Japan Dolphin Day Set for October 8

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♦ 1 | At 10:55pm on Sep 28 2005, Jeff Bryant wrote:

About 20,000 dolphins are slaughtered in Japanese coastal waters a year, but you'd be lucky to find ten Japanese who knew about it.
The story behing this story is the complete ignorance of the local population, and the media's total lack of interest. What would all the aspiring young dolphin trainers think?

♦ 2 | At 01:26am on Sep 29 2005, Madeline Bolbol wrote:

Now is the time to end this brutal
practice of killing dolphins (many whales are also caught in the hunt and killed). Young fishermen in Taiji says the younger generation does not want to hunt dolphins any longer. If the government revokes/denies permits, the slaughter of dolphins would stop.
Many Japanese are not aware of what is happening to the dolphins at Taiji and Futo. If they did not visit aquariums, keeping dolphins/whales in captivity will be a thing of the past. Are the Japanese people aware that mercury is found in the dolphin meat; has the government informed them of the dangers of eating dolphin meat?

♦ 3 | At 01:59am on Sep 29 2005, Ric O'Barry wrote:

A Report of Mercury Contamination:

Dolphin Meat from the Recent Drive Fishery in Futo

was Highly Contaminated by Mercury

Elsa Nature Conservancy (ENC) acquired a slice of meat from a

bottlenose dolphin that was captured by the drive fishery in Futo and butchered on November 11, 2004. ENC immediately sent it to Hokkaido, asking Dr. Tetsuya Endo at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Health Science University of Hokkaido to examine it for mercury contamination.

The meat was found to be highly contaminated. It contained 19.2 ppm

(parts per million) of mercury, which is 48 times higher than the maximum advisory level of 0.4 ppm set by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry of Japan.

According to Dr. Tetsuya Endo, the same meat is well estimated to contain 6�`7 ppm of methyl mercury, which is about 20 times higher than the maximum advisory level of 0.3 ppm set by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry of Japan, though the result of its anylysis has not come out yet. This estimation is based on his long research experience as well as on the

results of mercury analysis done by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry of Japan so far, Dr. Endo said.

In 2002 and 2003, ENC sent several packs of dolphin meat from

Miyagi prefecture, which were sold in Ito City and in a town named Kawazu, southern part of Izu peninsula, Shizuoka prefecture, to the local governmental Inspecting Center of Public Health in Ibaraki Prefecture and Dr. Tetsuya Endo at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Health Science University of Hokkaido. The inspection by both the Inspection Center and Dr. Endo proved that all of the meat was contaminated by mercury, and especially one pack of dolphin meat showed as much as 5.69ppm of mercury, which is 14.2 times higher than the maximum advisory level. The meat was from Miyagi, not from Ito/Futo drive fisheries, but the supermarkets in Ito city stopped selling dolphin meat for a considerable time in 2003.

Contaminated Dolphin meat should not be sold, and the drive fishery should be stopped:

The Inspecting Center of Public Health in Ibaraki Prefecture once advised that the meat whose mercury contamination exceeds the maximum advisory level of 0.4 ppm should be disposed. Eating poisoned dolphin meat is a serious health hazard, causing damage to the brain and nervous system, especially can be dangerous for young children and pregnant women.

ENC reported the result of the mercury inspection of dolphin meat that was acquired from the recent drive fishery in Futo, warned its high leveled contamination, to the placed concerned, and requested to stop selling dolphin meat as well as to end the drive fishery itself.

The Asahi, the Yomiuri, and the Mainichi, the biggest three

newspapers in Japan, reported this contamination news on their local edition. Their readers estimated far more than 300,000 in all. However, the local newspaper such as the Izu and the Shizuoka ignored this news. It is said that they fear their readers to cancel their subscription if they report the contamination.

What we can do:

Write a letter to the following places and warn them that contaminated dolphin meat can harm the health of citizens and tourists. Ask them to end the drive fishery of dolphins and stop selling dolphin meat.

Places to send a petition letter:

* Mr. Toichiro Suzuki, Mayor of Ito

E-mail: hisyo@city.ito.shizuoka.jp

Fax: +81-557-36-1104

* Ito-city "Kenkou-Suishin-ka"(Health-Promotion-Section in Ito City)

E-mail: kenko@city.ito.shizuoka.jp

* Mr. Taiji Sakurai, Mayor of Kawazu Town

E-mail: info@town.kawazu.shizuoka.jp

Fax: +81-558-34-0099

* Mr. Yoshinobu Ishikawa, Governor of Shizuoka prefecture

E-mail: governor@pref.shizuoka.jp

Fax. +81-54-221-2164

* Department of Food Safety, the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare

E-mail: syokucommunication@mhlw.go.jp

Fax: +81-3-3503-7965

* Supermarkets in Ito and Kawazu where dolphin meat is sold

Nagaya Kamata Branch: 118-1 Minamicho 2chome, Ito-shi, Shizuoka-ken, 414-0035, Japan

Aoki Kawazu Branch: 123 Kawazuhama, Kamogun, Shizuoka-ken, 413-0500, Japan

NakamonSuisan: Ito Shopping Center 720-143 KusumiMotowada, Ito-shi, Shizuoka-ken, 414-0045, Japan

NagahamaSuisan: Ito Shopping Center 720-143 KusumiMotowada, Ito-shi, Shizuoka-ken, 414-0045, Japan

@

Thank you for your help. We really appreciate it.

