farquah
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Posts posted by farquah
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Congrats. What's it in?
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Originally Posted By: slow
Whaling and Dolphining need to be authorized under the fisheries law "漁業法第５８条第１項の規定".
Now Fisheries Agency is asking for public comment. This licence for Whaling and Dolphining used be valid for 5years but now they changed the valid term to one year.
However, they are going to give license next year and we should tell them they should stop giving license now. The dead line date is November 27th.
I think this is more constructive approach to come out against this law.
I hope we can stop this soon.
Slow: With Yamashita san of Taiji council we have allready sent numerous petitions to stop the license being given to Taiji, however it has had no effect, especially now they have had the approval to build a brand new slaughter house which they have allready received government funds for. However the fisheries agency this year as a result did warn the Taiji fishermen that they would not renew their license in future if they continue to be in the press for the dolphin killings and have such a high public profile. This is why we are trying to attack the situation more vigerously now in the media, especially trying to get it into Japanese media so that the pressure will be too much. The way to do this is through a public health message with scientific data to back it up.
It is great you have told all your friends about it, it is exactly this public awareness that will get results. -
Tubby<< I am campaigning against this on health grounds, and I have been researching this for about 2 years. As I said in my previous post, any kind of argument discussing it from a humane perspective does not work here. My goal is to end the slaughter yes, but the only way this is possible in Japan is through a scientific approach. The ideology of previous arguments has no hold in Japanese society, and its far easier to fight for something when scietific fact is backing you up. Also campaigning to stop the sale of toxic meat and the feeding of it to children is very much campaigning on humanitarian grounds anyway. Of course we all want the same thing and that is the slaughter stopped, by whatever means necassary.
AS far as the Tuna and mercury question (apologies if this is old news): Mercury accumulates more higher up the food chain you go. In a process called bio-accumulation, microscopic organisms convert inorganic mercury into methylmercury, which accumulates up the food chain in fish, fish-eating animals, and people. The concentrations of methylmercury in large fish can be over a million-fold larger than in the surrounding wate. Thus the level of mercury in a dolphin is higher than that of a Tuna. There are LOTS of organisations who campaign against the consumption of tuna from such areas as Ecuador or Mexico because they DON'T use dolphin friendly nets to catch the tuna. This means they are catching the bigger older tuna where mercury could accumulate in higher levels, the dolphin safe nets catch the smaller younger tuna which aren't as contaminated.
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Something we are working hard at getting at the moment, is coverage here. Met with a guy form the Yomiuri here on Firday and it may be possible to have a press conferance/ lecture at the Tokyo Foreign Correspondents Club this year. This would be a major breakthrough as it is where most stories get exposure, also be pretty exciting to be speaking in the same place where people such as the Dali Lama, Al Gore, et al. have stood speaking! Also have interviews with papers in Toyama and I am doing lectures at various community centers to which all media are invited.
The reason why it hasn't been so documented in the media here I think is the way the story has been attacked in the past. Basically with foreigners criticising the dolphin cull on humanitarian grounds which the Japanese people dismiss as an affront to their "customs and traditions". However our story is the clear risk it poses to human health, and the fact the government is ignoring it, which is just irresponsible. We are talking of Mercury levels above those of the Minamata cases.
P.S Also thanks to MeJane and CB for doing those lessons, great to be able to open it up a little more and through any means. Great job!
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Church?........nothing wrong with a bit of free bread and wine!
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Think it was on the news last night that yesterday was the Japanese official beginning of winter!! Lets wintering! Anyone who thinks otherwise, a mid 20's NHK girl said so, it`s official.
Right then, I am off for a surf!
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Couple of them are grabs from the vid, but have some blurry images that may be useful. By all means let me know your email and I can send some info to you. I will attach a load of documents also if you want with test results on dolphin meat etc.
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Some of these are a little shocking, but that is what they are supposed to do, the truth is shocking.
Dolphin meat on the left here and Mink whale on the right.
Speaks for itself, the sea this morning was this colour.
