Research

Our group research was on the movie called The Cove. It is a documentary based how Taiji, Japan continues to slaughter dolphins each year. So our group decided to focus on the why should our class care about this issue, and of course there are many reasons why.

Here was my research:

From a 1971 population-based investigation, data from 2 villages were selected: Minamata (high-exposure area;n= 779) and Ariake (low-exposure area;n= 755). The authors examined the prevalence of neurologic signs characteristic of methylmercury poisoning and the validity of the criteria. A substantial number of residents in the exposed area exhibited neurologic signs even after excluding officially certified patients.

Mercury levels in selected fish and shellfish  

VERY LOW

Shrimp
Salmon

BELOW AVERAGE

Crabs
Catfish

ABOVE AVERAGE

Cod
Canned light tuna

MODERATELY HIGH

Halibut
American lobster

HIGH

Grouper
Canned/Albacore tuna

VERY HIGH

Swordfish
Tuna sushi/Bluefin tuna

*Dolphins eat tuna therefore when the whalers/fishermen slaughter them for meat they don't realize they become

highly intoxicated with mercury since it eats from the food chain down-upward.

source:

Works Cited

"Science Stats." Science News 177.11 (2010): 4. Consumer Health Complete - EBSCOhost. Web. 5 Aug. 2013.

From 1932 to 1968, Chisso Corporation, a local petrochemical and plastics maker, dumped an estimated 27 tons of mercury into Minamata bay, poisoning fish and eventually, the people who ate them.

McCurry, Justin. "Japan Remembers Minamata." Lancet 367.9505 (2006): 99-100. Consumer Health Complete - EBSCOhost. Web. 5 Aug. 2013.

 We also made notes to help us focus on out project. 

 

The Cove Notes

• ·         Dolphins that are kept in captivity become stressed, and tend to get ulcers. It is recommended by biologists that they should be released back into their natural environment.
• ·         Sonar (sound)- is their primarily most important way of surviving and living. They use it to communicate, navigate, and hunt. But when there is a lot of noise blocking their sonar it becomes difficult for them. (We are creating noise pollution for them)
• ·         Minamata Disease- is the effect due to mercury poisoning. It causes brain damage such as memory loss, loss of hearing, and sight. Not only that a child could be left to look deformed because of it. The disease slowly kills you.
• ·         Media covers up the fact that dolphin meat contains about 2000ppm of mercury poisoning that is not only toxic for the animals, but to us as well. The acceptable amount of mercury that should be in any fish is 0.4ppm
• ·         1-3% each year the amount of mercury poising magnitudes to 10x that amount due to the industrial revolution.
• ·         23,000 dolphins and small whales are killed each year during September-___
• ·         70% of the population relies on fish for protein. Close public health problem if there is no more fish. Public is scared they will run out of food.
• ·         2003 Japan blame dolphins for eating too much of their fish.
• ·         1986 the IWC (International Whaling Comity) banned commercial whaling but the next year the number of whales and dolphins doubled.
• ·         Consumerism, supply and demand of dolphin meat.
• ·         Most parts of japan have no idea that they eat packed dolphin meat. They think its whale or other types of fish.
• ·         IWC protects whales (Porpoises) but they don’t include dolphins under that same category because Japan claims them to be cetaceans which is the same. Dolphins are Porpoises therefore they should be protected they are in the same Porpoises family.
• ·         Taiji, Japan is the world’s largest supplier of dolphins for other aquatic parks in the world. They make $150,000 for dolphins that are trainable that are shipped to parks.
• ·         Drive Hunt- the method the use to catch these dolphins is by creating a wall of sound as the fishermen clang on their boats pole. Then once they gather a pod of dolphins they seal them in with nets near a small cove. They next day trainers come and pick out the best dolphin to take back to the park (typically they all want “Flipper” a Bottlenose Dolphin). After that other dolphins are slaughtered and will become packaged dolphin meat.
• ·         Dolphin Slaughtering
• ·         Whaling
• ·         Whaling in the 21^st Century deals with a lot of negotiation and funding with bankrupt countries. In Japan case they had the whole E. Caribbean and gave them lots of “goodies” which is money for fishery complexes.
• ·         Japan claims that it is tradition they hunt these animals, when really that ended centuries ago.
• ·         They distribute dolphin meat to their school systems knowing it is high in mercury.