Tag Archives: taiji

Nine ways you may be sabotaging dolphin and whale freedom

Posted on February 12, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Sometimes it helps to look at something from another angle.  Instead of thinking, as we usually do, “what can I do to make dolphin and whale freedom a reality?” how about a question posed in the opposite sense:

What can I do to ensure that dolphins and whales continue to be

    • hunted
    • captured
    • slaughtered
    • bred in captivity
    • held in captivity forever

Well, I’ve listed nine ways you can make that happen:  nine ways you will help ensure that dolphins and whales are never, ever, ever, ever freed from captivity and are continued to be hunted and slaughtered.

Once you’ve read through the list, I invite you to “not do” the items on the list.  It requires thinking through a double negative (something especially challenging for me).  That is, don’t not make a phone call to the Japanese Embassy (in other words, DO call the Japanese Embassy).  To make it a little more inviting to walk through the double negatives, I’ve made it a contest, with prizes.

A contest!! Yea!!!!

Dolphin swimming free captivity blog

Striped dolphin: species lost to us yesterday in Taiji, Japan in The Cove. "Like" Save Misty the Dolphin on Facebook for updates on events in Taiji.

The Prize:  The winner will win a copy of The Cove AND When Dolphins Cry AND A Fall from Freedom.  The next two runners-up will get either The Cove, When Dolphins Cry or A Fall from Freedom (winner’s choice).

The Terms and Conditions:  Over the next week, that is, by Sunday, February 19, 2012, 5:00 pm EST (US), don’t do as many items on the following list as you can.  Each item counts as a point.  Write a comment on this blog documenting what you did and when you did it, and sum up your points.  But I must ask you to make it easy for me.  If you should write more than one comment, sum up the total points of all your activities and points in your last comment (so that I don’t have to go back and actually do The New Math – as it was called in my youth – risking that I might add incorrectly).  I will determine the winners over the next few days.  Then look for a final comment here announcing the winners on February 26, 2012.  If my instructions aren’t clear, just put your question in a comment, and I’ll try to do better.

So this week, let’s not sabotage dolphin freedom!  Don’t not make some phone calls (that is, DO make calls).  Don’t not send letters directly to aquariums (that is, DO write letters to the aquariums), telling them that you will not come to their aquarium until they agree to close their dolphin and whale captivity programs and begin a rehabilitation program to release the dolphins and whales back to the wild.

GOOD LUCK on “not” doing the items on the following list!!

  1. Not making phone calls or writing to Japanese Embassies, Dolphin Base, Dolphin Resort
    1. Contact info, courtesy of Save Misty the Dolphin
  2. Not participating in organized contact campaigns, like Red Envelope on July 1 and 2, 2012, (follow @Letter4Dolphins on Twitter) or Dolphin Hour, every Friday at 4:00 pm EST US (follow @DolphinHour on Twitter)
  3. Not writing to the aquariums directly (thanks to Elaine for pointing this one out).  Here are just a few.
    1. The Georgia Aquarium, 225 Baker Street, Atlanta, GA 30313 Tel: (404) 581-4000
    2. Dolphin Quest, 425 Waikoloa Beach Drive, Waikoloa, HI 96738, Tel: 808.886.2875 Fax: 808.886.7030
    3. Indianapolis Zoo, 1200 West Washington Street, Indianapolis, IN 46222 Tel: (317) 630-2001
    4. SeaWorld Orlando, 7007 Sea World Drive, Orlando, FL 32821 Tel: (888) 800-5447
    5. SeaWorld San Diego, 500 SeaWorld Drive, San Diego, CA 92109 Tel: (800) 25-SHAMU (74268) Tell me THAT’S not disgusting!
    6. Brookfield Zoo, c/o Chicago Zoological Society, 3300 Golf Road, Brookfield, IL 60513 Tel: (708) 688-8000
    7. Marineland, 9600 Oceanshore Boulevard, St. Augustine, FL 32080 Tel: (904) 471-1111 or (877) 933-3402 Fax: (904) 460-1330  Hidden Bonus Point for writing the total number of living and deceased dolphins from Marineland
    8. Miami Seaquarium, 4400 Rickenbacker Causeway, Key Biscayne, FL 33149 Tel: (305) 361-5705
    9. Mirage Hotel, 3400 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, Nevada 89109 Tel: (702) 791-7111  (that’s a great place for a dolphin tank)
  4. Not talking to your friends about captivity.
    1. Sources: Don’t read more blogs and talk about blog posts
    2. Don’t do readings of blog posts at local coffee-houses (This one is my particular favorite, and worth five points, because there are opportunities like this on our home-based front lines.)
    3. Here are some great blogs to not not not read (I’ve gotten myself all confused with the double negative, so I just decided to quadruple it and see if it were any clearer):
      1. Save Japan Dolphins, Cyber Whale Warrior, Champions of the Seas, Save Misty the Dolphin, Champions for Cetaceans, Freedom for Marine Mammals, A Family Standing up for What They Believe In, My Attempt to Help & Your Choice to Read About It, Swimming Free,
  5. Not sharing out online links to A Fall from Freedom, The Cove, and When Dolphins Cry
  6. Not buying an extra copy or two of dolphin videos and sharing them with someone
    1. The Cove
    2. When Dolphins Cry
    3. A Fall From Freedom
  7. Not reading Ceta-base from cover to cover (it’s fascinating, by the way).
  8. Not hosting a screening of The Cove, A Fall from Freedom, or When Dolphins Cry in your home. This one has a sliding scale of points, depending on how many people attend and sign a pledge not to go to the dolphin show.  One point per attendee, plus one point for each who signs the online pledge at your screening.
  9. Not utilizing social media to share out all of the above information about dolphin capture, captivity, and slaughter
    1. In Facebook it’s called “Share”
    2. In Twitter it’s called “Tweet”
    3. In Google+ it’s called . . . what is it called?
    4. Then there’s Twit-Longer, Pinterest, and more

