This video appeared on Digital Journal in a post by Elizabeth Batt and shows why we MUST stop this slaughter. I share the article with credit to her, in a bid to further spread the word and gain support for the work by Martyn Stewart.
A newly released video by sound recordist Martyn Stewart captures the Taiji dolphin drive like never before. Compiled from footage taken over three years, the film offers a gut-wrenching view of the six-month-long slaughter.
It’s almost impossible to fathom the carnage to follow as 12 gleaming white drive boats leave Taiji harbor to go hunt dolphins. The serene departure of the pristine vessels is both beguiling and contradictory. These stark contrasts which echo throughout the film, are captured easily by Stewart in his newly released video: ’Dawn to Death — The dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan.’
A little over 28 minutes long, Stewart presented his film at this year’s WhaleFest held in Brighton, UK. It had a profound effect on people and left few hearts untouched. Stewart has been to Taiji for the past three years to document the drives. Since the release of the Academy Award-winning film The Cove, much of the slaughter itself has been hidden from view. Still, Stewart’s compilation rips through the tarps that now drape the process, and lays bare the aftermath that follows.
The film’s intent is to inform by following the path of the dolphin. From freedom to panic, to confinement or death, it is impossible to ignore the repeated injustices heaped onto these intelligent marine mammals by the hand of man.
Taiji dolphins have historically been globally distributed and even absorbed into entertainment shows at SeaWorld and the US Navy’s Marine Mammal Program. Until this demand for dolphins in entertainment parks ceases says Stewart, the Taiji dolphin drives will continue. Every time a person buys a ticket to a dolphinarium he explains, this is what you pay for.
Full article here.
Hard to watch I know, but only in this captured truth can we bring about an end. Please spread the word and support the Dolphins of Taiij.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)