Yahoo News Australia and the Dolphin Project, working collaboratively, released in February of 2020 photos of an entire pod of whales being killed by Japanese hunters. The Dolphin Project, who witnessed the event, took photos to contextualize ongoing issues with whale hunting, and fuel to their claims against the whaling industry. Thirty-five small melon-headed whales were believed to have been killed in total.

The images are truly disturbing and the nature of the video below may be upsetting to some viewers. Caution is advised in both viewing and reading this article, which deals with the death of marine animals and mature themes.

A Horrible Loss

The Dolphin Project initially released the photos and videos of the melon-headed whales to their social media account. There, the group shared that the whales had been herded into what is known as the “killing cove”, or Taiji, a common practice to trap the whales in Japan. The whale pod huddled together before their deaths, and are to have been heard crying out.

In their post, the Dolphin Project also said “For sentient, self-aware, intelligent and intensely social animals, the level of suffering involved in the entire drive and slaughter process is unimaginable,” and “No lives were spared.”

Sadly, this footage may not be the last we see of whales being killed in 2020. Volunteers continue to film and photograph in Taiji each day until the whale hunting season ends in March. (1)

Dolphin Project

The Dolphin Project is widely considered a prominent charity and respected group of activists, dedicated to the protection of dolphins worldwide. Founder, Ric O’Barry, began the group on Earth Day of 1970 after having negative experiences within the entertainment industry capturing and training wild dolphins. Today, the organization seeks to educate the public about captivity and, where feasible, release or retire captive dolphins.

In 2003, Ric first visited Taiji cove and began collecting footage of the slaughter of marine life ongoing there. Investigating the ongoing activities within Taiji has since resulted in the Dolphin Project bringing to life an Oscar-winning film (The Cove, 2010), and filing a lawsuit against the Taiji Whale Museum.

Ending dolphin slaughter in the Solomon Islands and releasing over 20 dolphins back into the wild further top Ric’s accomplishments with the Dolphin Project over the last 50 years. As a whole, the Dolphin Project is the longest-running anti-captivity dolphin welfare organization in the world. If you are interested in protecting the dolphins, then this organization is for you! (2)

What Are The Laws?

In the summer of 2019, Japan stunned the world by openly resuming commercial whale hunting and withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission (IWC). At the time, Japan had not engaged in true commercial whale hunting since 1986, under a worldwide ban from the IWC, and had only hunted whales for scientific research purposes (though it is worth noting that this hunting lead to the death of anywhere between 200 and 1,200 whales each year, and meat still may have been sold commercially).

Critics bit back at the choice, with Greenpeace stating Japan “is out of step with the international community”. However, Japan continues to argue that hunting and eating whales are part of its culture, especially for coastal communities, and that whale hunting can be sustainable. Some whalers have even spoken out about being happy to able to pass on this hunting tradition to the next generation before it is too late. Japan is not the only whaling nation worldwide, with Norway and Iceland being avid participants in the industry prior to 1986.

Currently, Japanese whaling ships have a permit to catch 227 whales total, including minke, Bryde’s, and sei whales, annually in Japanese waters. The international dolphin drive quota is also estimated to be 1,749 in 2020, which includes 298 bottlenose dolphins and 200 melon-headed whales. The only whale considered endangered among Japan’s hunt list is the Sei whale. (3)

Long-term, it is very uncertain how Japan’s choice to resume commercial whaling will impact the whale population, the world, and activist groups like the Dolphin Project. No doubt, many find the images pertaining to these whaling practices disturbing, and there has been a dip in the commercial demand for whale meat within Japan. Perhaps continued education will help governments and experts in marine life work together to find more humane and environmentally friendly practices.