The Cove : The Truth ( Part III )

So,I think I have finally come to the final phase of my analysis.But first let me give some results to show how poisonous dolphin meat has become,and how dangerous it can be to the unsuspecting consumer.Those who watched the movie,is familiar with Mr.Tetsuya Endo, a noted scientist in Health Sciences University of Hokkaido.He,with his team of scientists collected cetacean samples from markets all over Japan.The researchers measured total mercury levels and performed genetic analysis to verify the species of each sample. Their findings were published in the 15 June 2003 edition of Environmental Science & Technology.Here's some quote from news article,full text here.One of Endo's other interviews is given here too...

 In samples of boiled small cetacean livers purchased between 1999 and 2001, the researchers found an average total mercury level of 370.0 ppm. Two samples had total mercury levels that topped 1,970.0 ppm

Please remember here that The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare has set the safe level of total mercury at 0.4 parts per million (ppm)only for marine foods.Again quoting..

Endo and colleagues noted that acute mercury intoxication could result from a single meal of whale internal organs, with effects that can include serious nervous system symptoms, staggering, coma, and death. They called on the Japanese government to regulate human consumption of whale and dolphin internal organs

 The same article also puts forward the disturbing question of mislabeling of cetacean products. It is rather odd to see this act of utter neglect being committed by Japan's food safety officials who are known worldwide for high quality standards..!!

• So,we now move to the possible effects of consumption and ascertain whether exposure to such food can cause serious damages to consumers.

 Now,the effects of this regular overdose of mercury should be evident in the consumers,especially in the fishermen living in those coastal towns of Japan - like Taiji,considering they are the biggest consumers of cetacean products.So,some scientists decided to carry on tests on the residents.And as expected,they found their hair samples contained 10 times more Hg (Mercury) than national average.So,naturally one would expect common mercury related problems (damages to nervous system etc.) to be found among Taiji people.

But surprise, surprise !! Another survey was also conducted by National Institute of Minamata Disease (NIMD) ,which is necessarily a Japanese Government funded organization .The mercury content results agreed pretty much, but NIMD Director General Koji Okamoto then claimed no mercury related health problem was observed!!And even NIMD's own scientists were not able to find why such disparity occurred.So, they decided that NIMD "continue to research" and there would be no ban on dolphin meat until they find anything, as Okamoto said that "At this time we don't find people problematic (from consuming dolphin meat)".
Now,this NIMD report is considered by many as seriously flawed.Why? Let me point out...
    Firstly,how can you explain 50% higher mortality rate in people of Taiji than other nearby villages?Why Kozagawa, another coastal village west of Taiji, where dolphin meat is also consumed, showed an even higher mortality rate?
    
    Secondly,why the standard two point discrimination test to identify Minamata disease was not involved in NIMD report?That two-point "discriminatory protocol" test of sensory functions certified by Japan's top court is the clinical protocol that detects mercury-related brain damage.Considering mercury poisoning affects brain functions critically,that was a important test needed to be done,but yet,was not implemented..why??
These are some of the questions that should trouble any neutral reader's minds...the main newspaper article from which I used materials is here.


Strangely, all this finds and criticisms have so far failed to change Japan's whaling/dolphin hunt policy.Journalist Junko Sakuma,uncovered statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture,Forestry and Fisheries that whale meat stocks have doubled in 10 years - due to more stocking than consumption (certainly not a notion of "good business"). She is also critical of the campaigning policy of the Government to constantly promote Whale/Dolphin meat and said "It's strange to find the government using taxpayers' money to urge people to eat whale meat by insisting there is a surplus of whales caught using taxes."
Every year the Japanese government spends US$ 164 million of taxpayers' money to subsidize the whaling industry since 1988 (Source).I believe most Japanese are unaware of this expenditure - and will not be too happy when they find out this utter wastage of their money !

•  So, in the end, we wonder why Japan is continuing on this non-profitable business,despite serious internal and external pressure? Just to continue one insignificant "Heritage"?

Well,there are no easy answers - but I will try to give a brief idea.
Pro-whaling lobbyists were always major political force in Japan.And they often rely on generating public sentiments in their favor by citing their pro-whaling stance as "fighting against attacks on Japanese culture".
So,naturally they would try to keep that business going,just to serve their purpose.Jun Morikawa (see previous articles too) said in an interview -"They are like a fishing industry tribe,” said Morikawa, author of "Whaling in Japan: Power Politics and Diplomacy and also a professor at Rakuno Gakuen University in Sapporo,"Japan’s whaling policy is determined, executed and assessed by a small governing elite. The whaling industry is not financially viable. It's job is to spread pro-whaling propaganda and manipulate public opinion so that people think that eating whale meat is part of our national culture."
  This political stance was clearly suggested in this article written
even more than 28 years ago! Taken from New Scientist ,9 Dec 1982 edition,

The ruling LDP owes much of it's support to the rural electorate,including the fishing communities.The LDP fear that an attempt to phase out whaling,even for a theoretically temporary period of a moratorium,would lose them the support of the fishing communities.Even though fewer than a few thousands people are now engaged in whaling directly or indirectly,their loss of support might trigger a loss of confidence among other rural people and jeopardise the LDP's increasingly frail hold on government.

