Japanese Police Are Getting Desperate in Taiji

Erwin Vermeulen - The First Cove Guardian Arrest

Erwin VermeulenSea Shepherd Cove Guardian Erwin Vermeulen, a citizen of the Netherlands, was arrested today in Taiji, while attempting to take photos of Risso’s dolphin being transferred between holding pens in the sea and the Dolphin Resort Hotel.

An employee of the Dolphin Resort Hotel merely accused Erwin of shoving him and this allegation was immediately acted upon. The police handcuffed Mr. Vermeulen and took him to the Shingu police station where he is currently being held. He has been denied a lawyer and visitation rights, even from the Dutch Embassy.

Under Japanese law, Erwin can be held for 28 days before being allowed to speak with a lawyer.

The arrest seemed pre-planned. No witnesses saw Erwin shove the employee and Erwin was not even questioned. The police simply approached him and took him away. Out of compassion for the dolphins being slaughtered in Taiji, Erwin Vermeulen travelled to Japan at his own expense to devote his time and energy to the Cove Guardian mission.

The Cove Guardians are now half way through their 2nd year in Taiji. Operation Infinite Patience is clearly wearing down the nerves of the Japanese fishermen, local politicians, and the police.

Operating inside Japan requires a completely different approach, and patience is the key to success. The Cove Guardian mission is to be ever present, recording every activity, and constantly on vigil in the face of the dolphin killers, day in and day out, for as long as dolphins are being killed. All Cove Guardians are cautioned that every move must be nonviolent and within the boundaries of Japanese law.

Last year, the Cove Guardians were present in the killing cove for six months, cutting the number of dolphin kills in half, and this year they have been on vigil since September 1st. Many dolphins have been saved.
The key to the success of this mission is in not handing the authorities any excuse to expel the Cove Guardians. For that reason, every precaution is taken to avoid breaking any laws. Erwin Vermeulen did not break any laws. He was conveniently accused of doing so. Which law, we do not know, because the Japanese police refuse to divulge that information.



All we know is that Erwin was trying to take photographs of the dolphins when he was approached by police, handcuffed, and taken to the Wakayama Prefecture police station, where he has not been seen or heard from since.

Earlier this year, when Cove Guardian Rosie Kunneke was assaulted by a Taiji fisherman, her assailant was questioned and immediately released. This clearly indicates a double standard at work, with the law being applied discriminately and unfairly against the defenders of the dolphins.

Tensions are building and it appears that the police are testing the waters. They want to see what the reaction of the international public will be before making their next move.

The police have a dilemma. How do they get rid of non-violent dolphin defenders who have not broken any laws, but are clearly disrupting the horrific, cruel slaughtering practices of the Taiji fishermen?

Arresting Erwin may be the first move in a new strategy to deter the Cove Guardians by accusing them of false offences.

The Cove Guardians will not be deterred. Original Story posted: Sea Shepherd.org

 If you are reading this, please share this message, please post to your own Social Media Sites, share on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any connections with the press, please forward the link to the story!

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Beautiful Elephant Seals - Encounters with Man

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Kill The Bill - Not The Sea Lions

KILL THE BILL - NOT THE SEA LIONS

HR 3069 would amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act to allow the LETHAL REMOVAL of California Sea Lions from the Columbia River. Their crime - eating salmon!

PLEASE CALL YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND URGE THEM TO OPPOSE HR 3069: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-3069

TO LOCATE YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS GO TO: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD ~ HELP SAVE THE SEA LIONS! THANK YOU!!!!

Taken Directly from Facebook - To Stay Informed please visit their page
Save the Bonneville Sea Lions 
If you want to read the bill before you call/email congress here is the link: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h112-3069If  you want to read the bill here is the link: 

This post was inspired by my good friend Sandy McElhaney 


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Bottlenose Dolphins Slaughtered at The Cove

Update October 4, 2010: It is now thought the large pod of dolphins slaughtered in “The Cove were striped dolphins and not bottlenose. The striped dolphin is known to have a very low survival rate in captivity. 

October 3, 2010 Today Tia Butt of Save Japan Dolphins and Rosie Kunneke, and Sarah Legg  of the Cove Guardians, reported real time from The Cove that 28-30  dolphins were driven into “The Cove” inTaiji, Japan where they were brutally slaughtered. Although the fisherman had built walls to keep watchful eyes out the activists could hear the bottlenose dolphins, mothers, children, and infants thrashing in the water as the dishonorable fisherman of Taiji stabbed them until they were immobilized and then sliced out their spines causing an agonizing death lasting at time up to 10 minutes.

