A Note from Ric O' Barry

I hope you'll join me in this campaign to stop the killing of dolphins in Japan. Most people in Japan don't have any idea that the dolphin slaughter is even happening. If we can spread the word around the world - and especially in Japan - we can expose the secret of Taiji and force the Japanese government to stop it. We can win this issue - but we need your help!

At the Cove in Taiji, the dolphin killing continues. Although the killing of bottle-nose dolphins - the primary target species - has dramatically decreased compared to previous seasons, they, along with other dolphin species, including many pilot whales and Risso's dolphins, continue to be captured for aquariums and slaughtered for meat by the Taiji fishermen. The fight for the protection of all marine mammals goes on. For updates on the situation, visit our Blog.

In Japan, fishermen round up and slaughter hundreds and even thousands of dolphins and other small whales each year.

In the small fishing village of Taiji, entire schools of dolphins are driven into a hidden cove after a prolonged chase. Once trapped inside the cove, the fishermen kill the dolphins, slashing their throats with knives or stabbing them with spears. The water turns red with their blood, and the air fills with their screams.

This brutal massacre — the largest scale dolphin kill in the world — goes on for six months of every year. Even more scandalous, members of the international dolphin display industry take advantage of the dolphin slaughter to obtain some few, show-quality dolphins for use in captive dolphin shows and dolphin swim programs.

It is commonly assumed that Japanese fishermen hunt dolphins to supply a small minority of Japanese people with dolphin meat. But unlike the expensive whale meat, dolphin meat is not considered a delicacy in Japan, and the real reason the Japanese government issues permits to kill dolphins by the thousands every year has nothing to do with food culture. It has to do with pest control. As shocking as it sounds, some Japanese government officials view dolphins as pests to be eradicated in huge numbers. During a meeting at Taiji City Hall, the fishermen of Taiji admitted this to us. "We don’t kill the dolphins primarily for their meat. We kill them as a form of pest control," they told us. In other words, killing the competition is their way of preserving the ocean’s fish for themselves.

Most likely in order to push the food culture issue even further, the Japanese government recently introduced pilot whale meat to children's school lunch programs, despite the fact that the meat is tainted with mercury and not fit for human consumption. The Japanese government and the dolphin hunters do not warn the Japanese people of this danger, although the dolphin meat should be labeled as toxic. Much of the tainted dolphin meat ends up as counterfeit whale meat in Tokyo and other large cities.

Science has established that dolphins are highly intelligent and complex marine mammals. How can "pest control" on dolphins continue with so little opposition from the Japanese people and the outside world? The answer is secrecy. Since we first traveled to Japan in 2003 to document the dolphin hunt and expose it to the world, the fishermen have become increasingly paranoid about being photographed and filmed. Today, they hide the dolphin slaughter behind barbed wire, ropes and tarpaulin. Killing the dolphins before daylight breaks, they station guards at the mouth of the killing cove to ensure that no one witnesses the blood bath.

The fishermen say they kill the dolphins "quickly and humanely." That's an outright lie. The methods used to kill the dolphins are so savage, it's hard to believe it unless you witness it for yourself. And once you've seen it, the images and sounds of the screaming dolphins never go away. The fishermen know that the world will be outraged when the truth gets out. And so, guided by their government, they hide behind phrases such as "food culture" and "tradition." They even once told us they are proud of what they do. If they had told us they were having fun while killing dolphins, we would have believed them. We have heard them laugh out loud as they were throwing spears at the dolphins and hauling them ashore with ropes, or dragging still live dolphins by their tail flukes to be slaughtered. If they were really proud of this, then why do they go to such extreme measures hiding it? Why won’t they even let their own people know about the hunt? We asked them this once, and the answer was: "It is none of their business." But it is their business. The Japanese people have every right to know about the dolphin slaughter. And they have a right to know about the mercury-poisoned dolphin meat that is being fed to their children.

• 23,000 permits are issued each year by the Japan Fisheries Agency to kill dolphins, porpoises, and other small whales. The total kill varies from year to year (for example, in 2007, 13,107 dolphins and small whales were reported killed in Japan waters. These numbers do not include the large whales killed under so-called “scientific” whaling permits in the North Pacific and Antarctic Oceans.). This is the largest scale slaughter of cetaceans in the world.

• About 1,200 to 1,800 dolphins and other small whales are killed in the so-called dolphin drive hunts that takes place six months out of the year in Taiji. The rest are killed with hand-held harpoons from small boats out at sea.

• In the small fishing village of Taiji, Wakayama prefecture, the dolphin drive hunt is carried out by about 26 fishermen from September 1st though March.

