Japan snubs international pressure to ditch dolphin hunt

Updated August 27, 2010 11:19:17

It's a practice animal rights activists condemn as "barbaric".

Over the next 12 months about 20-thousand dolphins will be killed across Japan. But, it's the tiny town of Taiji in the south-east that's likely to bare the brunt of the international condemnation. Since featuring in the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove", Taiji has been repeatedly taken to task over it's annual hunt. Lasting eight months, the hunt begins on September first - and the town's mayor says no amount of international pressure will change that.

Presenter: Helene Hofman
Speakers: Kazutaka Sangen, Mayor of Taiji; Professor Jeff Kingston, Director of Asian Studies, Temple University, Japan campus; Capt Paul Watson, President, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society; Professor Tetsuya Endo, Associate Professor, Health Services University, Hokkaido

HOFMAN: Taiji calls itself the birthplace of Japanese whaling. It can trace the practice back to the early 16-hundreds and the dolphin hunt, which gets underway on September 1st, is said to be just as important to the town's heritage. Every year about 2-thousand dolphins - one tenth of the total amount killed in Japan - are hunted in Taiji's waters. Despite the international outcry sparked by Oscar-winning documentary, The Cove, this year will be no exception, according to Kazutaka Sangen, the town's mayor:

SANGEN: [translation] I became the mayor of this town six years ago and announced that we would not change our relationship with whales from the past, in the present and in the future. We take pride in carrying the legacy of our predecessors through into our future.So even if foreigners criticize us, I have no intention of changing our town's plans because of that.

HOFMAN: The Cove documentary centres on Taiji, accusing the local fisherman of brutally slaughtering the dolphins and selling on the mercury-tainted meat for a hefty profit. It also exposes the dolphin trade, highlighting how some of the animals are caught alive and sold on to marine parks around the world. The town's officials and the mayor have repeatedly defended the hunt as no different to how other animals are slaughtered around the world.

Professor Jeff Kingston from Temple University's Japan campus says it's likely economic factors are also at play.

KINGSTON: Well, I think it's a combination of this is who we are, this is part of our identity. Taiji's been like this for four centuries so we're not going to change just because some Westerners don't like that we slaughter dolphins. So they are showing that they don't care, they are asserting their identity. And also there are some economic interests here, I mean, the dolphin hunt and the selling of dolphins is quite profitable. And Taiji probably feels its being unfairly singled out. Every year Japan slaughters about 20,000 dolphins and Taiji takes just under 2,000 of those.

HOFMAN: However, that won't stop dozens of animal activists converging on Taiji in the coming months.

The Sea Shepard Conservation Society has been travelling to Taiji since 2003, and claims to have been the first to bring the dolphin hunt to international attention.

It's president, Captain Paul Watson, says they're disappointed the publicity generated by The Cove wasn't enough to sway the town's authorities.

WATSON: I think they're being very insensitive to world opinion and I think they're also bringing a lot of shame and dishonour on the people of Japan for their continuation of this. It's barbaric, it's savage, it has no place in the 21st century. First of all, all marine mammals are endangered from pollution, from mercury poisoning, from so many other factors so ecologically its certainly counterproductive. It's horifically cruel. We would never tolerate this kind of behaviour in any slaughter house in the civilised world. These are very highly intelligent, very socially complex creatures and the cruelty that is inflicted upon them is really . . . it's unimaginable.

HOFMAN: And while the Japanese are still divided about the ethical nature of the dolphin hunt, there has been increasing concern about the level of mercury in the meat. Two years ago, Professor Tetsuya Endo from the University of Health Sciences in Hokkaido conducted a study of Taiji residents. He found that they had ten times more mercury in their systems than the national average, and enough to cause nerve damage.

Mercury is caused naturally in the environment, and accumulates up the food chain, with dolphins and whale having particularly high levels.

ENDO: Contamination in dolphin very high so it is not so good for our health to consume dolphin meat. Mercury causes foetal damage so mothers should not eat dolphin meat. Children also.