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Taiji Cove was the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary that called for an end to the
commercial fishing of marine mammals, but it looks like the film has done little to
deter these Japanese fishermen.
They were filmed trapping hundreds of dolphins on Monday, in a controversial hunt that happens
every year. According to activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, who have
been shadowing the fishermen, boats began herding the dolphins into pens in Taiji cove
on Friday.
Most of the animals are expected to be killed for meat, with the remainder set to be captured
to sell to aquariums. On Monday, fishermen in wetsuits wrestled with dolphins to select
those to be killed or sold. Activist Melissa Sehgal is chronicling the hunt for the third
year in a row.
These dolphins are wrangled and wrestled into the killing cove, where they've sustained
multiple injuries. Dolphin killers deliberately run over the pod with skiffs, they wrestle
them, man-handled them into captive nets before even being slaughtered.
The killing will begin after dolphins destined for captivity have been selected, probably
on Tuesday.
The slaughter process, which is called pithing, where they hammer a metal rod into the spinal
cord of the dolphin. These dolphins do not die immediately. It takes up to 20 to 30 minutes
for these dolphins to die, where they bleed out, suffocate or drown from the process of
being dragged to the butcher house.
Fishermen say the cull is a traditional part of their livelihood in an area that has fished
dolphins and whales for thousands of years. Japan has long maintained that killing dolphins
is not banned under any international treaty and that the animals are not endangered.