• Operating with 13 motorized boats, the fishermen go out to sea at early sunrise and look for migrating dolphins. Banging on metal pipes submerged into the water, they terrorize the dolphins with a "wall of sound," causing the dolphins to panic.

• Terrorizing the dolphins with underwater sound, the fishermen herd the dolphins into a secret killing cove close to Taiji Town.

• Often times, dolphins die during the chase that can last eight hours or more.

• The Taiji fishermen claim that dolphins eat too much fish and therefore must be exterminated.

• Operating with a permit from their government, the Taiji fishermen have referred to the dolphin hunt as "pest control."

• The majority of people in Japan have no knowledge about the annual dolphin blood bath.

• The fishermen kill the dolphins with spears, fishermen's hooks and knives. Trashing about in their own blood, the dolphins emit high-pitched screams during the massacre.

• The slaughtered dolphins are processed into meat and distributed to supermarkets throughout Japan for human consumption.

• Dolphin meat from drive hunts in Taiji proved to be highly contaminated with toxic chemicals such as mercury, methyl mercury and PCBs.

• Repeated chemical analyses have shown that the level of mercury in dolphin meat is much higher than the maximum allowable level set by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan.

• Some of the dolphin meat is given to children as part of their school lunch program.

• The Japanese government and the supermarkets issue no warning that dolphin meat is mercury-contaminated.

• The fishermen of Taiji have told us that the Japanese people have no right to know about the dolphin hunt or the high levels of mercury found in the meat.

• Concealing this information from the public is a violation of Article 21 of the Japanese Constitution.

• Some members of the international aquarium and zoo industry are strongly connected to the Japanese dolphin slaughter, in that they pay top dollar for dolphins deemed suitable for commercial exploitation in dolphin shows and captive dolphin swim programs.

• Dolphinariums throughout the world, including Japan, repeatedly make the claim that captivity of dolphins promotes dolphin conservation and protection.

• Several of the hundreds of captive dolphins in Japan's 50 dolphinariums were obtained through the dolphin drive hunts; yet the dolphinariums do nothing to educate the public to the hunt.

• The World Association for Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) is the world's largest network of zoos and aquariums around the world.

• Dolphinariums that have conducted business with the dolphin killers of Japan have been welcomed into WAZA's network, although the trade in these dolphins clearly violates WAZA's Code of Ethics.

• The dolphins that are purchased by members of the dolphin captivity industry represent a much higher commercial value to the Japanese dolphin hunters than the ones that are slaughtered for meat.

• Live dolphins captured in a Taiji dolphin drive hunt recently sold for $154,000 per dolphin.

• The Japanese dolphin hunt will continue for as long as members of the international dolphinarium industry continue to reward the hunters for show quality dolphins, thereby making the hunt tremendously profitable.

• The most sought after dolphin species for public display are bottlenose dolphins, orcas, white sided dolphins, Risso's dolphins, pilot whales and Pseudo orcas, all of which have been targeted in the Japanese dolphin drive hunt.

Questions & Answers

Who is killing the dolphins in Japan?

One often encounters this statement: "The Japanese are killing the whales and dolphins!" But it is not the Japanese people who are doing this. The slaughter of dolphins in the small fishing village of Taiji, for example, is carried out by about 26 fishermen. They kill the dolphins with a permit from their government. The majority of people in Japan are totally unaware of this annual government-sanctioned dolphin blood bath.

What species do they kill and how many?

IThe Japan government Fisheries Agency issues 23,000 permits to kill dolphins, porpoises and other small whales annually. The numbers killed in Japan varies from year to year. (In 2007, for example, 13,107 dolphins and small whales were reported killed in Japan waters. These numbers do not include the large whales killed by Japan under so-called “scientific” whaling permits in the North Pacific and Antarctic Oceans.) The number of dolphins killed has been decreasing in part due to successful efforts by the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition and others to reduce sales of dolphin and whale meat in Japanese markets. The other reason the kill rate is going down is that the Japanese fishermen are killing off dolphins, and there are simply not as many left to kill. About 1,200 to 1,800 of these are killed in the so-called dolphin drive hunt in Taiji, also known as “drive fishery.” The rest are killed with hand-held harpoons from small boats at sea.

The targeted dolphin species include:

Striped dolphins
Bottlenose dolphins
Pantropical spotted dolphins
Risso’s dolphins
Pilot whales
Rough-toothed dolphins
Pseudo orcas
Baird's beaked whales
Dall's porpoises

Why is it called "drive fishery"?

