Killing, It's What We Do

I’m sorting through a few thousand photos from my trip to Taiji, trying to make sense of what I saw. I’m clearly in the minority of humans in the way I now see animals. I don’t believe in god so, I don’t think god put animals here for our use and abuse. I understand that suffering is part of all sentient beings but don’t understand why we perpetuate it. I have a small group of friends that fight for better lives for all living creatures. I have another batch of friends that thinks everything is ours to kill. It’s a weird world and the divide is massive.

Striped dolphins swimming for their lives off the coast of Taiji, Japan

Everyday before sunrise, except some Saturday’s and holidays, if the weather is favorable, the dolphin hunting fleet of 12 boats leaves Taiji harbor in search of dolphins. While I was there, they were usually successful. When this picture was taken, a small pod of Risso’s dolphins was already in the cove. I wasn’t a big fan of Risso’s until this day, that melon head and all. But watching them rocket through the water out in front of the boats with almost no breath, these guys are like Olympic swimmers. And once in the cove they swim and turn with grace, their scared bodies glowing white just under the surface. I have a new reverence for them. Like all the other dolphin species, they stay together until the end.

Once the Risso’s dolphins were secure in the inter nets of the killing cove, they were killed and taken to the slaughterhouse. With the cove now clear of bodies, the dolphin hunters drove in the pod of striped dolphins they’d been holding off the coast. The yellow tarp was set to keep bodies from getting cut on the rocks. Striped dolphins throw themselves on the rocks trying to escape. Advocates have video of these little guys bleeding on the rocks. Perhaps those videos lead to the use of tarps and thus a little less suffering in the last minutes of their lives.

Hunters done a good job hiding the actual killing with a set of tarps that cover the cove. Since my trip two years ago, the fence on the opposite side of the cove has been moved closer restricting the view into the killing cove. The butchering barge is no longer used and so there are no large slicks of blood in the water.

People ask me, how do we stop it? I don’t know. Hopefully, someone does and we can end this and the mustang roundup, the sea lion cull at the Bonneville dam, the bison hazing outside Yellowstone, the wolf hunts,… but as I said in the beginning, most people must want this killing to continue because it’s what we do. I’m also asked why do you go? Because I think what’s happening is wrong and I want the world to at least know what’s happening. I hope that one of my photos might touch someone in a way that sparks an action and leads to change. To see some of my photos from that day click here.

What isn’t in my photos are the sounds. The bodies hitting boats. The yelling. The tail slaps. The screams. And then nothing…

For the souls of the ocean

Dolphin Extremes

I wasn't sure how I felt about a trip to swim with wild Atlantic spotted dolphins. Here in the Puget Sound, we must stay 200 yards from orcas and with the number of boats following them every day even that seems too close to me. But after my time in Taiji, I thought getting close to dolphins might be an antidote to the horror that I saw there. Lisa and I booked as soon as Samantha Whitcraft posted information about her Dolphin Defense Workshop & Eco-Cruise on Facebook.

Half of us arrived at the boat in Bimini four hours later than scheduled due to a paperwork mix up with the airline. This meant we missed the tide and were unable to leave that day. A potential dolphin day was lost. The next days were spent wandering around Bahamian waters looking for dolphins and running from the remnants of Tropical Storm Emily. I was surprised how few boats we saw on the water. Maybe they were smarter than we were.

On the last day of the trip, we finally found dolphins. We followed a mother and calf for hours and they didn’t try to evade us but instead, played in our bow wake and rode waves near the boat. It was wonderful to see this pair after days of nothing. With all of the close interaction, spyhops and breaching, I was satisfied when they swam away. I’d hoped for five solid days of swimming with them but this was fabulous. The boat continued in their direction in hopes that we’d find them again.

