Japanese Fishermen Clash with Anti-Whaling Surfers, Celebrities (Taiji whale and dolphin slaughter)

Source: ENS





Read more: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2007/2007-11-01-03.asp

hell with the outrage you see every year when Canada kills seals you'd think one or two of the same people could work up a little enthusiasm when the Japanese butcher dolphins for no reason.

I wonder why this doesn't get more press? Perhaps because it's on the other side of the world and people don't notice it.

...anti-sealing activist.

Photos here:
http://www.seashepherd.org/taiji/taiji_ruthless_killing.html

I don't approve of allowing "indigenous" slaughter of cetaceans (in Alaska, for example) - let alone the Japanese, who apparently kill whales and dolphins just because they enjoy the act of killing. Shame, shame, shame on them. :cry:

I've seen video of the still-living dolphins being dragged up the street by their tails tied to the bumpers of trucks, leaving streaks of blood on the street behind them, then stacked- still alive- like cordwood, to die of blood loss or suffocation.

Warning: graphic slaughter footage
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=843_1193927344

> Japanese fishermen have defended their right to hunt and kill
> thousands of dolphins as their annual six-month killing season begins.
> ...
> They say worldwide condemnation is an attack on their culture.

If there is any justice in the world, those fishermen will be caught in
storms and all drown. Fuck their "culture" of slaughter & brutality.

:grr:

...doesn't make it acceptable...

This kind of cruelty makes me so very angry...

...a stunning 300,000 dolphins whales and turtles are killed each year due to large-scale fishing methods. These modern fishing methods are employed primarily in the West...Compared to Asian countries where small-scale subsistence fishing is the norm.

Every year many rotting carcasses of whales and dolphins are found washed up on the beaches of France and England, for example. Their deaths are usually attributed to getting tangled up and suffocating in commercial fishing nets.

The factory fishing fleets of US and Europe thanks you for directing your anger at the wrong target (which can't be said of the dolphins and whales).

www.greenpeace.org/international/news/dolphin-killing-trawlers-stopp

... if you read the referenced page ...

> a stunning 300,000 dolphins whales and turtles are killed each year ...

Yep, found that bit.

> ... due to large-scale fishing methods.

Didn't see that but I know from other sources that it is largely correct.

> These modern fishing methods are employed primarily in the West...
> Compared to Asian countries where small-scale subsistence fishing is the norm.

Oops. Bullshit. Check out the Chinese & Japanese fishing fleets some time.

> The UK and French fleets combined could be killing over 2000 dolphins a year.

I fully agree that this is 2000 too many but it leaves ~298,000 still to be
accounted for ...

There again, in a different page on the Greenpeace site we find:
> It is estimated about 4000 dolphins and porpoises per year may die in
> mid water trawl fishing nets in this region

So given the benefit of this 100% error margin, it still leaves ~296,000
of the "stunning 300,000" to be located.

Maybe our little apologist for the Japanese fishermen will provide his/her
next guess to deflect criticism from those cruel bastards who deliberately
trap & slaughter dolphins, not even in any (deplorable) pretence at "by-catch"?

:shrug:

Do you have a source for your claims? Or do you prefer to make them up as you see fit?





Because killing dolphins by slow suffocation in trawler nets is so much more civilized, right?





Trawler fishing methods are practiced primarily in the West:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trawler

Trawler History
www.hullheritageprints.co.uk/trawlerhistory/index.htm

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Both as bycatch and in the form of brutal hunts.

No argument there at all.
:thumbsup:

My post (.12) had eight numbers in it:



Your link in post .11:
www.greenpeace.org/international/news/dolphin-killing-t...

Paragraph 8:


Paragraph 9:


Linked page from the above page:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/dolphins-die-in-trawler-nets

Caption to first picture:


That's all of the numbers copied verbatim.

The "100% error margin" refers to the discrepancy between the estimate of
2000 dolphins per year (in para 8 above) and the estimate of 4000 dolphins
per year (in the caption above) ... derived from 4000 = 2000+(100% of 2000)

The "~298,000 still to be accounted for" is derived from the estimated
300,000 killed minus the estimated 2000 killed by the combined UK & French fleet.

