Photo Story of The Angel of Taiji

 The Angel of Taiji

 People around the world prayed for these dolphins, prayed for the killing to end. God sent Angel the albino dolphin stolen from the Cove. Her rarity brought the eyes of the world to Taiji, international press, government ministers across the globe and the people everywhere cried out for this to end and condemned the hunt. People across the world realised where their dolphins came from and global awareness was raised.

The Taiji whale museum is currently the captors of beautiful Angel. Despite the stories they released about rescuing her as she would not survive, that is simply not true. The people of Taiji and the people of Japan should turn their backs on those who bring shame and dishonour to them. The people of Taiji know what is going on here, Mayor Sangen knows, the town council knows, the Wakayama Prefecture officials know and the Government Ministers know. The story given to the press about little Angel is a lie!!

People across the globe are disgusted, appalled and hurt that you let this go on day after day they are demanding, petitioning and asking their governments to impose economic sanctions on Japan, to boycott and withdraw the Olympics from Japan and all for the actions of a few Taiji people. Is it really worth letting the greed of a few men affect the economics of a whole country?  It seems so.

This is Angel with her beautiful mother, she never left her side until the fishermen took her away. Her mother then died in the Cove. She was not abandoned as was told by the Taiji Whale Museum.

 This is Angel swimming again alongside her mother surrounded by her family of 250 dolphins who were destroyed by Taiji fishermen. 

                          

Angel's beautiful family surround her and her mother sensing doom approaching.

This dolphin is well protected, loved and nurtured by her pod. The fact that she has made it to 1 year old without the Whale Museum's intervention shows she was able to survive.

 This is not her being rescued, this is her being captured to be sent for a life on confinement in Taiji Whale Museum's small concrete pool.

 

After she is taken her family huddle together for comfort, looking death in the face

 

 This is Taiji, no  compassion and no mercy will be received for this animal, the captive market is far too lucrative. 

 Taiji harbour pens - prison for Angel's family whilst waiting to be taught to eat dead fish for an Aquarium buyer. 

 Does this look happy to you??? The Taiji people have turned a blind eye to the suffering they create in their pens which is apparent to all except them.

 This is how Angel left the Cove, many like this one will follow her. 

This is now Angel's life, confined to this tank, without her mother who she should still be nursing from and without her family.

                  Injured and with her eyes closed she tries to find her way around the chlorinated tank

She swims round and round in circles, staying under the water much longer than the other captive who just floats at the surface.

 There is no shade from the sun ans her delicate skin is starting to burn.

Angel is hungry and fearfully snatches a dead fish and dashes back to the centre of the pool. Is it any wonder she is frightened of humans after all she has been put  through.

She stays away from the edge, is reportedly hardly eating, does not interact with the other dolphin and is getting more burnt from having no shade from the sun. She should not be hungry as she should still be nursing from her mother.

Knowing that to keep this beautiful baby there is wrong they try to hide her from the world, exactly how the fishermen try to hide their tradition from the world too. Tradition that started in 1969 is no tradition at all.

 

This is what the officials say the drive hunt is all about, Japans need to eat dolphins. If that is the case, then why is Angel in a tank? Why are Angel's family still in the harbour prison pens? Why are they in slings being taken to Aquariums and Swim with dolphin facilities? 

 Its a month since she was ripped from her family, she is at least acknowledging the other dolphin now.

    Although she isn't eating much still at least she realises the way to stay alive is to take the dead fish

  

16/02/2014 They decide to move her to a bigger indoor tank. Maybe for her own benefit or maybe to keep her hidden from he watching world. She is now indoors. 

                                               They measure and do tests on her on the way

She is a bit shook by the move, which I cant say I blame her for, the last time she was in a sling she was being stolen from her mother, was bleeding from her nose and dumped in a small, chlorinated tank.

 
                They try to feed her and admit it may take her a while to adjust to her new surroundings. 

She has other dolphins to swim with now, but none of her own kind and none of her family who she will never see again. 

 

Dark dank tank for her to swim in. 

Mould covered walls will be her new home 

 She spy hops, is she looking for her mother, her family, or just asking for compassion as she will find none in Taiji 

Nothing resembles the ocean she knows anymore. 

Look into her eyes, this is the face of a dolphin who has been through so much in her month since being taken from her mother. Your ticket money pays for this when you visit a dolphin show, swim with dolphins, attend dolphin therapy. If there was no market there would be no hunt.

  

Her new mouldy dirty home 

The scars on her body show how rough her capture actually was. Living testament to the cruelty in Taiji 

She still swims in circles  

Sept 2014 Angel and her new tanks mates are now part of the show.

Dive with the dolphins, shame they don't use that sponge to clean the tank.

Angel swims with none of her own kind.

Stolen for a life like this

Angel is part of the entertainment now.

Her tank mates also participate in dive with dolphins

Stolen from the cove for this

Putting on a performance for dead fish.

November 2014
The most recent photographs show a horrible picture of Angels life, she has teeth missing, is having blood taken and has been trained for husbandry, hopefully not for AI. There are still many bottlenose dolphins in the pens and only 5 taken this season so some could be Angel's family. They could be rehabilitated and released together.

Now 1 whole year since her abduction, she is so big but still so tragically sad

Help these creatures and DON'T BUY A TICKET to a dolphin facility anywhere in the world.

