250 Bottlenose dolphin Captive in Taiji Japan

international | animal rights | press release Friday January 17, 2014 18:43 by Sue Anthony - Sea Shepherd Ireland

The baby albino dolphin alone is quite priceless.

A colossal pod of 250 plus Bottlenose dolphins including babies, juveniles and one baby albino dolphin is being held captive overnight in the cove right now. It will be a total of 19 hours before they will endure the torture of being ripped from their family and selected for captivity. Those not selected will be slaughtered for human consumption.

A colossal pod of 250 plus Bottlenose dolphins including babies, juveniles and one baby albino dolphin is being held captive overnight in the cove right now. It will be a total of 19 hours before they will endure the torture of being ripped from their family and selected for captivity. Those not selected will be slaughtered for human consumption.

At approximately 7:30am dolphin killers and trainers transferred 3 Bottlenose dolphins from the Taiji harbor pens to Dolphin Resort Hotel. The 3 dolphins were transferred in slings via skiff and into the above ground concrete tanks. This is Dolphin Resort’s second transfer within days.

The transfer was complete, but the day was just beginning as the dolphin killers discovered the enormous pod of Bottlenose dolphins. About 10am we spotted two separate dolphin drives just over the horizon. The pods were massive. As the killing boats rapidly progressed toward Taiji, the dolphins attempted to escape many times and were eventually driven in as 5 separate pods. The killers were merciless as usual in their attempts to herd these dolphins into the cove. The nets were drawn and the pods were driven in one by one until all five pods were combined into 2 sections. Left divided into two separate groups over night.

This is the largest pod to be driven into the cove in several years, last December 2012, a Bottlenose pod of nearly 200 dolphins was dissected for captivity and slaughter and the process took several days. At this time, it is unknown if captive selection will occur tomorrow morning as Saturdays are normally a day off for the Fisherman’s Union. This pod is far too valuable and worth millions of dollars. The baby albino dolphin alone is quite priceless.

Real-time Taiji broadcasts: http://livestream.seashepherd.org/