The "~296,000 ... to be located" is derived from the estimated
300,000 killed minus the estimated 4000 may die (in the caption).


That explains that "MY" numbers came from YOUR article, not "my ass".

QED

I await your apology.

(PS: Don't forget to note that I fully agree with you that 2000 deaths from
UK/French nets is 2000 too many.)

LOL.

You're a funny guy.

... and you add to the list each time you post.

Recent estimates put the annual great shark take at around 100,000 per year, both from finning and as bycatch. A study earlier this year called sharks "functionally extinct." So a take in the hundreds of thousands for marine mammals wouldn't surprise me.

Whatever the exact numbers, it is clear that we are strip mining the oceans of biomass, leaving only watery desert in our wake.

Neither shark nor whale nor dolphin can sustain the slaughter being inflicted upon them.

It is truly pitiful: sharks have been swimming in the seas of this planet for over
450 million years (or maybe "just" 100 million years for "modern" sharks).

When a species has gone, it has GONE. No descendants. No evolved improvements. Just gone.

Mankind has been responsible for more extinctions than any other single creature.

It is truly sickening.

Sharks are going to have to repopulate from ultra-deepwater (benthic) species that don't get targeted much because of their environment. Sixgills, sevengills, eel sharks, and threshers.

All the recent pelagic varieties...gone. It makes me sad.

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Why do western nations get a pass for killing many times more
threatened marine species then the Japanese can ever hope to?

Because they're white?

No, you're the one with the fucked up priorities, MATE.

Brilliant!!!

:eyes:

There are already dozens of articles posted on DU critical of Japanese fishing practices.

They are certainly NOT getting any free passes.

But you never see a single article about western fishing practices on DU, despite their being even more destructive then the Japanese. Why is that?

> There are already dozens of articles posted on DU critical of Japanese
> fishing practices.

I think you will not find many critical of Japanese fishing practice
but yes, you will find dozens critical of Japanese whaling and their
slaughter of other mammals.

I agree there have been a few on long-line and drift net practices which
can include the Japanese but those articles tend to be aimed at all of the
people practicing such behaviour rather than just the former.

> But you never see a single article about western fishing practices on DU,

You must have missed the articles about overfishing in the Western Atlantic
(North American), Eastern Atlantic (European), North Sea (European),
Mediterranean (European), ...

> despite their being even more destructive then the Japanese.

Yeah, right. It's the way the Western fishermen beat those herring into
a bloody pulp after they herd them into a cove that makes it so bad ...
:eyes:

I have never denied that "by-catch" is wasteful slaughter regardless of
who is doing it. Nor have I pretended that the industrial fishing practices
of many nations is anything other than environmental sacrilege.
Yet there are always little defenders of the Japanese slaughter of whales,
dolphins, or whatever unfortunate creature comes within reach.

> Why is that?

Possibly because you don't open your eyes? or maybe your mind?

Why does the article in the OP focus solely on the JAPANESE??

When the slaughter of dolphins is just as extensive, if not more so in the west??

That's what I'd like to know.

Come on, point out WHERE I am "defending US and European slaughter of dolphins".

Put up or shut up.

If you'd bother to read my posts you would see that I agree with you about
the killing of dolphins by ANY fishermen whether for tuna, cod, shrimps or
whatever the hell they are trying to catch.

The BIG difference between the killing by the Japanese and by the other
groups you've mentioned is the sheer deliberate cruelty of the former
in herding harmless dolphins into a cove and hacking them apart.
The only other bunch of animals I am aware that do that are the Faroe
islanders and yes, I have slammed them for EXACTLY the same thing in
the past.

What do you think American, French, English, Spanish and other western fisherman do when they find live dolphins caught up in their nets, which they often do?

The usual practice is to hack the dolphin or other large undesired by-catch apart with a machete in order to free it from the net as quickly as possible. Doesn't matter if the aniaml is dead or alive before getting hacked up. They don't cut the net because obviously they don't want to damage their expensive fishing equipment. So they cut the animal in order to free it. All fisherman are guilty of such practices.

