As the pod is being driven near to the entrance of the Cove, Melissa reminds us that there have been 9 slaughters within 13 days. “Just like out of a horror movie. It’s just brutal” she says. We are seeing a tweet that says:

HEARTLESS & ,HORRIFIC! 🐬 @CoveGuardians #tweet4taiji #tweet4dolphins 🐬 @sharkshepherd5 minutes agoMORE THAN 1 has dorsal fin cut off, likely from boat propellers

Initially reports are that the victims are a small number and fairly small species which have not been identified yet. I can hear the banging watching the live stream. Little dolphins against big boats(and big bucks) which must seem like giants to them. The net is being put up now trapping them in and as Melissa says sealing their fate. The killing boats continue to push them further and further in. They only have half a crew today as the rest are manning the harbour pens.

6 dolphins from previous drives have been transferred this morning. Follow the money trail….

Soon the unforunate pod is been identified as pantropical spotted dolphins. They are the same species as two days ago. It was thought that they were striped but they were later confirmed as pantropical spotted.

As they await their fate, Melissa from Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians is showing that the monitors are being harassed by security that are standing on the barriers trying to stop them from filming. These officials are laughing and telling each other jokes behind them. She says that the other day just as the slaughter was going on, gardeners arrived with chainsaws to tackle the plants on the barrier to block the guardians’ viewpoints and of course, they finished just as the slaughter ended. Just tactics and I think intimidation. The chainsaw massacre. Very fitting.

A repeat of events from two days ago is expected and dreaded. Trainers will come over when they have finished with the transfers to select some dolphins for live capture and a life in aquariums and the rest will be slaughtered. Melissa is adding more details from two days ago, saying how the trainers  selected a baby pan tropical but it was injured and was bleeding all over the boat so the trainers just turned back with no qualms and gave it back to the slaughterers, threw it onto the slaughter tarp like a ragdoll. Melissa says she has witnessed a lot of horrible moments but that one will lodge in her memory forever. Graphic proof of how actions speak much louder than words and also actions cross language barriers. It illustrates how these dolphins are objectified to nothing.

Melissa is communicating with the Guardians monitoring the pens. The fishermen are now loading up tarpaulins and slings on to the skiffs to come to the cove. This is likely to be a long and bloody process and it is in no way humane as dolphins get injured and the trainers and killers take their time, even stopping for cigarette breaks  at intervals. But the Mayor of Taiji is proud of the “traditional” enterprise and insists that it is humane.

Melissa asks an American Cove Guardian, David, to describe his emotions at witnessing these atrocities on a daily basis. He uses the words “gruesome” and “quite shocking”. He says that he has seen divers gently lure dolphins into their hands then drag them into the slaughter area. He says that it is almost impossible to describe.” Our power and our weapon here is information” to be disseminated so that people know what is happening.

2 skiffs approach the cove to start splitting this family of dolphins up ruthlessly. The pod are all huddled together by the outer net, furthest away from the slaughter area. This is their last experience as a family unit. They obviously sense extreme danger. The dolphin base owner, trainers and divers/killers are arriving. Once again there is proof of the trainers and killers working together in the capture selection and slaughter process under the tarpaulins. Do you still think that dolphins trainers love dolphins? What, to you, is the definition of love? What could you NOT do to something or someone that you loved?

For the trainers to get close to them and select suitable individual dolphins,they have to drive them further into the killing cove. The guardians say that the most bizarre things about being here whilst there is killing and selecting, screaming aside, is that the killers and trainers often laugh and share jokes with each other which shows that they feel no remorse. They do not care. The dolphins are just moneymaking objects.

They are objectified totally. I wonder what it is like on the first occasion and how long it takes them to get so desensitized. They would say it is culture as they grew up with it all but it is not, the method is not and nor is the captive selection process. If they are so proud of this tradition, why hide it from the world behind tarpaulins?

The boats are on the way and the dolphins get more distressed as they hear them approaching, the noise of the boats and the voices of the humans….if this were a TV drama, the theme tune would come in now and you would get clips from “Next time on Taiji Terror Tales…”

I did a bit of research to get some more information on this species:

“The Pantropical Striped Dolphin varies significantly in size and colouration throughout its range. The most significant division is between coastal and pelagic varieties. The coastal form is larger and more spotted. (These two forms have been divided into subspecies only in eastern Pacific populations – see taxonomy above).

Spots are key defining characteristics in adults, though immature individuals are generally uniformly coloured and susceptible to confusion with the Bottlenose Dolphin. Populations around the Gulf of Mexico may be relatively spot-free even in adulthood. In the Atlantic, confusion is possible with the Atlantic Spotted Dolphin.

Broadly speaking the Dolphin has a long thin beak. The upper and lower jaws are darkly coloured but are separated by thin white “lips”. The chin, throat and belly are white to pale grey with a limited amount of spots. The flanks are separated into three distinct bands of colour – the lightest at the bottom, followed by a thin grey strip in the middle of the flank and a dark grey back. The tall concave dorsal fin is similarly coloured. The thick tail stock matches the colour of the middle band.

The Pantropical Spotted Dolphin is very active and is prone to making large splashy leaps from the sea. It is a common breacher and will often clear the water for a second or more. Bow-riding and other play with boats is common “http://www.tagate.com/dolphins_resource…/pantropical_spotted.shtml

I left the livestream at that point because I knew how harrowing the next stage would be. The Cove Guardians stay and witness the entire horror story so that the world can keep abreast of what Taiji are trying to keep secret. Here is their summary – Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians :

This morning was just another horrific and cruel workday for killers and trainers in Taiji.
As killers drove in 28-30 Pantropical Spotted dolphins toward Taiji, 8 Bottlenose dolphins were transferred from their sea pens into the concrete tanks at Dolphin Base. Once the Pantropical Spotted dolphins were netted into the killing cove, Taiji Whale Museum, Dolphin Base, and Dolphin Resort Hotel were on hand to select 15 dolphins for a depressive life in captivity. The rest of the pod was seen as unfit for captivity and as a result, 13-15 Pantropical Spotted dolphins lost their lives to the bloody hands of the killers before they were purchased and processed by local Taiji meat buyers. — at Taiji, Japan

The following photgraphs werer taken by Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians :

The unfortunate pod

Pantropical spotted victims of greed and inhumanity being ferried

Carried in an appalling tarpaulin to the pens

Also some of the previous captives from other drive hunts were transported to new facilities today :

There is a lot of security present. They have been taking so many dolphins captive over the past couple of months. I wonder where they are all going. There is big money in this. This is where the profit comes from. These beautiful animals are totally objectified. People take care of their ornaments better than these dolphins are manhandled. Due to gravity this would be so painful for the dolphin, being out of the water and up in the air in this sling and so terrifying. He/she will be returned to water but it will be chlorinated an in a tank which would be like taking us out of our normal atmosphere and putting us in a small tank with air contaminated by gases and being forced to eat rank rotting food.

http://forcechange.com/15450/demand-more-rights-for-dolphins-whales-and-porpoises/

To help the Taiji dolphins/whales please add your voice on Petitions, Taiji Cove Petitions on the right. Thank You

There is a Taiji Action Day Protest taking place in London, opposite the Japanese Embassy on Friday (the Embassy closes at the weekends) 22nd February 2013 – for details, click http://wp.me/p2H4l9-ie

There is a Taiji Action Day in Manchester https://www.facebook.com/events/445149388874020/?ref=3

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