The term "drive fishery" derives from the method of driving, or herding, dolphins into a designated killing cove. We avoid the term "drive fishery," as it leads many to believe that we are talking about fish rather than large marine mammals. Therefore, we call it "dolphin drive hunt." The annual dolphin drive hunt is part of coastal whaling.

When does the dolphin drive hunt take place?

For several years, the dolphin drive hunt in Taiji has taken place from October 1st through March. In recent years, however, the dolphin hunters in Taiji have started the dolphin killing season early, on September 1st.

How do they capture the dolphins?

The fishermen of Taiji have developed a highly effective method of locating, capturing and eradicating dolphins, sometimes as many as one hundred in a single day. Before sunrise, about 26 fishermen board their 13 motorized boats and head out to deep water where the dolphins migrate. The dolphins have been using these migratory paths for thousands, perhaps millions, of years, and the hunters know exactly where to find them. When a school of dolphins swims by, the fishermen position their boats one behind the other, perfectly evenly spaced. Then they lower several stainless steel poles into the water, one on each side of each boat. The poles are flared out at the bottom much like a bell, which amplifies the sound produced when the hunters repeatedly hit the poles with hammers. The noise creates a wall of sound underwater, and the dolphins suddenly find themselves trapped between this wall of sound and the shoreline. Trying to get away from the sound, the dolphins swim in the opposite direction, toward the shore. The dolphins' panic and loss of navigational sense enable the fishermen to drive them into a small, hidden cove near Taiji harbor. The fishermen seal the mouth of the cove with two nets, and the dolphins are trapped. View an animated demonstration of the dolphin drive hunt here.

Why do the fishermen leave the dolphins in the cove overnight before they kill them?

After the dolphin hunters have sealed the killing cove with large nets, they leave the dolphins in the cove, returning the next day at sunrise to kill them. Why don't they kill them right away? One theory is that the dolphin meat tastes better if the dolphins are left overnight so that they calm down after the chase. But this is hard to believe. We have spent hours observing schools of dolphins after they were chased into the killing cove. At no point do they appear to be "relaxed." On the contrary, they spend the entire time hyperventilating, circling their confinement and looking for a way out. We think there are two reasons that the fishermen don't kill the dolphins right away: The hunt often goes on for eight or nine hours, sometimes even longer, with the dolphins escaping the boats and the fishermen chasing them down again. By the time the fishermen have chased the dolphins into the killing cove and sealed their fate with nets, they just want to go home. It's much more convenient for them to rest up and return to the cove the next morning to kill and butcher the dolphins. Another good reason for the fishermen to carry out the bloodbath in the early morning hours is that the killing cove turns a bright red with blood during the slaughter. It takes a while for all the blood to wash out to sea. In the afternoon, many tourists come to the cove to enjoy the beautiful view, unaware that this is where thousands of dolphins are killed in an unimaginably horrific blood bath. The fishermen depend on a high level of secrecy to continue the dolphin hunt. They don't want the Japanese people to know about it, and by killing the dolphins at sunrise, they make sure there is no one to witness it.

How do they kill the dolphins?

Just before sunrise, the fishermen herd the trapped dolphins into shallow water, close to the rocky beach. Here, they kill the dolphins with long, sharp spears. Often times, they stab the dolphins with sharp fishermen's hooks and haul the still living dolphins onto their boats. The cruelty is enormous. The dolphins thrash about in their own blood, and the air fills with their screams.

Why do they kill them?

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 even got the impression that dolphin meat is considered "trashy," unlike the much more expensive whale meat. 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 don't only hunt dolphins for their meat or for sale to the dolphinarium industry. In their own words, they kill the dolphins "as a form of pest control." The dolphins, from the fishermen’s perspective, eat too much fish, and the fishermen are simply killing the competition. This is the first time ever that Japanese dolphin hunters have openly admitted to executing pest control on dolphins. Over-fishing of the oceans is a tremendous problem on a global level, and the Japanese fishermen, supported by their government, are wrongly pointing at the dolphins as the reason for this depletion. The desire to keep the dolphin population down is a major reason why the Japanese government is so keen on issuing permits for the hunts. It is not really about providing meat for the Japanese people. It is not really 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.

Why don't the dolphins jump the nets?

We are asked this many times, and understandably so. When standing at the mouth of the killing cove in Taiji, we have often looked down at a school of dolphins trapped in the killing cove. From above, it's obvious that all the dolphins have to do is jump the nets, and they would be out of harm's way. But the dolphins don't have this advantage of seeing everything from above. They don't know what's on the other side of the nets. To us, a jump would be a leap into safety. To them, it's a leap into the unknown. It's also important to keep in mind that nets and other artificial boundaries are foreign objects to wild dolphins. Living in a three-dimensional world, the only boundaries they know are the shoreline and the ocean's surface. These are a natural boundaries that dolphins understand. A net, on the other hand, is completely unfamiliar to them. They are probably afraid of this strange phenomenon and therefore stay away from it.

