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Dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan.

A few weeks ago we posted a clip of the Taiji, Japan dolphin slaughter. The practice of poaching dolphins for meat still continues. However, an unprecedented legal challenge by animal rights activists has been filed to end the slaughter.

Taiji cove, Japan. Home of the dolphin drive which kills an average of 23,000 dolphins annually. 

Officially, the main purpose of the dolphin hunt is to provide dolphin meat to the Japanese people – but only a small minority of people in Japan actually eat the meat. During our many campaigns in Japan, we received the impression that dolphin meat is considered “trashy,” unlike the much more expensive whale meat.

DNA tests on meat labeled “whale meat” in Japanese markets have revealed the meat is in fact falsely-labeled dolphin meat. Whale meat sells for more money than dolphin meat, so Japanese consumers are tricked into buying dolphin meat that is intentionally mislabeled.

There is another essential and rather shocking aspect to the dolphin hunt: During a meeting with the Taiji fishermen in January 2004, the fishermen told us that they not only hunt dolphins for their meat and for sale to the dolphinarium industry, but they hunt them “as a form of pest control.” From the fishermen’s perspective, the dolphins eat too much fish, and the fishermen are simply killing the competition. This was the first time Japanese dolphin hunters openly admitted to executing pest control on dolphins.

Overfishing of the oceans is a tremendous problem on a global level, and the Japanese fishermen, supported by their government, are wrongly blaming the dolphins for this depletion. The Japanese government is making the same false argument in front of the International Whaling Commission – that whales eat fish and therefore need to be controlled by killing.

The desire to keep the dolphin population down is a major reason why the Japanese government is keen to issue permits for the hunts. It is not really about providing meat for the Japanese people, and it is certainly not about maintaining what the fishermen repeatedly refer to as their “tradition” or “culture.” It is about eradicating as many dolphins as possible in order to make the oceans’ fish available to themselves.

Learn more at The Dolphin Project