A short while later, we heard, DOLPHINS! Another pair appeared; mature dolphins this time. Soon, we saw six more. A little bit later, they were everywhere. Our dolphin spotter, Bradley, counted tirdee-tree (33). It was a wonderful sight. The original mother and calf were in this group. They had led us to their pod. I was asked if this was the antidote to Taiji I hoped for. I realized then, that there is no antidote for what I saw in Taiji. This experience was separate and special and would have been even better if our captain had stopped the boat and let us in the water.

The captain announced that the dolphins needed to “chill” and that we needed lunch. It wasn’t up to us but it appeared that the dolphins were completely chill and none of us would rather have mac and cheese than swim with dolphins. But that’s how it went down. We were like little kids trying to scarf down a meal while we watched our friends play outside. By the time we got in the water only a few from the pod were left so the captain put out the ropes to drag us through the water to catch back up to them. It worked and I had my first in water experience with dolphins. I don’t know the words to describe what it was like. But to have an animal swim inches from you and look you in the eye… it’s very special. There’s someone in there and I’m honored that they swam with me.

On a second drag through the water, the captain yelled to get off the ropes and swim forward to the front of the boat. My human pod got ahead of me as I watched two spotted dolphins swim toward me. One stopped and whistled something and then started clicking. I can only imagine what he was thinking, why doesn’t this watery eyed, meat puppet answer me? While I was enjoying this moment, my captain was screaming at me to stay with the group. I think Sam Kinison is alive and well and driving a dolphin watch boat off the coast of Bimini. When I caught up to my pod, they were watching bottlenose and Atlantic spotted dolphins share an intimate moment. It was pretty wild and I learned later that this type of inter-species interaction is considered rape by some. It looked consensual to me.

When I got out of the water, I scanned the horizon for other boats. There was one lone sport fishing boat off the bow and a tug off port that was on the horizon every day, like a catcher in the rye. It seems, in these waters, this kind of interaction is fine and is really on the dolphins’ terms. It wouldn’t work in the Puget Sound as every yahoo would be chasing orcas and trying to jump on their backs.

I wish the fisherman of Taiji would spend a week in the Bahamas, have close interactions with dolphins and learn how to run a trip like this. I think it could open their eyes to a new possible revenue stream that might be more lucrative than what they are currently doing. If the Taiji fishermen keep moving in the current direction, the dolphins will be gone and so will this alternative form of income. Don't the people of Japan deserve the an opportunity to enjoy a close connection with these glorious beings?

For the souls of the oceans

Yesterday, the Hunt Resumed

After a long holiday break the fisherman of Taiji returned to work. In this video Nicole McLachlan captures the selection process. You can see dolphins in slings taken away to perform and others dragged off by their tails to be slaughtered. Nicole's blog is very powerful and worth a read.

Tim Burns captured the following video

For the souls of the oceans

The Taiji Five

Lisa and I were trying to piece together our first awareness of Taiji. In the file cabinet, Lisa found copies of her work including the incident when 10 orcas were driven into the cove back in February 1997. Five were selected for aquariums, the Taiji Five. She was working with Bob Chorush, Paul Spong and others at CFN (Cetacean Freedom Network) to craft letters and organize efforts to free this family. The story is tragic but it’s interesting to look back and see activists embrace the power of the internet and media. Lisa was interviewed in our home by KOMO TV and afterwards they sent a crew to Taiji for a firsthand account. It lead the local news for days. I wish we had a copy of the interview. Lisa came off great. The poor Japanese embassy spokesman looked confused. It was a small victory and nearly 14 year later, we’re still fighting to end the drive fisheries. It’s important to keep fighting. As Will Anderson said at the Japan Dolphin Day Protest in Seattle recently, This will end.

Here's a video showing the capture and updates from the ten year anniversary.

I am so impressed with these mammals. They are known to kill great white sharks and whales many times their own size yet they allow their captors to contain them and to violently separate them from their families. It makes me think of the nonviolent ways of Gandhi or the Dalia Lama. I wish the orcas and dolphins would fight back, but they are probably more spiritually evolved than I am.

Great news from the cove today, the boats came back empty!