BlueViews - The
BlueVoice Blog
2007 - Japan Aquariums: Epson
Aqua Stadium
Hardy reports from Taiji, Japan November
2007 - Dolphin Hunting Season Begins
November 8, 2007 - The Day the Dolphins Died
November 7, 2007 - Seven Dolphins held - to be killed tomorrow
November 7, 2007 - Taiji Dolphin transported to a life in captivity
November 1 , 2007 - Japanese
councilman breaks code of silence Condemns
the feeding of toxic dolphin meat to school children
September 27, 2007 - Algal Bloom and Fish Kill On
Florida Beach
September 10, 2007 - Cat Litter Threatens Dolphin,
Whales and Sea Otters
August 26, 2007 - Horror and Hope in the World of
Whales
August 9 & 10, 2007 - The Blob has come to Florida
BlueVoice Expedition to Bahama Dolphins
July 2, 2007 - Blue Voice Among Dolphins - Week 2
June 24, 2007 - BlueVoice Among Dolphins
- Week 1
Hardy Reports from International Whaling Commission -
Anchorage, Alaska
June 1, 2007 - A Victory for Whales
May 29, 2007 - Some Signs of Hope
May 29, 2007 - Who Owns the Whales?
May 27, 2007 - The International Whaling Commission
(IWC) opens Monday, May 28
February 26, 2007 -
Altruism Across Parallel Universes (ponderings in progress)
December 20, 2006 - Baiji dolphins
declared functionally extinct
Dolphin Slaughter in Taiji, Japan -
November, 2006
November 15, 2006
November 8, 2006
November
7, 2006
July 13, 2006 - Toxic marine
mammals and human cancer hot spots
July 5, 2006 - Hong Kong’s Pink Dolphins:
A Disappearing Beauty
June 25-30, 2006 - Hong Kong
October 26, 2005 - Captive Dolphins
held in deplorable conditions
October 25, 2005 - Japanese Police
Inquiries Continue
October 24, 2005 - Japanese Police
make inquiries about our arrival
October 23, 2005 - Meeting Kagemusha
(the shadow warrior)
October 20, 2005 - Japan targets whales and dolphins
2007 - Japan Aquariums:
Epson Aqua Stadium
By Mike Ezawa
I arrived at Narita International Airport at close to 3 pm. After
an hour-long bus ride, I’m at the hotel. It’s
now close to 7 pm, and I’m back from my first look around
Tokyo.
It’s a chilling recurrence, but one of the first things
I saw when I walked out of the hotel was an advertisement for “Aqua
Stadium.” It bore a huge, glossy image of a smiling
dolphin at the left corner with other sea animals such as seals
and sharks dotted throughout the large poster.
 Read
more >>
 back
to the top
November 8, 2007 - The Day the Dolphins Died
Exposure of the toxicity of dolphin meat can shut
this ghastly business down.
By Hardy Jones
I’m standing on a small ridge overlooking Hatajiri Bay. What
we had feared is occurring. The fishermen have
arrived. They are pulling the nets in a way that is forcing
the 7 or 8 risso’s dolphins captured yesterday into a
small bay where they will kill them. They put them in
this bay so we can’t directly photograph them. This is
a terribly sad thing to see, not that we didn’t expect
it, but to be standing here slowly watching this event unfold
is heart wrenching. There are fishermen all around us;
they are videotaping us; they are blocking all our routes that
would enable us to get closer to this slaughter.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
November
7, 2007 - Seven Dolphins held - to be killed tomorrow
By Hardy Jones
This is Hardy Jones reporting from Taiji Japan. After
8 days of not hunting dolphins, the fishermen have brought
into Hatajiri Bay 7 dolphins which appear to me to be Risso’s
Dolphins. I don’t know exactly what is shaping
up. Traditionally there are 2 sets of nets across the
bay and this one seems to have been thrown together very quickly.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
November 1 , 2007 - Taiji Dolphin transported
to a life in captivity
By Hardy Jones
This is a very busy day here suddenly. A truck has pulled up.
