TO: Mr. Takeshi Kishimoto, Chair of Wakayama Prefectural Assembly
Petition about the restriction on or imposing a condition on the capture of suckling calves or female dolphins accompanied by calves (including suckling calves) in cetacean drive hunting conducted in Taiji Town, Wakayama Prefecture. Submitted without a prefectural assembly member’s referral
Summary of petition I request the Wakayama Prefecture to restrict or impose a condition on the capture of suckling calves or female dolphins accompanied by calves (including suckling calves) in cetacean drive hunting.
Reasons In four types of cetacean fishery in Japan (mother ship type whale fishery, small-scale whale fishery, dolphin drive hunting, and dolphin harpoon fishery), dolphin drive hunting is the only method that does not come with the restriction about capturing suckling calves or female cetacean accompanied by calves.
In the Ministerial Ordinance on the Permission, Regulation, Etc. of Designated Fisheries [指定漁法の許可及び取締り等に関する省令], Article 47 stipulates that mother ship type whale fishery manager shall not capture any suckling calves or female whales accompanied by calves (including suckling calves). Article 43 of the Ordinance stipulates the same for small-scale whale fishery manager.
Policies of all prefectures conducting dolphin harpoon fishery, namely Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Chiba, Wakayama, and Okinawa, restrict or impose a condition that ‘suckling calves and female dolphins accompanied by calves’ shall not be captured
Given the above, I petition Wakayama Prefecture to restrict or impose a condition on capturing suckling calves or female dolphins accompanied by calves (including suckling calves).
Petitioner: Mineto Meguro Representative Director Animal Liberator Tokyo, Japan
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If this petition is accepted, this will have a big impact on 4 things: ① dolphins, ② dolphin drive hunting, ③Aquariums and ④Activities.
① Dolphins
-More than anything, it will stop the slaughter of the babies, children, and females. The female dolphins as a pod protect the children so all of them are important. -It will decrease the dolphins who get separated for sale to aquariums. -It will contribute to repopulating the number of dolphins.
②Dolphin drive hunting
-It will reduce the number of captured dolphins due to the ban on capturing baby dolphins and female dolphins. -It will require more work to examine the baby dolphins and female dolphins that must be let go. -It will enlighten people while spreading public opinion and create a framework for a set of regulations for possible countries that might start dolphin hunting in the future. This will discourage dolphin drive hunting.
③ Aquariums
-It will stop aquariums from being able to buy young female dolphins (which are highly sought after). -It will make it more difficult to train dolphins (adult dolphins take more time to train). -It will be difficult for aquariums to breed due to the drastic decrease of female captures. -It will result in decreasing the number of dolphins in captivity in the future. -It will have a big impact not only on domestic aquariums but also the aquariums around the world which are importing from Japan (like China).
④Activities
-It will be possible to report if rules are broken. Instead of just watching and making videos of the dolphin drive hunting, it will allow people to be involved and take action.
I hope the petition will be accepted. Even if denied this time, I will keep submitting the petition every year until we have improved the safety of the female and the baby dolphins. Every time I submit the petition, the content and the method will be modified. By doing this, it will inform people about the facts pertaining to the separation of dolphin families and/or the slaughter of female and the baby dolphins. This will lead to more public awareness of the need for safety of the dolphins.
As this is the first submission, we did it alone. We appreciate your support to save dolphins and look forward to working with you for the next submission and onward.