According to the OP article these dolphins are being killed for MEAT. I have never heard of any farmer or fisherman, western or eastern, who doesn't use the most efficient method at hand of processing live animals for food. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as humane treatment of animals when it comes to the commercial cultivation of food, whether it be livestock or seafood!

So again, why does the article focus solely on the JAPANESE?

I criticise ANY killers of dolphins (or whales) regardless of country of origin.
The reason why I criticise the Japanese the most is that THEY DO THE MOST.

You claim that I do not criticise Western slaughterers (e.g., Faroe Islanders,
Icelandics, Norwegians). You claim I do not criticise Western fishermen for their
by-catch killing of innocent species. You are wrong on both instances.

You claim that I do not care about the abuse that Western (=US/UK/Canadian/European/...)
fishermen inflict upon dolphins & porpoises caught in their nets. You are wrong.

You claim that the killing of "by-catch" (I hate that term) in a net is somehow the
same as herding free dolphins into a bay and massacring them. You are wrong.

You are prepared to call me a liar.

Post your evidence or apologise.

If not, YOU are the liar and should be seen to be such.

You have repeatedly refused to read my posts yet happily post your bullshit responses
and alert against anything that threatens your very sheltered world-view.

The Japanese fishermen referred to in the OP are killing the dolphins because
they are labelled "competition" for the finite (ever smaller) resource of fish
even though it is the Japanese fishermen who are depleting the resource, not the
dolphins.

> So again, why does the article focus solely on the JAPANESE?

Because the team investigating THIS incident were caught up in the inhuman slaughter
of sentient creatures by the JAPANESE.

You may as well ask why the article posted on the Greenpeace site focussed on the
UK and French fishermen's abuse of dolphins ... the answer would correspond: the
people who wrote the article were involved in incidents with UK and French fishermen.

Stop defending the indefensible. Protect the dolphins & whales from mindless slaughter
EVERYWHERE across the globe, even if it *does* conflict with your personal bias.

> Unfortunately, there is no such thing as humane treatment of animals when it comes
> to the commercial cultivation of food, whether it be livestock or seafood!

Tell me: how is the herding of free, wild dolphins equated in your world with
"commercial cultivation of food"?

Give me a clue what rules are dominant on your home planet?

western hypocrisy on the subject, is some how defending the Japanese dolphin slaughter?

I don't condone anyone killing dolphins. But it's not going to get you anywhere by putting all the blame on the Japanese for the killings. When they are responsible for only a fraction of the problem.

If the Japanese dolphin harvest suddenly stopped tomorrow, it wouldn't even put a DENT in the annual commercial dolphin kill. Why? Because people in the WEST have as big an appetite for seafood as much as any Japanese person does. But the media would have you believe otherwise.

The demand for seafood in western countries is literally INSATIABLE. Which is likely the most powerful FORCE behind the annual dolphin kill more than anything else, intentional or otherwise.

So if you want someone to blame, you only need to look in the mirror.

People who lives in glass house should not throw stones!

A Japanese person looks at Western outrage towards them and thinks:

"Who are those God damn Gaijin to judge me, when they guilty of the exact same thing!"

In .30, you made an accusation:
> Why are you defending US and European slaughter of dolphins?

You still have not said where I have done this thing.

You are still consistently lying about my attitude.

You are still wriggling and changing the subject whenever I provide
evidence that shows you are blatantly wrong.

You still owe me an apology.

We westerners are so much more civilized than those cruel, evil Japs, aren't we?





Greenpeace volunteers recover the body of a dead dolphin that has had its stomach cut open, 30 miles south of Plymouth. Greenpeace is in the English Channel protesting against pelagic pair trawlers due to the high numbers of dolphin deaths associated with this fishing method.

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/photosvideos/photos/greenpeace-volunteers-recover

Just a few of the articles found on Greenpeace.com regarding the #1 killer of dolphins
and other threatened marine species. Factory fishing trawlers can be found all over the world, but are most heavily concentrated in the West:


------------------------------------------------------


EU destroying deep sea life: Greenpeace takes direct action against bottom trawlers

Canada failing to support moratorium on high-seas bottom trawling

The day before World Oceans Day, Greenpeace reveals the shocking fact that every four seconds marine life, in an area of ocean floor the size of ten football fields, is wiped out by high seas bottom trawlers. Volunteers, in true football style, raised their shirts and had 'S C O R E 4 O C E A N S' painted on their stomachs in a football pitch to highlight the enormity of bottom-trawling by comparing the 100 metre nets actually used to a real sized football field.

Russian factory trawler fishing for cod in the Barents Sea. Similar factory trawlers systematically emptied the Canadian Grand Banks of cod. Stocks have not recovered since all cod fishing was banned on the Canadian Grand Banks in 1992.

Japanese whaling fleet ready to depart

Spanish factory trawler fishing in international waters of the Grand Banks. Factory trawlers systematically emptied the Grand Banks of cod. Stocks have not recovered since all cod fishing was banned on the Canadian part of the Grand Banks in 1992. But trawlers still fish for cod in international waters of the Grand Banks.

Greenpeace swimmers prepare to enter the water ahead of French pair trawlers, Sonia Jerome and Cote d'Amour in the English Channel. Greenpeace is campaigning to halt this method of fishing due to the high numbers of dolphin deaths associated with trawling.

A crewman on the deck of the New Zealand vessel Waipori holds a rare and endangered 'Paralomis cf. Yaldwyni' crab taken from the bottom trawler's net.

Greenpeace activists target the Spanish bottom trawler "Playa de Muideña" in the North Atlantic.

The Chinese zombie ships

Greenpeace stops pirate fishing vessels in European port

Greenpeace activists are thrown into the sea during their protest against the Lithuanian registered bottom trawling fishing boat ANUVA.

Greenpeace activists get in the way of the Estonian bottom trawler, Lootus II in the foggy NW Atlantic. Greenpeace is calling on governments to endorse a UN moratorium on high seas bottom trawling because it is an unsustainable fishing technique that has destructive impacts on the marine ecosystems and poses serious threats to deep sea fish species.

A good catch of orange roughy and some bycatch species in the net hauled by the Belize-registered deep sea trawler Chang Xing in international waters in the Tasman Sea

Scottish trawlers, Demares and Carisanne II, who were dragging a huge net between them, before attaching a large buoy to the fishing net in an attempt to stop them fishing. Greenpeace are calling not only for a halt to cod fishing, but also for large areas of the North Sea to become protected as marine reserves.

The Georgian "Trawler Girls" - Factsheet

Should be killed the same way.

It's all very well that these celebs are bringing light to this issue, but I can tell you that there is very little knowledge of this issue generally in Japan. It has received a little attention, but it is one of those things that the rightwing nationalists like to take on as a "cause" and perhaps (just my guess) something news outlets are not so keen to cover, fearing the wrath of the vocal minority of scumbags who would support it.

So far, most of the confrontational protests seem to have been by foreigners. If more Japanese got involved, I think they will have better luck. But I can't help feeling that the presence of foreigners down there in Taiji just encourages the belligerent attitude that the fishermen have. It's the same as the whaling issue; they don't need to eat whale meat, but it has triggered a nationalistic feeling in many who feel like it's some issue of 'national pride' and an area where foreigners are trying to impose their culture and values on a nation that has lost much of it's traditional culture and values (according to them).

Interestingly enough, a local politician was the one who really brought this to light nationally when he went public with the amount of mercury that was being consumed by people eating these dolphins - or more specifically, the schoolchildren eating these dolphins.

Yup: they give or sell the meat to local school canteens for the kiddies to eat at lunch. These cruel morons are poisoning their kids as well. Lovely.

Needless to say, said councilman is not the most popular figure in town.

This is a tiny little micro-culture in this town where they do this.

No one in Japan knows about it.

The protesters feed into it exactly as you said.

Thanks for this side of the story.

Killing Whales and Dolphins!! Makes me sick.