Flipper's trainer leads international protest against dolphin hunting in Japan

Ric O'Barry, the former dolphin-trainer for the 1960s "Flipper" TV show, is currently in Japan leading a protest against the slaughter of dolphins scheduled to begin today in the village of Taiji, where the 3,500 residents claim that the dolphin-killing is a vital part of their tradition and a livelihood. In the past, some of the captured dolphins have been sold to aquariums. Some are also eaten as meat.

The hunt was featured in the movie "The Cove," which won this year's Academy Award for best documentary, and depicted how a handful of fishermen from Taiji herded a group of dolphins into a cove where they stabbed them to death, “turning the waters red with blood”

The 70 year old O'Barry  has made trips to the village in past years, accompanied by other conservationists, around the beginning of the hunt to express opposition to what they say is “a cruel slaying of animals that are as intelligent as human beings.” He plans to take a petition signed by 1.7 million people from 155 nations demanding the end of the dolphin hunt to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. Tokyo police will escort him for security reasons  because of threats from an ultranationalist group. A planned trip to bring it to the Japanese Fisheries Ministries was canceled on advice of Japanese police.

Wild dolphins are a common sight in Long Island Sound as well as other waters all along the Atlantic Coast. Those interested in learning more about them can contact the Mystic Aquarium & Institute of Exploration, 55 Coogan Blvd., Mystic, CT 06355-1997 860-572-5955 Website: www.mysticaquarium.org
E-mail: info@mysticaquarium.org