Ending Taiji, Japan’s Dolphin Hunt: How to Become a Cove Monitor
For almost an entire month last September, Tia Butt woke up at sunrise every day in the small coastal Japan town of Taiji to observe its annual dolphin hunt. She watched as fishermen worked in the nearby harbor, navigating their boats in the search for these beloved sea creatures.
As a volunteer for the Save Japan Dolphins campaign, Butt acted as a “cove monitor”, keeping tabs on the Japanese dolphin hunt.
“I’ve seen days where the dolphins get away, but then you have days where you see [the fishermen] get them and they push them into the cove and kill some of them,” she said to TakePart. “As you know, they’re very intelligent animals. They know what’s going on.”
MORE: Cove 101: A Primer on Taiji, Japan's Senseless Dolphin Slaughter
Starting in September, the area’s fishermen trap and kill hundreds of dolphins, which are either sent into captivity at marine parks or packaged into meat for consumption.
Activists from the Save Japan Dolphins campaign, one of many groups fighting this cause, land in Taiji this week with the goals of peacefully pushing for change from Japanese fishermen and generating enough media coverage to get people’s attention.
After learning about Japan’s dolphin slaughter early last year via YouTube clips and the documentary The Cove, Butt decided to take action. A natural runner, she fundraised almost $3,000 from races in support of Save Japan Dolphins. She traveled to Taiji in September for a few days to participate in the campaign, and came back a few weeks later on her own to become a cove monitor.
“Never in a million years did I think I could go to Taiji and observe the killings, but once I was there, I knew I had to come back,” Butt said.
As a cove monitor, Butt is one of many dedicated volunteers who sign up to travel to Japan—on their own dime—to fight against the slaughter.
“We’re looking for people who can spend time in Taiji, usually we recommend up to two weeks,” said Mark Palmer, associate director of the Earth Island Institute’s International Marine Mammal Project, which heads the Save Japan Dolphins campaign.
Interested individuals go through an official application process, explained Tim Burns, who has worked as a cove monitor for Save Japan Dolphins for the last two years.
These volunteers spend time with veteran cove monitors, who prepare them for the hunts and train them in their responsibilities. The cove monitors conduct outreach with Taiji locals, write letters to Japanese officials and continuously monitor the numbers of dolphins killed or captured in the hunt.
The key is peaceful protest. Save Japan Dolphins does not support violence or interfering with the fishermen’s activities, Palmer explained.
“We cooperate at all times … we’re there to bring the story of what’s happening in Taiji to the rest of the world,” he said. “We’re not provocateurs or protestors as much as we are trying to educate Japan about what’s happening in the cove.”
Butt returned to Taiji again in January, spending another three-week stint recording and blogging about the dolphin hunt. Throughout the season, there are generally one to two people from Save Japan Dolphins working as cove monitors, she said.
The circumstances in this small, traditional town have begun to shift. For the past few years, the number of dolphins slaughtered and the length of the hunting season have both dropped, indicating less of a demand for the delicacy meat. The cove monitors focus their message on the mercury contamination in the meat, not criticizing Japan for the hunt.
“We don’t want to make trouble with any of the Taiji people,” Butt said. “We’ve got respect for the Japanese people.”
As demand has decreased, Butt has even seen instances where the fishermen will catch an entire pod of dolphins and then release them—much to her astonishment. The fishermen even started taking Saturdays off, she added. The prior year, every day was “killing, killing, killing”, Butt said, but current signs indicate that attitudes may be gradually shifting in Japan.
“We look at the small positive changes,” Butt said. “There were less dolphins killed this year, and we’ve got to continue … we’ve got to do it for the dolphins.”
Interested in getting involved?
Contact Mary Jo Rice, associate director of Save Japan Dolphins, at mjrice@earthisland.org.
Will you be protesting Taiji, Japan's annual dolphin slaughter? If so, how? Tell us in the comments.
Related stories on TakePart:
• Taiji Dolphin Drive Hunt 2012: Follow the Tragedy on Twitter
• Taiji: The Captive Connection
• Mercury Poisoning From Dolphin Meat Remains a Major Concern for 'Cove' Activists
Kelly Zhou hails from the Bay Area and is currently a student in Los Angeles. She has written on a variety of topics, predominantly focusing on politics and education. Email Kelly | @kelllyzhou | TakePart.com
