Japanese Activists' Voices Grow Louder

"Knowledge is power." (Design: Pilar Posada 2010)

Oceanic Defense's Coalition to Stop the Taiji Dolphin Slaughter, initiated in August 2009, has always had one mission and one goal.

Mission: Maintain international attention on dolphin killings while reaching-out to and working with the people of Japan. 

Goal: Stop the dolphin drive in Taiji, Japan.

As part of our mission, we reached out to like-minded, social-network-based, grass-roots organizations with Japanese contacts and influence. With Choices for Tomorrow (CFT), we formed a strong working partnership and found common ground with their core philosophy of "Cruelty Free Living and Animal Advocacy". During our campaign last year, they provided invaluable cultural guidance, translation, and leadership to not only Oceanic Defense but also to many other U.S. advocacy groups and activists working in Japan. 

This year they are co-sponsoring the Futo Petition to address the re-opening of the dolphin drive/hunt in that town after years of peace in those waters. Significantly, this petition is addressed directly to local town officials including Shizuoka Governor, Ito City Mayor, Chief of the Ito Fishing Cooperative, Chief of the Ito Fishing Cooperative Futo Office, Chairman of Ito City Tourist Association, Chief of Ito City Department of Tourism, Chairman of the Association for the Promotion of Ito Tourism.

The petitions goal was 1000 signatures but has exceeded 2000. Most importantly, however, many of those signatures are by citizens of Japan and many include heart-felt comments that resonant with the rest of the world. Here are a few of those comments (referenced anonymously out of respect for the signers):
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"While millions of people are starving in the world, in Japan we are dumping millions of tons of food. There is absolutely no need for such Japan to hunt wild mammals for food. From now on, we need culture to let wildlife live instead of killing. Please stop showing off shameful Japan to the world. Please make our culture to be called 'culture to respect life'."

"Please figure out how to ban all this slaughter and become a town known as a respectful tourism-mecca."

"It's not tradition nor culture. It's shameful act."

"Tradition that needs to be protected must be a good tradition. Bad one must be stopped.

"While you were not hunting till reopening this time, you must have had a way to earn living. So it is not like you'll have problem without dolphin hunting. It's not necessary at all! Personally Futo is the place that I got my diving license. I realize it is the popular place for marine sports. With this problem the good image will disappear. I am absolutely against the hunt."

"Cruel."

"It is really disgusting that you tell tourists how cute dolphins are and behind the scene you stab dolphins that could not sold to aquariums. It is the reality that Japan looks very strange to the world. I don't understand why you do it with all these negative impacts."

"I started to consider not to visit Shizuoka anymore"
 
"I love Futo for diving spots. But if you keep hunting, I will never ever visit there."

"I was shocked to know that Shizuoka as well is the place that dolphin hunting takes place. It is so unfortunate that my image of Shizuoka changed. The snow of Mount Fuji (symbol of Shizuoka) looks to me now red!"

"Frighteningly huge aquarium is under construction in China. Japanese corporation are supporting it. We need to think in case that the aquarium goes bankrupt, for marine animals. Dolphins are victim of money game, not a culture nor tradition and we need to stop."

"While making excuses using the words of tradition and culture, you sell off the wild dolphins to aquariums. You never give a thought about how short the dolphins’ life would be in aquariums with stress. It is as if slave traders. In Japan where food that could be fed to 30 millions people are dumped everyday, killing dolphins is not something to be allowed. Please stop the slaughter. I am shameful as a Japanese."

"With my empathy to the determined spirits of the petition sponsors, I am cooperating on this cause. I am absolutely against dolphin hunting." 

And our favorite...

"We won't stop until dolphin hunting will be banned nationwide."
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What can YOU do?

Please sign and share the Futo Petition. You can also call your local Japanese Consulate or Embassy and tell them that the world is watching and so are their concerned citizens; quote one of your fellow activists from Japan, above.

And, as always, "Educate. Activate." Share what you know with your community, schools, friends and family. Knowledge is power.

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Samantha Whitcraft
Director, Conservation Biology
Oceanic Defense

Masami Mizuguchi
Co-Founder
Choices for Tomorrow (CFT)
 

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About Oceanic Defense
We are an international non-profit organization with members in over 60 countries, spanning 6 continents with 1 mission; healthy aquatic ecosystems free from human abuse and neglect. Oceanic Defense teaches people to protect our oceans by acting responsibly as consumers and by making smart decisions in our daily lives. Whether we are buying groceries, commuting to work, planning a vacation or advocating within our own communities; each action we take or decision we make either helps or hurts our oceans. We empower people to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem and work together to protect our blue planet.

Join us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/OceanicDefense
Visit our official website: www.oceanicdefense.org
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Wild dolphins shipped to China from Japan - "The Beijing Six"

Dolphin transport for aquarium-trade. (Photo: Elsa Nature Conservancy 1999)

BEIJING, China. Monday 20th September, 2010

Six dolphins have arrived in Beijing by air from Japan, Chinese state-run television reported Sunday. CCTV said the dolphins—two Pacific White-sided Dolphins and four Bottlenose Dolphins—have passed quarantine examination and been moved to the city’s ocean park to begin a 30-day period of isolation and inspection.

