Photo: Japanese Resume Slaughter in Taiji

Paul Watson, the president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, sent word that approximately 15 pilot whales were killed Tuesday in Taiji, Japan, at the infamous ocean inlet featured in the Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove.

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image Sea Shepherd

According to Watson, these are the first killings of the 2010/2011 hunting season in Taiji.

Watson emailed supporters a field report from Scott West, Sea Shepherd's director of investigations, who was on site in Taiji to observe the activity at the cove.

West wrote:

Approximately 15 pilot whales were killed in the cove this morning in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan.

At first light, a boat took the dolphin trainers from the public beach over to where the whales were being held in the killing cove. They were not gone long before they returned and left the area in their cars. Apparently, none of the whales were suitable for the live trade. Perhaps they were too beat up from having been held in the shallow killing cove. The story that the live dolphin/whale trade associations and aquariums around the world tell that they are not involved in the killing was proven a lie this morning.

Shortly after the trainers left, the “fishermen” moved in. Their callous efficiency denies their claims that there is reverence among them for the dolphin and whale. It was soon over and the nets came down. Then small boats exited the cove with their dead cargo carefully hidden from view under tarps. The boats went out of sight around the corner and soon the police and others left the area. We lingered and then discovered that from a different vantage point we could see a barge just outside the cove that was wrapped in tarps. This is where the whales had been taken. The dead whales were pulled off the barge by a dolphin hunter boat using ropes tied around their tails. Three times the hunter boat pulled about five whales off the barge and transported them around to the butcher house in Taiji Harbor.

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image Sea Shepherd

Earlier this month, Ric O'Barry, who was featured prominently in The Cove, joined protesters at the American Embassy in Tokyo who delivered a petition signed by 1.7 million people from 155 countries demanding an end to the dolphin hunt.

Local officials and fishermen vehemently defend the 400-year-old drive hunt. About 1,500 to 2,000 dolphins are killed in the cove each year as part of the country’s 20,000-dolphin quota.

source: www.Takepart.com