Japanese dolphin hunt begins

HUNT: Fisherman herd bottlenose dolphins into their nets during their annual hunt off Taiji.

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Dolphins have been herded into a cove as part of an annual hunt in the Japanese seaside town made famous by an Oscar-winning documentary about their slaughter, Sea Shepherd said.

The dolphin hunt at Taiji, documented in ``The Cove,'' begins on September 1 every year. The boats returned empty Wednesday. But yesterday, some dolphins were corralled into the inlet. 

Anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd said it has been monitoring Taiji with a small crew of Australians, New Zealanders, Americans and Japanese this week. 

Ric O'Barry, who stars in ``The Cove,'' has gathered about 100 people in Tokyo, including supporters from abroad, to protest the dolphin slaughter. He took a petition with 1.7 million signatures from 155 nations to the US Embassy earlier this week. 

``The dolphins need defenders at the cove today and tomorrow,'' said Michael Dalton of Sea Shepherd in a statement from Taiji. ``If you came to Japan to save dolphins, the place to be is Taiji and the time to be here is now.'' 

O'Barry, 70, the former dolphin trainer for the 1960s ``Flipper'' TV show, has received threats from a violent nationalist group and skipped going to Taiji this year, a trip he makes every year to try to save the dolphins. 

He said he had been advised by Japanese authorities not to go to Taiji, and repeatedly stressed that he does not want confrontation. 

He was flanked by police, as well as supporters, when he went to the US Embassy. But some of his supporters said they are headed to Taiji. 

Nationalist groups say criticism of dolphin hunting is a denigration of Japanese culture. 

The Japanese government allows a hunt of about 20,000 dolphins a year, and argues that killing them - and whales _ is no different from raising cows or pigs for slaughter. Most Japanese have never eaten dolphin meat and, even in Taiji, it is not consumed regularly. 

``The Cove,'' which won this year's Academy Award for best documentary, depicts a handful of fishermen from the town of Taiji who scare dolphins into a cove and kill them slowly, piercing them repeatedly until the waters turn red with blood. Other Japanese towns that hunt dolphins kill them at sea. 

Taiji, which has a population of 3500 people, defends the dolphin killing as tradition and a livelihood. The annual hunt started on Wednesday, although boats returned empty. Most of the dolphins are eaten as meat after a handful of the best looking are sold off to aquariums. 

``I'm not losing hope. Our voice is being heard in Taiji,'' said O'Barry, who has campaigned for four decades to save dolphins not only from slaughter but also from captivity. 

The film's Japanese debut became a free-speech fight. It opened in some theatres in June after earlier screenings were cancelled when cinemas received a flood of angry phone calls and threats by far-right nationalists. 

Louie Psihoyos, the director of ``The Cove,'' said he doesn't agree with blindly sticking with tradition. 

``In America we had a much longer tradition of slavery, but that was banned,'' Psihoyos told The Associated Press. ``My message to Japan is to see the movie for yourself with an open mind.''

- AP