And after LDP (Liberal Democratic Party of Japan) was removed from power in 2009,the current ruling party DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) is following suit - and shows no intentions of abolishing this nonsense practice !

Finally many people consider "The Cove" being a racist movie! Honestly I don't think so.And I don't think "The Cove" is directed against the common Japanese people in Taiji...but against those vile businessmen and bureaucrats who are using the simple folks at coastal towns like Taiji as mere pawns to serve their own motives.


Well,that will be all for now folks...
Ciao!

The Cove : The Truth ( Part II )

Well, glad to back at this after a long time...let's continue on from where I previously left!

• Another argument by pro-hunters is that Bottlenose Dolphins, the species primarily being hunted in Japan is not "Endangered" ... yet ! So,they can be exploited without any precautions whatsoever.

Now, some whale hunting countries in '30's argued in a same manner in support of whaling.
Then bingo!! ... the number of whales dropped significantly due to joyous over-hunt .And IWC,formed after WWII with 17 whaling nations - had to start regulating the hunt in 1960's, and finally had to stop commercial whaling in 1982 . The moratorium is still in place despite countries like Japan,Norway are trying their best to lift it.

This is an example of how quickly their number can decline under rapid hunting-if allowed.See the graph for Minke whale hunts .. The maroon bars are historical whaling hunts and the blue line is an estimate of former blue whale abundance.

Who will be held responsible if history repeats itself,now in case of Bottlenose dolphins ?
This "Exploit-until-they-are-gone" policy is truly unscientific.

Moreover,being itself a predatory class oceanic-mammal ( just as whales,as shown in above example) - it can never replenish it's populace as fast as other "prey" species (I will come back to this point later).

And mind you,the hunt for one species may also affect another seemingly unrelated species
This following article speaks of how killing of whales affected seals,sea-lions,urchins and otters -the whole ecology could be on stake here...here's some quotes from that article

The killing of whales caused a collapse in the food chain, the scientists believe. As a half-million whales were wiped out by Japanese and Russian whaling fleets after World War II...
..."Food webs are way more complicated than that, and when you take a species out ... it's going to have effects on a number of different things, many of which are impossible to imagine,"

Clearly we need to do more research for how decline in dolphin hunt will affect our environment before we allow it . Although the ban on whaling is in place, Japan continues it's scientific Whaling and the numbers hunted are rising - clear from the diagram from the middle of the page!

I can not fathom how deep it may impact if it is allowed totally unregulated-and same applies for dolphins too...and more so 'cause Japan's dolphin hunt industry has no international regulation imposed upon them!

• Some argues that hunting should be transformed into capture industry ,as Dolphin's enjoy human companionship - and it is better to capture and sell them to aquariums rather than killing them..

Rather inappropriate solution according to me! Let me quote from a WSPA article about true nature of captive-life of dolphins:

"Even more unsubstantiated is the assertion, which can be found in the marketing materials of many captive facilities, that the dolphins actually enjoy life in confinement, as if, somehow, millions of years of evolution and specific adaptation to life in the seas can be overcome after a single or even several generations...captive-bred dolphins are not domesticated and have the same inherent needs as wild-born animals"

full article here

I believe no dolphin enjoys captivity - but atleast it is better than getting killed.But we have to understand that actually, it is the live-capture industry that promotes, mostly indirectly,the dolphin hunts.Although the aquariums,as expected from them , deny this. Instead SeaWorld’s (largest aquarium chain in US) PR machine claims that SeaWorld supports wildlife conservation, research, education, and has rescued thousands of stranded and sick animals .

What they don’t mention however that since 1986, 22 killer whales have died at SeaWorld ( according to the Marine Mammal Inventory Report) - and environmentalists suspects stress related factors,and negligence has something to play here,and I have no reason to believe dolphins are treated any differently in these facilities .
Ric O’Barry has a different take of their MO, based on his years of experience fighting sea mammal hunting and capture in Japan

“SeaWorld claims that if we display the dolphins, people will be sensitized to them, and then they’ll be there for the dolphins. But look at Japan to see the smoking gun. The country of Japan is the size of the state of California. There are fifty dolphinariums in Japan, yet the largest slaughter in the world is happening in Japan. No one from the dolphinariums, or their 100 million customers a year, are in Taiji trying to stop the dolphin slaughter. There is no connection between dolphin shows and conservation - It’s just a big lie."

---To Be Continued....

  
  Bon Voyage fellow travellers...until we met again!