It is a dolphin transporter truck. And we have observed them
bringing so far one it look like a pseudorca (false killer whale)
out of the Taiji Whale Museum aquarium area and they brought
it up the hill in a truck and put it in the back of this large
carrier truck.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
November 1 , 2007 - Japanese councilman breaks code
of silence Condemns the feeding of toxic
dolphin meat to school children
By Hardy Jones
If you want a hero I’ve got one for you. My
colleague Sakae Hemmi of Elsa Nature Conservatory and I interviewed
this humble but extraordinary man for 2 hours yesterday.
A man who has virtually written off his political career by
simply pointing out that the local school district was feeding
mercury-laden dolphin meat to school children.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
September 27, 2007 - Algal Bloom and Fish Kill On Florida
Beach
By Hardy Jones
Deborah Cutting, shooting stills, and myself on video got out
of our car at the site of an unusual (for this part of Florida)
fish die-off and red tide event. Immediately our eyes began to
burn and we started coughing. I’d heard about these occurrences
of respiratory and eye irritation on the Gulf coast of Florida
and along the central coast of California but never had the experience
myself. It’s really odd to know that a toxin generated
by a marine algae is blowing off the water with enough strength
to cause respiratory distress in people walking the beaches and
living nearby. I still have a scratchy throat hours after leaving
the site.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
September 10, 2007 - Cat Litter Threatens Dolphin, Whales
and Sea Otters
By Hardy Jones
The human footprint on the world is heavy indeed, even among
the best intentioned.
Cat litter flushed down toilets by pet owners may be the cause
of death for dolphins, whales and porpoises around the coast
of Britain. Public health experts have found evidence of a
common parasite in dead marine mammals and say cat owners who
dump litter boxes into toilets could be the unwitting source.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
August 26, 2007 - Horror and Hope in the World of Whales
By Hardy Jones
Though the BlueViews Blog will more often than not concern our
work in the field I want to give a picture of some of what
we do on a daily basis – the issues that cross my desk,
the actions we take on involving dolphins and other marine
mammals and sometimes observations about the state of the planet
in general.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
August 9 & 10, 2007 - The Blob has
come to Florida
By Hardy Jones
The federal government spends $2-billion dollars a year to subsidize
an industry which causes massive environmental damage to a vast
area of Florida and its coastal waters, destroying fisheries
and now threatening real estate values and the tourist industry
on the Gulf Coast. The Feds (and that means out tax dollars)
then spend billions of dollars more to try to alleviate this
unfolding catastrophe. The industry receiving our tax dollars
in such profligate abundance is sugar – always referred
to in Florida as “big sugar” because of its huge
political clout.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
July 2, 2007 - BlueVoice Among
Dolphins - Week 2
By Hardy Jones
Day 8: Boarded Shearwater at 5pm last night and headed out
at 3am. I awoke at 7am and went to the bridge to scan for deep-water
animals. None sighted but it’s worth looking and I love
the feeling of crossing the Gulf Stream, this vast torrent
of warm water which controls so much of the earth’s climate;
something I’ve been doing since I was 16 years old.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
June 24, 2007 - BlueVoice Among
Dolphins - Week 1
By Hardy Jones
“North of Grand Bahama on the Little Bahama Banks there’s
a place I’ve been going for more than twenty years and
up there you’ll find dolphins that you can spend hours
with. They’re just incredibly friendly and curious.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
June 1, 2007 - A Victory for Whales
By Hardy Jones
Commission voted strongly to condemn Japan’s scientific
whaling
Under intense press Japan withdrew its plan for coastal whaling
and again threatened to leave the IWC. Trying to portray themselves
as victimized. This is part of a larger international plan
related to their rapacious environmental record.
Japan is trying to put itself in the victim position.
New government in Australia has said they would send Navy to “monitor” Japan’s
activities in Oz’s Antarctic.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
May 29, 2007 - Some Signs of Hope
By Hardy Jones
I want to Blog today on what it is that BlueVoice does at a huge
international meeting such as the IWC. It has always been clear
to me that a small, focused organization with no political
or corporate ties can have a strong impact even on these august
proceedings. One piece of film documenting brutality to dolphins
can have a huge impact on decisions related to whales.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
May 29, 2007 - Who Owns the Whales?