Have you ever seen dolphins escape after they were chased into the killing cove?

Yes, a few times. Once, a young pilot whale, no more than a year old, swam across the net in a place where it had been placed so low that its upper edge touched the surface of the water. The pilot whale managed to do the same with the second net and for a little while was free to swim away. A large pilot whale immediately joined the young calf. Even though they could have easily fled, the pilot whales remained close to their still trapped pod members. It was a dolphin trainer who alerted the fishermen that two pilot whales had escaped. Aided by the trainer, the fishermen brought their boats around and chased the pilot whales back into the killing cove. The entire school of pilot whales was killed and butchered the next morning.

Why do members of the dolphinarium industry take advantage of the hunt?

We have been reporting from Taiji regularly since 2003, and the most shocking aspect of the dolphin drive hunt is the active role that some dolphinariums play in sustaining the hunt. Dolphinariums are always looking for ways to obtain more dolphins. Many times, the fishermen of Taiji will drive a large school of bottlenose dolphins into the killing cove, and dolphin trainers and marine mammal veterinarians flock to the scene to seek out the best-looking dolphins for their display facilities. By doing business with the dolphin killers, they are helping to maintain the dolphin drive hunts. A live dolphin sold to a dolphinarium brings in a much higher profit than does a dead dolphin sold as meat. In Taiji, live bottlenose dolphins have been sold for as much as $154,000. The dolphin massacres in Japan will continue for as long as members of the international dolphin display industry reward the fishermen with thousands of dollars for animals that are deemed suitable for commercial exploitation in captivity. Dolphinariums that work together with the Japanese dolphin killers are a major reason that the dolphin massacres are still going on.

But are dolphinariums not saving the selected dolphins from slaughter?

Dolphinariums that purchase dolphins from the dolphin killers will tell you they are "saving" the dolphins from slaughter. We view this as nothing but propaganda, aimed at concealing the fact that they are fuelling the dolphin hunt by making it tremendously profitable. Working side by side, dolphin trainers and fishermen force the dolphins into shallow water, haul the dolphins ashore and line them up. The trainers then inspect the dolphins one by one, choosing only the ones that can be used in dolphin shows and captive dolphin swim programs. They are typically looking for young, unblemished dolphins. They "save" only the ones that can be commercially exploited in the display industry. The ones that are too old, too young, have the wrong gender or have too many blemishes are not worth "saving" to them, so they let the fishermen kill them. We have seen dolphin trainers assist the fishermen in bringing the rejects to the killing cove to have their throats slit. They don't even bother to inspect the very young babies, knowing that they can't be used in dolphin shows. Using ropes and physical force, dolphin trainers separate the babies from their mothers. They haul the mothers close to the rocky beach to measure and inspect them. The babies cry out, but they are doomed. The dolphin trainers are not going to help them. If these dolphin trainers and marine mammal veterinarians were into "saving" dolphins, they would be there with a protest sign and video cameras, just like we are. Instead, they take advantage of the dolphin slaughter to nourish the huge profits made from captive dolphins. The grueling selection process drags on for several hours, and some dolphins die from either shock, injuries or exhaustion during this time. Some make frantic attempts at staying at the surface of the water, but their pectoral fins have been dislocated or broken. An injured dolphin is worth nothing to the aquarium industry, and the dolphin trainers simply haul the dying dolphins back into the water and dump them, showing no emotion whatsoever.

Is it true that you have seen dolphin trainers actually assisting in killing dolphins?

Yes. It is described in detail in "Witness to a Dolphin Capture." Several times, we have seen dolphin trainers and dolphin killers in the same boat, laughing and joking around after a large school of dolphins had just been killed. We have seen members of the international aquarium and zoo industry get in the water with the dolphin killers, tying ropes around the dolphins' tail flukes so that the fishermen could tie the dolphins to their boats. Often times, the dolphins are so exhausted at this point, they can't even stay afloat. Some have large amounts of blood coming out of their blow holes. The dolphin trainers don't seem to care. The fishermen haul the dolphins to the killing cove, with the dolphins' blow holes underwater. The dolphins have been tormented by dolphin trainers for hours. Some are in shock. Others are seriously injured, and they can't breathe. Now, they are going to be killed and slaughtered. Not even pregnant females or young calves will be spared. But the dolphin trainers, who claim to "love" dolphins, don't try to save any of them. It is the most cruel scene we have ever witnessed.

