News Archives

March, 2005

Museum poised to profit from bloody drive fisheries

On March 14, the Town Council of Taiji, Japan formally announced its decision to allow the Taiji Whale Museum, a specialty museum which houses 26 marine mammals in addition to an extensive collection of cetacean information not found any where else in Japan, to sell and export eight bottlenose dolphins to an aquarium in China. The museum, which acquired these dolphins from the bloody drive fisheries last October, called the move an “academic exchange.” The decision to take the leap from an educational museum to the world of cetacean brokers came as a result of a decline in the number of paying visitors to the museum. Advocates fear that this move signals an increased incentive to fishermen to continue the annual dolphin hunts, but there may still be time to prevent the exchange.

The dolphins, four males and four females, are currently housed at the Museum and slated to be sold to China for over $400,000 through a company in New Zealand. The town council passed the resolution to sell the dolphins with a majority vote but some of the councilors objected because they feel it contradicts the Social Education Law and Museum Law.

The drive fisheries are an annual event in Taiji during which hundreds of dolphins and small whales are rounded up by fishermen and forced into shallow water. Once the dolphins are trapped within the nets, the fishermen use long knives or spear-like devices to kill and butcher the animals. A select few are chosen for the captivity industry to be trained to take part in aquatic shows and swim-with-dolphin programs.