Wednesday October 21, 2009, 11:30 pm
I hope the lawsuit gets them tons of outrage and even more bad publicity from all over the world. Still, there's hope!
From the article - "Although it's a difficult issue as it involves fishermen's jobs, it's also difficult to argue that all Japanese traditions have to be maintained," Makoto Iwahashi, a 19-year-old student, told AFP after watching the film. "I think if we find something wrong in our tradition, we should correct it."

Thanks Katie! Maybe this will turn in the right direction after all.

Thursday October 22, 2009, 12:44 am
Agree w/ JennyLynn. Thanks Katie.

Thursday October 22, 2009, 1:28 am
I saw this film; after filming the slaughter the film makers went to other areas of Japan and asked people if they would eat dolphin. The response given was no, many people were shocked anyone would consume dolphin. So, one could surmise that consumption of dolphin was not a Japanese tradition but more of a local thing. Which beggars the question, is it because slaughtering dolphin easier than traditional fishing? Or, once these creatures have been rounded up and the few are sold to aquariums, the remaining are slaughtered so that the fishermen's efforts are rewarded further by the exploitation of small cetaceans?
Gr££d seems to be the motivator here.

Thursday October 22, 2009, 2:17 am
Is there no end to the arrogance of the Japanese. Threatening to sue because their dastardly acticivities that they tried to drape tarpaulines over has been exposed by superp investagative journalism. It must be general as I have a Japanese car that has had many problems from new and the manufacturer is hyper arrogant in dealing with the problems by dismissing them. No problem with car you have to get second opinion from another dealer, is all in imagintion that steering wheel come off in hand! Perhaps I should sue them for giving me an over active imagination! No whales used for commercial purpose all eaten in Labs for research and recovering scrap mercury!

Thursday October 22, 2009, 3:45 am
Japan and the Chinese think alike and they somehow look alike. They definately behave alike. It is time that people are exposed to this brutality. Most people dont know what is going on and when they see footage, they are so shocked. What about the shark finning. To kill this huge fish for its fin.

Thursday October 22, 2009, 3:49 am
Thay are gonna sue for what telling the truth behind their lies????

Big Gorilly Hgs

Thursday October 22, 2009, 10:50 am
They are guilty of mass murder.... they don't have a leg to stand on..

Thursday October 22, 2009, 12:36 pm
i agree chaz

Thursday October 22, 2009, 12:58 pm
Go ahead, let them sue, the more attention this gets the better it is, they won't win though!

There seems to be controversy as to how many dolphins are being caught each year, some say 2400 whereas other say 24000. From reliable sources it is around 2400. The one thing that is indeed true is that this has absolutely nothing to do with culture and/or tradition of the Japanese as it is a very "local" activity in Taiji only as far as everone knows.

Unlike in the Faroe Islands where they round up and kill pilot whales but appears to be a one time per year event which is attended by just about every member of the family from infants to grand parents.

The very strange fact remains that neither the Japanese not the Faroe people seems to care too much about the very high content of mercury in these marine mammals. I guess they don't mind having a percentage of "different" people among them.

Japan does not seem to realize blaming the west for breeding and consuming cows, pigs, chickens etc,, that they nor anyone else can control the population in terms of breeding marine mammals or any other marine fish for that matter. Are we to let them go ahead until it's too late and there is indeed nothing left to fish for? In fact, they way the Japanese fish all over the world with their monster trawler nets alone, there is not much left as it is.

I hope the world looks and listens as to what is really going on here!

Thursday October 22, 2009, 1:03 pm
It would be laughable if it weren't so tragic.

Thursday October 22, 2009, 2:25 pm
Why not film it openly ?

It is entirely within the rights of those locals within Japanese law to kill and eat dolphins - so no reason to hide anything.

Thursday October 22, 2009, 4:19 pm
Isn;t this the same thing the baby seal killing hunters do... They make it impossible to get the real pictures out there to the world. They are just as much killer as the Japanese, but they think they are so much better and they have the right to do what ever they want to do.They all scream tradition and actually know depravity masquerading as tradition or sport. Bull crap! They are voiceless victims of senseless violence. I wonder do you think dolphins and whales might have traditions. I think they do. So I think we should respect their as well. They do not chase us down and try to kill us, why do we feel the need to torture and traumatize these gentle peacefully marine animals. The Japanese rape the ocean everyday. They act like it is their own personnel super market, they are killing our sea. All countries that continue to hunt and kill the animals from the sea should be black listed and put on notice that they will be put in prison and fined thousands if they are caught. Somewhere some one has to take the inativative and do something....

