JAPAN: The sea turned blood red when Japanese fishermen hacked to death several dolphins they had trapped in coves around a small port.
An American anti-whaling group trying to stop the massacre has released video footage of a recent hunt which shows blood-filled coves and several dead dolphins being brought ashore in boats.
The tape, shot by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, graphically captures the end of a hunt, in which fishermen pound on the water, causing waves which confuse the mammals' sense of direction, and then corral dolphins into small coves where they can be more easily killed with sickles.
Although subject to government-set quotas, the hunts are not banned under Japanese law and are not subject to international regulations because they are done near the shore. Several dead or dying dolphins can be seen on the boats, bleeding profusely, in the footage.
The mayor and officials in Taiji refused to comment but a fisherman's union representative said the kills were conducted as humanely as possible. He said dolphin hunts had been part of local culture for 400 years.
Hunting dolphins is not banned by the International Whaling Commission.
Fishermen in Taiji regularly hunt dolphin during the October to April season.