US Congress Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee Report 1971b 11 & 12

EXTRACT FROM

U.S Congress Merchant Marine and
Fisheries Committee Report 1971b: 11-12

Recent history indicates that man's impact upon marine mammals has ranged from what might be termed malign neglect to virtual genocide.

These animals including whales, porpoises, seals, sea otters, polar bears, manatees and others, have not only rarely benefited from our interest; they have been shot, blown up, clubbed to death, run down by boats,

poisoned and exposed to a multitude of other indignities, all in the interest of profit or recreation, with little or no consideration of the potential impact of these activities on the animal populations involved.

"Shame to him that speaks not forth, for never was the time so good as now"

Bishop Laon

Click the Sea Shepherd logo below to watch a video, shot by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, graphically captures the end of a dolphin “dive” hunt in a cove near Taiji (Japan), in which fishermen pound on the water, causing waves that confuse the mammals' sense of direction, and then corral dolphins into small coves where they can be more easily killed.

Click the Blue Voice logo below to watch the disturbing orca capture video. On February 7th 1997, 10 orcas were driven into Hatajiri Bay, in Wakayama Prefecture and five were sold to aquariums for a total of 120 million yen (US$1 Million). All ten orcas were held in the bay for three days until on February 10th , starting at about 6.00am, five of them were purchased by three Japanese oceanaria.

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Nanki Shirama Adventure World (in Wakayama Prefecture) purchased one female and two males. Taiji Whale Museum purchased one female. Izu Mito Sea Paradise (in Shizuoka Prefecture) purchased one female.

In spite of massive international protests, the other five orcas captured at Taiji were not released. Two have since died in captivity. The first death occurred on June 14th 1997. At 2.00 pm the young male that had been purchased by Nanki Shirama Adventure World died, followed shortly after, on June 17th, by the female at the same facility.

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