Hi all
I must say, you humans are a complicated bunch but hey it’s not all bad. Some of you get things done. Eva has just set me up with my own website and blog and in the coming days she’ll set up shop for the book she wrote about my journey. Ok, that said, today I want to talk about Japan and all the goings on there, since Japan was a stop on my travels and I care very much for the people and animals I met there. There are a few things happening there that are of concern to me and my fellow beings. One of them is the massive radiation leak from the crippled Fukushima Nuclear Power plant in the North of Japan which was severely damaged by an earthquake and resulting Tsunami in 2010. 2 years on and it’s still leaking like crazy, so much so that the North Pacific is being badly contaminated with radioactive material. It’s becoming dangerous for people to eat fish and swim in the sea. But what’s happening to all my animals friends who live in the Pacific? I wonder! I met turtles and whales and dolphins who all live in there.
I heard a few days ago that whales had washed up on a Japanese beach who had signs of radiation poisoning. It’s alarming to say the least. Here is a photo of the event and some links to look at.
http://nationalreport.net/breaking-fukushima-disaster-leaves-hundreds-whales-beached/
The other story out of Japan is of course Taiji and the plight of my dolphin friends. If you don’t know what’s happening there, here’s a short recap of events. Since the 1960’s Japanese fishermen go out for 6 months of every from September 1st on, to drive whole pods of dolphins and sometimes small whales into a bay called the Cove in Taiji. There, the dolphins get assessed to see whether they are good performers and if so get separated to be taken and sold to theme parks around the world. Places like SeaWorld buy dolphins for the entertainment of human children. It’s a horrible idea, if you ask me. Imagine someone came into your living room, kidnapped you and sold you to a circus to entertain people. You would never see your freedom or your family again. Then the rest of the dolphins get killed, for apparently no particular reason. I heard they don’t even eat much of it. It gets stock piled in warehouses…maybe for a rainy day. For every dolphin who gets sold on, 17 other pod and family members die an awful death. And the only reason for all of this is money. Lots of it. 20 000 dolphins die in the cove every year. Hundreds get sold. You can help by never ever going to a theme park or aquarium that has whales or dolphins in their very small tanks. If you want to you can watch a documentary called “The Cove”. It’s not easy to watch, so if you are a young kid ask to watch it with your parents please.
If you put the two things I talked about together, you have to wonder about the effect the radiation is having on the dolphins who get captured and killed. It can’t be good either way. Not for the dolphins, the fishermen or the theme parks.
Here’s the link for the movie “The Cove” and if you want to know more about the subject go to http://www.seashepherd.org
There is also a new film called Blackfish which is all about the whale and dolphin captive industry. You will see how they are captured and how they live in these theme parks and aquariums. Here’s a link to the movie. http://blackfishmovie.com
More soon.
Yours, Lahni