SuperForest

Good afternoon, SuperForest!

We’ve been keeping a close eye on the work of Ric O’Barry and his team’s attempt to stop the annual dolphin slaughter that is featured in The Cove. Being that so much has happened since my first post on this issue, I figured it was time for another update.

As Jackson mentioned before, unfortunately the fishermen did return to the Cove only a few days after the media left. About 100 dolphins and 50 pilot whales were captured but due to a new (and temporary) non-slaughter policy that was put into place, about 30 were taken for captivity while the rest, instead of being slaughtered, were released. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for the pilot whales which were regrettably killed. The fishermen have tried to dodge the non-slaughter policy by calling them “whales” instead of dolphins but as O’Barry’s team explained, “pilot whale meat has even higher levels of mercury than the other dolphins.” And, of course, the fact remains that pilot whales are part of the oceanic dolphin family Delphinidae.

So the fight isn’t over but Ric O’Barry and his crew are still working hard. Just yesterday, The Cove had its first public screening in Japan! More than 250 journalists from Japan and around the world showed up to watch the film as well as non-governmental organization representatives!

This is extremely significant and as Ric O’Barry wrote yesterday:

Only a couple of years ago, I went around to major news media in Tokyo with my Japanese friends, pleading with reporters to cover the story of the Taiji dolphin slaughter. Many reporters told us that they thought it was a very interesting story, but they knew their editors would not run the story. They did not want to upset the Japanese government, and so the media colluded with the government to hide the dolphin slaughter and the dangers of mercury-contaminated dolphin meat.

Wow! To see the developments unfold and the step by step actions people are taking to cease the Taiji dolphin slaughter is very promising. And there is still so much we can do!

Here at SuperForest, we have launched the pro-dolphin media site, “Dolphins are Awesome”. SuperForester Jackson wrote (and performed) his Dolphins are Awesome Rap and soonafter the lovely SuperForester Aiko translated the rap lyrics into Japanese and graciously taught Jackson how to recite it! The plan is to spread this happy dolphin song far and wide and you SuperForesters can help us out by informing others about our actions or by making your own pro-dolphin media and sharing it with us!

In addition, Ric O’Barry has outlined a few more things we can do to take action:

1. Follow his blog: It’s very easy to stay informed with all of the Taiji dolphin developments by reading Mr. O’Barry’s very own blog! He explains the day to day developments and experiences in relation to his visits to Japan.

2. Sign the Petition: You can take a few quick moments to urge President Obama, Vice President Biden and Japanese Ambassador to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki to address this issue and urge the government of Japan to stop the slaughtering of dolphins in Taiji, Japan.

3. Donate: As is often the case, in order for most organizations to stay afloat, they need funding. And being that travels to Japan are very pricey, Save Japans Dolphins accepts any donations, big or small, here.

Once again, we applaud the hard work and dedication of the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition! Slowly but steadily, the dolphin wins are beginning to trickle in and it is an understatement to say that the work of the Save Japan Dolphins coalition is an absolute inspiration!

Love to all,

C