This photo was taken yesterday at the cove in Taiji. A pod of bottlenose dolphins had just been herded into the cove and netted off. The were held overnight while orders from marine based amusement parks that hold captive marine mammals were placed. At sunrise today the trainers, traders and hunters all worked together and the sorting of the family pod started. 18 unblemished juvenile and female dolphins for breeding were wrestled from the pod and taken away to nearby seapens where they will be conditioned to accept food and instructions from humans, after that the training of the circus tricks they will perform for the rest of their lives. WAZA (world association of zoos and aquaria) have a deal with the hunters not to slaughter any bottlenose dolphins during the month of September. So they can purchase their dolphins and feel like the are not complicit in the killing. However, with the meat becoming less popular as more information about the dangers of the meat and older generation dies off the income earned from the increasing mainly Asian market for live captive marine mammals provides the hunters with more than enough to keep these hunts going for six months of every year. This season the government sanctioned quota for the dolphin drive hints is 2013 over seven species of small Cetacea.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 12:49:32 +0000
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