@

**************

Hereinbefore, ENC revealed that dolphin meat from Futo and Miyagi prefecture was contaminated by mercury. However, mercury contamination is not found only among dolphins killed in Futo, Shizuoka, or Miyagi. Dolphins captured and killed in Taiji, Wakayama prefecture, must be naturally highly contaminated with mercury and other pollutants.

ENC continues its activities to stop the drive fishery, warning how cruel and unsustainable the method of the drive fishery is as well as how dangerous to eat highly contaminated dolphin meat.

@

♦ 4 | At 04:26am on Sep 29 2005, Rio Rossellini wrote:

Now is the time to end the world's largest deliberate slaughter of dolphins. It is well known that all the secrecy around the drive and the brutal killings, with the intimidation and threats to people who have tried to record and report the dismal happenings, is because the few people who are involved in the terrible annual slaughter are aware that if word got out, particularly to the Japanese public, who are not even aware of what is happening on their own doorstep, then public pressure would force their permits to be revoked. We must all support Japan Dolphin Day.

♦ 5 | At 04:21pm on Sep 29 2005, Vera Buergi wrote:

We are joining the international protest, yet we chose a slightly different approach for Switzerland, which – knowing the Swiss mentality – seems to work better for our county.

In our protest, we have three different components:

- rotest card (of which you find a new indesign file attached) – we have already printed 100 000 cards which will be distributed by the end of September and a large part sent to the Japanese Embassy in Berne.

- lucky ribbons – we are handing out 7500 cloth ribbons (8x80cm) with the emblem of the postcard (see attached picture). On them, friends of the endangered dolphins can create good luck oracles in word and image. This is a cooperation of OceanCare, Vier Pfoten, Zürcher Tierschutz and Tierschutz Bund. The painted ribbons will be tied to long ropes and will serve for further protest actions. You might notice that this reminds the japanese tradition of Omikuji.

- Protest drumming in Zurich -
On Saturday October 1, we will be near the Paradeplatz in Zurich. With us are two Swiss artists who play the japanese „Buk“ drum. With this element we show that we respect and honor culture and tradition, yet reject and protest against something which has nothing to do with these elements. The place will be decorated with hundreds if not thousands of lucky ribbons we have received until then.

We chose October 1st for the public protest because we want to get the media to write about the scandalous drive hunts. October 4th is world animal day and we want them to have all the information ready by then.

There will be A press conference in a nearby hotel before the drumming action starts. A prominent Swiss business lady, well known and respected for her clear words will be with us to support the cause and will speak about ethics and tradition in regard to the drive hunts.

We are aware that we are not completely joining in with the international coordination. But we are certain, that in Switzerland the protest will be intense and serving the common goal. Of course we will emphazise in the media work that international protests will be held in front of Japanese Embassies on October 8th in many countries around the world and that our protest is part of this international campaign.

OceanCare
Switzerland
www.oceancare.org

♦ 6 | At 04:47am on Oct 12 2005, rob mavic wrote:

why is everyone worried about dolphins ? what makes them so special ? what about all the farm animals that get killed for meat or what about the fish that get caught . Animals are for eating or for fur coats, nobody seems to be bothered about eskimos wearing seal skin either !

♦ 7 | At 04:24pm on Jan 11 2006, Joystarr Livingstone wrote:

Thanks for all you are doing to bring awareness to the mass slaughter of dolphins by the Japanese.

Would you be interested in reading the book I have written? It can be downloaded for free at my website:
soundhealingjoy.com
It is titled:
Warning to Japan, Norway and the United States

I am hoping that word of the book will get around as time is of the essence for these countries because of the attrocities they are committing to the whales and dolphins. As you know, Japan and Norway continue to hunt whales and Japan is still slaughtering dolphins. The United States continues to blast the waters of the earth with sound frequencies that are harming the cetaceans as well as other sea life.

Many of you may be of the scientific mind and may regard my book as crazy, but please know that the events that I describe truly took place, and my hope is that these countries will wake up before it is too late.

Many blessings to you for all you do for our precious cetaceans!
Joystarr