CALL TO ACTION!!! Please share this video. If you feel inspired to, please create a video in response showing how you spread the word about what go’s on in Taiji, Japan “The Cove” and send it into Sea Shepherds YouTube channel! We are all Cove Guardians!
- Biaggo
Captive Dolphins in Taiji, Japan are captured from the ocean, put into tanks and small pens, given antibiotics, then forced to do tricks for small dead fish. After they are trained most of them will be sold off and shipped around the world and sent to dolphinariums, aquariums, resorts, circuses, ect…to spend the rest of their lives doing tricks for food. Taiji, Japan is just one of many contributors to this industry.
Please support the Cove Guardians!
I helped this campaign in Taiji, Japan.
- Biaggo :)
Ambitious Ross Sea marine reserve bid
MICHAEL FIELD
A powerful coalition of international environmental organisations is today launching a bid to create the world’s largest marine protected area - much of it in New Zealand’s Ross Sea in Antarctica.
The 16 organisations making up the Antarctic Ocean Alliance (AOA), backed by Virgin entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and UN Biodiversity Ambassador Edward Norton, calls for 3.6 million square kilometres of critical ecosystems in the Ross Sea to be protected from fishing and development.
AOA was due to launch their campaign at a reception in Wellington tonight.
Their study Antarctic Ocean Legacy: A Marine Reserve for the Ross Sea, outlines a proposal and rationale for a fully protected marine reserve in the Ross Sea, to become the keystone of the world’s largest network of marine protected areas and no-take marine reserves in the Southern Ocean.
“The Ross Sea is one of the most amazing and relatively untouched marine environments on earth,” said the Alliance’s Chuck Fox.
“While there are two proposals on the table to protect some of it, our report shows that we need a much broader and ecosystems-focused approach if we are to ensure this environment remains healthy and stable.”
The regulatory body responsible for the Ross Sea and the rest of the Southern Ocean, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has agreed to create a network of marine protected areas in some of the ocean around Antarctica this year and next.
AOA says CCAMLR meets with limited public participation and no media access.
Only minimal protection will be achieved through it.
“The fate of the Antarctic’s Ross Sea is likely to be decided by 24 countries and the EU this year and the global public knows nothing about it,” said Alliance Campaign Director Steve Campbell.
“Now is the time to protect this amazing environment but we’ll need the global public involved to make that happen.”
Antarctic waters make up almost 10 percent of the world’s seas and are some of the most intact left on earth.
Home to almost 10,000 unique and diverse species such as penguins, seals and whales, these waters are now at risk from the impacts of commercial fishing and climate change.
The Ross Sea supports large proportions of the world’s populations of some of the most well-known and charismatic Antarctic species, including at least:
- 38 per cent of the world population of Adelie penguins;
- 26 per cent of the world population of emperor penguins;
- 30 per cent or more of the world population of Antarctic petrels;
- 6 per cent of the world population of Antarctic minke whales;
- 45 per cent of the Southern Pacific population of Weddell seals;
- 50 per cent of the world’s Ross Sea killer whales.
This is what happens in The Cove, Taiji Japan, during the summer months. A swim with dolphins program. The dolphins who are captured during the dolphin hunts in the fall and winter that were put into pens and forced to learn tricks are thrown into the cove to swim with screaming young children and adults.
This is what happens in The Cove, Taiji Japan, during the summer months. A swim with dolphins program. The dolphins who are captured during the dolphin hunts in the fall and winter that were put into pens and forced to learn tricks are thrown into the cove to swim with screaming young children and adults.
Taiji - Japan - Day 13 - Rough, winds of change and good news.
Today we woke up to gloomy weather, misty rain and fog with a light wind. I was hoping today the dolphin killers would keep their boots inside. Without hesitation we met in the harbor to watch over the dolphin killing boats. Fingers crossed the rain was picking up as we stood there. All of the fishermen were surrounding their little bond fire. Rain or shine the fishermen will always show up, they are part of a fisherman’s union, then they decide weather to go out or not. Today was definitely a day they should have stayed in. One by one they ran to their boats, i was almost thinking they were doing this just to piss us off. The death march of boats went out to sea, one by one disappearing into the light fog.
