Updated 10 11 09 About Astral Arts Mendocino International Condemnation of Japan's Dolphin Slaughter Dolphin Safe Tuna debate History Offshore Links To Extinction Join The Seaweed Rebellion Astral Arts Mendocino E  mail

Dolphin Safe Oceans Dolphins aren't safe! Japan  slaughters  22,000 dolphins each year as pest control. Act For Dolphins (ACT) Along with the New York Aquarium, Emory University, The Ocean Project, and WAZA, the Act for Dolphins campaign involves scientists and veterinarians from the School of Medicine at the University of San Diego, Dalhousie University, the University of Hawaii, the University of Notre Dame, and professionals from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). The immediate goals of the campaign are to raise public awareness of the dolphin drive hunts, to boost measurable support through The Ocean Project-sponsored website petition at  ACT  which currently includes over 50,000 signatures, and to convince the Japanese government to end the hunts on ethical grounds.  Learn more  Save Japan Dolphins According to the group, the ethical argument for ending the drive is supported by a solid foundation of scientific evidence indicating that dolphins possess the mental and emotional capacities for pain and suffering on a par with great apes and humans. It is also increasingly clear that dolphins have social traditions and cultures, complex interdependent relationships, and strong family ties, all of which are susceptible to disruption or even dissolution in the drives. Occurring annually from September to April, the dolphin hunts are regulated by the Japanese government and conducted by groups of fishermen who herd hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dolphins and small cetaceans into shallow bays by banging on partially submerged rods that create a sonic barrier. The dolphins are then corralled into nets and dispatched in a brutal manner: speared, hooked, hoisted into the air by their tails, and finally eviscerated alive. The methods, say researchers, result in a long and painful death for these intelligent marine mammals. The hunts this year actually began a month earlier than usual. The hunts today would not be profitable if the global aquarium industry and "swim-with-dolphins" tourist programs were not subsidizing the dolphin killers by paying enormous sums for a handful of dolphins for captivity. And the government is helping subsidize the meat trade by using dolphin meat for school lunch programs, since it is not popular on the open market. It might seem that exposing this to the light of day would in itself cause it to disappear. But not in Japan. When we went to authorities for an explanation, they turned a deaf ear to us. It was as if nobody cared. We were told that this was part of Japan's culture. Mayor S. Hamanaka of Taiji proudly announced that he and his fellow citizens are a whaling people, and they explain it like this: You kill cows and sheep, and we kill dolphins and whales. You don't understand us. Original page posted on 05 01 2008 Astral Arts Mendocino registered as a Mendocino County business in the Spring of 2003. All artwork, media, audio, video, projet series names and individual titles are Copyright Protected ©2003 ©2004 ©2005 ©2006 ©2007 ©2008 ©2009 Author: Thomas DiFiore. All business logos and product line artwork, are marks with specific fonts used in the identification of goods or services as used in commerce, and are trademarks of the author or Astral Arts Mendocino.