15/07/2026
Less than 2 months until the 25/27 Dolphin Hunting Drive Hunt Season in Taiji Japan will start again. Dolphins will either be brutally slaughtered or captured, ripped away from their homes and families to be sold to marine parks around the world.
New and still learning about these cruel hunts? Here’s information about how/when/why these horrific hunts happen every year.
About the cruel Taiji Japan dolphin Hunts.
These hunts go on for 6 months Sept 1st to the end of February , Dolphins are either slaughtered or ripped d away from their home and families to be sold to Marine parks/Aquariums, captured dolphins will be kept in Seapens until then are sold.
BlueCove: The only way we want the cove to be, No dolphins will be harmed on this day.
RedCove: Dolphins have been slaughtered.
GreenCove: Dolphins have been captured to be sold for a life of suffering in captivity.
BlackCove: Dolphins are being kept overnight with no food or water, some BlackCoves will last several nights depending on how large a pod is.
~Why do they hunt Dolphins in Taiji Japan?
These drive hunts are fully legal under the Japanese government and Taiji, fishermen's union. the dolphin hunters/killers are granted a permit to hunt wild dolphins each season from September 1st to the end of February for the captive trade industry in which they are heavily involved with. they slaughter the dolphins that are deemed ''not pretty enough'' for captivity and sell the meat to locals and tourists. the meat is often labeled ''whale meat'' due to not many Japanese eating dolphin meat, and with the demand for both dolphin meat and whale meat in decline for the past several years. they also make fertilizer and pet food from the dolphin meat. the fishermen also view the dolphins as ''pests'' that are eating all of their fish ( their livelihood) but we all know this is simply not true, as these are migrating dolphins not local to Japanese waters. however, the slaughter's are just a cover-up to hide behind the captive business in which they are involved with. this is all about money and profit. with the captive industry being the driving force behind it.
Here are some facts from Dolphin Project's Q & A regarding the drive hunts, captures, and slaughters.
{How do they capture the dolphins?}
'The Hunters of Taiji have developed a highly effective method of locating, capturing and eradicating dolphins, sometimes as many as one hundred or more in a single day.
Just before sunrise, a fleet of 9 motorized boats leave the harbor in search of wild dolphin pods, heading to deep water where the dolphins migrate. The dolphins have been using these migratory paths for thousands, perhaps millions, of years, and the hunters know exactly where to find them. They fan out for many miles offshore, beyond the horizon.
When a pod is located, the hunters position their boats one behind the other, perfectly evenly spaced. They lower several stainless steel poles into the water, one on each side of each boat. The poles are flared out at the bottom much like a bell, which amplifies the sound produced as the hunters repeatedly hit the poles with hammers. The noise creates a wall of sound underwater, and the dolphins find themselves trapped between this wall of sound and the shoreline.
In an attempt to escape the sound, the dolphins swim in the opposite direction, toward the shore. The dolphins’ panic and with the loss of their navigational sense, the hunters can drive them into a small cove near Taiji harbor. The process may take several hours, during which the dolphins grow exhausted. Once a pod is driven into the cove nets are drawn across the mouth of the cove to close off all exit routes so the dolphins remain trapped. The dolphins are either left overnight or “processed” same-day.
Hunters then force the dolphins into shallow water, close to the rocky beach. Here, they are slaughtered or inspected as part of the captive selection. ''