It said each dolphin arrived in a special water tank 3 meters [>10 ft] long  and 1 meter [3 1/4 ft] wide.

Japanese in some remote coastal fishing communities kill or capture hundreds and even thousands of dolphins from September until April each year. Most dolphins are killed for their meat, but much higher prices can be fetched by the selling of live dolphins to aquariums around the world for use in captive dolphin shows as well as for ‘‘swim-with-dolphins’’ programs.

Source: Japan Today

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ANALYSIS:
 
These dolphins are "blood dolphins" as described by Ric O'Barry, former dolphin-trainer turned activist  in the Animal Planet series of the same name. These are animals captured and sold by the same fishing/hunting industry that also slaughters their species. The transport and sale of these animals to a captive-entertainment facility in China financially supports the slaughter of coastal cetaceans in Japan and around the world.

Additionally, transport via truck and air from coastal Japan where these animals were likely captured and held to "the world's largest inland aquarium" in Beijing would take approximately 8-10 hour. This could incur massive stress on a newly-captured wild animal, especially a marine mammal.

Ultimately, these animals now face one of three destinies:

1. Entertainment-captivity at the Beijing Aquarium's 3000 seat Marine Theatre where, according to their webpage, these newly captured wild animals will be trained to perform "wonderful water ballet, the thrilling high altitude jumping, the pleasant singing voice and the original abstractionist-style drawing". These are unnatural behaviors having little to no educational value.

2. Sale or trade to another captive facility for entertainment-display, research, or lucrative swim-with-dolphin programs. They will be separated from animals and trainers they have come to know and incur further psychological and physiological stress, potentially reducing their life-expectancy in captivity. According to the Humane Society of the United States, a "spike in mortality occurs every time dolphins are transported. Each time they are confined and shipped from one place to another, it is as traumatic as if they were being newly captured from the wild. The experience of being removed from water and restrained is apparently so stressful to dolphins that they never find it routine." Note that this trail of blood dolphins is not limited to Asia. As just one example, Canada's Vancouver Aquarium partners directly with the Beijing Ocean Park.

3. Death from stress-induced infections is likely for these animals. In the U.S., the history of each individual marine mammal in captivity must be traced by the National Marine Fisheries Service and cataloged in the Marine Mammal Inventory. This allows marine conservation and animal advocacy groups to monitor the turn-over in animals and the mortality rate in captivity. However, in China, no such information is available. For example, in March 2003 six dolphins were shipped from Taiji to the Beijing Aquarium and in June of that same year a calf was born, for the first time at their facility. No public records are currently available regarding any of those animals. All of these dolphins' futures, alive or dead, may never be known.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

The most important action each of us can take is to never pay to visit any institution that houses captive marine mammals, unless they have a proven record and commitment to the three R's, rescue, rehabilitation and release as the sole reason for housing the animals.

Next, contact the following organizations with your concerns about "The Beijing Six": The Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums and World Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Finally, "Educate.Activate" within your community, school, and with your family and friends about this issue.

Analysis and research -
Samantha Whitcraft
Conservation Biologist 
Oceanic Defense

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About Oceanic Defense
We are an international non-profit organization with members in over 60 countries, spanning 6 continents with 1 mission; healthy aquatic ecosystems free from human abuse and neglect. Oceanic Defense teaches people to protect our oceans by acting responsibly as consumers and by making smart decisions in our daily lives. Whether we are buying groceries, commuting to work, planning a vacation or advocating within our own communities; each action we take or decision we make either helps or hurts our oceans. We empower people to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem and work together to protect our blue planet.

Join us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/OceanicDefense
Visit our official website: www.oceanicdefense.org
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/OceanicDefense

Most Penguin Populations Continue to Decline -- What can YOU do?

You can help rescue penguins, everyday.

[One hundred and eighty] penguin biologists from [22 nations] around the world...warn that ten of the planet's eighteen penguin species have experienced further serious population declines. The effects of climate change, overfishing, chronic oil pollution, and predation by introduced mammals are among the major factors cited repeatedly by penguin scientists as contributing to these population drops. ...Thirteen penguin species are already classified as endangered or threatened. Some penguin species may face extinction in this century.

Penguins are found exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere with a single species on the Galapagos Islands at the Equator to four Antarctic penguin species that are most well known to the public, yet 13 other species also live in South America, southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and on the many sub-Antarctic islands. Throughout their ranges, nearly all of penguin species are in significant decline or under duress due to a host of common factors.

