250 dophins held captive off Japanese coast

The practice of driving dolphins into a shallow bay so they can be clubbed to death is normal in Japan. Here in a Western country we accept the slaughter of beasts by electric shock or cutting their throats under  Shechita  the Jewish ritual slaughter of poultry and cattle for food according to Halakha. What is the difference?

Murray Kibblewhite

Author

"The Minke Connection" and "Project L.E.L."

 

Full story here.

Dolphins Chopped Up And Skinned Alive

Hundreds of thousands of dolphins are harpooned, skinned alive, and hopped up to be used as bait to lure sharks to boats.  Then the sharks have their fins cut of to be used in shark fin soup, before being thrown alive back into the ocean to drown.

This practice takes place in Peru and despite dolphin killings being banned in 1996, enforcement is so lax that up to 10,000 dolphins are still slaughtered every year.

Help stop the senseless slaughter of these intelligent animals by signing this petition to urge the Peruvian government to enforce the ban on dolphin meat and prosecute fisherman who kill them illegally.

Dolphins entered a trance-like state after chewing on fish.

Dolphins are thought of as one of the most intelligent species in the animal kingdom - and experts believe they have put their ingenuity to use in the pursuit of getting "high".

In extraordinary scenes filmed for a new documentary, young dolphins were seen carefully manipulating a certain kind of puffer fish which, if provoked, releases a nerve toxin.

Though large doses of the toxin can be deadly, in small amounts it is known to produce a narcotic effect, and the dolphins appeared to have worked out how to make the fish release just the right amount.

Carefully chewing on the puffer and passing it between one another, the marine mammals then enter what seems to be a trance-like state.

The behaviour was captured on camera by the makers of Dolphins: Spy in the Pod, a series produced for BBC One by the award-winning wildlife documentary producer John Downer.
Rob Pilley, a zoologist who also worked as a producer on the series, said: "This was a case of young dolphins purposely experimenting with something we know to be intoxicating.

"After chewing the puffer gently and passing it round, they began acting most peculiarly, hanging around with their noses at the surface as if fascinated by their own reflection.

"It reminded us of that craze a few years ago when people started licking toads to get a buzz, especially the way they hung there in a daze afterwards. It was the most extraordinary thing to see."

Read the full story here.

Lee Murray's review of The Minke Connection

From the coast of New Zealand to the city of Tokyo and beyond, this eco-thriller is a good story, well written.  A story of big versus small, the business world against the environmental debate. Members of Greenpeace discover that a whaling fleet are killing more than just whales. John Daroux is tasked by Greenpeace to investigate  ....................

The full review can be found here.

Japanese 'research' ships in New Zealand waters

Anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd is pursuing the Japanese fleet after finding all five of its vessels in New Zealand's sovereign waters in the Ross Dependency Antarctic region and inside the internationally recognised Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

The group says it has footage of three dead protected minke whales on the deck of the Nisshin Maru, taken when the factory ship was first found.

A fourth whale, also believed to be a minke, was being butchered on the deck.

Orcacs enjoy the Bay of Islands

This female orca, known as Flean, was among a pod that visited the Bay of Islands.

A pod of 23 orcas delighted boaties and devoted researcher Dr Ingrid Visser when they cruised into the waters at the Poor Knight Islands last week.

See the full story here.