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His film The Dolphin Defender, produced by the PBS series Nature, documents these events. A series of exposés on the Taiji slaughter had been running in the Japan Times since 2005, and journalist Boyd Harnell has gained two Genesis Awards from The Humane Society of the United States in recognition. [53] [54]
The film follows former-dolphin-trainer-turned-activist Ric O'Barry's quest to document the dolphin hunting operations in Taiji, Wakayama, Japan.In the 1960s, O'Barry helped capture and train the five wild dolphins who shared the role of "Flipper" in the hit television series of the same name.
The fishing village of Taiji. The Taiji dolphin drive hunt captures small cetaceans for their meat and for sale to dolphinariums. Taiji has a long connection to Japanese whaling. The 2009 documentary film The Cove drew international attention to the hunt. Taiji is the only town in Japan where drive hunting still takes place on a large scale.
Taiji was elevated to town status on April 1, 1925. In 1988, a ruling by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) caused Taiji to suspend commercial whaling. However, the town continues to hunt small whales and dolphins. Taiji's annual dolphin hunt is a subject of controversy and the town faces continued pressure from protest groups. [4]
In 2009, a film The Cove was released criticizing Taiji's dolphin fishery.It was an indictment of the cruel killing of dolphins and the high mercury content of dolphin meat. [89] A July 2009 National Geographic article reported, What he did was by all accounts illegal and dangerous and borderline stupid.
The capture of live dolphins, which sell for up to $100,000, is the motivation for the brutal dolphin hunts in Taiji. This decision, which stops Japanese aquariums demanding more Taiji dolphins, is a huge blow to the hunts. JAZA aquariums provide up to 40% of total demand for live dolphins from Taiji.
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Released in 2009, the film examines the yearly killing of dolphins in Taiji, Wakayama, Japan. [5] Unable to acquire permission from the Japanese government, the filmmakers were required to go to extreme lengths in order to obtain their footage, utilizing equipment and tactics never previously used in a documentary film.