The coulour hasn`t been retouched at all.
Hard to get close to the slaughter now because of the pathways blocked off.
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Sad update.
Yesterday afternoon in Taiji the fishermen rounded up another pod of Riso dolphins and quietly butchered them this morning in the bay there. The sea at the moment is a bloody red where the slaughter took place and they have just shipped off the "cuter" ones to a destination unknown for life in a tiny concrete pool for our pleasure. We were able to get some footage again but you can`t believe how hard it is to watch this thing happen in front of you. This meat will be on the supermarket shelf by next week, ready to poison some consumer.
The reason for writing this is to carry on illuminating people to what actaully happens here so that we can pressure them to end the slaughter. So few of the Japanese public know of this it seems, so if you are able to tell people or show them the videos then please do so we can stop putting peoples health at risk and the sea remains blue not the disgusting red it is now.
Will try and post some photos and the vid when I have time, as pictures speak volumes.
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Originally Posted By: BushpigFarquah, thanks. I was referring to the dolphin slaughter stuff though. You said public pressure/bad publicity got the other spots stopped, so I was thinking in terms of helping bring attention to what is happening there.
The stuff I mentioned above is being used to pressure the government into stopping the dolphin slaughter by (perversly) proving that dolphns are toxic. In Futo and Kii it was Hardy`s films and the internatinal coverage it gained which put the places in the spotlight. In a particularly Japanese way, they were embarrased at the negative attention and shut the operations down to save face in an act of "humiliation". Most of this is on Blue Voices website.
There is a great interview in a film called "The Dolphin Defender" with a former dolphin "hunter", turned conservationist and now running a dolphin and whale watching business in Futo. His father and generations before him used to slaughter the dolphins and its a great story of change. If you can`t find anything on the net I can try and provide you with a copy of it.
If you google Junichiro Yamashita you will get a load of stuff on how they are pressuring Taiji town to shout down the dolphin killing. He is the assembly man I mentioned who lives in Taiji and opposes the operation, really interesting man.
Will see what stiuff I have on it, but I am more involved in the current study in Taiji on the harmfull effects of consuming the dolphin in order to shut it down. -
BP- I have loads of stuff in Japanese if you want it. I just finished translating an article on the effects of chronic dioxin exposure due to eating dolphin and also on PCB toxins contaminating breast milk in Japan. I also have proof of hematological mallignancies rising in Japan directly proportionate to areas where high levels of whale and dolphin meat is consumed.
Let me know what you would like and i can mail you anything you request. THe blue voice site mentioned earlier also has a Japanese link in it. http://www.bluevoice.org
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Originally Posted By: soubriquet
Farquah: "With the decrease of river deltas,..."
WTF does this mean? It's a pretty broad claim. Any peer reviewed work to support it?
There are many, many studies to support this. It is happening all over the world and a major problem for various reasons. For example: the loss of wetlands for migratory birds, lack of vital nutrients provided by the river deltas and a build up of other nutrients resulting in red tides, the amount of chemicals usually flushed out now washed into the seas.....
Here are just a few articles of various points throughout the world.
1 China
Yellow River delta (YRD) is one of the biggest deltas that there is a large area of wetland in the world. Thanks to soil (sands) sediment carried by the Yellow River, there was averagely the newly formed land 21.3 km2 in YRD. During the development of petroleum industry and urban expansion, wetlands were degraded due to population growth, irrational land use, causing environmental problems on many scales. Loss of natural habitat and the desalinization of the seas are amongst some of the biggest worries, along with now annual occurances of red tides.
