Page 42 - 2011 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - March 2011

Who killed Flipper? Who killed Flipper? L.P.: Right. Two city council members entitled to freedom. And driving them into this Continued from Page 41 came out on record, after seeing the work of Ric lagoon, and doing what we witness is simply and some of our work there, they went and had wrong. the meat analyzed themselves, because they Int: Beyond the issue of the slaughter, L.P.: Simon Hutchins, who is the head couldn't take our word directly. But they had what more would it take, do you think, to really of expeditions, set up all these weird ways that dolphin meat that was being served in the change world opinion on the issue of dolphins we could set up devices to photograph this school tested, and it was 12-16 times more -- in captivity at a ll? while actually not being there. To get into the R.O.: Well, there are different numbers. R.O.: One of the things is for people to cove and film it, we didn't need filmmakers. We It depends on how old the dolphin is, you know. stop buying tickets for dolphin shows, because needed people that had nothing to do with And we've done these tests many times ... [he it's the dolphin captures ... I have a contract in filmmaking. The joke on the set was, "We're all holds up photos] These are pictures of dolphin my hand here, you can see that dolphins are professionals, just not at this." We didn't know meat that we purchased in grocery stores being sold ... how deep the entrance of the lagoon was, and throughout Japan, around Wakayama Int: "Dolphin Purchase Provisional we wanted to set some hydrophones and Prefecture. And you'll note that there's no Agreement," it's called. underwater cameras there, so we had Mandy- warning label on it. But this is dolphin meat. R.O.: From Ted Hammond, who's an Ray Cruickshank, eight-time world champion Some of the internal organs were 3,500 times American veterinarian, he sold these 10 free diver, set the cameras. We had George above the safe level. dolphins to an amusement park in Turkey for Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic build some 3- Int: Of mercury, we're talking about. $28,000 apiece. OK? Other dolphins, we know D rocks -- fake rocks to hide cameras in. We had R.O.: And Mr. Yamashta, the city for sure, were sold from Taiji by the same guy a military-grade thermal camera that we used to councilman, he didn't believe our tests. He for $156,000 each. A group went last week, just tag the moving-around of the guards in the cove tested it himself. Because his children are in the before I came here, to Mexico. No, Sea World is and the police that were tracking us. It was a school and they're eating this dolphin meat. So not going there and doing this. But their military operation more than it was a film shoot. he -- he is a national hero. Not yet. Right now colleagues are. And they're not doing anything Int: If you're expecting some sort of dry, he's really a guy who's having to sell his house, about it. The World Association of Zoos and issues-dominated nature documentary, what move out of his hometown. His children -- Aquariums is not doing anything to police their you're getting is something a little bit more like nobody will play with them or talk to them. But own industry. And so these captures are the a James Bond film that ends with atrocity he's the guy who is exposing the mercury economic underpinning of the slaughter. This footage at a certain point. It's extremely contamination in Wakayama Prefecture. But he multibillion-dollar industry could end it any dramatic. needs our help, so we're going back there. We're time they want to. L.P.: Yeah, somebody told me it looks going to try and give him a big award, which Int: Just to clarify your position, when like a result of watching too many Jacques should embarrass the mayor -- although the you think about the places that are not directly Cousteau specials and James Bond movies. mayor and the city council who run the Taiji involved in this kind of gray-market Int: It is a combination of those things. Whale Museum, by the way, traffic in dolphins. international dolphin trade, like Sea World or And when we actually see what is going on in Yes, they took it out of the school, and the National Aquarium in Baltimore, or other that cove in Taiji, it is absolutely shocking. why did they take it out? They took it out places that have captive dolphins, you still L.P.: It's pretty astounding what was because it’s poison, and they don't want to believe that that's immoral for those places to going on. What’s even more shocking is that on poison their children. But they continue to sell it keep those dolphins in captivity? the face of it, they're saying that Joji Morishita to their neighbors. What is that about? So that R.O.: Yeah, I think it is. It's also a form from the IWC [International Whaling will continue until we can get this movie into of bad education. It's the exact opposite of what Commission], he's saying the animals are killed Japan and cut off the demand. they're telling you. They're telling you that this instantly, they're killed humanely and the Int: It appears from the film that it's also is educational: "We have to display them at the director of overseas fisheries who's in charge of not a terribly lucrative business, killing National Aquarium, [otherwise] people in the all the quotas of dolphins, porpoises and whales, dolphins for meat. Did you say it's $600 per inner city, kids here, will never see a dolphin." he says that they're killed instantly and dead dolphin basically? Sounds logical. But the same children are never humanely. And of course the footage tells a L.P.: But it's also pest control. going to see a snow leopard. Should we go to much different story. Seriously. The Japanese government has, over the Himalayas and drag one of them into the Int: Did you know exactly what was the last five years, been coming out citing building too? going on in the cove before you saw it or were scientific data saying that whales and dolphins But the proof, really the smoking gun, is you just deducing? are responsible for the decline of fisheries. in Japan. They have 50 dolphinariums. They’re R.O.: Well, I'd been going there for five Saying that that's the reason we don't have as about to build the 51ist in Kyoto. There are 50 or six years before Louie came. So I knew much fish in the oceans right now. dolphinariums, which translates into hundreds before the film what was going on. But I was Int: Isn't that the definition of ass- of millions of people who have been through the never able to capture it ... I can watch it, and I backward? aquarium. They're now educated and they're did, four, five times a day, every day. And it L.P.: Well, definitely. It should be going to protect dolphins. But where are they? goes on from September through March. And it obvious to everyone that the decline of fisheries So there is no science to sustain this theory that was so horrifying I was having a hard time is because of human activity, not because of if we display any wild animal it's going to save believing I was seeing this. And how come the dolphins and whales. them. world doesn't know about it? It's been going on Int: Beyond the specific issue of the Int: So where can our readers and for 400 years and still today the Japanese people thousands of dolphins killed by Japan every listeners go for more information about this? don't know that it's happening. year, you make a really powerful case in the R.O.: Well, one of the places is Int: You interview people on the street in film, by the way, that this is an intelligent and SaveJapanDolphins.org. There's another Tokyo who have no idea. self-aware species. Is that what you gleaned place --- the OPS Web site, opsociety.org. R.O.: They have no idea. And so the from your years of working with dolphins? L.P.: We have a very simple mission Japanese people are innocent. They are victims R.O.: Yeah. I think the porch light is on statement. "We're not trying to save the whole of a government that suppresses the news. A and someone’s home. They are self-aware. We planet, just 70 percent of it." And we're doing it real democracy has a party in power and has an know humans are self-aware, and the higher through film and art photography, really. opposition party. They don't have that. They apes, and dolphins are also self-aware. What I R.O.: Get in touch with the Japanese have one party, a right-wing party that controls mean by that is we can look in the mirror and we embassy in Washington, D.C. and file a formal the media and they make sure that the Japanese know what we're looking at. It's not so with a complaint. That's much more effective than people don't know the truth. This film is going dog or a cat or a zebra or so forth. And so these contacting the government of Japan because to break through all of that. are self-aware, free-ranging, large-brained they just hit the delete button. The embassy in Int: There's already been some creatures that routinely make choices and Washington has to record those complaints and incremental progress about the issue of dolphin decisions regarding the details of their life. They they have to report to Tokyo. So that's meat in Japan, which is highly toxic. are entitled to freedom of choice, thus they're something your listeners can do right now. []