Every year thousands of dolphins and whales are murdered in Japan and the Faroe Islands. Hundreds marched along Whitehall to get the UK government to respond.

In Japan dolphins are caught to be sold into captivity all throughout the months of September to March. In the Faroe Islands pilot whales are slaughtered in a process known as the ‘grind’ as an annual tradition and for food.

 

On an autumn Saturday trip to central London, I quickly came to hear loud chanting near Trafalgar Square. A long procession of people chanting phrases such as ‘STOP THE SLAUGHTER IN THE WATER’ and ‘TAICHI, SET THEM FREE’ were marching towards Parliament Square.

 

I decided to walk along with them and managed to meet one of the activists who was handing out flyers. Her name is Karen Flynn. I was enlightened by talking with her and found her to be a noble, kind-hearted woman with an inspirational passion for raising awareness about animal welfare.

 

Below are some extracts of our conversation accompanied by some of my comments.

 

M (me): Can you tell me a bit about yourself then, how did you get into all of this?

KF (Karen Flynn): I don’t eat meat and I haven’t eaten meat practically all my life. I’ve always been a strong animal activist but about 12-13 years ago, my husband and I were going to Egypt, we wanted, believe it or not, to swim with the dolphins. Now, we thought they were in the ocean, we thought there were certain points where we could meet them in the ocean where they would come to the boats but then my husband said, ‘they are in a swimming pool,’ I said, ‘don’t be stupid!’ I thought I was pretty well educated beforehand and then of course that opened it all up to us and I just got heavily into it and now I go to protests at the Japanese embassy or regarding the Faroes. Me and my friend actually went to a set place where dolphins are kept in captivity, and it was amazing, but it was also very sad knowing that the dolphins were just a few feet away.

M: How long and how frequently have you been protesting for?

KF: A long time, about 12 years and we used to do it quite often, we go to other things as well, we protest for the dogs but honestly covid has stopped a lot of the events but probably 10-12 times a year. It’s a lot of different events, we’ve protested for Nolita, she’s an orca whale that’s been kept in captivity.

 

At this point in the recording, we were going down Whitehall and protestors on megaphones started chanting ‘BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS' towards the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Anyways, back to Karen.


M: So, are you part of a specific organization that does all this?

KF: No, no, we are just a group with me and some of my friends but Sea Shepherd, the girls up there, actually attended the Grinds and documented some of the Grinds actually happening.

 

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a very impactful non-profit that are most famous for sending boats to track and actively prevent illegal fishing vessels. They utilize direct action activism and have undertaken many controversial operations against governments in their pursuit for marine conservation. In the early 2010s the Japanese government claimed that Sea Shepherd were ‘impeding research’ by preventing Japanese whaling but the International Court for Justice then ordered Japan to stop whaling practices immediately as it was deemed not for scientific purposes.

You can read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-31/ijc-japan-whaling-southern-ocean-scientific-research/5357416?nw=0&r=Interactive

 

M: In the time that you’ve been protesting have you seen any positive change occur because of your protests?

KF: I have seen a drop in people going to places in SeaWorld and awareness increase. Many when you give leaflets out to them are like ‘Oh god I had no idea that happened.’

Say I gave one person a leaflet and they reply, “That’s terrible, I’ll never go and see dolphins in captivity now,” that to me is worth my whole day, you know, because you made a difference and that one person will go and tell somebody else who will tell somebody else etc

M: These things are obviously bad things, so the main issue is simply that people just don’t know enough about it, when you do work like this, people learn, and they won’t forget something as serious as this.

KF: Absolutely, for instance in the Faroes they treat it as a family day. Once the whistle goes, meaning a grind is happening, the whole of the island will go down on the shores and watch. The moms take the children, their babies. They’re all laughing whilst those babies (baby dolphins) are being dragged up on board and getting their throats slit.

We’ve even got pictures of children picking up dead dolphin babies and throwing them around and in this country that would be child abuse, you would have social services involved.

When I showed these pictures to my children, they were absolutely horrified, they couldn’t even look at the pictures.

M: And if a child learns about it, they’ll thinks it’s normal and that it's ok.

KF: That’s it and they'll carry it on generation to generation.