Thursday October 22, 2009, 4:58 pm
they don't even know what they want to sue about.and if it costs jobs? so what ?let them do as people have done in other countries,find other means of employment! why does linelyhood have to depend on slaughter of a species?and i'm getting so weary of the excuse that it's part of our heritage.the headhunters had a heritage also but it's not allowed today !!!you want to maintane your heritage do it without a slaughter of inocents! thank you Katie

Thursday October 22, 2009, 5:13 pm
Mans gotta eat.
Man is an omnivore and by nature a killer just like any other omnivore.

Sustainable harvesting of wildlife is clearly a human right.

Thursday October 22, 2009, 8:40 pm
Darn right, let the little bastards sue, what the heck they gonna sue for??? If they are so stupid that the only thing they can fish for a living is dolphins, they need to go hungry. Go eat Fruit Loops!!!
Cheeessssch!!! Grrrrrrrrr... "I'm gonna suuuuuue-hoooooo!!!"

Friday October 23, 2009, 1:01 am
To my Danish friend I can appreciate your solidarity with Japan's barbaric activities as of course your own country is also somewhat locked into similar aquatic barbarism festivals and blood orgies. However much you may justify sustainable harvesting, orgies of killing carried out for tribal rituals and via whaling fleets emblazoned with the English word "Research" which clearly the Japanese have failed to translate correctly, are anything but sustainable harvesting and compares to the UK's abomination of chasing a fox with a pack of starving and abused dogs just to witness them tear the fox into pieces to satisfy some deviant sex urge! You may not even be aware of the close social bonds in pods of these animals and tearing the family groups apart has similarities with Nazi activities of WW2, something Denmark for example may have seen just a little of! Clearly the desire for secrecy surrounding Canadian seal clubbing and Japanese dolphin destruction is evidence of the obscenity of these practices or why would they wish to keep them secret. Such dishonest and devious behaviour is in the same league as the lurking peodohiles that stalk children for their own perverse gratification! When the Canadian courts found Sea Shepherd members guilty of egregous behaviour in filming seal clubbing, they brought their system and nation into disrepute and made themselves a laughing stock. Should these dolphin murderers sue they will expose themselves to the same international derision and contempt of all but a handful of equally uncivilised groups. Criminals do not like their activities advertised for all to see!

Friday October 23, 2009, 2:12 am
Thing is, as the film makers repeatedly point out, dolphin meat has enough mercury to poison. The argument about cruelty to sentient beings might carry weight with us, but Japanese resent being poisoned.

Friday October 23, 2009, 4:27 am
It was forseeable that the Taiji fishermen who only catch the Dolphins would sue sooner or later as Ric O'Barry did hide some cameras, but any profecional person in his field does this! Or are the Japanese journalists super clean? I don't think so!
As a journalist Ric O'Barry did his job and he did it well! I don't think the fishermen of Taiji have a leg to stand on and as far as we know Ric has just about the whole world behind him.
Now he needs us more than ever as long as we get to know which court the Taiji fishermen decide to take him.
We have to make this public on Facebook and I hope that all the people who have agreed here and are on Facebook and have as one of their causes "The Cove" like I do make this public on their pages so that everyone can read it when they get in them and especially those who have the same cause will back Ric and ask their friends to support Ric in whatever way they can!
I'd love to donate money towards the lengthy courtcase, if that ever comes up, but I can't as I'm on an invalid pension. However I'll give Ric all the support I can give him and that starts by making this public to the friends who joined me in this cause! I know they'll do whatever they can afford. One way or another Ric can depend on OUR support and I personally thank the people for making this public in CARE 2.
I look through Care 2 every day when I can and try and give my support to whatever I can! But this really showed up and as it is one of my causes it got my support.
I refuse to eat Flake in Australia as they say it's from the shark but I can't be sure. I never heard of it in The UK or in the rest of Europe, so it makes me dubious so I stick to fish I know and I like as the fish here is different I have to make some choice as my children do their best to supply food for me as much as they can. Ric can count on ME and my friends on Facebook believe me as I'm going to make this public on Facebook right now.
What gets me is Where does the Mercury from? Who puts that in the Ocean as I've read that all the Dolphins around the world have a high Mercury count, maybe not as high as in Taiji, but who puts it in the water? That's what we have to find out! I suggest we start here with all of us who care!
Isn't that why this is called CARE 2?
Please reply
Agnes Hall

Sunday October 25, 2009, 3:35 am
Mercury pollution comes from many sources - mostly due to human activities, but natural sources also occur.
Massive dumpings like that which caused the catastrophe in Japan in the 1950'ies have stopped.
Big souces are burning of coal, waste incineration and goldmining. Until recently it was universally used for filling teeth at the dentist.
What often happens is that some mercury compounds are turned into mehyl mercury, which then is absorbed by plants and enters the food chain. Since the organisms aren't capable of breaking down the stuff it accumulates up through the food chain becomming more concentrated as i gets to the top, where top predators like humans usually reside.
What we really neeed is to develop the technology which will allow us to filter the mercury released when burning stuff.