culinary tradition. They say that campaigns against it are cultural imperialism that neglects the parallels between killing dolphins and killing cattle.
Yet Kurasawa said demand for dolphin meat is dwindling and only 100 of 3,400 residents are in dolphin hunting-related businesses.
“If they want to get more tourists, they can for example exhibit the beautiful whale-hunting ships used in ancient days, that would show their tradition without stirring more controversy,” she said.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS