For the Love of Dolphins
January 1, 2012Leave a Comment
Look into my eyes and tell me why my life does not matter.
I socialize with my brethren, as our communication is essential.
We speak in tones and have a complex language.
Only other dolphins can understand what we are saying.
Sensations engulf us at every twist and turn of our bodies.
Our sense of touch and hearing is immaculate and very sharp.
This is how we guide ourselves through the ocean, without getting lost.
We are a sight to behold, jumping in and out of the water.
Swimming and playing so carefree with other members of our pods.
Pushing seaweed with our noses, and passing it to each other.
Racing each other in the blue ocean so big and wide.
No worries in sight, and this is how it should be for all time.
Loved by most, but hunted by others.
I don’t understand what’s going on.
What’s that noise I hear?
It surrounds me from every side.
I can’t escape it, though I keep trying.
Swimming faster and faster, but to no avail.
I can’t tell which direction I am moving in now.
We are all lost, myself and my family.
Where do we go from here?
We will be okay, as long as we stick together, right?
Never losing sight of my family, we keep swimming.
We are slowing down now, coming to a place where we can’t swim any longer.
Now we are stuck here, trapped in this unfamiliar place.
Suddenly I see my sister being pulled away from me.
She’s yelling for help….so loud and anxious.
I can see the pain in her eyes, but I can’t get to her.
What’s that new fluid coming from her body?
I edge closer, and I can see so much of it now.
Her body is twitching violently in her own blood.
Her eyes call out for us to help her.
We are all are trying to save her.
Now they have my daddy.
STOP! Leave my family alone!
Mommy, Daddy, help us, don’t let them take us away from each other!
My daddy is yelling for us to swim away.
We all try to swim closer to help them, as he tells us to go now.
But how can we ever leave our family?
I hear mommy yelling, she’s also in pain.
I look around me, and I take it all in.
The water is no longer blue. My families blood is all I can see now.
Everywhere I look is red. Red from our blood. My families blood.
I realize now I am the last member of my pod alive, and I am scared.
I try to get away, swimming so fast, my heart pumping.
My body aches, and my heart is sad and breaking.
I don’t understand what’s going on.
What is this? This has holes in it, but I can’t get through.
Maybe if I push harder I can make it to the other side.
It’s not working. What if I jump? I can see the other side, but how do I get over there?
Suddenly, I feel my tail being pulled. Humans have me now.
What’s going to happen to me? I don’t want to die.
I’m just a baby, I have my whole life to swim, play, and learn.
Mommy, Daddy, please save me!
They are yelling and pointing now. I’m so confused; What is this contraption I’m on?
I think I’ll close my eyes and maybe this will all be a bad dream.
But, it wasn’t a dream. They moved me a lot, and I was feeling so sick to my stomach.
I remember when they took me it was light outside, but now it’s dark.
Where am I? What happened to my family? What will happen to me?
Now I am stuck in this small space, very little room to swim.
It’s so loud all the time; I am hungry and I don’t feel good.
I miss my family and my ocean very much. I don’t like it here at all.
I have to jump out of the water and land on this one spot just to get fed.
They also have me jump out of the water and through hoops.
There’s so many things they want me to do for them.
If I don’t do it right, they get mad at me, and won’t feed me for days.
Humans will give me food if I do it right, so I always try to please them.
This is how I will spend the rest of my days; In this hell, doing tricks for food.
I should be swimming free in the ocean with my family and my friends.
Instead, I am here, in this fake shallow ocean, with these unnerving clear walls.
They keep coming back to see me every day.
They bang on the walls and throw things inside at me.
They scream and yell, and I have no place to hide from them.
I guess it makes the humans happy to keep me here like this.
Do they not care that I am miserable?
I can’t swim, dive, or play like I used to do in the ocean.
I miss talking with the other members of my pod.
I would do anything to feel their fins against me again.
I can still hear them in the back of my mind like it was yesterday.
I hope I can go home soon, I don’t want to be here anymore.
I feel myself growing more depressed with every single day that passes.
I wish it all would end soon somehow.
Why did this happen to me?
If you come see me someday, do me a favor.
Look into my eyes, and tell me; Do I look happy?
If this happened to your family and friends, you would want help too. Right?
I am all alone, and I can’t do this myself.
Can you please help me get back home?
Dolphins are very complex creatures, and are often dismissed as mere fish by some. But, the truth is that they are far from it. They are mammals that live in the water. They breathe air and communicate with each other in their own language, like we do. They thrive in their pods, and need to socialize in order to be happy. So why is that some people treat them like they are just disposable, useless waste of space? They hunt them down like they mean nothing to our ocean and our world. If you haven’t guessed it yet, I am talking about the tragedy that happens from September to March in Taji, Japan every year and it will continue until we stop it.
