Japan's Dolphin Drive Industry Dolphin drives are nothing new. At one time, thousands of dolphins were slaughtered each year for food and as a means of predator control. International outrage in the early 1980s (when graphic footage was taken by a U.S. videographer and aired around the world) almost shut down drive fisheries. Then the marine parks stepped in. The Marine Park Connection In the late 1980s, marine parks and aquariums (including U.S. parks and the U.S. Navy) began purchasing live animals, paying many thousands of dollars for each animal. This made hunts profitable again. Although the number of animals killed each year has not returned to the high levels of the past, dozens and sometimes hundreds of dolphins and small whales die annually. (The government sets quotas for each region and species that are frequently violated). At one time dolphins from drive hunts were imported into the United States. Before 1993, all the dolphins and small whales (such as false killer whales) imported into the United States from Japan were almost certainly captured in drive hunts. In 1993, a California marine park sought to import several false killer whales from Japan, and the same videographer who originally exposed the drives in the 1980s revealed how the animals were captured. The U.S. government had stipulated that the dolphins could only be imported if they had been captured "humanely" by purse-seine net (while less cruel than a drive, net captures are still traumatic). Because the manner of capture violated the conditions of the permit, the government prohibited the import. Since then, no whales or dolphins have been imported into the United States from Japan. The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), and the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums recently condemned the cruelty of the drive hunts.