Over 23 000 dolphins are slaughtered each year in Taiji, Japan. Each dolphin contains 19.2 ppm of mercury. This is a drastic 48 times higher then the 0.4 ppm. The sad thing about this is that the people of Japan don't know that they're consuming these toxic levels of mercury. The dolphin meat is labeled incorrectly in the markets, stating that it's whale meat, when really it's not. The dolphins aren't just slaughtered for their meat but also for the income. See, in Japan a dead dolphin is only a mere $700 and these are the ones used for meat. But once you have buyers for the live ones your price goes up to $154 000 per dolphins. Once the dolphins are rounded up trainers show up to chooses their dolphin, paricularly looking for female bottle nosed dolphins. The rest are left behind awaiting their turns to endure the brutal slaughter which will soon take place. The fishermen in Taiji state that these dolphins are killed in a humane matter, which they are not. Taiji fishermen pierce them with sharp spears repetitively until there's no movement left in the ocean. After the screaming is done the dolphins are then shipped off to the fisheries where they will be yet again mislabeled and sold to the citizens of Taiji. I guess it's just a sick little cycle that needs to be broken, but nobody is willing to try. We're living a dream and we refuse to wake up because of the nightmare that hides behind it. I guess only in Japan can you sit at a dolphin show, while eating what your watching.
No comments:
Post a Comment