The wind was picking up a bit and the waves began to crash harder on the rocks below. We scanned the horizon hardly noticing the ships on the foggy horizon. As the rain picked up we waited impatiently for a sign of retreat. Hours went by until we saw the cluster of ships making their way back. Another no kill day!! I love these days!
I along with my motley crew of Cove Guardians went down to greet the fishermen with our cameras as they tied up their ships. There were police everywhere and people hanging out windows video taping and photographing us. It was apparent that the town thought we might do something extreme because of Erwins trial today. We were all going to go to the trial but the hunting boats went out and prevented us from going.
We soon found out the verdict that Erwin was NOT GUILTY!!!
What a great way to end the day! No kills, Erwin out scott free from the Japanese prison system.
The only Sad thing today though is that it is my last day in Taiji for a little while. I have to return home and plan my wedding! I will be returning to Taiji soon along with many more people behind me. We will not leave until the dolphin and whale hunts stop. Its heartbreaking to leave for a little while but I know more cove guardians will be coming and there will be an end to the slaughters, it will just take patience and persistence.
“if our oceans die, we die”
- B
Taiji - Japan - Day 10- Forecast correct
Woke up today feeling a bit unnerved, I along with everyone else felt like it was going to be rough day for the dolphins. The forecast called for a beautiful day, in most cases is a terrible one for dolphins/whales. Out the door by 5:30am, to greet the fishermen at their fire. It was panning out to be a beautiful sunrise, you will never truly understand why they call it “land of the rising sun” until you have seen a sun rise on the Japanese coast.
We watched the fishermen cast off one by one, death march to sea. We arrived at the lookout to watch over the boats at sea. We were greeted by cerulean blue oceans and the warmth of the sun. The Killing boats scattered to the horizon as we watch their every move. 10 ships out of the 12 went out today.
3 hours went by and no hunt formations. One by one each ship started to head inland. Ha ha, this makes seven consecutive days without a kill! I have a hunch, this is a product of overfishing and migration patterns.
I guess the forecast this morning was correct, it is going to be a beautiful day!
- B
Ocean debris is maiming and killing seals and sea lions
Trapped and tightly bound, this sea lion is pinned to the spot after becoming caught in a windsock.
The shocking picture comes from a video revealing the devastating effects man’s rubbish is having on wildlife.
In the footage, seals and sea lions are seen with fishing lures hanging from their mouths or their necks bound by rubber bands and the plastic packing bands usually used to secure boxes.
It is thought that many of the animals become ensnared in the bands when they are young. As they grow, the plastic gradually cuts into their bodies, slowly strangling them.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game released the video to highlight the effect discarded fishing gear and other debris is having on marine animals.
It follows the Daily Mail’s long-running Banish the Bags campaign, which aims to eradicate western dependence on plastic bags that has led to the deaths of whales off Britain’s coastline.
Authorities in Alaska believe they have underestimated the number of animals injured in this way, and they are now looking to work more closely with the fishing industry to prevent sea lions and seals becoming trapped in debris. Shoppers are also being urged to cut up plastic loops or rings from packaging before they throw them into the bin.
A study of eastern Steller sea lions, which are in danger of extinction, was carried out between 2000 and 2007 along the coast of Alaska and northern British Columbia.
Researchers found that at least 386 animals had become entangled in or had swallowed debris.
Plastic packing bands and rubber bands were the most common items found around their necks.
Metal flasher lures, which are used when fishing for salmon, were the most likely to be ingested.
But the researchers said they could have missed out some animals because they didn’t come to the shore or were not visible among large crowds of sea lions.
Wildlife biologist Lauri Jemison said: ‘We are certainly underestimating the number of animals entangled. We go out every summer here in southeastern Alaska and we try to visit every haul out [where animals come to shore] and rookery [where they breed] at least once.’
Sea debris can also be life-threatening for other marine wildlife, including sea birds and turtles. As well as the Steller sea lions, northern fur seals are also badly affected.
Although the researchers found that they don’t swallow as much fishing gear as the Steller sea lions, they are likely to get the plastic bands trapped around their necks.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is now looking for funding to work with the fishing industry to help prevent sea lions and seals from becoming trapped in fishing equipment.
Sadly, any positive action has come too late for the sea lion trapped in the windsock. It did not survive its ordeal.
