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MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR LUNCH BREAK – HELP END THE DOLPHIN AND PORPOISE SLAUGHTER IN JAPAN!

©Claire Bass/EIA Source: Multimap.com Dall's porpoises awaiting processing ©Ezra Clark/EIA Dolphins hauled out for slaughter in a drive hunt The 2005 London protest ©Claire Bass/EIA

WHEN – WEDNESDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER AT 12 NOON

WHO – Anyone who wishes to help stop the slaughter of dolphins, porpoises and whales in Japan.

WHERE – The Japanese Embassy
101-104 Piccadilly, London, W1J 7JT
Nearest Tube: Green Park

WHAT TO BRING – A red ribbon to represent the blood of the thousands of Dall's porpoises killed each year in Japan. Also bring whistles, megaphones etc, to enhance your presence!

Click on map to enlarge

Japan’s coastal whale, dolphin and porpoise hunts
Every year as many as 20,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises are hunted and killed in Japan’s coastal waters. This includes around 16,000 Dall’s porpoises killed in hand harpoon hunts in northern Japan – the largest hunt of any cetacean (whale, dolphin or porpoise) in the world. Hunters in the Sea of Japan specifically target mother porpoises with calves. The females will not leave their infants and are slower and easier to catch. The calves are simply left to die.

As many as 2,000 dolphins are killed each year in the drive hunts in southern Japan, which start each year at the beginning of October. Pods of tens or hundreds of dolphins or small whales are driven into shallow coves and butchered in the most brutal way imaginable. Most of the dolphins are killed for their meat, which is sold for human consumption despite very high levels of mercury, PCBs and other toxic chemicals.

Unscrupulous dolphinariums financially support the hunts by buying a number of live dolphins - usually young females - from the fisherman to be used for captive display. In 2004, the drive hunts took 484 bottlenose dolphins, 110 of which were live caught for captive display industry. In total, more than 1500 dolphins, mostly striped, bottlenose and Risso’s dolphins, were taken in 2004. With a declining demand for whale and dolphin meat in Japan, the captive industry is providing a strong financial incentive for continuing the drive hunts; live dolphins can fetch as much as 10 or 20 times the price of dead dolphins.

Most Japanese people are unaware these hunts occur. Japan’s Fisheries Agency directs fishermen to hide evidence of the hunts from the public eye, erecting tarpaulins and tents behind which the dolphins and porpoises are slaughtered. We need your help to raise awareness in Japan, through Japanese embassies around the world.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO STOP THIS

EIA has joined a group of around 60 NGOs around the world who are opposed to this slaughter and are holding peaceful demonstrations around the world, including London, Paris, Washington DC, New York and Brussels, to let the Japanese Government know that dolphin drive hunts are simply not acceptable to the international community.

The protests will take place outside Japanese embassies around the world on the 20th September, just prior to the start of the hunting season.

Please join us on the day and help us make a stand against this senseless slaughter!

ON THE DAY

EIA UK staff will be at the Green Park tube end of the protest and will be sporting EIA T-shirts and handing out leaflets. Please join us and tell your friends to do the same. We are asking people to bring a red ribbon to represent the blood of the thousands of Dall’s porpoises killed each year in Japan. You can also bring whistles, megaphones etc. to enhance your presence!

For more information, please telephone EIA on 0207 3547960.

EIA US staff will be at the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C. For further information please contact Danielle Grabiel (Tel: +1 202 4836621)

HOW YOU CAN HELP IF YOU CAN’T COME IN PERSON

1. Please take a few minutes to contact Ambassador Yoshiji Nogami at the Japanese Embassy. Politely explain your opposition to the Dall’s porpoise hunt and dolphin drive hunts. Urge the Japanese Government to end the hunts which threaten dolphin and porpoise populations in Japan’s coastal waters and cause immense suffering.
Email: info@jpembassy.org.uk
Tel :020 7465 6500 / Fax: 020 7491 9347
Address: 101-104 Piccadilly, London, W1J 7JT

2. Leave a polite message for the Prime Minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi, by visiting this site: www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/forms/comment.html

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

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