The slaughter of dolphins has started in Taiji, Japan. They killed 15 pilot whales on September 1st and this is only the beginning. Taiji has a permit to kill 2,000 dolphins. Futo, Japan announced they will hunt this year. Their quota is 589 dolphins. And this despite the fact that the price of dolphin meat is collapsing. The use of BlueVoice test results in a national Japanese newspaper made people aware of the dangerous levels of mercury in this meat. We will continue to expose the brutality of these hunts and their links to the captivity industry. And we are expanding our testing. Destruction of demand for the meat can stop these slaughters. [more]

Dolphins are Not Food
Toxic Chemicals in Whale and Dolphin Meat
Health Consequences for Japanese Consumers

Tests conducted by BlueVoice.org in during the spring of 2008 on residents of the village of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan revealed that people who eat dolphin meat exhibit extremely high levels of mercury and other heavy metals. As news of contamination levels in dolphins became more widely known in Japan the Taiji fishing cooperative sought ways to promote the sale of their product. In an effort to expand the demand, the Taiji fishing cooperative donated dolphin meat to local schools. A local official tested the meat and the results led him to call dolphin meat served in local schools "toxic waste" and stopped the cooperative from giving dolphin meat to schools. [more]

Aquarium Industry Spurs Dolphin Slaughters

Japanese fishermen kill 20 thousand dolphins a year to sell as meat which is highly contaminated with mercury and other toxins. The dolphin captivity industry promotes dolphin slaughters by paying fishermen to capture dolphins. Those not selected for a lifetime in captivity are slaughtered. [more]

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