Japan may seem like a great spot to go on vacation. There are plenty of things to see: colorful buildings, beautiful scenery and many tourists destinations to mark off your list. There’s no way you can leave Japan sad, right? Wrong! If you go down to a little place known as Taiji, you will think nothing of it, but just another place to travel through to get to the next spot on your list. This is how they like it. You will have to have your eyes and ears open, and then you will understand. For in Taiji, it is a place of murder. You have no need to worry unless you are a dolphin or you are there to save them. Yes, you read it right . . . murder. There is a group of men and women who go out of their way to collect wild dolphins from the ocean and bring them back to a spot famously known as “The Cove“.
Fishermen gather their gear early in the morning and head off on their dozen or so boats in search of dolphins. Instead of marveling at their beauty, they will hunt them down. Once spotted, they will take poles and bang them on the boats under the water. This sound disrupts the sonar the dolphins use to navigate through the water and they become disoriented. At this point, the fishermen then steer the dolphins back to the cove to await their future destinies. This process as a whole could take as little as an hour or as much as the whole day. Once the dolphins are driven into the cove, roped off by various nets and trapped for copious amounts of time, there are only three possible endings.
Outcome number one is what we all wish for, but rarely ever happens. The fishermen for whatever reasons, decide to let the dolphins swim free. It doesn’t happen too often, as I stated, but is a huge relief when it does.
Outcome number two is not as rare as the first, but doesn’t happen on a regular basis. This is where dolphin trainers come from all over the world and pick out the dolphins that they think would serve them best at their theme parks. Of course they are looking for young attractive females, so they can be bred to males, and make profit any way they can. They are prepared to pay an unlimited amount of money to buy these wild dolphins and then call them their own.
Outcome number three is the most common and by far the most dramatic of them all. After the trainers pick their dolphins, and they are sectioned off safely, the fate of the other dolphins become a reality. The fishermen gather dolphins and begin to stab them. Repeatedly. Slashing and ripping at their bodies, cutting their throats, leaving them to gasp for air while in such terrible pain. Bleeding out, only to watch helplessly as their pod members undergo the same horrible treatment. It takes anywhere from 10 minutes to hours to die. Though lately, the fishermen try to kill them off sooner due to complaints. I won’t go into any more details on this, but note that they are crying in pain as all of this happens, and the fishermen are laughing and smiling, carrying on as if nothing is wrong.
Now that all the dolphins are dead, suffering from bloodied hands of the soulless fishermen, you may wonder, what happens now? I will tell you. They then take the dolphins up to the slaughterhouse to slice and carve them up. Now I mind you, some dolphins may even still be alive at this point. The ones that are, will get cut up alive. After they cut the dolphins up and the meat is packaged, it will be shipped in mass quantities, not just to the people in Japan, but all over the world – even the United States. You may be thinking, oh, well at least the meat won’t be wasted. But, did you know that because of pollution, the waters these dolphins swim in are contaminated with mercury? Hmmmmmm yummy, huh?
Particles fall into the ocean and can be harmless enough if left alone. But fish eat it, and other fish eat those fish, and so on and so forth. So the fish the dolphins eat are just riddled with mercury. So imagine how much mercury the dolphin meat actually contains. Lets just sum it up to lethal doses and move on. This mercury-laced meat is being served to not just people who choose to eat it, but also their school children. Japan still stands behind their word that dolphin meat is safe and parents of these children are none the wiser. They believe their government won’t lie to them. I urge you to look up Minamata disease, http://www.medicaldaily.com/news/20111219/8322/fukushima-radiation-epa-death-united-states-nuclear-meltdown-japan-tsunami-earthquake.htm#.Tu_ZT-C6ick.facebook, and http://www.radiation.org/reading/pubs/HS42_1F.pdf, then do your own research on this matter. This has happened before, and if not stopped, will happen again.
Now is the time to educate ourselves and our children on the environmental issues that go hand in hand with whaling. Together, we can make a difference, and open up our lives to help other beings. If you don’t know where to start, let me suggest that you watch the cove movie preview. Then go out and purchase or watch thecovemovie.com/buy_the_dvd.htm. If this doesn’t change the way you look at how we treat dolphins and whales, then maybe you should be asking yourself if you are part of the problem. All animals deserve a happy, long, exciting life, just like we do. Do your part and be that difference for them.
Help us spread the word about what is happening in Taiji, Japan. The more people who know about it, the faster we can end it. Please sign and share these petitions http://apps.facebook.com/petitions/takeaction/724/210/624/, http://apps.facebook.com/petitions/27/save-the-dolphins-of-the-cove/.
Also, I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who has been fighting for this cause from the start, middle, or who has just joined. Nothing can change if we ignore this. So many of you have done so many different things to help out. People of all ages have chipped in where they can. Whether it be word of mouth, posting on social media, signing petitions, donating money, calling the embassies, protesting in various forms and fashions at various places, making pamphlets and handing them out or taking the ultimate leap and going to Taiji for any length of time, it all helps us achieve our ultimate goal. We will save the dolphins from ourselves. It will take time and let us not be faltered by setbacks. There is great strength in numbers and our numbers grow rapidly as every day passes. So lets keep doing what we do and continue to fight for what we know as equal rights amongst all living beings. Never give up!
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