How to Catch a Dolphin Killer in the Act
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 03. 6.08
The Oceanic Preservation Society is on a mission: to document beauty and destruction in our planet's oceans with the hope of motivating change. It is a mission which sometimes requires James Bond-like ingenuity. In this case, OPS goes head-to-head with some Japanese fishermen on the issue of dolphin killing. It is a thriller, involving celebrities under vicious attack during peaceful protest, blockades and risks of arrest for confronting an issue of national cultural sensitivity.
The mass killing of dolphins rounded up into a cove in a Japanese National Park in Taiji, Japan was brought to public attention after the high-profile protest of the mass dolphin killing by Hollywood star Hayden Panetierre. Hayden addresses the cultural sensitivity of the issue in a TH Quote of the Day: "Just because certain cultures have had long-standing traditions does not mean that in today's world they are acceptable any longer."
The group which included Panettiere rode surfboards through the bloody water, attempting to unite in a ring to honor the dolphins being slaughtered nearby. Resistance against the killings was futile. Even the peaceful action was broken up by violent blows with a fish hook against the surfers. Subsequently, the group had to flee to the airport to avoid arrest according to reports of the protest.
Ultimately, all access to the cove where the dolphins are rounded up was blocked. OPS, trying to get dramatic footage of the blood-filled waters for their documentary film, The Rising, was stymied. The access issue was solved by adopting a blimp intended for the Taiji Whaling Festival. Cheery graffiti by Boulder-based artist seems a bit out of place for the dirigible's "under cover" mission. But the ploy worked. The OPS airborne unit reports success. But can it be called a happy end? Not once you see the ocean run red.
Video of Panetierre's experience with the dolphin killings from You Tube is embedded below for those interested, and you can view The Rising at the OPS site.
Via tipster Viki who alertly forwarded the ::OPS email alert
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Hayden's emitions at the end of that youtube video are pretty powerful. That must have been hard to see first hand.
japanese are as evil as bush!
THE JAPANESE? The whole country? Surely we treehuggers are better than that. It's the backwards minded few in the government who advocate the dumb tradition. It's also, unfortunately, those who make a living in the whale meat industry.
Hayden really knows how to act .... good job Hayden !
OMFG, city people are so ignorant, those surfers probably go home and eat some chicken, cow, pork, thats been living its whole life in a cage.
Out of sight, out of mind.
as evil as bush... not that bush isn't evil, but I miss the days when treehugger wasn't so mushy over its new fangled stylized writing. Its gone over the top with "always a better way" give us our feeds and stfu. More on dolphins and the way we love to feel about them. nsfw.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLTx-LZX3XM
try and laugh a little. we're all cynics here.
Science tells us the Dall's Porpoise isn't endangered. Their numbers have been growing since the quotas were dropped. Would this not make them a renewable resource? Animal rights issues aside, there is only an environmental argument to continue eating them: they consume endangered fish themselves.
This post seems strangely lacking in environmentalism and more a matter of cultural supremacy.
come to the point that US dumped nuclear waste and millions of tons of garbage like plastic bottle to the ocean. they even conduct nuclear bomb test in the ocean. Don't you think US is even far evil than japanese? i guess US even killed 1000 times more marine life than Japanese. So now who's the real devil here?
USA dump nuclear waste and garbages into the ocean and causing a toxic ocean for us and all future generation and i guess some dolphin has been mutated due to those toxic. Ya, USA didn't kill dolphin directly like japanese do. However, japanese kill dolphin just for a living. I think Hayden's team should strike in USA instead of in Japan. FYI, i'm not bloody japnese !