I know that some of this might be hard to get done in one week.  But let’s go for it.

This is what we’re playing for.

Dolphin freedom surfing

Don't do as much as you can on the list and win this for dolphins (and videos for you)

 

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Ric O’Barry Live from Taiji, Japan

Posted on January 7, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Ric O'Barry, photo from www.thecovemovie.com

For the last several days, Ric O’Barry has been live streaming via ustream from Taiji, Japan.  Mr. O’Barry, the world’s most known dolphin activist,  is discussing dolphin captivity, capture and slaughter.

I just learned about it – woops – and thought I would pass it along right away.

Click now and sign up for a reminder for a live broadcast tonight, Saturday, January 7, 2012, at 8:00 pm E.S.T.

For more information about what you can do to be part of a worldwide movement to save the world’s dolphins, go to Save Japan Dolphins.

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Japanese Police Raid in Taiji Will Not Stop Dolphin Activism

Posted on December 18, 2011 by | 4 Comments

Lest anyone read the accounts of the latest attacks on the Cove Guardians in Taiji (where the Japanese law enforcement manufactured a search warrant authorizing them to seize cameras and laptops of U.S. and other nations’ citizens), and be concerned that this may curtail the firm stand of dolphin activists worldwide, let me assure you that you need not worry.

There exist photographs to document the slaughter.  I repeat, one needn’t worry that activists will ever forget or will ever stop short of meeting the goal of dolphin freedom.

Photo by Brooke McDonald, prior to efforts to quash publicity about the slaughter

Neither need fear the dolphins and whales that activists will forget

  • the arrest and detainment of Dutch citizen and Cove Guardian Erwin Vermeulen;
  • the relentless capture and slaughter of dolphins by 26 fishermen;
  • the direct or indirect participation in the slaughter of dolphins by trainers, brokers, and aquariums by selecting from the slaughter the pretty few whom they will take into a life of captive performing and breeding; or
  • Jiyu, who did not survive the transition from freedom to captivity, from catching her own food to being force-fed by trainers;

or will be dissuaded from seeking an ethical and free life for all dolphins and whales.  No worry necessary that this will stop our efforts.  As is the case with steel, which is strengthened by fire and the hammer, the Cove Guardians and other activists worldwide are watching and learning.

But I must confess that I am worried.  It is not, however, for activists or dolphins.  It is for the casual photographer.  If having laptops and cameras justifies a search warrant . . .

When countries make photographing illegal, we're all in trouble

My camera and I will out and about today, in honor of animals and their champions everywhere, and in particular, The Cove Guardians.

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Cove Blue for Jiyu

Posted on November 27, 2011 by | 12 Comments

Jiyu, Photo by Heather Hill, Save Japan Dolphins

First, I have changed the name of my blog from “Mo’s Blog” to “Cove Blue for Jiyu.”  The rest of this post explains why, somewhere in between the lines.

