As Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians, every single slaughter of every dolphin or whale here in Taiji, Japan weighs heavy on our hearts and spirit. Our natural knee jerk reaction to seeing terrified sentient beings being murdered is to turn away. However, if our eyes aren’t open to their suffering, then their deaths are in vain so we stand strong and we soldier on. Our greatest weapon against the killers, the Japanese government, the meat buyers, the trainers, the local law enforcement bullies and big business is our camera. We know it and they know it which is why extensive measures are taken to shield the dolphin and whale murders and aftermath from The Cove Guardians view. Tarps are erected, curtains are drawn, private property signs are posted, “no photo” signs are tacked up and the local police shadow us daily just waiting for one slip up so that we can be arrested and silenced. Every time we venture out to the Cove or other process points of the dolphin business here in Taiji, Japan with our cameras and live streams our hearts break apart at the carnage. Today was one of those days and if it’s possible, today was even worse than the other days because today it was personal.
Yesterday before dawn we, The Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians led by Melissa Sehgal, were out documenting the empty killing banger boats as they left the harbor in the dark. We photographed the killers walk of shame into their boats of destruction. They clearly hate this morning ritual. We don’t care. If they want things to change, all they simply have to do is stop killing dolphins and we are happy to sleep in. Later we witnessed the worst scenario possible, through binoculars we saw the boats all lined up in the formation of a drive. We hoped that the pod may escape, sometimes they do. However as the relentless boats chased the pod of pilot whales for hours exhausting and terrifying them we knew that they would soon be driven into the Cove. We live streamed to over 10,000 viewers every moment of this sick, cruel, greedy ordeal. The family of 27 pilot whales had battled the killing boats for about three hours before being herded as a unit into the nets. Reacting to the deafening sounds all around them they swam tightly together into the nets that sealed their fate.
Pilot whales sadly seem a bit easier to catch. They appear to like and be curious about humans and boats. They don’t yet comprehend that humans can be the enemy and they learn that lesson in the worst way imaginable. Our heart sunk as they moved fin to fin as a family into the place that would either end their lives or take some of them captive for humans greedy lust for enslavement of those that have no voice, no choice. Every moment of their exhaustive chase we monitored, every spy hop they did in the water to try to understand what was happening to them we witnessed, every frantic circle they swam in we saw. When nightfall came we went, along with our ever-present convoy of police officers following closely behind us, to the Cove to sit with them silently. We saw them move as one: frantic, confused, and disoriented. The young and mature whales huddled closely to the large Matriarch during their final night as a family. When morning came we were there to stand with them in the only way we could, as allies documenting their pain. We never left them because after standing witnesses to everything they had endured it was personal. These pilot whales felt in some way like our own charges. We were witnesses to their suffering and suffered along with them. Though we couldn’t ease or stop this atrocity committed against them in any direct way we could guarantee their deaths weren’t in vain. We could make sure that they were not alone in their darkest hour. And they were not. We live streamed to the world every moment we could see and witnessed the family frantically being netted into smaller and smaller enclosures bullied, intimidated and driven by the deafening sounds and aggressive moves of the killing boats.
We reported to the world the boats driving over their bodies as they splashed and swam in confused, terrified circles. We saw the family all clinging together and surrounding the matriarch who was for the first time powerless to save her beloved family and small offspring. We saw her violently wrapped in a yellow tarp as the divers bound her fin as she struggled, grunted, breathed and heaved heavily in pain and panic. The killers tethered her large body with rope, separating her from her family who fought to stay with her, finally dragging her with brutal force into the killing Cove. We saw the violent brutality that the pod endured in a slaughter process that took over two hours to complete. When the killers got the majority of the pod under the tarps we heard the splashing and thrashing of the whales as they were being stabbed repeatedly and the cove began to turn red. Then a sound that we will never forget echoed throughout the cove – first the yelling of all the killers, loud and in unison and what sounded like a struggle. Then a loud sound I can only liken to thunder seemed to shake and pulsate the Cove and the lookout area we stood on. I remember grabbing our lead Cove Guardian, Melissa Sehgal’s arm and asking ” WHAT is that?!?” She knew. She said, “it’s the Matriarch.” The Matriarch is the large, most dominant member of the pilot whale family – it is she that the family looks to for everything. She is a dedicated mother who invests in prolonged parental care in the wild. Many nurse their young for as long as ten years. On this day she fought hard to survive and we heard her fight through our tears. Even seasoned Cove Guardians said the sound was like nothing they had heard before. It will haunt me forever. During the over two hours of driving the pod under the tarps, as they swam in circles desperate to get away, one by one we could hear them thrashing in the water being killed. Then we saw one lone juvenile pod member being taken captive and put on a skiff doomed for a life of enslavement. We could only imagine this young whales terror as she fought to be with her mother and family as they were separated from her and killed before her eyes. After a couple of hours of torture the sounds of struggle stopped. With the Cove red, thirteen orphaned and confused juveniles remained. They swam tightly together spy hopping and after a few hours we saw them driven out to sea – too small and “worthless” to the killers to be counted as part of their quota. The small whales chance of survival are slim to none without their mother and their family. Instead, they will most likely endure prolonged deaths at sea from starvation, stress or predators. It was a restless night of sleep as many of us thought of those babies dumped out to sea all alone, terrified and sure to suffer and die without their mother’s protection and care.
As Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians we vow to stay until the bitter bloody end and that we did yesterday. After the killing was completed and the young driven off to fend for themselves without any family to care for them, we documented the filthy storage facilities and meat buyers who are all part of the greed of Japan. They put up their tarps just as the killers did, not willing to be easily photographed. If what they are doing here in Taiji is as routine, legal, humane and justified as they say, then why all the secrecy? Why all the shame? Clearly because what goes on here is barbaric and shameful.
Yes, this family of pilot whales did die today, some were taken captive and some left to die slowly at sea… but they didn’t die alone. We stood with them every step of the way and honored them as best as we could by telling their story to the world in hopes of ending this atrocity once and for all. We photograph, do reports and live stream every painful, brutal image that is life here for Taiji dolphins. We shine a light on the disgraceful practices here in Taiji and we are never silent. For us, its personal… and we will never give up the fight… until every tank is empty.
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Photos courtesy of SEA SHEPHERD
