Did you know...

Did you know that...23,000 Dolphins are killed each year in Japan?



Thursday 7 July 2011

TAIJI JAPAN- DOLPHIN SLAUGHTER.

Dolphin drive hunting (dolphin drive fishing) is a manner of hunting dolphins. It involves driving them together with boats and then into a bay, onto a beach, or into a cove. Their escape is prevented by closing off the route to the open sea or ocean with boats and nets. Dolphins are hunted this way in several places around the world, including the Soloman Islands, the Faroe Islands, Peru, and Japan. Dolphins are mostly hunted for their meat; some are captured and end up in dolphinariums. In Japan, Striped, Spotted, Risso's, and Bottlenose dolphins are most commonly hunted. The Japanese town of Taiji on the Kii peninsula is as of now the only town in Japan where drive hunting still takes place on a large scale. In Japan, the hunting is done by a select group of fishermen. When a pod of dolphins has been spotted, they're driven into a bay by the fishermen while banging on metal rods in the water to scare and confuse the dolphins. When the dolphins are in the bay, it is quickly closed off with nets so the dolphins cannot escape. The dolphins aren't usually caught and killed immediately, but instead left to calm down over night. The following day, the dolphins are caught one by one and killed. The killing of the animals used to be done by slitting their throats, but the Japanese government banned this method and now dolphins may 'officially' only be killed by driving a metal rod into the neck of the dolphin, which causes them to die within seconds according to a memo from Senzo Uchida, the executive secretary of the Japan Cetacean Conference on Zoological Gardens and Aquariums. It is not clear if this ban is strictly enforced however, as eyewitness reports of similar throat-slitting and evisceration style killings were reported as late as October and November 2006. Certain hand-picked ( by dolphin trainers) dolphins are left alive and taken to dolphinariums. Dolphins have been exported to the United States for several parks including the well known SeaWorld parks.

Wednesday 6 July 2011

10 interesting facts about Dolphins...

1. Dolphins swim as fast speed boats. Pacific white Dolphins can swim at speeds around 28 km / hour.

2. Dolphins have to be conscious to breath.This means that they cannot go into a full deep sleep, because then they would suffocate. Dolphins have "solved" that by letting one half of their brain sleep at a time.

3. Millions of years ago, Dolphins had legs. Scientists see there are two pieces of the pelvis within the framework of a Dolphin. Maybe it was the former leg bone. Some scientists suspect Dolphin ancestors walked on land.

4. Several species of Dolphins have teeth more numerous and longer than a crocodile. There are species of Dolphins that have as many as 250 teeth. However, the Dolphins do not like to bite humans. When was the last time you heard of a Dolphin attack on the news?

5. Dolphins use echolocation to navigate and to find food. Dolphins send out clicks that are returned from other objects in the water (just like an echo). This way a Dolphin can locate food, other Dolphins, predators or rocks.

6. Dolphins often jump around fishing boats. They guide the fish into the nets of fishermen. In Brazil, bottlenose Dolphins alert when fishing nets are full of fish.

7. Dolphins communicate with the “whistle” and the “name” to identify one another. Some scientists suspect that Dolphins have a special call sign and use a special greeting when parting with his friend.

8. When an adult Dolphin is about to give birth, a Dolphin plays like a midwife, which helps with labor and to guard. After the baby Dolphin is born, the midwife helps care for it.

9. Dolphins and humans are the only mammals that have sex for pleasure.

10. Most species of Dolphins live in saltwater. However, there are several species of Dolphins that do not