The life and death of Jiyu the dolphin struck me deeply.  As has been discussed by myself and others, Jiyu was snatched from a free life in the ocean, having witnessed some or all members of her pod being killed, placed into a small sea pen with other dolphins unknown to her and with whom she likely could not communicate, only to languish and then be killed when her value as meat outstripped her value as entertainment.

We cannot bring Jiyu back, and she is at least free from the torturous existence epitomized by the captivity industry, but Jiyu is a bellwether for me.  She is a bellwether for what can happen when a system that is allowed to benefit corporate entities and a few people is allowed

  • to utilize marketing to hide the truth from those outside that system, and
  • to count upon the lack of political or individual will to demand that truth.

I will never forget her.  I will never stop working for dolphin freedom, or the freedom of all creatures, including homo sapiens, to live the life that this planet provides for them naturally, unharassed and untrammeled by unsustainable systems.

If you have read some of my other pieces, you may have ascertained, while wading through my inarticulateness, that my core belief is in the inherent dignity and unity of all life.  That all are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.  I also believe that the logical imperative for a right to be inalienable is that it cannot be purchased with a price that includes compromising or extinguishing even one of another’s inalienable rights.

Human beings appear to have, however, set themselves apart from the rest of the organic and inorganic parts of this Earthly paradise and to merely consider this paradise to be “theirs” to unsustainably, that is, without regard for inalienable rights:

  • extract both substance and information;
  • anoint certain species, that would be all 8.7 million species except homo sapiens (translates, I believe ironically, to be “wise man”),  to be here on Earth for the enjoyment, sustenance, and curiosity of themselves;
  • justify this anointing of themselves as above all others under the auspices of certain religions and mythologies;
  • procreate without regard for how it impacts our ability to respect the inalienable rights of other species, or indeed, of the ecosystem in which our species found ground fertile enough to grow (again, under the auspices of dot dot dot);
  • having procreated beyond a sustainable number that respected the inalienable rights of our fellow Earthlings, in which I include plants, run roughshod over this delicate and graceful Earth by developing unsustainable systems to feed, shelter and clothe that unsustainable human population.

We, this opposable thumb species, take it as our birthright to create any problem and to sell any solution that someone will buy, whether it will crash the entire system.

For Jiyu, I pledge to be part of creating a sustainable world, built upon the truth of  inalienable rights.  It isn’t just about creating a world that respects the dignity of the Earth’s most intelligent species.  It’s also about creating one that truly respects the dignity of humans, too.

That one may catch you on the way home.

Cove Blue for Jiyu.

Photo by Greg Huglin

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For Jiyu: Japanese Embassy dolphin drive hunt call tracking

Posted on November 22, 2011 by | Leave a comment

This is an open request to all believers in dolphin freedom to join me in creating a worldwide tracking of all telephone calls or letters to the Japanese Embassies about the Taiji dolphin drive hunt.

Jiyu, in her last hours. Photo by Heather Hill, Save Japan Dolphins

If you will do this with me, it will involve your taking an additional action beyond making the call or writing the letter/email, but it will give us all an idea of our united advocacy efforts on something that I do not think we have yet tracked.  That additional action is your sending me an email about your communication with the Embassy.  I know we are all busy, but I am committed to leaving no stone unturned on behalf of Jiyu and the other Japanese dolphins.

Background: When I called the Washington, D.C. Embassy this morning, I asked if I might speak to someone about obtaining a copy of the catalogue of drive hunt calls they were receiving.  I was directed to a live person who told me, very politely, that the catalogue was not for pubic dissemination.  I was assured, however, that if I wrote a letter, I would receive a response, even if it did not contain the content I was seeking.

I am, therefore, requesting that we believers in dolphin freedom continue (or begin) to make our calls or send our letters to the embassies and/or consulates requesting such information, but also begin tracking them.

The contact information for the Embassy in Washington D.C. is:

Fisheries Section
Embassy of Japan
2520 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C.  20008
USA
Phone: (202) 238-6700
email: jicc@ws.mofa.go.jp

and for the rest of the embassies and consulates worldwide.

I will post a tally and summary of responses on a monthly basis until the drive hunt is ended.

Summary:  your part is to

  • call an embassy and email or write me that you did it, with the date of your call; AND/OR
  • write to an embassy and email or write me that you did it with the date of your letter/email; AND/OR
  • email or mail to me a copy of the response from the embassy.

