Saturday 18 January 2014

Bottlenose Dolphin Selection in Taiji Japan: 250 Dolphin Family Members Split Apart Including an Albino Baby and it's Mother


Baby Albino Dolphin was the first to be taken
 Sea Shepard Cove Guardian photo
Bottlenose Dolphin Selection in Taiji Japan: 250 Dolphin Family Members Split Apart Including an Albino Baby and her Mother, 24 were selected today for a Shortened Life in Captivity, the rest, their fate unknown until tomorrow.

Today was a shameful day for Japan as a few people in Taiji brought dishonor to all of the Japanese people with their inhumane industry; the Japanese Dolphin Drive Fisheries.  Thousands of people, world wide, watched this happening live on the Sea Shepard Cove Guardian's LiveStream.

It was a heartbreaking sight to see so many frightened bottlenose dolphins, 250+, swimming in circles trying in vain, to find a way out of The Cove, back to freedom.  They had been held for more than 19 hours trapped in The Cove at Taiji Japan, without food, after enduring hours of being driven by the terrifying banger boats yesterday.

A pair of these beautiful dolphins were a mother and her albino calf, they were the first to be separated when the baby was captured, taken under the tarps and away forever from her mother.  At first it was thought that the albino calf would be the first to be taken to the Dolphin Base for the start of its life in captivity, but skiff after skiff left the cove with other dolphins in slings, leaving everyone to wonder about this little dolphin's fate as it was thought to still be hidden underneath the blue tarps.  Later during the Livestream, it was learned that the little white dolphin had been deliberately hidden, so that the watching Livestream cameras could not witness its skiff transport and delivery via truck to the Taiji Whale Museum where it will be displayed.

Early in the morning, the large pod of 250 dolphins had been split into 3 groups in different netted off areas to make the selection easier for the killers and "trainers".  The nearest penned dolphins were driven, by scaring them with the motors of the skiffs, deeper into The Cove.  The dolphins panicked swimming into the nets getting caught, the divers and skiffs untangling the dolphins so the killers and trainers could continue selecting some dolphins for captivity and passing over others for possible slaughter or release later.  The net was tightened and the skiffs kept pushing the dolphins into a smaller and smaller area to make it easier to manhandle the dolphins and take them under the tarps.  The dolphins fought hard in the chaos and some were bloodied trying to keep away from the divers and getting tangled in the nets. 

By 10am, 12 dolphins, including the little white albino dolphin, had been taken via slings alongside the skiffs into captivity at Dolphin Base.  As the skiffs returned to pick up more dolphins, they callously ran over other dolphins as they entered back into the netted off cove.  As each of the dolphins were caught, they were taken under the tarps to be examined by the trainers to see if they are "pretty" enough to be taken into captivity.  If they were, they were transferred into slings and taken away by the awaiting skiffs for the rest of their now shortened lives in captivity.  The ones who were not "pretty" enough for captivity were marked with a broad stroke of white paint between their blowhole and dorsal fin, still in the netted off area.

After 5 stressful, frightening hours, 18 dolphins had been chosen by noon and still the horror went on into the afternoon with no rest or food for the dolphins.  By 1:39pm, 24 dolphins had been taken away.   After 7 hours of terror, at 2:15pm, the killers and trainers left The Cove, leaving the rest of the approximately 226 traumatized dolphins to wait until tomorrow to find out their fate, no food or water for 2 days (water is obtained from eating fish) and worse, missing 24 members of their family. 

What suffering the mother of the little white dolphin must be feeling missing her little one by her side?  What must the little white dolphin be feeling, alone without her mother or other family members?

You can see all of the photos the Sea Shepard Cove Guardians took on this awful  day on their Facebook photo album HERE


The pod endured a long and torturous 8 hours of captive selection
after being held captive overnight for 19 hours.
Sea Shepard Cove Guardian photo
Please read more about this tragic story of the 250+ dolphin pod with a baby albino dolphin that happened over 5 days:
Day 1 - Dolphin Drive Captures 250+ Dolphins Plus Baby Albino
Day 2 - This is this Post: First Day of Captive Selection:
Day 2 - Baby Albino Dolphin, Angel, is Taken First into Captivity
Day 3 - Horrific Second Day of Captive Selection Continues
Day 4 - Third Day of Captive Selection Continues
Day 5 - The slaughter of 40 of the remaining dolphins who have survived so far and release and drive back out to sea of the exhausted, injured, traumatized and starving dolphins.

~ Kindness for Animals

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