Property of

(Photo by Karl Goodsell)

The sign says, “All dolphin and whales inside this net are property of the Isana Fisheries Association.” They put this up the day after I left Taiji and it’s been bothering me. One day, up on the point, Andreas Morlok asked, where do the dolphins go after the hunt? I had no idea. These two things worked on me. Where did the dolphins go and who are they the property of? If the dolphins go somewhere else maybe someone else has a claim on them. I asked Jeff Friedman if he knew where the dolphins that swim past Taiji go when the killing season ends. The answer came back, China, Taiwan, Palau, Korea, French Polynesia, and Philippines. Do these countries care that Taiji is claiming these beautiful, intelligent creatures for their own and kill them?

Maybe we can get these other countries to put some pressure on Japan to leave their ocean bound citizens alone. For the small group of humans know as Isana Fisheries Association to claim them as their property is absurd. They are the freest of all beings on the planet. We need to make sure they stay that way.

For the souls of the ocean