What's wrong with eating dolphin meat?

Cruelty issues set aside, dolphin meat from drive hunts in Taiji, Wakayama prefecture, proved to be highly contaminated with toxic chemicals such as mercury, methyl mercury and PCBs. Repeated chemical analyses have shown that the level of mercury in dolphin meat is much higher than the maximum allowable level set by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan. There is worldwide concern that mercury accumulated in the human body may pose a serious health risk, especially to pregnant women and children. The contaminated dolphin meat does not have a warning label.

As long as cows and pigs continue to be mistreated in the Western world, what right to we have to criticize the dolphin hunt?

Great question.

Cows, pigs and other domesticated animals are also being consumed in great numbers in Japan. If the meat of these animals was contaminated with mercury, the Japanese people and the Western world would stop eating it immediately.

The inhumane treatment of domesticated animals in Western slaughter houses presents yet another pressing animal welfare issue. Our coalition consists of four organizations that work on several animal welfare and environmental issues. Among them are the Korean dog trade, stopping the use of elephants in the circus industry and abolishing factory farming, just to name a few issues. But you cannot be effective if you work on all animal issues at the same time. Our coalition, therefore, focuses on one issue, which is that of stopping the largest slaughter of dolphins in the world.

There is another aspect to this question: Simply because animals are mistreated in the Western world, does that mean that a Westerner who cares about animal welfare should overlook animal welfare issues abroad? Of course not. If an animal welfare organization from Japan or any other country came to the United States to document and expose the cruelty that goes in our slaughter houses, we would welcome them with open arms and help them achieve their goals. Animals don't carry passports. They are not nationalistic, and our work to save them shouldn't be, either.

One might also simply say: Two wrongs don't make a right.

What right do you as Westerners have to tell the Japanese what to do?

We usually receive this question from the fishermen who make a living hunting dolphins. Government officials in Japan are trying to turn the dolphin slaughter issue into one of cultural imperialism. But we are not telling the Japanese people what to do. On the contrary, we are fighting for their constitutional right to know the facts about an issue that the fishermen and their government are systematically hiding from them. Most people in Japan have no idea that the dolphin slaughter is going on. And they have no idea that the dolphin meat that is served to their children in their schools' lunch programs is poisoned with mercury. The fishermen once told us that they have no right to know about it. We say they have every right to know about it. We think the Japanese people are being exploited by the fishermen and their government in their self-serving quest to turn the dolphin drive hunt into an issue of "food culture" when, in realty, it's about something entirely different: pest control. It is the fishermen and their government that are telling the Japanese people what to do and think. They are the ones who decide what the public can and cannot know about. Many Westerners wrongly blame an entire Japanese nation for something they know nothing about and are not guilty of. The Japanese people are entitled to at least know why the rest of the world is so upset with them. Article 21 of the Japanese Constitution guarentees them that right. More importantly, they have a right to make up their own minds regarding their food culture, rather than have their government and some few fishermen dictate to them what their "culture" should be.

Submit your question to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Due to the overwhelming amount of emails we receive, we may not be able to answer all of them. Thanks for your understanding.

Earth Island Institute

Headquartered in Berkeley, California, the project works to make oceans safe for marine mammals worldwide. We strive to eliminate dolphin mortality caused by the international tuna fishing industry, to end the use of driftnets, and to stop tuna purse-seine fishers from encircling dolphins in their nets.

In addition, we aim to stop the resumption of commercial whaling worldwide, to promote sustainable fishing, and to protect the habitat of whales, dolphins and other marine species. EII’s International Marine Mammal Project was also the lead group in the effort to rescue, rehabilitate and release the orca whale Keiko.

Earth Island Institute
International Marine Mammal Project
2150 Allston Way, Suite 460
Berkeley, CA 94704-1375

Phone: (510) 859-9100
Fax: (510) 859-9093
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Web: www.earthisland.org/immp/

Ocean Care

OceanCare is a non-profit organization with headquarters in Wädenswil/Switzerland. It was founded in 1989 and aims at achieving freedom, well being and survival for marine mammals worldwide. It has a strong commitment to realistic and cooperative initiatives. The association works
at national and international level in the areas of whaling, industrial fishing, environmental changes, seal hunting and dolphin captivity.

Ocean Care
President: Sigrid Lüber
Oberdorfstrasse 16
Postfach 30
CH-8820 Wädenswil

Phone: +41 (0) 44 780 66 88
Fax: +41 (0) 44 780 68 08
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Web: www.oceancare.org