Taiji, Japan - An American anti-whaling group trying to stop the killing of dolphins has released video footage of a recent hunt in the small fishing town of Taiji that shows blood-filled coves and several dead dolphins being brought ashore in boats.
The tape, shot by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, graphically captures the end of a hunt, in which fishermen pound on the water, causing waves that confuse the mammals' sense of direction, and then corral dolphins into small coves where they can be more easily killed.
Though subject to government-set quotas, the hunts are not banned under Japanese law and are not subject to international regulations because they are done near the shore.
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Several dead or dying dolphins can be seen on the boats, bleeding profusely, in the footage.
The meat is usually canned and sold in supermarkets "It's a wholesale slaughter, which results in immense suffering for these animals," said activist Nik Hensey. "It's a sight that one just can't imagine."
Requests for comment from the mayor were denied and other town officials declined to comment. A fisherman's union representative, who demanded anonymity, said the kills are conducted as humanely as possible, and noted that dolphin hunts have been part of local culture for 400 years.
Hunting dolphins is not banned by the International Whaling Commission, which has maintained a moratorium on commercial whaling since 1986.
Fishermen in this western Japanese town regularly conduct dolphin hunts during the October to April season. They've caught more than 60 striped dolphins so far this year under the government quota system. The meat is usually canned and sold in supermarkets.
But because of international pressure for an end to the killing of dolphins and the bloodiness of their hunting method, fishermen here have tried to keep out of the public eye.
Japan is also allowed to kill hundreds of whales a year
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