Will Japanese Ban on Taiji Dolphins Stop Hunts?

Several Japanese zoos and aquariums voted last week to stop buying and selling dolphins taken during the notorious Taiji roundup, made infamous in the Oscar-winning documentary, The Cove. Yet animal advocates are dubious that it will stop the slaughter.

The Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums has banned the buying and selling of dolphins from the controversial Taiji hunt, made infamous by  the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, after years of pressure from animals rights groups.

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The organization, which accredits 37 Japanese marine parks, voted for the measure last week under threat of expulsion from the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The international group opposes drive hunts, in which wild dolphins are driven into a confined space and slaughtered.

Each year, during a September through February hunting season, fishermen from the town of Taiji on Japan’s southeastern coast round up dolphins and herd them into a cove, where hundreds are killed for meat and dozens are selected for sale to marine parks.

The ban is “a big step because it’s a statement from within the industry,” says Courtney Vail, campaign and programs manager at the United Kingdom-based group Whale and Dolphin Conservation. But  Vail doubts that the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums step will put an end to the annual hunt.

“I do believe that the drive hunts will not end until the overall ethic towards whales and dolphins that permeates Japan’s political and social culture evolves,” she says.

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