[Columbine]

Originally Posted by cranks

It's yes and no. ゴンドウ(Pilot whale) is a whale in English, but often called a dolphin(イルカ) in Japanese. The difference between dolphin and whale is biologically non existent. We just call smaller toothed whales dolphins. If you scrutinize my previous link, you'll see what's actually going on.

Yes, I'm aware, I was just pointing out how the media in ~english~ is deliberately using the word "dolphin" when we would normally use "whale". This is probably what's particularly inflaming the protests from a lot of foreigners.

Originally Posted by cranks

http://kokushi.job.affrc.go.jp/H20/H20_45.html

The hunting method that was shown in The Cove is called 追込 and done exclusively in Taichi today. As I said, Taichi is a small town and they only hunt a bit more than 1000 a year. In 2007, they got 300 ハンドウイルカ (bottle nose dolphin, The dolphin) and sold 77 to aquariums. I believe 223 were slaughtered and sold as meat. They probably stopped this because of the protest. I'm not sure what happened to スジイルカ (striped dolphin) this year. 384 were killed in 2007.

The majority of "Dolphin hunting" is done in 岩手 where almost 10,000 "イルカ" are hunted. The method they use is basically a scaled down whaling that use harpoons. The species hunted there are イシイルカ and リクゼンイルカ which are called porpoise in English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dall%27s_porpoise). I don't think this is affected by the protest in any way.

Again, I think there's been some confusion. The hunts in 岩手 were highlighted a year or two ago, so a number of people I've mentioned Taichi to have automatically assumed it was of the kind and scale of Iwate, or indeed, actually Iwate. Dall's Porpoise probably wouldn't incite a protest as much as other species as they aren't threatened and don't have any real conservation status yet. I think I need to steel myself and actually watch The Cove...

Originally Posted by cranks

So several hundred dolphins had been killed every year prier to 2007, and probably sold as meat. And the activist seem to have stopped this. But that's by employing this much racism.

dolphin fucking "japs" - Google Search

Several hundred dead dolphins costs only $100,000 or so… A tiny fraction of the budget of the activists. It's scary that some people love dolphins and whales more than fellow humankind.

I think I'm pretty conflicted really, I do love whales and dolphins, and I do think we should find a way to phase out the majority of whaling, with leeway for sustenance whalers, but I find these kinds of methods activists use rather abhorrent. I'm not getting into loving Whales Vs loving Humans, because to be honest, the people of Taichi have the ability to make a decision not to hunt whales or explore other ways to generate meat and revenue, whereas whales can't really choose not to be hunted. It's not about loving one species more than another, it's about finding a viable compromise that will ensure the welfare of both.

I don't think simply paying up for the cost of the meat year-in year-out is a solution though, even if it is a tiny part of the budget. Rather, some kind of diplomatic solution should be found and the advertising money spent slating the hunters should be put into helping areas develop away from economic dependance on hunting, if that is the case. Or even simply developing more humane ways to slaughter. It's like veal; for many years people refused to eat it, and it had bad press because rearing methods were cruel. Now a more humane way has been developed and it's now a cruelty free source of food.
It might still be seen as foreigners muscling in on tradition, but it would be an entirely more diplomatic way to handle it than simple aggression tactics and smear campaigns. It's also a way that movements within Japan could more easily work with, or ideally, spearhead.