Climate Change

The effects of climate change on different penguin species has been the topic of many of the scientists's papers and presentations. Many penguin species are highly dependent on small schooling fish for food. These masses of anchovies, sardines and other small finfish are seasonally brought to many penguin habitats by cold water currents. In years with El Nino events in the Pacific, there has been a dramatic warming of sea surface temperatures which effectively blocked cold water currents coming up the western coast of South America. Consequently, Galapagos penguins and Humboldt penguins, which are found on the coasts of Peru and Chile, have suffered due to reduced food availability, which principally affects the survival of the young. Galapagos penguins stand a 30% probability of becoming extinct in this century and Humboldt penguins have been classified by the Peruvian government as endangered.

Earlier this year, African penguins, found in Namibia and South Africa, were reclassified internationally as endangered as many breeding colonies in the western part of their range have disappeared. Important food bearing cold water currents have shifted and are now routinely found much further offshore. The increased round-trip commuting distance for African penguins to obtain food has been devastating to their population.

Scientists are closely watching the potential effects on several Antarctic penguin species that are highly dependent on the presence of sea ice for breeding, foraging and molting. Emperor penguins, which were the subject of "March of the Penguins," could see major population declines by 2100, if they do not adapt, migrate and change the timing of their growth stages.

Adelie penguin colonies in the Antarctic's Ross Sea have coped for several years with two super-sized icebergs that have grounded there and created an enormous physical barrier. It has resulted in lower breeding rates and the migration of many animals out of the area.

Sea ice also creates an important nursey cover for juvenile krill which feed on ice algae. Krill is the primary fuel at the base the Antarctic food chain. Reduced sea ice cover has led to a dramtic decline in krill and will likely lead to a decline in many wildlife populations further up the food chain that relies on krill as its foundation food source.

The effects of climate change on penguins are very real. Many environmental conditions are changing and much less predictable. For penguins living in harsh conditions, the ability to properly time when to migrate, nest, mate and seek food are critical decisions often with a very small margin for error, both for both individual animals and entire species.

Overfishing and By-catch

As fishing efforts around the globe have multiplied several fold over the last few decades, penguins are now competing with people for enough food. The large scale harvesting of anchovy and sardine stocks have directly reduced the prey available to many penguin species including Macaroni and Chinstrap penguins in the South Atlantic. Combined with the effects of climate change on the locations of fish stocks, reduced food availability leads to higher starvation rates, increased vulnerability to disease and lower breeding success.

Thousands of penguins are also killed annually when caught in fixed fishing nets.

Chronic Oiling

Large scale oil spills make worldwide headlines, but chronic petroleum pollution has killed thousands of penguins particularly off the coasts of South America and South Africa. The most common sources are illegal operational dumping from ships, long term leaks from sunken ships and some land-based discharges. Better legislation and law enforcement efforts can yield positive results. The incidence of oiling of Magellanic penguins off the coast of Argentina has decline significantly in recent years due to increased public awareness and enforcement.

Introduced Mammalian Predators

Many penguin species evolved in extremely remote settings devoid of any mammal predators. Prior to the arrival of humans, New Zealand's only mammals were bats. Now, introduced weasels have had a large impact on the the small populations of Yellow-Eyed and Fiordland penguins. In Australia and Argentina, the arrival of foxes have had impacts while feral cats in the Galapagos have reduced penguin populations there.

What Can YOU do?

Dyan deNapoli, "the Penguin Lady", author of The Great Penguin Rescue and member of Oceanic Defense's Aquatic Army says, "Some of the primary threats to penguin populations are global warming, overfishing, fishing net entrapment, and chronic oiling. To save penguins, our oceans, and all of nature, we each need to take a good, hard look at our lifestyle and change any of our habits that contribute to these ongoing problems. It all begins in our own back yards. And it's also true that one person truly CAN make a difference. It all begins with one person with one idea who then shares it with others and brings them on board. Others, still, are then inspired by their shared passion and drive, and before you know it, you have a movement!" At Oceanic Defense we know that saving the ocean starts with each of US and the choices we make everyday in our lives -- in the grocery store, in our homes, and most importantly in our decision to be an activist or an in-activist for the oceans.

Together we can help penguin populations wherever we live. You can start by understanding your carbon footprint and working to lower it because that directly addresses the growing threat of global warming; you can start with simple travel and transportation calculations. Next, always know what you are eating, from land or sea, and what its environmental, ecological, and sociological impacts are. If you choose to eat seafood, use a reputable source to determine how sustainable it is so you can make good decisions. Most importantly, stay informed and share your knowledge with your friends, family, schools, and communities and social networks. Educate. Activate.

Source: ScienceDaily (Sept. 9, 2010) — http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2010/09/100906145115.htm

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About Oceanic Defense
We are an international non-profit organization with members in over 60 countries, spanning 6 continents with 1 mission; healthy aquatic ecosystems free from human abuse and neglect. Oceanic Defense educates people to protect our oceans by acting responsibly as consumers and by making smart decisions in our daily lives. Whether we are buying groceries, commuting to work, planning a vacation or advocating within our own communities and internationally; each action we take or decision we make either helps or hurts our oceans. We activate people to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem and work together to protect our blue planet. Educate. Activate.

Join us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/OceanicDefense
Visit our official website: www.oceanicdefense.org
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/OceanicDefense