I’m sitting in a hotel in Osaka with a broken heart as I follow the updates from my fellow Cove Monitors who are still in Taiji.
It has been a week of victories for the dolphins, as we left our lookout every morning celebrating blood free days. The boats had been going out around 5am every morning, then around 8:30am, we would start to see them coming back in. We had some close calls, we’d see them in formation, but then they would appear to lose whatever they had found.
Yesterday was different. I hadn’t slept much the night before and I was feeling very sick, and when I spoke to Jim before heading out at 5am, I told him, “I don’t know if it’s just that I’m exhausted and don’t feel good or what, but I have a really bad feeling.”
There was no sign of the boats for hours. Normally I like to stand and watch everything, even when there’s nothing going on. But yesterday I was in so much pain, I laid down on a bench most of the morning, with my fearless friend and experienced Cove Monitor Becca coming over periodically with updates. For hours, there was no news. And then she came over with a very serious look on her face and said, “They’re in formation.” From that moment on, everything seems like a blur.
This video shows the progression of yesterday’s capture. 11 banger boats drove a pod of pilot whales (which are large dolphins) and their young into the cove. We watched with tears in our eyes as they trapped the exhausted family and secured the cove with nets. But they didn’t drive them all the way into the killing cove, which was curious. Later we found out that they had interested buyers who couldn’t make it to the cove until today. So they were going to leave the pilot whales trapped in the cove overnight, then the buyers would show up in the morning for selection. And then the slaughter.
We spoke to a police officer who said that pilot whales are a very good catch for the fishermen because they are “very expensive.” He was very kind - he told me I must be very sad, and when he found out I was leaving, he said it’s probably better I’m leaving and won’t be there to watch the “sad scene.”
I received an update this morning saying that 3 of the precious pilot whales were sold into captivity this morning - two juveniles and one female. They are waiting for more trainers to arrive to try to sell more, and the rest will be slaughtered.
I hate that I’m not there with them this morning. I felt so helpless yesterday standing there watching as the fishermen trapped them, all I could do was get as much footage as possible in the hopes that documenting it and getting it out into the world will help end this. Today I feel even more helpless, relying on updates via text and Facebook. My heart is with those poor dolphins. And the countless others who will be taken this season.
This video shows a condensed account of the progression of yesterday’s events. First you’ll see the banger boats driving the pod north, then you’ll see the fishermen dropping the nets at the cove, and then you’ll see our precious pilot whales, exhausted, confused and trapped in the cove to await their unknown fate. You can also hear a family in the background. There was a family of Japanese tourists standing behind me, watching as they brought the pilot whales into the cove. They had two adorable little girls, probably around ages 2 and 4, and I’m certain this family had no idea that these beautiful animals would be sold or killed in the morning, so we gave them a copy of “The Cove” in Japanese.
Thank you for reading my blog. Please share with as many people as possible…we need to get this as loud as possible if we’re going to end this.
There are no words to describe how sick this makes me feel, how it literally breaks my heart. Poor babies.
