Fishermen kill 30 more dolphins in Japan: activists

This handout photo taken on January 20, 2014 by environmentalist group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society shows bottlenose dolphins trapped in the cove during the selection process by fishermen.

Tokyo:  Fishermen in the small Japanese town of Taiji killed more than two dozen striped dolphins on Thursday, campaigners said, as global outrage over the slaughter grows.

Activists from the militant environmentalist group Sea Shepherd said the hunters were herding the animals into a screened-off area because they wanted to hide what they were doing.

"They continue to use tarps to cover the slaughter, and physically drive the pod under the tarps... to avoid cameras," Melissa Sehgal told AFP by telephone from Taiji.

"You can hear the dolphins splashing below," she said, as the fishermen stab a metal spike into their spinal cords.

"It was approximately 30 dolphins - striped dolphins - that were all slaughtered this morning."

Boats search the open ocean off Japan's Pacific coast for pods of dolphins. When a group is located the fishermen drive them towards the cove by banging on submerged metal poles attached to their boat.

This creates a sonar wall from which they flee. By positioning several boats in an arc, the hunters can funnel the creatures into a small bay. Once there, nets are strung across the mouth of the cove to prevent the dolphins' escape.

Activists say the pod can be kept there for several days while some of the more attractive dolphins are selected for sale to aquariums and dolphinariums, who are prepared to pay handsomely for a prime specimen.

Many of the rest are killed for their meat, which features in the diets of a small number of coastal communities in rural Japan. It is not widely consumed and the Japanese government recommends limiting intake because of the high levels of mercury it contains.

"Over 1,200 dolphins have been driven into the cove since September 1, when the season began," Sehgal said. "Of those 1,200, over 600 dolphins have been slaughtered, not including today, and 149 have been taken captive."

The hunting season in Taiji is to go on until the end of February, according to an official of the local fishermen's association.

Local defenders of the hunt say it is a tradition and point out that the animals it targets are not endangered. They say Western objections are hypocritical and ignore the vastly larger number of cows, pigs and sheep butchered to satisfy demand elsewhere.

They also insist the methods they use are humane and say they screen off the killing area for the same reasons that abattoirs do not advertise the slaughter of mammals. For NDTV Updates,

Gazprom, Gap top Davos 'hall of shame': activists

AFP

Davos, Switzerland:  Campaigners at the World Economic Forum on Thursday handed clothing giant Gap and Russian oil major Gazprom their annual Public Eye shame awards for what they said were lax factory safety standards and Arctic drilling.

At an "award ceremony" on the sidelines of the annual gathering of the global elite in Davos, the Swiss chapter of Greenpeace and the Berne Declaration said Gap had won the jury prize, while Gazprom had been chosen by online voters for the public award.

The activists attacked Gap for failing to sign up to a safety accord struck in the wake of a factory fire in Bangladesh that killed 1,127 people.

"International brands sourcing from Bangladesh such as Gap have failed to ensure that their suppliers comply with even the most basic safety standards mandated by local law," they said in a statement.

"Moreover, garment workers work intolerably long hours for poverty wages."

A host of retailers agreed to hold independent building and fire safety inspections in Bangladesh and pay for factory repairs if necessary.

US groups Walmart and Gap, however, opted to stick to self-regulation and snubbed the accord, sparking anger.

Walmart has pledged to inspect its 279 Bangladeshi suppliers and publish the results, while Gap underlines that it has already launched its own safety drive.

The other company under attack was Gazprom for its drilling for oil in the Arctic Barents Sea.

The campaigners claimed the firm "has already violated several federal safety and environmental regulations."

They said that Gazprom would not be in a position to deal with a potential oil spill in the area.

"Such a spill would lead to serious, long-term pollution of their fragile region," the activists said.

Thirty foreign and Russian activists were detained in September after protesting at Gazprom's drilling, before being bailed and then winning a Kremlin-backed amnesty.

Contacted by AFP, Gazprom declined to comment while Gap was not immediately available for a response.

The groups have carried out the "naming and shaming awards" at the annual gathering of the world's political and business elite in the Swiss ski resort of Davos since 2000.

Last year's winners of the dubious honour were US investment bank Goldman Sachs and Anglo-Dutch energy firm Shell.

Previous targets have included British bank Barclays and Walt Disney.

"We have to make sure that our economic model is in line with our values systems and prevent it being dictated by the market. The Public Eye Awards remind us of our lost morality," Czech economist Tomas Sedlacek told reporters at the awards.

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