Guest Post: A Dance with the Dolphins

The following article is by Chisa Hidaka, founder of the Dolphin Dance Project.

I initiated Dolphin Dance Project to document the extraordinary relationship that arises when humans and wild dolphins interact through dance. Our first short film, “Together: Dancing with Spinner Dolphins”, depicts the tender relationship between a human dancer and wild Spinner dolphins in the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean. Sensitively listening to each other with their bodies, human and dolphins follow and mimic each other. With skill, intelligence, creativity and a deep mutual desire to communicate across the species divide, they find an amazing way to connect, co-creating a dance…together.

I’m proud to announce that “Together: Dancing with Spinner Dolphins” just won Best Experimental Film at the Big Apple Film Festival! I hope you’ll take a moment to watch our film.

Dolphins are amazing creatures for so many reasons. They are so similar to us in the way they think and feel, scientists and ethicists have proposed that they be considered non-human persons with rights and protections similar to the ones we afford each other.

Most wild animals run away from us – and for good reason! But wild dolphins – or at least, some of them – actually seem to like humans. In the Dolphin Dance Project we never feed the dolphins or coerce them in any way. We never have to, as long as we are patient and can wait for the times when the dolphins are in the mood to play. When they are, they generously invite us into a kind of relationship that we modern, urban humans can really cherish. We have the rare and precious opportunity to feel what it’s like to be an equal amongst animals – a creature in harmony with nature’s amazing web. It’s a priceless gift the likes of which we receive from no other.

So how do we thank the dolphins for their incredible, precious gift? Ugh…sometimes I feel ashamed to be a human! There has been a big focus on the slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan – thanks to the Oscar winning film, The Cove. But in truth, we kill and harm dolphins in many ways, and there’s much we can do to protect them – in Japan and around the world. There’s quite a complete review of the many issues – including aquariums, pollutants (mercury, PCBs etc), commercial fishing (bycatch), boat traffic/noise and other issues – at my website.

In this article I’ll focus on Taiji, since Steven is there right now.

Only Japanese people can change Japanese law.

Unlike whaling, where Japanese whalers are in breach of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) whaling moratorium, hunting dolphins is completely legal in Japan (even though we, of course, believe it is morally reprehensible).

Unlike whaling, where the goal is to get the Japanese government to comply with an official, internationally agreed-upon IWC agreement, with the dolphin hunt our goal is to get the Japanese government to change their own laws.

Imagine if the tables were turned and you’ll see that this goal is problematic. Would we stand by and allow our government to ban all cattle slaughter based on a few – or even 10,000 – Hindu activists from India? Even if we were vegan and wanted all cattle slaughter to end, I think we would be very alarmed and rightfully opposed to our government capitulating to the demands of foreign activists – no matter how good their rationale were.

If we want Japanese laws to change, we will have to appeal to the US government to put pressure on the Japanese government or on the UN, IWC or other international governing body or we will need to persuade Japanese citizens that they should get their government to change the laws. As individual US citizens, we should not expect to change Japanese law no matter how absolutely right our rationale are.

Cooperation equals progress.

If we want Japanese laws to change, our goal should be to gain the cooperation of Japanese citizens.

How do we do that?

By making Japanese allies. There is some Japanese pro-dolphin activism in Japan and it’s important to get their cooperation and to help them grow with our moral and financial support. ELSA, an animal welfare group, has been a champion for dolphins for several decades. It’s leader Ms. Hemmi published this important WDCS report in 2006. The Cove was created based on this information. Unfortunately the filmmakers missed an opportunity to support Ms. Hemmi and her organization when they failed to highlight ELSA’s contribution and efforts in their film. If they had highlighted her, they could have shown a Japanese group taking the lead to protect dolphins. It would have helped tremendously in securing Japanese cooperation. Even now, we should be working closely with ELSA and following their lead. Here is a list of other Japanese pro-dolphin groups.

We also need to upgrade our image. Scott and Elora have done a great job of not breaking Japanese laws while standing vigil in Taiji. We all admire and appreciate their courage and service. But over the 30 year course of pro-dolphin activities in Japan (not just in Taiji but Iki and Futo), other pro-dolphin activists (primarily Greenpeace members) and pro-whaling activists (including SSCS) have broken the law and gone to prison in Japan. These actions have allowed the Japanese government and mainstream media to paint the entire pro-cetacean movement as ‘criminal’. To change the way we are viewed by the Japanese public, we have to increase activities that inspire and gain the respect of Japanese people – education, outreach, the arts and more.