The Cove : The Truth ( Part I )

Well...I got my hands on one of the copies just sometimes before the Oscars.I was rather interested as I knew it was heavy contender at the Oscars.
Being a student of science-I was watching the docu with a systematic mind...the views were really disturbing (The blood-red water were somewhat creepy,with the local fishermen spearing the Dolphins randomly).Then I went on to read what other people are really saying about it...the response were even more disturbing,many people were crying foul over the director's attempt to misrepresent a Japanese Traditions and attacking Japan's fishing Industry

Now, I personally found the movie quite factual and went on to search about the matter on my own.I will represent those arguments one by one,and perhaps what I feel about about that particular arguments-But,readers are open to their conclusion and comments...

I know the Dolphin-hunters lobby has some claims regarding why this hunt can be justified..

• firstly,they claim this is a tradition that people of Taiji has been performing for quite some time-and to stop Dolphin hunt means a blow to their tradition.

Now,the fact is whaling had started in Japan as early as the 12th century (where dolphin hunting is a 500 year old practice,at most ! But I feel these two issues are quite similar,both species being cetaceans) .Techniques were dramatically developed in the 17th century in Taiji,Wada Kakuemon Yoriharu invented the whaling net technique called Amitori-shiki.

But near 20th century,they adopted more modern techniques.local traditions conflicted with modern whaling practices. In 1911 the conflict turned violent in Same Village, Aomori Prefecture. Ocean pollution from the whaling stations, including large quantities of oil and blood runoff, angered the local fishermen and threatened their own fishing grounds. In protest the fishermen burned a Toyo Hogei facility down. The people of the Same region also did not consume whales and considered them sacred.

Seriously,most of the Japanese does not know that they are being served Dolphin meat in food labeled as just "fish meat",mostly does not know about this so called "ritual"-local news papers are strangely silent about this topic.

So,the "tradition" of eating whale or dolphin meat is not so traditional with the wider portion of Japanese people as claimed the pro-hunting lobbyists .Moreover "tradition" can never be called as a justification for cruelty.Sea Shepherd Conservation Society representatives compared it to forced female genital cutting in Sudan, saying that although it is a practice that may have cultural roots, it still should be opposed out of necessity.And the highly poisonous dolphin meat to be distributed in a unregulated way should be stopped immediately-no tradition can justify poisoning people deliberately.


Interestingly,younger generation of Japan,who were never brought up within so called "tradition"-are mostly against whaling, due to the increasing influence of western culture and the activities of anti-whaling organizations like Greenpeace.All outdated tradition will fade away by itself.


Ultimately,Japanese researcher Jun Morikawa has suggested it as

"an invented tradition, only lasting 20 years from the end of WWII to the early 1960s"

-which implies that currently,dolphin hunt is a modern commercialized massacre and bears little resemblance to the small-scale subsistence whaling/dolphin hunt that,until the dawn of the 20th century, was limited to certain coastal regions and was done in a much smaller amount.

The main article can be found here.

• Will Japanese economy suffer if they stopped whaling and dolphin hunt?

-well,from a economic viewpoint - it should not!
Fisheries (both aquaculture and marine hunt) together with agriculture,forestry contribute to only 1.6% of gross national product,only 4.4%labour force being associated with the same. 85.5 % of Japan's farmers were also engaged in occupations outside of farming, and most of these part-time farmers earned most of their income from nonfarming activities.While other Industries accounts for 23.1%[2005 data-Wikipedia].
So,I do not think that Japanese economy as a whole will suffer much from abolition of whale/dolphin hunt.

It is true that Japan has a food problem (will deal with it separately,later) .Japan was the world's leading harvester of marine products until 1988, surpassing other major producers such as China, Peru, Chile, the Former Soviet Union, and the United States. Between 1988 and 1997, however, the Japanese fish and shellfish catch dropped 42 percent, falling to its lowest level in 31 years.Why?- one may ask,and the answer is overfishing.And they simply went deeper and deeper to find more fish,increasing the damage to fish stocks and the ocean floor.-the whole system is rapidly going toward a massive dead-end.But still,they seem to oblivious to this fact and intend to scourge along.the results tend to be disastrous,read the last paragraph here.

Further up the coast, we discover the real cost of dolphin hunting, something that goes beyond the cultural arguments batted backwards and forwards by protesters and fishermen.

In the town of Futo, we meet a man who used to hunt dolphins, but stopped.
His reason? He says his colleagues were breaking the government-imposed quota; they were killing too many dolphins...

...it seems the fishermen have simply fished themselves out of a job. But, back in Taiji, the hunt is going ahead this year as it has done for the last four centuries.

Here is another article about that person (Izumi Ishii,from the town of Futo) and what they think about the dolphin hunt in current perspective.

Finally, it’s a lot to ask of someone to change the way they are. But the way things are going now, if we don’t, the consequences will be dire.

Eventually we will run out of whales,dolphins and other large fish, and the smaller species will not be far behind.It would truly be a shame to lose such a valuable resources just because you prefer the taste.

I will post again with more materials soon-



Bon Voyage fellow travllers...