What is the EcoWitness Video Program and Why is it So Vital?
You can be a member our our EcoWitness Video Program. All you need is
a video camera and the willingness to record illegal or cruel behavior.
Send the video to us and we can stream it on the web. If
you witness such events email us at contact@bluevoice.org. Or if you see
something and don't have a video camera, email us and we may be able to
dispatch someone to the scene.
History
In 1980 we went to Iki Island, Japan to film the slaughter of dolphins. The Japanese fishermen, ignoring the fact that pollution and overfishing were the true culprits, believed the dolphins ate too many of their fish.
Our footage of the dolphin slaughter led the Japanese government to
institute controls over the capture and killing of dolphins. Most of the
killing ceased.
But over the next few years, marine parks began sending envoys to Japan and offering tens
of thousands of dollars to the fishermen to resume their grisly
slaughters. The fees paid for a few live dolphins - amounts sometimes in
excess of $200,000 - motivated the fishermen to seek exemptions from the
government. The killings resumed.
In 1989 we documented on video the capture of Rissos dolphins by U.S.
veterinarians and marine park personnel for the U.S. Navy. Within a year
50% of the dolphins captured had died at a U.S. Navy facility in Hawaii.
In 1993 we exposed the attempt of Marine World Africa USA to import four
false killer whales from Japan - animals caught in the grotesque drive
fisheries which result in the deaths of thousands of dolphins and small
whales. The National Marine Fisheries Service withdrew the permits of
this marine park to import these dolphins, effectively ending U.S.
participation in the drive fisheries in Japan.
In October, 1999 a brave Japanese came forward with video footage of the
capture of nearly 100 dolphins at Futo, Japan. More than seventy of
these dolphins were killed while six were transported to marine parks in
Japan. Once again the aquarium industry had incited the roundup and
killing of dozens of dolphins. Once again they were exposed.
We are now gearing up to go live from locations around the world where
environmental atrocities are threatened or in progress.
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