Ashley+R’s+2018+OpEd+Article

 When I was 7, I took a cruise to Hawaii, and like any other typical tourist, I went swimming with dolphins. It wouldn't be until 7 years later when I found out the truth.

Each year from September 1 to March 1, dolphins and whales are hunted off the coast of Taiji Japan. Nearly 20,000 dolphins, whales, and porpoises are killed. The others, I wouldn't even call them lucky, are saved, yet are trained and put in aquariums, amusement parks, and hotels. The fishermen 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 12 motorized boats leave the harbor in search of wild dolphin pods, heading to deep water where the dolphins migrate.

When a pod is located, the fishermen position their boats one behind the other. They lower 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, towards the shore. The dolphins’ panic and with the loss of their navigational sense, the fishermen drive them into a small cove near Taiji harbor. Nets are drawn across the mouth of the cove to close off all exit routes so the dolphins remain trapped. Although very few dolphins have been able to escape, they usually stay behind because their families are trapped, staying behind long enough to be killed. The dolphins are either left overnight or “processed” the same-day.

Trainers pick and choose the dolphin they would like to keep, and instead of letting the others free, the fishermen, sometimes accompanied by the trainers, force the dolphins into shallow water, close to the rocky beach, hidden from the public. Here, they are slaughtered and their meat is sold in markets labeled as whale meat. The dolphin(s) who are picked by the trainer(s) are placed in net like cages nearby, where they are trained and given dead fish to eat, which are filled with dopamine to make them happier. In reality, it is making them more depressed. "A dolphins smile is the greatest deception. It creates the illusion that they're always happy."-Ric O' Barry The Dolphin Project was founded by Ric O' Barry to stop dolphins from being put into enclosures and being killed. Ric O' Barry's documentary //The Cove//, documents his journey to ending the drive season in Taiji in an attempt to show the public what they're really eating and what goes into that ticket they buy. Young dolphins who are spared can often hear their families being murdered a few hundred yards away. It sickens me to watch the cove stained red, the killers laughing and joking about, tormenting the onlookers, the activists, as they cry and sob, watching a baby dolphin trying to escape, only to be brutally killed. When these images and videos were shown to the public, they were shocked to find that the shows they took their children to caused murder, and that the reason for their mercury poisoning was because of false labeling. Throughout the years, The Dolphin Project has brought dolphin slaughter and captivity to the public eye, but its not enough. Not enough people know about this, and not enough people are taking a stand. Plenty revolt against places like Sea World, but don't look to the real issue at hand of how these beautiful creatures are being taken from their homes, their families, to be killed or put in a tank to live out the rest of their miserable lives. If you would like to learn more about this ongoing battle or find out how you can help, you can visit **https://dolphinproject.com** Together, we can take a stand against these cruel acts, and fight for whats right. I hope that the next time you think of buying a ticket to Sea World, you don't.