What Happens When All The Dolphins Are Gone?

The Japanese government implies the annual hunts are used for pest control. They tell their fishermen that the dolphins are eating up all the fish in the ocean, therefore, giving a reason to catch them first (“The Cove”). What the fishermen do not understand or don’t want to understand is it is the humans who are causing the depletion of fish. What happens when all the dolphins are gone? It would completely damage and affect the ecosystem.
Why can’t people physically help the dolphins? People who go to Japan and actively interfere with the hunt will be stopped by the Coast Guard and local police officials. If the person is not arrested at that moment, when they return back to their native country they will likely find they cannot return to …show more content…
When someone first enters the small town of Taiji, Japan no one would expect that a mass slaughtering of dolphins would be happening. There are statues and monuments dedicated to the creatures. The only people who truly know what is happening is the local police and the Japanese government. When Ric O’Barry shows up, the local police are notified and someone is assigned to oversee his actions. When O’Barry interviewed people off the busy streets in Tokyo no one knew or believed that dolphins were being captured and killed. The Japanese government constantly has to have media coverups when anything is published in Japan about the hunts, leaving the public with no information (“The Cove”). If people in Japan were to know what is actually going on in their country, there would be a national outcry. O’Barry comments the fishermen admit if the public knew what was going on it would follow with the dolphin drive hunts being finished (“The Cove”). David McNeil reminded people the use of nets in catching tuna was banned in the U.S. because of the public outrage (8). Although a different cause, if people in Japan were to make a vast uproar it could follow with policy …show more content…
Butterworth concludes that the method does not comply with the requirement of “immediate insensibility” and would never be used to slaughter any animal around the globe. Immediate insensibility is the requirement that animals be incapable of feeling or the sensation of the slaughter, for example, a quick bleed out. As environmental studies professor Mark Meisner remarks The Cove uncovered the “suffering and senseless killing” (6). The Japanese government and Taiji Fishing Cooperative should take note that if multiple veterinarians and animal behaviorists declare the methods used currently should never be used on any animal, then Japan should be on the search for a new method. Not only is the current method inhumane, it traumatizes the surrounding dolphins and Melissa Haynes notes the number of dolphins being driven into the cove keeps increasing and live-capture dolphins are highest on record due to new aquariums being built worldwide