Hint: if you email an embassy/consulate, you can just copy me at forjiyu@gmail.com, so it really isn’t an extra step.   For hard-copy communication with me:

For Jiyu
Taiji Drive Hunt Catalogue
P.O. Box 365
Clarkston, GA 30021
USA

Thank you, from the heart.  And if you don’t know what the Taiji dolphin drive hunt is, please watch the Academy Award-winning documentary, The Cove.  Once you have seen it, you will look for ways to stop the hunt.

- Mo Brock

For Jiyu, who will never be forgotten.

 

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The knee bone of dolphin killing

Posted on November 6, 2011 by | 3 Comments

It is a sad morning around the world today because of

  • 26 men in Taiji, Japan,
  • a network of dolphin brokers,
  • aquarium owners, such as SeaWorld (Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego) or the Georgia Aquarium (Atlanta), and their member organizations, for instance, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums,
  • trainers and their organization, the International Marine Animals Trainers’ Association,
  • individuals who have made a business of “wildlife”,
  • the customers who attend “the dolphin show,” and
  • a lot of silent men and women.

Even here in Atlanta, where the Georgia Aquarium has “only” one wild-caught dolphin in its possession while the other ten were bred in captivity, the impact comes home to roost.  Why?  Because it is the dolphin show, ultimately, whether with wild-caught or captive-bred dolphins, that creates the market for dolphins that causes the slaughter.  Kinda like, the shin bone being connected to the thigh bone via the knee bone.  While some aquariums may suggest that they are not connected directly, they’re kinda like that thigh bone.  The Taiji hunters: they’re the shin bone.  The knee bone of this operation, the thing that holds it all together, that keeps it moving, that keeps it on its feet, running like gang busters, that is to say,  killing dolphins, is the show.  Without the dolphin show, there would be no slaughter.

In A Fall from Freedom, Brad Andrews, Chief Zoological Officer of Sea World Parks & Entertainmet, makes the case that it is the dolphin show that saves the dolphins; that twenty years ago, we were shooting them as a menace.  He states that the show has elevated them to our awareness such that we want to protect them.   Let me repeat.  Chief Zoological Officer.  Not Chief of Marketing.  I could maybe handle that statement from the Chief of Marketing.  It would be his job to say whatever he needed to get us paying dollars for dolphins.  But I expect science from a scientist.

Mr. Andrews, there are over 110 dolphins, including the 8 Risso’s that were killed last night, who have been killed this year alone in just one small cove in Japan.  The love factor isn’t saving them.  It’s killing them.  Intentionally.  Premeditatedly.  By design.  Because of the dolphin show.

So this morning, after 8 more were killed yesterday in Taiji, I am having one of those mornings, where I am deeply saddened by the collective effort to kill dolphins, that is to say, the collective effort of a few who whether they like it or not benefit from dolphin death, and then the silence of the rest.

This morning, I do not want to see a video of a person swimming with even a wild dolphin.  To me, at the risk of offending some of you, it is just the other end of the aquarium spectrum.  The dolphins are free, but we are still intruding.  When the few who are responsible intrude, there are thousands behind who are not responsible.  There are those who will hire the “Sea Worlds” of tour boats of less responsible people.  We will go to them, call it research, call it education, put the money in their pocket, and leave behind them a wake of petroleum and trash.  We will go to the dolphins, and teach them that they can trust us, when they cannot.  Not now.

This morning, the morning after yesterday’s tragedy in Taiji, I am wanting, more than anything, for us to truly respect them.  They are neither our entertainment, nor our therapy, nor a curiosity to be studied, nor a language to learn.

Can we not simply leave them alone?

To stop being part of the silence, for starters, you can attend on April 14 from anywhere there is dolphin captivity and sign a pledge that you won’t go to the dolphin show.

For more information:

  • http://savejapandolphins.org/blog/post/eight-rissos-dolphins-killed
  • http://holisecleveland.wordpress.com/ aka Cyber Whale Warrior
  • http://championsforcetaceans.com/
  • http://savemistythedolphin.blogspot.com/

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Whether dolphin shows are educational – a matter of definition?

Posted on September 27, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Congressman Young’s (R-AK) point, during a hearing regarding marine mammal captivity, that whether the dolphin shows are educational or not educational is a matter of definition, might be a valid one.  What specific kind of information any particular dolphin exhibit imparts can certainly be varied: one exhibit might focus on dolphin life span and intelligence while another addresses family structure and habitat range, while still another describes what we understand and do not understand about dolphin communication.

