Help DDUK in Taiji in the Dolphin Hunt Season 17/18

Help us fund our next trip to Taiji to monitor the captive Cetaceans kept at the Taiji locations and to document and share the dolphin drive hunt season.

Our goal is open with this fundraiser. During the 2017 part of the drive hunt season, hotel rooms are between 60 to 100 GBP per night (this is the price during the time we aim to go to Taiji) & we aim to stay as long as money allows us, last time I visited Taiji I had to rely on other activists as I could not rent a car. This season I will be hiring a car, and need some help with the costs. Car hire is around £250 Per week (please feel free to recommend cheaper companies, i will add an image of the lowest cost we have found)

As we did last season, we will focus our cameras on the captive dolphins that arrived from Taiji to parks around Japan, with a car we will be able to visit more facilities.

WHO IS DDUK?

Dolphin Defenders UK was initially started as a facebook group to keep members informed about all things dolphin, focusing on the plight of dolphins in captivity and those involved in the Taiji drive hunting seasons.
Since then, we have organised protests against the dolphin slaughter in London, and held small stalls in different areas in the UK to raise awareness.
2016/2017 Drive hunt season, our founder headed to Japan, to bare witness to the drive hunts in Taiji, to document and photograph the horrors that happen. We also attended Japanese Aquariums and Dolphinariums to document the conditions the cetaceans are being kept in, and to also find out where Taiji's dolphins primarily end up. We hope to educate and speak to Japanese individuals and learn about their culture and help them understand that these sentient beings cannot continue to be destroyed by these fishermen.
Our goals are to keep educating people in large numbers, and help bring an end to the slaughter of dolphins in Taiji and around Japan.

WHY TAIJI?

The Taiji drive hunt of dolphins and other small cetaceans is a dolphin drive hunt that takes place in Taiji, Wakayama in Japan every year from September to March, including pilot whaling, which lasts a month longer. Annually, an approximation of 22,000 small cetaceans are killed using the methodology of drive hunting, taking place in the waters of Japan. The term "Dolphin drive hunting" also known as "the drive fishery," refers to the act of driving or herding cetaceans, specifically into coves, conducted for the following reasons: providing income for local residents, they are seen as pests by local fishermen and are competition in the livelihood of fisheries, a source of meat for human consumption, and locally and internationally provide live cetaceans in the business of marine parks for human entertainment purposes.

There is a quota set by the government of Japan allowing over 2,000 cetaceans to be slaughtered or captured, and this Japanese hunt is one of the biggest slaughters of dolphins and whales in the world. The annual dolphin hunt provides income for local residents, and has received international criticism for both the cruelty of the dolphin killing and the high mercury levels of the dolphin meat. This annual dolphin hunts are It has received international criticism for both the cruelty of the dolphin killing and the high mercury levels of the dolphin meat.

FIND OUT MORE

www.dolphindefendersuk.org

www.dolphinproject.net

www.seashepherd.co.uk