Pilot Whales in the Cove!

By Ric O’Barry

Brian Barnes reports that there are pilot whales in the Cove in Taiji.

This is unusual, but not unprecedented.  The pilot whale hunt season extends through the month of May, beyond the hunting season for other dolphins.  The “banger boats” go offshore to harpoon pilot whales with hand harpoons, but likely they came across a big enough pod (there are more than fifty in the Cove right now) that a drive hunt became viable.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Contact the Japanese Embassy in Washington DC and urge them to stop killing dolphins and whales.  Be polite, and urge them to protect Japanese consumers from mercury poisoning from eating dangerous whale and dolphin meat.

Ambassador Ichiro FUJISAKI

2520 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.

Washington, DC 20008

Phone:  202-238-6700

Fax: 202-328-2187

Japan Information and Culture Center

E-mail: [email protected]