Dolphin with additional "fins" captured during brutal drive hunt in Japan

It has recently been reported that fishermen captured a dolphin which had two "extra" fins towards its tail fluke off the coast of Wakayama prefecture in western Japan on October 28. The Marine Connection is concerned about these reports because although a dolphin with extra fins is indeed an unusual occurrence, one very disturbing fact has been overlooked - the way in which this dolphin was discovered.

Newspapers around the world are overlooking the fact that this dolphin was captured along with 200 other dolphins and small whales during the brutal drive hunts which operate between September and March every year off the coast of Japan. During these hunts, the 'fishermen' round up whole pods of dolphins and small whales into shallow coves trapping them with nets. Here the animals will remain distressed and restricted until they are killed callously with knives in the lagoon taking up to six minutes to die.

Click here to view a video of the four-finned dolphin

However, aquariums and marine parks will pick out the "best", or as we see in this case, the "unusual" animals, for display, paying large sums of money and perpetuating the drive fisheries from year to year. It has been reported by colleagues that are present at the drive hunt site that this particular dolphin was in fact taken from its mother by marine park dolphin trainers who remove animals from the blood-red sea while the slaughter takes place. The captured dolphin's mother was then killed and butchered in the slaughterhouse along with approximately 200 other animals.

This dolphin with four fins (left) has managed to survive five years of life in the oceans swimming with its family pod, socialising, communicating and foraging. Yet sadly, along with many others which were not killed during the drive hunt, it has now been brutally lifted from the sea where it roamed, destined to become an exhibit in a tank in the Taiji Whale Museum. This image on the left shows what a clinical and unfeeling process this is. The animal is held on its back by several divers; it has blood on the tip of its rostrum which is common during the hunts as dolphins try to escape the netting which traps them in shallow bays.

This is the truth behind this "scientific discovery" which is being reported throughout the world. This dolphin which has additional fins was inadvertently caught during this brutal process, which continues because marine parks want further stock for their displays. Had the dolphin not had an abnormality it would have already been slaughtered. Deformities of marine mammals in the wild are not an unknown occurrence; however what is not certain from research currently being undertaken is whether these abnormalities are due to natural or anthropogenic factors.

The hunts are profitable simply because marine parks pay huge sums of money to personally select the best dolphins for display or swim with dolphin programmes. There can be no excuse for the continuation of these drive hunts.

Image: © Helene O'Barry / One Voice