We must also stop being confrontational. Consensus is extremely important in Japan, perhaps as important as debate is in the US. Here in America we embrace open debates and mass demonstrations – confrontation is fine, as long as it’s intelligently argued. Not in Japan. In Japan, difficult agreements are often quietly worked out behind closed doors, then presented in a way that everyone can agree without having anyone look bad or lose face.

Consensus builds slowly; but cooperation can come quickly if a respected pro-dolphin activist can negotiate a behind-the-scenes agreement with an influential Japanese person and present the public with a win-win solution that makes everyone look good.

More information equals more leverage.

Who is this “influential Japanese person” and what do we use as leverage to negotiate this “behind-the-scenes agreement”? I don’t know but we need to find out.

Where do we look? Where the money is.  We need more information about the dolphin business.

In Ms. Hemmi’s report states that dolphin hunting almost ended in the late ‘90s because it was too expensive considering how small the dolphin meat market was. Now in the 2000s this all changed because the live capture of dolphins brought a lucrative business to Taiji.

Taiji is now the main supplier of live dolphins to the world’s aquariums.  Only aging locals eat dolphin meat but the world – China, Ukraine, Dubai - buys live dolphins from Taiji. A dead dolphin brings a fisherman $300. A live dolphin brings him $1000 and the broker (which is sometimes the Taiji Whale Museum and other times private brokers) gets up to $300K.

Who are the major players in the live dolphin business? How does their business run? Who are the buyers? Who are the brokers? Who transports the dolphins? The more details we have about the business, the more points of leverage we can discover to pressure the people who have the money and the power. I doubt we can actually shut down the whole live trade but perhaps we could pressure them into stopping the slaughter. If aquariums or brokers said, “We will not buy dolphins unless you stop killing them” - the killing would most likely stop because the live trade brings in so much more money to Taiji than dolphin meat. We need to find the right incentives that will convince aquariums and/or brokers to demand change. Investigative sleuthing by someone in Taiji is needed so we can know the right “carrot and stick” to use.

An agreement to improve the live trade by stopping the killing could happen quickly because it does not require a change in Japanese law – only a change in the way dolphins are captured - a change in business practice. Furthermore, it does not impose foreign will on Japanese tradition. The live dolphin trade is a modern, international business, so it is completely reasonable to expect the people in the business to act in accordance with global views of what is humane.

Of course, a solution such as this still leaves the problem of captivity. I am afraid that will have to be tackled over a longer stretch of time. Japan has over 50 aquariums – as many as the entire US on a land mass a fraction of the size. It will take a long time and a lot of energy/resources to convince Japanese people not to patronize cruel and inhumane dolphin shows.

Be creative and be compassionate.

There are examples of creative and compassionate solutions in Japan. Mikura Island, a small island off the coast of Tokyo, is a place where all dolphins are protected by Japanese law. Many tourists go there to swim with wild dolphins. The tours are so profitable people only work from March to November. Mikura Island has just as deep a history of whaling as Taiji. Why and how did this tiny village undergo such positive change? Perhaps it is worth finding out – to see to what extent they can be an example for Taiji.

The Japanese people who swim with dolphins around Mikura Island LOVE dolphins. They gather at a pool in Tokyo to practice their skills so they can be more like dolphins. They travel to the Bahamas to swim with even more dolphins. Here they are performing in a public service announcement on behalf of dolphins. How can we inspire Japanese dolphin lovers to do even more?

We want humans – Japanese and otherwise – to act with compassion towards the dolphins. We cannot force that to happen by anger or violence. We need to use our own compassion as well as our love and creativity. That is the basis of my Dolphin Dance Project.

I’ve also started a post-card campaign with Krystin Leonhardt of World Wide Anti-Whaling Day. Please visit our Facebook page and use your creativity to make a beautiful postcard to send to the Taiji Whale Museum. Let’s tell the dolphin brokers that we love and want to protect dolphins – and they should, too.

Bring your heart to this issue and you will help both humans and dolphins. The slaughters you will witness will make you enraged, frustrated, horrified. No doubt but that what you will see will make you want to say and do violent, awful things in response. None of us are immune to such weakness. It will take a great deal of strength to maintain the equanimity required to be an agent of compassionate, positive change. Be strong.