I arrived in Taiji on Saturday and everyone was in good spirits because the hunters now take Saturdays off and they leave the dolphins in peace. Giving the dolphins a break is really the last thing on their minds. What these guys really want is a break from the irritating, relentless surveillance conducted by the Cove Guardians. We pride ourselves in our ability to be incredibly annoying.
On Sunday it was windy so the boats did not go out and today the hunters burned a lot of fuel but came home with nothing. The past few days have been good for the dolphins, but so far this year, 39% of the time the killers hunted, they found dolphins and annihilated them.
Things have changed since I was last here and the most noticeable change is an increased police presence and the addition of riot police. There are many more police vehicles on patrol and at the Cove there is a modular building called a “police box”. Today two of my colleagues walked into the police box and one asked the police for help with her camera. It had been programed in Japanese and she wanted it changed to English so the police did their best to help her.
Last year when a new Cove Guardian arrived, the police would immediately appear and ask to see the passport of the new arrival. This year I had to go through this twice with two different police forces and I also had to fill out a questionnaire and show my international drivers licence. All foreigners who enter Taiji must go through this process. If a foreigner is seen driving a car who is not known to the police (by the way….I am “known”) the foreigner will be stopped. DWI is a crime in most countries, but in Taiji, if you are DWF (Driving While Foreign) you should expect to be pulled over.
Yesterday we had some fun with the police. They often follow us, so we opted to follow them. After several minutes of playing “follow the leader” and “tag you’re it” we met them in a parking lot and Scott, our campaign leader, said to the police “Oh there are you are! We have been looking for you!” Yes, we can be annoying, but we laugh while we engage in our antics and the police have realized it is probably easier to laugh too.
Another change from last year is that all 12 banger boats tie up in the harbor in a 4 X 3 formation and they also have erected a security shed we call “Jerk in the Box”. Each night someone from one of the boats remains there overnight to secure the vessels so they don’t work the next day and only 11 boats go out. That certainly works for me. A few days ago, late at night, my colleagues drove by. Dire Straits just happened to be blasting and I believe a few car windows were down. It was only a matter of seconds that this oversight of music blasting while the windows were down occurred, but it is possible a sleeping dolphin killer’s solitude was disturbed.
Are we annoying? Yes. Are we making the lives of those who kill dolphins miserable? I sure hope so. Do the dolphin hunters wish we would go away and leave them alone? In their dreams. As long as the dolphin slaughter continues, the Cove Guardians will be in Taiji. When the slaughter stops, we will leave.
In the meantime, we will be watching them as they stand around their bonfire in the morning at the Fisherman’s Union (AKA the FU), we follow them to their boats, we watch from the promenade and from the hill we call Glenda’s and also from the Cove. Our cameras are always rolling and they hate it. They want us to go away, but we won’t. They must erect tarps and rig curtains and go to a great deal of effort to try to hide their dirty deeds; they cannot work unhindered.
The number of Cove Guardians continues to increase and we will have a record number on the ground next month. One of the police must have heard the rumour about the swelling numbers and asked if there would be 16 people here in February. Scott said “yes”. The officer then asked “Do you know when they are coming?” and Scott again said “yes”, but his tone was clear. Scott had no intention of providing further information. We all laughed, including the police. This is an odd place. The hunters have become the hunted and the Cove Guardians, police, and additional security are all part of the pageant.
Some people will never understand why it is wrong to kill a sentient being, but they do understand money. The extra security measures are costing Taiji and the Wakayama Prefecture a great deal of money. The killing of dolphins was once a simple process, but the need to hide is causing inefficiencies.
We will continue to do everything we can to negate the killers’ profits and to make their lives as unpleasant as possible while we walk a very fine line. The challenge is that the line is sometimes blurred and it also moves unexpectedly, but this is a risk we take and we will continue to do so until the killing stops.
For the Oceans,
Janice
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