Taiji’s Massive Captive Dolphin Inventory

Taiji, Japan: It might take a moment to realize that each pen documented in our cover image contains a captive dolphin. Some pens contain multiple dolphins. Within each tiny enclosure was once a free-ranging mammal, ruthlessly caught during the town’s notoriously cruel dolphin drive hunts, and selected for a “life” within man-made enclosures.

During the entire six-month long hunting season, we collaborated once again with Life Investigation Agency (LIA), headed up by campaign director Ren Yabuki and his team of over 46 all-Japanese activists. Together, they ensured continuous, on the ground coverage to document the drives and other events that took place. What they also did was take a meticulous count of the number and species of dolphins confined in Moriura Bay, in Taiji.

Side view of Taiji’s small, captive dolphin pens. Credit: LIA/Dolphin Project

Their numbers are shocking. As of March, 2022, 269 dolphins across nine species are being held captive, making it one of the largest captive dolphin collections in the world. These include:

• bottlenose dolphins – 180
• Risso’s dolphins – 35
• short-finned pilot whales – 11
• striped dolphins – 8
• Pacific white-sided dolphins – 19
• melon-headed whales – 3
• rough-toothed dolphins – 3
• spotted dolphins – 9
• false killer whales – 1

Broken down by location:

Fishing harbor
bottlenose dolphins – 26
Total – 26

Moriura Bay*
bottlenose dolphins – 103
Pacific white-sided dolphins – 13
striped dolphins – 2
Risso’s dolphins – 22
short-finned pilot whales – 6
Total – 146

*In Moriura Bay, there are several dolphins released outside the sea pens during the day, and these dolphins are not included in the above numbers.

Dolphin Base
bottlenose dolphins – 28
Pacific white-sided dolphins – 3
spotted dolphins – 7
Risso’s dolphins – 4
short-finned pilot whales – 1
Total – 43

Dolphin Resort
bottlenose dolphins – 14
Risso’s dolphins – 3
Total – 17

Whale Museum
bottlenose dolphins – 9
Pacific white-sided dolphins – 3
striped dolphins – 6
spotted dolphins 2
rough-toothed dolphins – 3
Risso’s dolphins – 6
short-finned pilot whales – 4
false killer whales – 1
melon-head whales – 3
Total – 37

Taiji Total – 269

Additional captive dolphins have been documented in Nachi-Katsuura:

Nachi-Katsuura
bottlenose dolphins – 13
spotted dolphins – 9
Total – 22

According to LIA’s documentation, the number of captive dolphins should be even higher. Based upon the total mammals captured since November, 2021, at least 25 dolphins are missing – possibly perished, or escaped during January’s tsunami.

For the last several years, Taiji has been increasing their dolphin inventory. The mammals are trained and sold to aquariums and marine parks across the world, where they are exploited for profit. While Taiji’s dolphin sales were decimated in 2020 due to the pandemic, their collection of captive dolphins has only grown larger.

A few years ago, Taiji decided they wanted to create an aquatic theme park in Moriura Bay, where visitors could paddle board, canoe, swim with, and feed captive dolphins. One of their goals is to breed and crossbreed between species, creating unusual and rare mammals such as albino or leucistic dolphins, or hybrid species, for maximum profitability.

Life in captivity is no life at all. Credit: LIA/Dolphin Project

Explains Ren, “Although Taiji is the world’s largest center for live dolphin trades, there is no doubt that the industry will continue to dwindle as the capture, sale and breeding of wild animals becomes increasingly prohibited around the world. The percentage of days dolphin hunters failed to catch any dolphins was 64% in the 2020/21 season, but in this season (2021/22) it was 69%, an increase of 4%. Dolphin Project compiles the number of dolphins caught each year, and the number is decreasing year by year, possibly a result of decades-long hunting practices of killing off entire pods. The town needs to shift away from their cruel practices as soon as possible.”

Featured image: Taiji has amassed one of the largest collections of captive dolphins in the world. Credit: LIA/Dolphin Project

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