By Hardy Jones
Japan’s stated intention of hunting humpback whales led
me to think that the time has come to stop thinking of whales,
particularly the humpbacks which are individually known and loved,
as commodities that anyone with a harpoon catcher boat can take
at will.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
May 27, 2007 - The International Whaling Commission (IWC)
opens Monday, May 28
By Hardy Jones
I’m blogging from a Delta flight between Atlanta and Anchorage,
Alaska where The International Whaling Commission (IWC) opens
Monday. At stake are the lives of thousands of whales.
The votes will be close. The Japanese have bought more than
a dozen small nations and thus threaten to open the doors to
legal whaling for the first time in twenty years. Since 1987
Japan and other nations like Iceland and Norway have only been
able to conduct whaling under an article in the IWC treaty
that allows for scientific whaling. Of course Japan has exploited
that loophole to do pseudo-science and then sell the meat from
the whales they have “researched” by harpooning
and cutting them into steaks.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
February 26, 2007
- Altruism Across Parallel Universes (ponderings in progress)
By
Hardy Jones
Imagine a dolphin swimming with its podmates off the coast
of Japan. Suddenly there is an unpredicted and unknown but
deafening clanging sound from which the dolphins flee. The
dolphins, under attack by forces of which they can have no
knowledge, are driven into a bay. Some are ripped from the
pod by machines which are utterly alien to them, placed in
other machines and moved to yet another universe bounded by
walls – something they have never known and will never
understand.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
December 20, 2006 - Baiji, Rare Dolphin,
is Functionally Extinct
By Mike Ezawa
For millions of years, the Yangtze River
Dolphins (also called “Baiji”)
existed in the main channel of the Yangtze River in China. Sharing
their natural habitat with small populations of finless porpoises,
these nearly-blind river dolphins would swim strong against currents,
gather in congregations of ten or more, and use their sonar to
navigate their way around their world.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
November 15, 2006 - THE
DOLPHIN HUNTERS FEAR US
By Hardy Jones
The Risso’s dolphins captured Friday were slaughtered
Monday morning before first light. It is impossible to photograph
these events today as they take place in the dark and behind
tarpaulins. My feelings of helplessness were nearly overwhelming.
But succumbing to those feelings would betray the dolphins killed
that day and those that will die in the future. The only appropriate
reaction is to keep documenting these killings and bringing them
to the world’s attention.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
November 8, 2006 - Taiji, Japan
By Hardy Jones
14 Pilot Whales Killed
Confrontation,
Testing Pilot Whale Meet
for Mercury
Japan's Final Solution to the Dolphin
Problem
BlueVoice's Solution to Japan's Solution
Nov. 8, 2006: Election Day (we’re one day ahead) in
the United States. Destruction day here in Taiji.
It’s 2:57am. I’ve had four hours of sleep but
there will be no more tonight. We go to the killing bay tomorrow
morning at dawn.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
November 7, 2006 - Racing
to Taiji – scene of slaughter
By Hardy Jones
We are now racing to Taiji. Fifty
pilot whales have been captured and will be killed. They
may be dying as I write this but the weather is ferocious,
raging winds and high seas. Perhaps the kill will be delayed
until we get there.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
June 25-30, 2006 - Hong Kong
By
Mike Ezawa
Hong Kong, a major tourist magnet, a city known
for its crowds and buzzing nightlife and noise, may rank
among the world’s busiest, packed, and environmentally unclean
places that people periodically visit.
This week, I have paid this famed city a visit. The primary
purpose for my stay here is to see how this polluted area affects
the ocean wildlife near it. In a city filled with busy,
chaotic streets and ongoing ship and ferry traffic in the waters,
it logically does not bode well for the dolphins or other marine
mammals who dwell nearby.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
July
13, 2006 - Toxic marine mammals and human cancer hot spots
By Hardy Jones
This is the first of a regular series of blogs that will
detail the work of BlueVoice.org and report on important
ocean issues.
BlueVoice.org has joined Dr. Brian Durie, an internationally
recognized specialist in the bone marrow cancer Multiple
Myeloma, in conducting research correlating populations of
marine mammals burdened by high levels of toxins with human
cancer hot spots on adjacent shores. The research is in the
very early phases but early results are compelling. It appears
the marine mammals, such as the killer whales off Seattle,
are sentinels who can warn us of dangerous contamination
of the seas. We are currently seeking funding to expand this
project.
