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View Full Version : Japanese Police Arrest Eco-Activists Filming Dolphin Roundup



John Lindsey
7th October 2003, 04:18
http://www.anc.org/wildlife/wildlife_article.cfm?identifier=2003_1006_dolphins

More info for the Dolphin fans:

Three members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have been arrested while using video and still cameras to document a dolphin roundup in Taiji, Japan. The three eco-activists are reportedly being held by Japanese police. Taiji is located on the south part of mainland Japan, near Osaka.

Brooke MacDonald (Canadian), Morgan Whorwood (British), and Nicholas Hensey (American) recently traveled to Japan to document the dolphin round-up and slaughter by local fisherman near Taiji.

Wild dolphin slaughter occurs in several areas of Japan. It is estimated that between 1,000 and 2,000 dolphins are killed each year via round-ups, and additional thousands killed by other means.


The three Sea Shepherd members reportedly called the local Japanese police themselves, but were then arrested. The reason for the arrest is still unclear.

Vapour
7th October 2003, 13:15
Oh, well. Here is a bit of flamer.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=intelligence+of+sea+mammal&btnG=Google+Search

As far as I can gather from "google research", seas mammals are nothing special from land mammals except their ability to appeal to human like K9 which people often confuse with intelligence or humanity.

Anyone who have link to more authentic sceitific reaseach, please provide link.

Vapour
7th October 2003, 13:18
As of the arrests, the police certainly seems to have over reacted. But that is a separate issue from validity of this "round up".

kage110
7th October 2003, 13:36
The Sea Shepherd Society have a history of doing illegal things (e.g. blowing up whale catcher's vessels in Iceland and Norway and ramming Japanese long-liners in the Pacific) and then volunteering themselves for arrest and prosecution - all in an effort to gain more publicity. So far countries like Iceland and Japan have not pressed charges as their (the countries in question) actions were often less than squeaky clean. Why these particular people were arrested is beyond my ken though.

As to why marine mammals appeal more to humans than others...don't know and don't care. The mass slaughter of any animal - mammal or not - just because it gets in the way of human activity is abhorrent. We humans have caused the extinction of many, many species in our history but that is no justification for continuing to do the same now. Why can't we learn from our history?

Joseph Svinth
8th October 2003, 02:20
Some years ago, the French government was directly connected to the bombing of a Greenpeace vessel in New Zealand (the Kiwi government was not amused), so there is bad behavior all around.