Please watch this video made by Dieter Hagmann last winter to understand the terrible truth about the dolphin drives in taiji:





 One dolphin was spared today. That one dolphin will pay for the gas, and all expenses for todays hunt bringing in close to $200,000 from a swim with dolphins program, marine park, or aquarium. The dolphin spared today will be put into a tiny sea pen where his training through food deprivation will begin. Then in one years time he or she will be packed in iced and shipped to a life of captivity and slavery, an early death being certain. Please watch A fall From Freedom a movie that documents the connection between SeaWorld and the dolphin drives of Japan  http://afallfromfreedom.org/.
We must work with the people of Japan to end this cruel slaughter. By supporting Japanese businesses that are promoting eco-tourism and dolphin appreciation we can demonstrate that supporting the dolphins in the wild can be profitable. Please support Izumi Ishii because he is our hope for the future. His t-shirts are wonderful and his tours are taking the Japanese coastlines away from whaling and towards eco-tourism.

Izumi Ishii A Champion for Dolphins

http://kohkaimaru.com/?profile&l=2
http://www.freewebstore.org/We-Are-Free/WE_ARE_FREE_TEES/cat930749_829978.aspx
Please Join the movement to save the dolphins of Taiji
http://www.savejapandolphins.org/
And if you haven’t already please watch The Cove
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/cove/
Please send love, energy, and strength to the one remaining dolphin of the pod as he or she swims in the blood of their loved ones wondering what kind of monster is this creature that walks on land. She or she has many years of sorrow and pain ahead. This pod will never be forgotten.

Guest Post by Kirsten Massebeau
Champions for Cetaceans

SeaWorld TIED Directly to the Annual Dolphin Slaughter in Taiji Japan

The filmmaker, Stanley M. Minasian, is dedicated to educating the public on these and other critical issues, and is fully supportive of any efforts made to help these animals that have no voice of their own. And remember, there is nothing that you might choose to do that is so small that it won’t make a difference.  It all matters – from signing petitions to showing up in person in Taiji – it will help.

Below is the trailer of this visually stunning movie, for the full free version A Fall From Freedom

Narrated by Mike Farrell (M*A*S*H, Providence), A Fall From Freedom digs deep into the history of the captive dolphin and whale industry. Topics covered in the film include:
-Sea World representatives secretly promoted the Japanese dolphin drives where thousands of animals are driven to shore and brutally killed, in order to provide their parks with replacement animals, says Dr. John Hall, former Sea World biologist.
-There is no educational value to having whales or dolphins in a captive environment, states former Sea World biologist Dr. John Hall and former Sea World killer whale trainer Dr. John Jett.
-Contrary to the claims of many marine parks and aquariums, captive killer whales die far more frequently and at a far earlier age than they do in the wild, says Dr. Naomi Rose, biologist for Humane Society International.
-Sea World has been involved in illegal and unethical actions to assure their parks are well stocked with killer whales, states former Sea World biologist Dr. John Hall.
-The Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums has worked tirelessly to reduce government oversight on the health and well-being of captive whales and dolphins, states Dr. Naomi Rose.
-Sea World representatives have claimed that whales and dolphins are not highly intelligent, sophisticated, and social animals. Dr. Lori Marino, a leading expert on killer whale intelligence and social dynamics, asserts that their intelligence and social dependence is second only to humans.
-Sea World and other marine parks claimed that the rehabilitation and release back to the wild of Keiko, star of the Free Willy movie, was a failure from the start. Dave Phillips of the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation argues that the project was a rousing success, which proved that these animals can be taken from captivity, rehabilitated and returned to the wild.

For Original Story: Reprinted from http://blog.seattlepi.com

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Dolphin Midwives and Underwater Birth

Igor Charkovsky, a Russian male mid-wife has assisted in over 20,000 underwater births, but in 1979 he began experiments with dolphins and children. His daughter, one of the first modern water-birthers, was in her late twenties when the following incident happened. Charkovsky and his team had taken a woman to the Black Sea in Israel for an underwater birth. In two feet of water, preparing for the birth, suddenly three dolphins approached, pushed everyone out of the way and took over. They scanned the length of her body (with sonar?), which somehow relaxed the mother and child and gave birth with no pain or fear. Apparently all the human midwives were pretty shocked though. This opened up the new practice of ‘Dolphin mid-wivery’ which may sound strange, but fits in with the new breed of super-children that are currently coming in to existence.

