Japan dolphin hunting town threatens to sue over 'The Cove'

by Kyoko Hasegawa

TOKYO, Japan - A town at the centre of a controversial dolphin slaughtering documentary could sue the film makers, local fisheries officials said Wednesday, as it premiered at a Tokyo film festival.

"The Cove", an award-winning film depicting the annual slaughter of dolphins in the Japanese coastal town of Taiji, has caused uproar in the town, with film makers accused of covertly shooting footage using divers and hidden cameras.

The Taiji fisheries cooperative, which strongly supports the dolphin hunt, has written a letter of protest to the organiser of the film festival, an official told AFP.

"We've heard that the film includes factual errors, and so we may take some sort of action, including legal steps, if we watch it and find problems," said the official, who declined to be named.

The movie had its Japan premiere Wednesday at the Tokyo International Film Festival before some 300 movie-goers and journalists.

Comments in a question-and-answer session varied from revulsion at the graphic scenes of the dolphin slaughter in a secluded cove to a spirited defence of Japanese traditions and fishing and food habits.

"Although it's a difficult issue as it involves fishermen's jobs, it's also difficult to argue that all Japanese traditions have to be maintained," Makoto Iwahashi, a 19-year-old student, told AFP after watching the film. "I think if we find something wrong in our tradition, we should correct it."

Killing dolphins is not prohibited by the International Whaling Commission's ban on commercial whaling, but Japan's Fisheries Agency restricts the practice by handing out annual quotas to several fishing towns.

This year, Taiji was allocated a quota of about 2,300 small cetaceans - such as dolphins, whales and porpoises, said prefectural official Shimamura. The film's director, Louie Psihoyos, said the film was not an attack on Japan and his team was negotiating with Japanese distributors over a possible deal for the film to be shown in Japanese film theaters.

"All the profits we will be able to make from this film will go to fishermen in Taiji - if they agree to stop dolphin-hunting," he said.

The Taiji fisheries official said the town would keep hunting dolphins.

Source: http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20091021-175000.html

Japanese in shock over dolphin protest

The mayor of Taiji in Japan says it is hard to believe Broome Shire Council has suspended ties with his town over its annual slaughter of dolphins.

The Australian reports that mayor Shinichi Ryono is yet to receive official word from Broome that the 100-year relationship between the towns is over.

On Saturday the Broome Council voted to suspend sister-city relations after councillors decided Taiji's dolphin cull was barbaric.

The traditional dolphin slaughter, in which the marine mammals are herded into a cove and then killed in the water, has been widely condemned by animal rights activists in recent years.

In 2007 Australian actress Isabel Lucas took part in a protest against the cull, paddling out to the dolphins on a surfboard.

The move prompted Japanese police to issue a warrant for her and other's arrest.

The Taiji fishing practice has been under increased pressure following the release of documentary film The Cove.

"Taiji and Broome have a long relationship going back more than 100 years since men from here started going there to dive for pearls," Mayor Ryono told The Australian.

He said that claims the Taiji fishermen killed 23,000 dolphins a year were grossly inflated.

According to the Broome Shire Council, the suspension of relations hinges on the method of killing the dolphins and the fact that their meat contains high levels of mercury.