M: To me it doesn’t make any sense why people would havethis practice of murdering whales every year.

KF: Well, it’s because they enjoy it, if you watch the footage, if you go onto Sea Shepherd’s Faroe Islands footage and you actually watch, its horrific, you’ve probably never seen anything like it. It’s like a horror movie but only it’s not a horror movie its real life and if you watch it, you actually see the pleasure on their places.

 

Defenders of the grind argue that it is a long-lasting tradition that the people of the island once depended on for food. They say it is hypocritical for people who eat animals killed in slaughterhouses to criticize and there is even a moral argument saying that since 1 whale can feed much more people than say a chicken, it is a more ethically to end 1 whale life than 1000 chicken’s lives for food. Additionally, the grind has been recognized as a sustainable practice and less than 1% of the population of pilot whales are killed annually. Images from grinds are gruesome and disturbing and though the practice is sustainable, there is no real need for whales to be killed and in fact it was found in 2008 that pilot whale meat contained mercury and was harmful to humans. Both sides for and against the grind have feasible points and defenders of the grind are not without precedence.

 

Considerably less debatable than the pilot whale grind, however, is the purely profit-driven Taiji Cove slaughtering or capture of dolphins to sell them into captivity.

 

KF: So, what happens in Taiji cove in Japan, is that in September to March every year they drive the dolphins in, the ones that aren’t selected for captivity – they are murdered. The bottlenose dolphins are the prime ones that they take, the ones that go to the marine parks and then the rest are slaughtered. So, we are advising people not to swim with dolphins, not to visit dolphins or whales in captivity, just to make people aware of the horrors and for instance orca’s swim up to 100 miles a day in the ocean

M: And in captivity, they can’t do this right, it just defeats the point of their entire life

KF: Exactly, and the same with the dolphins they swim 50 miles a day in a straight line in the ocean, and to get them performing like that is just so wrong.

[stopping the slaughters] are not even an infringement on people’s rights, it is just about what is right.

M: It seems utterly pointless that the Japanese do this.

KF: Entertainment, people are saying well otherwise how can my children see dolphins, but your children have never seen dinosaurs and it doesn’t make them lose any less interest in them!

M: And if you really wanted to see dolphin’s you could see them in the wild, in the ocean.

KF: Exactly, we’ve had the pleasure of doing that, I’ve gone most years to see them and its incredible and once you’ve seen them in the ocean its completely different. I couldn’t ever imagine seeing them inside, I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t think like I do, I don’t understand how people think its right to put something that belongs so free in the ocean into captivity.

M: Is the capturing in Japan also a tradition like they say it is in the Faroe’s?

KF: Well, they say it’s a tradition that started in the 1960s but that's not really a tradition, is it? In Japan its fuelled by the captive industry.

M: So, it’s for money then?

KF: Exactly because not many people in japan now still eat dolphin meat, it’s just fuelled by the captive industry they will get $100 dollars for a dead dolphin but for a live dolphin that’s trained they can get around $100,000. It speaks for itself doesn’t it.

If you google The Cove and the Faroe Islands Grind as I said all the information’s on there

M: You seem to know so much about this whereas I had completely no idea!

KF: But this is why we are here. you know. you have made my day now because I’ve spoken to someone who didn’t know much but you’ve listened to me and I’m sure now you want this to end as well.

 

So, ‘reader,’ I did not expect to see this protest or meet this wonderful woman when I went into London for some shopping, but I am very happy I did. I hope I have been able to give you some insight into animal activism and the unethical practices taking place in Japan and the Faroe Islands. I highly encourage you to educate yourself on the practices as they are serious issues that we as a united voice of the public have the power to stop.

 

There are many ways people can get involved in putting an end to these terrible slaughters, some of the most accessible ways are:

  • Not buying tickets to dolphin shows, aquariums or marine parks
  • Watch documentaries such as ‘The Cove’ and ‘Blackfish’ to learn more
  • Attend or organize peaceful demonstrations
  • Sign petitions to get the issue debated in parliament
  • Support alternatives to captivity, such as wild dolphin and whale watching tours, films, snorkelling
  • Raise awareness on social media