For some reason, dolphins are attracted to pregnant women and young children and as most people are aware, the dolphins can also help heal people with mental and psychological problems. But the children, who are being born with the aid of dolphins, at least with the cases documented in Russia, are extraordinary children. Most of the have IQ’s of over 150 (genius range again), plus extremely stable emotional bodies and strong physical bodies. They are superior in one way or another.

The below video shows a dolphin assisting a mother in giving birth underwater



There are videos that document these babies and children up to age three, sleeping on the bottom of swimming pools. They even come up for air whilst still asleep and turn their heads over the surface of the water, take a breath, then go back to the bottom. It is as though this is their natural home. Some people call them ‘Homodolphinus’ , because they seem to have the characteristics of humans and dolphins. Water is becoming their natural environment, plus they are also super intelligent.

There is ample evidence that humans once had a much more intrinsic connection with water. Charkovsky believes that mans close affinity with aquatic animals can be explained by our common origins in water in our mammalian history. In the book The Aquatic Ape, Elaine Morgan gives a fascinating account of the aquatic theory of evolution. According to Morgan, our aquatic affinity goes back millions of years to the Pilocene age, when our ape ancestors lived a semi-aquatic life on the coastline to escape the extreme heat which occurred due to climatic change. By wading in the sea, our ancestors began to walk upright and lost their body hair and developed a layer of sub-cutaneous fat like other aquatic mammals, to protect them from the cooler temperatures of the water. Today, we still have this layer of sub-cutaneous fat.

Source: Wake Up World 

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Who Do You Think You Are? Countdown to #TheCove

Who Do You Think You Are?
Reprinted with permission from: Save Misty The Dolphin

 AP Photo of Taiji dolphin hunters and their prey

As the days leading to September 1 dwindle down to a mere handful, the thoughts of caring people the world over turn to a small coastal village in the southern portion of Japan.  Taiji, made famous by the Academy-award winning documentary, The Cove, is ground zero for the annual slaughter of hundreds to thousands of dolphins.  

The footage in the youtube video, Who Do You Think You Are? is straight from Taiji. Warning: Graphic pictures

The numbers of the Taiji dolphin hunters are small -- less than 30.  Yet, armed with high-tech equipment, they are able to round-up and drive large pods of dolphins from their peaceful migration route in the Pacific Ocean into the shallow waters of the killing cove.  Most of the dolphins who are trapped in the cove will face a bloody death.  A small percentage will escape the spear only to face a lonely life as a performer in a dolphin show.  Dolphin trainers literally come into the Cove and hand pick dolphins to be trained.  From September 2010 to March 2011, 850 dolphins were killed in the Cove.  Another 171 were sold into slavery.

During the 2010-2011 hunt, activists were in Taiji throughout the season.  Their powerful videos and photos graphically depicted the shocking brutality of the Cove.  This year, the dolphin hunters will be supported by enhanced police and coast guard protection.

Now, more than ever, the dolphins of Taiji need YOUR support.  Please become a part of the international movement to stop the slaughter once and for all.  YOU can make a difference.  Here is how:

1. Watch The Cove movie & share it with a friend.  Become a part of the world’s largest home screening of The Cove on September 1 by signing-up at:  
Worldwide Screening of the Cove Movie on September 1, 2011
2. Join in a peaceful protest or rally at Japanese Embassies & Consulates around the world on September 1 as part of the International Day of Awareness for the Dolphins of Taiji 
3. Sign and share our Petition
4. Call your Japanese Embassy and tell them to STOP the Taiji dolphin slaughter today:

In the United States call:  202-238-6700

In the United Kingdom call:  020-7465-6500

In Canada call: 613-241-8541

In Australia call: 61-2-6273-3244 

In France call: 01-48-88-62-00

In Germany call: 030-21094-0

In Italy call:  39-06-487-991

In Norway call: 47-22-99-16-00

In New Zealand call: 04-473-1540

Contact information for all other countries can be found here: 

List of Japanese Embassies Worldwide

It has been said that one person, giving all of their time to peace, makes news. Many people, giving some of their time, can make history.  Let’s make history together.  The water of the Taiji cove needs to stay blue - now and forever.  YOU can help make that happen #DolphinsLoveUs ><((((º> ♥°°°♫ ♫ .

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