Media release 29-8 2013
Ceremony for Dolphin and Whale Freedom Sep 1 in Hervey Bay
Representatives from the Butchula Nation from Fraser Island will sail
with marine conservation yacht Migaloo 2 on Sunday 1st of September to
participate in a global action and ceremony for dolphin freedom. This
event will be Live Streamed on www.migaloo2.com from 11 am onwards. We
will be doing ceremony with local indigenous people of Fraser island
and Hervey Bay from conservation yacht migaloo 2 and the local
dolphins.
Migaloo 2 will be in Urangan marina from 2 pm friday 30th and
departing 9-30 am Sat 31st for Fraser island and Hervey bay. We will
be available for interviews, holding banners and doing some didgerido
playing for any media before we depart. To contact the skipper of
migaloo 2 Dean Jefferys phone 0467485903
For more info about this global day of action see link and info below
see Dean Jefferys face book event link for the day
https://www.facebook.com/
Info from the main organisers Save Japan Dolphins
at https://www.eventleo.com/
Each year from September 1 to around the end of March, hundreds of
dolphins are slaughtered in Japan. Fishermen round them up using sound
barriers to disorient and herd the frantic pods out of their normal
migrations into hidden lagoons like the one featured in The Cove.
In some cases, individual dolphins which are deemed as being ‘show
quality’ (and, often, who look like Flipper, the iconic dolphin from
the 1960’s television series), are selected by trainers and sold for
upwards of $150,000 USD to marine mammal parks around the world, where
they will remain in captivity performing as circus acts for the rest
of their lives.
The remaining dolphins are then inhumanely killed. The butchered
dolphins are used for food, while the Japanese government
intentionally shelters people from the dangers of eating their
contaminated flesh. Consumers of dolphin meat run the risk of mercury
poisoning due to high levels of the toxin within the animals. Adding
to this danger, much of the pricier whale meat they purchase is
actually mislabeled toxic dolphin meat. While the Japanese government
defends dolphin hunting as part of their cultural heritage, this
tradition has serious health effects on its own people.
The more lucrative captive dolphin industry is the driving economic
force behind the dolphin slaughter in Taiji. In the U.S. alone,
dolphinariums represent an $8.4 billion industry. A dead dolphin
fetches a mere $600, as compared with the hundreds of thousands that
can be made from live ones. International law provides no protections
against the killing of dolphins, and other slaughters occur in places
outside of Japan. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) affords
no protections for 71 (out of 80, known) cetacean species, including
all dolphins and porpoises, which is why Japan and other countries can
legally kill them by the tens of thousands.
—
For the whales
Dean Jefferys