Please read more about Angel's capture and

 her 250+ dolphin family's horrific 5 days in The Cove

Ric O'Barry's dolphin project has tirelessly campaigned for Angel, read about them here

Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians also film every day of the hunting season follow the daily horror here

TO HELP SAVE ANGEL AND OTHERS ACROSS THE GLOBE, MAKE SURE YOU SIGN ALL THE PETITIONS every signature counts.

Angel, the Young Albino Dolphin from the January 18th Taiji Dolphin Drive Taken to Taiji Whale Museum

Angel the young albino bottlenose dolphin at Taiji Whale Museum

The baby albino bottlenose dolphin that was the first to be captured from the enormous (250+) dolphin pod in Taiji Japan was taken to the Taiji Whale Museum without her mother.  The photo above shows the little white dolphin with another young dolphin also taken from its mother.

Some  (Save Japan Dolphins Volunteer Cove Monitor Karla Sanjur and Richard O'Barry) have started calling the white dolphin "Angel".  Angel really does shimmer in the water, so it seems to be a good name to call her and perhaps she will become the Angel to help save other cetaceans who so desperately need our help.

We know she is female because the Taiji Whale Museum has posted so on their FB page announcing that she is captive there.  [Update: they have shut down their FB page after 2300+ angry comments about Angel's captivity].   Below is what they have posted about her:

体色の白いバンドウイルカを搬入
17日に漁獲された群の中に、体色の白いバンドウイルカが発見されました。このイルカは全身が白色で、目が淡紅色であることから、突然変異で体に色素をもたないアルビノ(先天性色素欠乏症)であると推測されます。
本日このイルカを博物館内のイルカショープールに搬入いたしました。この白いイルカはメスで、体長約２ｍ、体重約１００㎏で、今後経過を観察していきたいと思います。
【お知らせ】
 (Translated by Bing)
White bottlenose dolphin's body was transported. Group to 17, had been caught in the color white bottlenose dolphins has been identified.

Guess this Dolphin is white in the body the eyes are light pink, because without the dye body mutation in albino (Congenital pigmented deficiency). Today this Dolphin has been brought to the Museum in Dolphin Show pool.
In female white dolphins, at about 2 m in length and weight about 100 kg and future followed we hope you want to think. [Announcement]

The Sea Shepard Cove Guardians were speculating during the Livestream, that because she is an albino, meaning that she has no skin pigment, she may be blind and or deaf as some animals are with albinism.  If so, it is especially awful that she was taken from her mother because her mother would have guided and protected her from harm.  The SSCG also speculated that Angel may have Chédiak–Higashi syndrome like the deceased captive Orca Chimo although that syndrome usually shows as partial albinism, and Angel is pure white with pink eyes.  In the photo, you can see that her dorsal fin is tinged pink, that is because the thinner parts of the body allow the blood vessels near the skin to tint the skin pink.  Because of her albinism, Angel lacks the pigment melanin, the pigment in skin that that protects from the sun, she will easily sunburn and is very susceptible to skin cancer.  Dolphins in the wild do not spend much time at the oceans surface, which has protected Angel up until now.  Captive dolphins spend hours at the surface of their small tanks because of nothing to do and no where to go, so Angel will suffer from her sun exposure in the Whale Museum tank.  She should be given protection with shade, though that will likely not be given to her.  Better still, she should be returned to her mother and family, and allowed their freedom in the ocean. 

 

Angel being taken captive by the Taiji "fishermen"
Sea Shepard Cove Guardian photo

Angel on her first day at the Taiji Whale Museum after her tragic capture,
you can see how she was injured and bloodied from the ordeal

The Taiji Whale Museum has been described as more about whaling, capturing cetaceans for food, than conservation.  This is now where Angel will be held captive for the rest of her now shortened life, or to be sold for a very high price because she is now a "rare commodity" as the "property" of the Whale Museum.  In reality, she IS special and rare, and has now become a symbol for the Anti-Captivity movement, someday Angel will be free, either she is rehabilitated and given back her freedom in the sea, or she will die and finally become free of her captivity.

 

Angel swimming with her mother before her capture
Sea Shepard Cove Guardian photo

 

Updated to include a YouTube video of Angel in her tank with another young dolphin at the Taiji Whale Museum.  So sad to see them trapped in the confines of this terrible place, see how they cling together as they swim.  Many thanks to Yoshi Ko for taking the video and Holly Quinn for posting it on YouTube.

 

 

 

 

Updated:  There is now a Petition asking that the Taiji Whale Museum release Angel.

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 - First Day of Captive Selection:

Day 2 - This is this post: Baby Albino Dolphin, Angel, is Taken First into Captivity

Day 3 - Horrific Second Day of Captive Selection Continues

Day 4 - 3rd Day of Captive Selection

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.
See the sad Photo Story of Angel Shoujo after a month in captivity at the Taiji Whale Museum.

Update 1-19-14:
 Captive Cetaceans SBTS  Facebook page:  "Ric O Barry named this baby Angel yesterday after one of his cove guardians said she was like an angel with fins. Today Paul Watson decided to call her Shoujo. As we had been calling her Angel all day yesterday and I am sure Paul Watson would not have known she had already been named. In respect to both great animal advocates who both fight against the Cove, she will be known on this page as Angel Shoujo."  And so we will call her Angel Shoujo on the blog.


~ Kindness for Animals