nonstop

Another Orca dies prematurely, this is not love. http://bit.ly/9uEHWN

Top story on the Armando Iannucci Daily http://bit.ly/cn4kLz (via @bloggerheads) ▸ Key witness will testify on News of the World phone ha...

I'm organising a 'Burn A Kerrang! Day.' Anyone want to come?

By Ric O’Barry
Campaign Director
Save Japan Dolphins
Earth Island Institute

According to our volunteers in Taiji, on Sunday the dolphin drive boats went out and found ten bottlenose dolphins, which were herded into the Bay near Taiji. One major change from previous trips (an alternative which some of our people observed towards the end of last year’s season in March 2010): There is a floating dock with sea pens in the middle of the Bay, well away from the Cove depicted in the documentary. It appears that the fishermen, in order to elude hidden cameras, are now using this floating dock for dolphins.

On Monday morning, reportedly five dolphins were kept for captivity and the remaining five were released back into freedom, a partial victory for us as the “no kill” policy appears to remain in effect.

But as we saw last year, this “no kill” policy is unlikely to remain in place. We must continue our efforts to keep the pressure on the dolphin killers and the Japanese government to end the slaughters and all of the dolphin captures once and for all.

A Good Showing at the FCCJ:

I was made an honorary member of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan when I was in Tokyo last year. So on Monday, I addressed a luncheon there of foreign and Japanese correspondents about the dolphin slaughter and our efforts last week, and gave them a peek at the new Animal Planet TV series, “Blood Dolphins”, produced and directed by my son, Lincoln O’Barry.

I was pleased by the reaction in the Japanese media. Stories about my talk were accurate and gave me a good forum for talking to the Japanese people about the slaughter. There were tough questions, but apparently the Japanese media liked my responses. The “confrontation” approach of “Us vs. Them” of previous media stories was gone.




Here is a good example in English on the “Japan Today” website.

This is why I have avoided confronting the Japanese dolphin killers or breaking Japanese laws. It is easy to break such laws, but doing so damages your credibility beyond repair among mainstream Japanese. I have worked hard to get the Japanese media to understand that I am not condemning the Japanese people nor Japan’s culture. I am only condemning the slaughter of dolphins, and I believe I have positive alternatives, such as ecotourism, to offer the people of Taiji and other communities in Japan that still slaughter dolphins.

A number of our volunteers this past week in Tokyo, for example, went down to the coastal village of Futo and went dolphin-watching with Mr. Ishi, a former dolphin hunter who now runs an ecotourism business. Futo fishermen used to slaughter thousands of dolphins, but have not caught any since 2004. Mr. Ishi has shown the way for dolphin killers to become dolphin lovers, without anywhere near the labor required to herd and slaughter the mammals.

I hope the Japanese media is beginning to “get it” – Japanese local communities can benefit far more from eco-tourism, sustainable fishing practices, and being open to foreign visitors than they can from running secretive dolphin-killing ventures. And Japan can avoid another Minamata-style disaster with mercury poisoning if it stops the sale of contaminated dolphin meat.

Phone Calls Jam Japan Embassy Lines:

Last week, while I was leading our volunteers and talking to the Japanese media about the dolphin hunts and presenting 1.7 million signatures to the US Embassy in Tokyo, our Save Japan Dolphins Team launched an online campaign for our Facebook supporters, urging them to call the Japanese Embassy in Washington DC and other countries.

They flooded the US Embassy and also called Embassies and Consulates in New York, Seattle, Ottawa, London, Nashville and Denmark, and others I'm sure. Our team stressed that they be polite and respectful, and some reported that they had nice conversations - at least one person at a Japanese Embassy had no idea of the hunts and was appalled to hear about it!

This is the kind of combined outside pressure and inside pressure that will, together, end the dolphin hunts in Japan. No government can long withstand this level of opposition to their basic policies that hurt their own people. We can end this dolphin slaughter by pledging to remain active until it stops and never give up.


My thanks and the thanks of our whole Save Japan Dolphins Team to all those who called the Embassies and Consulates. If you have not done so yet, I urge you to do so now and politely ask them to end the dolphin hunts in Japan.

The Cove views captive sea mammals as old school and tragic http://lat.ms/aIAGJN

The Cove mourns the latest SeaWorld loss, http://lat.ms/aIAGJN

Not a good week for SeaWorld, http://lat.ms/aIAGJN

More bad news for SeaWorld, http://lat.ms/aIAGJN Might be time to call it quits on this industry.

U.S. TELEVISION PREMIERE COMING SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 25 at 10:00pm on A&E!!

Top story on the Armando Iannucci Daily http://bit.ly/cn4kLz ▸ Phone-hacking inquiry was abandoned to avoid upsetting police | Media

Another example of The Cove effect, http://bit.ly/dcX6RG Freed dolphins in Turkey.

So, the police are in collusion with journalists? Why doesn't the media investigate this so maybe we can arrest....oh, I see.

My Daily Beast Buzz Board pick: Hamlet at the Oregon Shakespeare Fest! http://t.co/LzBwJa9

Recently aired interviews now available on YouTube: http://bit.ly/APOWo - Enjoy them on your mobile devices! Thanks, the IP Team.

You can watch The Cove on netflix instant streaming http://bit.ly/9OwrOQ

The Cove movie, signed DVD by director, http://bit.ly/9dpG9D

Shame Blair is cancelling booksignings. I quite liked the idea of people placing him in inappropriate sections.

Coulson issues statement via his spokesman. http://tinyurl.com/279q6gk. If your spokesman needs a spokesman is it time for 1 of them to go?

True.Blair on climate change:'Don't end up in a situation where you are claiming that something is certain when it isn't absolutely certain'

Iraqi reality show plants fake bombs in celebs' cars. Utterly true. http://tinyurl.com/38jcwgs The prank is revealed after 10mins of hell.