But saying it’s a matter of definition is a convenient cop-out, and not altogether true.  Because one should look, that is, Congressman Young should look, at the actual content of shows that justify keeping marine mammals in captivity, before cavalierly speaking of something being a matter of definition.  And so should we all.  So, here, for your convenience, Congressman Young (and the minute numbers of you who are actually reading this), is an example:

And more:

I’m just wondering what you learned about dolphins in those videos, shot at a real dolphin show.  That they can jump?  I’m thinking, just thinking, that you already knew that.

I’m also thinking that you didn’t need to see a dolphin in captivity to know that it can jump, or that it can jump in perfect timing with other dolphins, or that it can jump in perfect timing with other dolphins 15 feet into the air.  Or that it can be trained to tail walk.  Or splash.  Or make noises on command.

Here’s what I’m guessing you didn’t learn at the dolphin show: that the high-pitched noise, flashing lights, constant noise (encouraging the audience to be loud?!), explosion simulations – where to stop with this list – not to mention being deprived of legitimate natural behaviors  – like catching it own prey, swimming in the natural rhythm of the ocean and its seasons, swimming fast, swimming far, and swimming deep – puts a constant stress on the dolphin that nature does not.  And I know that you know what stress does to the health of a living being.

So, in the end, none, I repeat, none of the show is about education.  Its sole imperative is to entertain.  To entertain you so that you will come back, and you will tell your friends to go to the entertaining dolphin show.  And your friends will tell their friends.

Here’s what I’m hoping.  That you’ll recognize the moral bankruptcy of the dolphin show.  And you won’t go.  And you’ll tell your friends not to go.  And your friends will tell their friends.

And just one short post-script: be on your guard against being lulled, fooled or warmed by current dolphin and whale movies into supporting captivity by going to a dolphin show.  Here’s a dolphin and whale movie that you can watch on your computer that will allow the warm-and-fuzzies you get from those Hollywood movies not to send you straight to the Georgia Aquarium or SeaWorld to watch dolphins that were not saved, but enslaved.

Let the dolphins be free; watch a documentary, go to the beach, hug your dog.

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Urgent Call to Action – Dolphin Base Taiji

Posted on September 26, 2011 by | 2 Comments

In his repetitive spy-hopping behavior, photo Rosie Kunneke of Sea Shepherd

My friends and bloggers at Save Misty the Dolphin are calling for help for another stressed and sick dolphin. Please visit that page for more information about the urgent need for immediate action and the numbers to call to help this dolphin through what observers say may be a life-threatening crisis.

The dolphin is exhibiting repetitive “spy-hopping” behaviors that indicate that it is not adjusting well to life in a tank.  It also appears to be repeatedly “beaching” itself on the platforms.

Immediate action must be taken to remove this dolphin from this setting before it suffers from further illness or injury.

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Dedicated to SeaWorld and the Georgia Aquarium

Posted on September 25, 2011 by | 4 Comments

So, yes, with a measure of fun, I am questioning the factual basis of some of the assertions about dolphin and orca captivity from some dolphin-owning institutions. Assertions about the life spans in captivity being longer than ones in the wild (not true).  Or that the dolphins thrive in captivity (a little harder to quantify, but read on, not true).

Now, before you go all, “Oh, that Martha.  She’s so extreme.  Dolphins are fine in captivity, and there is a valid educational part of the dolphin shows” on me, just take a gander at the educational content of the dolphin extravaganza at the Georgia Aquarium shot by a visitor:

I’m figuring that you’ll be like most of us, including some members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums that expressed annoyance, shall we say, upon their exit from just having seen the very same dolphin show.  I believe some of them observed that there was something like, oh, zero educational content in the show.  And I repeat, these were zoo and aquarium people who make their living based upon the acceptability of animal captivity, not we “fringe anti-caps.”

And to the point of whether dolphins like captivity, take a look at the celebration of life in wild dolphins:

compared with live streaming video of captive dolphins:

http://www.seewinter.com/winter/media/webcam-3

You’ll have to copy and paste that one in your url; it won’t link live.  It may be a bit of a bother, but believe me, you want to do this to see the whole story.  And if Winter isn’t visible on this web cam, check one of the other ones; Web Cam #1 is where she and her dolphin companion strut their captive stuff for the paying public.

Which side are you on?

To take action for dolphin freedom, just take one step. Call, write, blog, tweet, donate.  I’m betting you’ll see how great it is to stand for these extraordinary beings, and will take one more step after that.

Welcome.

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Surfing Dolphins

Posted on September 25, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Thanks to The Surf Network, the amazing dolphin, free, unharassed by humans.

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