5. Any comments, lesson learned from visiting Taiji.
Over 20,000 dolphins are slaughtered each year between Sept - March. Some are taken for captivity the rest are used for dog meat and fertiliser. Some of the meat is even sold in restaurants around the area which is dangerous as it is high in mercury. Dolphins represent an 8.4 billion US dollar industry while a dead dolphin fetches $600. If we end dolphins in captivity we will end the slaughter in Taiji.
What was surprising was that the killing cove was right next to the Whale Museum where bus loads of tourists were walking in and watching dolphins shows, dolphins doing tricks and sadly people having photographs of the dolphins out of the water. we wondered, if they had only walked 200m down the road and peered into the cove , would they still go to see dolphins in captivity. we do not expect to fully understand what we went through because unless you are witnessing with your own eyes, you could not.But we ask every reader to make the ethical decision to oppose the Phuket dolphinarium, promise never to go to a dolphin show and to spread the word.
From being in Taiji we learnt that there are people out there that really care about dolphins and give up their time to volunteer and monitor them. We learnt that when you see something disturbing that you cannot doing anything at that moment to stop it, it very frustrating. We know the greatest gift we have is to be able to spread the word. We need to let people know what is going on at Taiji and to discourage people from ever going to a dolphin show anywhere in the world. We need to make the Japanese people aware of what is happening in their own country. We learnt that no matter how small you are, you can make a difference.
Nelson Mandela once said, 'Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.' and we believe this is true.