Fishermen in Japan began slaughtering hundreds of bottlenose dolphins early on Tuesday morning, campaigners said, despite mounting international calls for the animals to be spared. Members of the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd who are monitoring the annual cull in Taiji, on Japan’s Pacific coast, said local fishermen had started killing an estimated 250 dolphins […]
Tag: japan
POLL: Should the Dolphin Slaughter in Taiji Cove be stopped?
On Friday, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said a pod of more than 250 dolphins including babies, juveniles and a rare albino calf had been driven into a cove in Taiji, south-east Japan. Taiji is renowned for its dolphin-hunting traditions, shooting to prominence after the release of the 2009 Oscar-winning documentary The Cove. The town […]
Japanese whale hunt stopped, for now
“After a 360-mile chase, The Sea Shepherd Fleet drove the Japanese whaling fleet’s factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, out of the Antarctic Treaty Zone,” said the group in an emailed statement. “Sea Shepherd has all ships in the Japanese whaling fleet accounted for, and can confirm that the whale poaching fleet is scattered and currently […]
Japanese Whaling: Bad For Cetaceans and Humans Alike
A new analysis shows that Japan’s annual hunt of small whales, dolphins and porpoises is unsustainable and could even drive some species toward extinction while at the same time presenting a real risk to human health. Every year, Japanese whaling ships catch and often times brutally butcher up to 17,000 small whales, dolphins and porpoises […]
Eurasian Sparrowhawk (juvenile)
Some images of a juvenile Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) that I encountered this morning at Moriyama reclaimed land area.
Japanese Night Heron, Gorsachius goisagi
This species had eluded me so far in Japan, so I jumped at the chance when I heard that there was a “friendly” bird in Kyushu. I observed it for about an hour and a half while it hunted in the grasses bordering thick woods for prey such as earthworms, frogs and snails. A big […]
Swim with dolphins, then eat them in a cafe? Give the poor creatures a break
It’s the most barbarous bit of mixed messaging since the Icelandic whaler Kristjam Loftsson declared he was making his whaling operation “eco-friendly” by running his ships on – whale oil. The Japanese town of Taiji, site of the annual slaughter of thousands of cetaceans as featured in the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, has declared its […]
Narcissus Flycatcher (female)
Photos of a female Narcissus Flycatcher (Ficedula narcissina) taken yesterday morning on Mt Unzen.