Taiji, Japan
Sea World–style “dolphinariums” in Japan are partially to blame for an annual dolphin slaughter, activists said this week. Every year, marine park representatives visit the fishing town of Taiji to select the best live dolphins from the corrals where fishermen have penned them. Those dolphins not chosen as performance animals are killed for sushi. The marine park owners say they are rescuing dolphins, but activists disagree. They say dolphin hunters would not make enough money to survive without selling their animals to the dolphinariums. A live dolphin goes for $30,000, while those sold for meat bring in just $300. “It’s the captivity industry that is driving [the killing] today,” conservationist Ric O’Barry told the BBC. “That money is what keeps this thing going.”
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