BlueVoice will join scientists in calling for an end to
the slaughter of dolphins in Japan. I will present the damning
video of the atrocious slaughters of dolphins at Taiji and
Futo before the National Press Club on July 19.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
July 5, 2006
- Hong Kong’s Pink Dolphins: A Disappearing Beauty
By Michael Ezawa
Next time you’re headed out to China or Hong Kong,
be sure to get yourself on a boat to see this very rare dolphin
species; the dreadful possibility lingers that such an opportunity
may soon be non-existent.
Not much is known about this species of dolphin, as detailed
research was basically absent until the 1990s. With the
exception of a certain number of individual dolphins, they
were unknown to the world, and even to some of the humans who
lived on the nearby islands. All this was until construction
of the Chek Lap Kok airport began in the early 90s, a project
which destroyed an island which laid in the very heart of these
dolphins’ critical habitat.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
October 26,
2005 - Captive Dolphins held in deplorable conditions
By Hardy Jones
I'm writing on the train to Tokyo on the way to investigate three facilities
in the city which hold dolphins in deplorable, even bizarre conditions.
It's raining in Tokyo as we head out to Shinagawa Aquarium - right in the
midst of one of the largest metropolises in the world. Another dolphin show,
same tricks. Two bottlenose jumping through hoops, twirling hula hoops on their
noses. It’s a wretchedly small pool right under a highway overpass. Passing
trucks form the background of the stage. (More)
Read
more >>
back
to the top
October 25, 2005 - Japanese
Police Inquiries Continue
By Hardy Jones
The police thing here has become like a Peter Sellers movie. Every day the
local police call the Riokan where I am staying to inquire about my activities.
The very patient owner, Mr. Mizuno, tells them, quite truthfully, that he doesn’t
know where I go during the days. I've suggested he tell the police I'd be glad
to come visit with them, as I have nothing to hide. By the way, this guesthouse
or Riokan is one of the loveliest places I've stayed in Japan. Mr. Mizuno speaks
English and his wife prepares the most extraordinary food. He can also link
guests to the local whale and dolphin watching operation run by Mr. Ishii.
http://www.minamikaikisen.com. (More)
Read
more >>
back
to the top
October 24, 2005 - Japanese
Police make inquiries about our arrival
By Hardy Jones
It’s 4am. I’m wide awake from the jet lag. We have arrived at Futo.
The first thing I learn arriving at the Japanese guest house where we are staying
is that the police have already been there asking about me. Why would the police
care about someone being in town who might report on the killing of dolphins?
Well, the only conclusion I can come up with is that they’re all in it
together – the fishing cooperative, the Japan Fisheries Agency, the national
and local governments. There are powerful forces supporting the drive hunt
on dolphins. (More)
Read
more >>
back
to the top
Oct. 23, 2005 - Meeting Kagemusha
(the shadow warrior)
By Hardy Jones
Today I meet Kagemusha, which means "shadow warrior" in Japanese
and is my nickname for the 66-year-old woman who travels with me and acts as
my translator. She methodically documents all details associated with the dolphin
hunts, the killings and the involvement of the captivity industry in inciting
the captures. We'll be heading for the Ito Peninsula, a beautiful, mountainous
coastal area just SE of Tokyo. Our first stop will be the town of Ito that
has one of the most despicable dolphin swim-with programs I've ever seen, and
that's saying a lot. (More)
Read
more >>
back
to the top
October 20, 2005 - Japan targets whales and
dolphins
By Hardy Jones
Whaling and dolphin hunting are intimately (not to mention
corruptly) linked in Japan . Both are supervised, promoted and licensed by the
Japanese Fisheries Agency. The JFA is attempting to convince the world that dolphins
and whales eat too many fish - fish needed to feed humans. This is the Japanese
government’s
justification for the killing of whales and dolphins. The truth is that over-fishing
by man is the cause of the severe decline in fish populations around the world.
The JFA knows that negative publicity about the dolphin slaughters influences
world opinion against Japan and puts pressure on Japan ’s whaling efforts.
The Japanese government also knows that as people around the world become aware
of the tremendous cruelty of the capture of dolphins for aquariums and swim-with
programs, pressure will be brought to stop this brutal practice.
Read
more >>
back
to the top
|