2 Louisiana
Natural processes alone are not responsible for the degradation and loss of wetlands in the Mississippi River delta plain. The seasonal flooding that previously provided sediments critical to the healthy growth of wetlands has been virtually eliminated by construction of massive levees that channel the river for nearly 2000 kilometers; sediment carried by the river is now discharged far from the coast, thereby depriving wetlands of vital sediment. In addition, throughout the wetlands, an extensive system of dredged canals and flood-control structures, constructed to facilitate hydrocarbon exploration and production as well as commercial and recreational boat traffic, has enabled salt water from the Gulf of Mexico to intrude brackish and freshwater wetlands. Moreover, forced drainage of the wetlands to accommodate development and agriculture also contribute to wetlands deterioration and loss
3. Europe
Deposition, turnover and movement of persistent organic pollutants (POP) were investigated in the EU integrated project “AquaTerra”, which is among the first funded environmental projects within the 6th Framework Program by the European Commission.. Field study areas are the river deltas and basins of the Ebro, the Meuse, the Elbe and the Danube as well as the 3-km2 French catchment of the Brévilles Spring. Within the first 2 years of the project more than 1700 samples of atmospherically deposited particles, sediments, and water have been collected in the above-mentioned systems. Results show clear spatial patterns of deposition of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with the highest rates in the Meuse Basin. For local inputs, in the Brévilles sandy aquifer, the contamination of the groundwater by the pesticides atrazine (AT) and deethylatrazine did not decrease even 5 years after their agricultural inputs were stopped largely attributed to the degredation of the river deltas. For sediment transport of contaminants, new flood sampling techniques revealed highest deposition rates of β-hexachlorocyclohexane (β−HCH) in river sediments at hotspot areas on the Mulde River in the Bitterfeld region (Elbe Basin, Germany). These selected preliminary results of AquaTerra help to improve fundamental understanding of persistent organic pollutants (POP) in the environment as a result of the degredation of river basins and deltas.
This is a very small snippet of what is happening all over the world, if you are interested then I recommend you read "Oceans End" by COlin Woodward, it outlines in great detail the various problems we face.
Getting back to topic the point is that the loss of these key areas of the world are meaning a huge increase in chemicals that shouldn`t be in our seas.Mainly termed persistent organic pollutants (POPs), these compounds are difficult to control because they do not degrade easily. They do not dissolve in water, but are lipid-soluble, meaning that they accumulate in the fat tissues of fish that are then consumed by predators at a more concentrated level, meaning that the dolphins are loaded with these toxins.
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Sorry not sure what you mean but to clarrify, I wasn`t talking about mercury, i was talking about PCB levels and POP levels which are caused due to the above factors.
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Not just that but also chemicals (herbicides, pesticides etc) used on the land which wash into rivers then out into the ocean. With the decrease of river deltas, which is natures own water purifier, this then makes the seas contaminated with high levels of PCB`s and POP`s which then gets into the food chain and so the dolphins, etc and then ultimately to us. Power stations, petro chemical factories, any industry that produces waste water, take your pick!
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I have just come back from a week in Taiji while all this was kicking off. I was working with a pretty well known film maker Hardy Jones, who is also the founder of Blue Voice. He has been going there every year since 1980 to fight against this dolphin slaughter. He also used to document the dolphin culls in Futo (Shizuoka) and Kii Island (Off of Kyushu). Due to his action and the wide spread media coverage it courted, the last two palces have since largely stopped the process switching to dolphin watching instead.
It was a really really interesting and hard week down there, as soon as I arrived I had 3 plain clothes police officers in my hotel questioning me. THey took my drivers license and I only got it back this morning when I left. The village itself is a strange place (think League of Gentlemen esque x 10) and has a distinct sour feeling about it, and a nervousness in the air. Cars would slow down and try and intimidate me, and I was followed around town by a couple of different people pretty much my whole time there. We were chased off of public land and also refused enterance to public places such as the community centers and small library where the towns documents are kept for public reading. We were also aggresivelly confronted when trying to film the fishing co-operatives supermarket where the dolphin is sold.
The purpose of being down there was to garner some samples for testing from the Taiji kids and locals. We wanted hair samples which would be tested for mercury and PCB levels, which is a common pre cursor to cancer if high levels are detected. We also took samples of dolohin, whale, snapper and tuna from the supermarket for testing.
The feeding of the dolphin meat to schools doesn`t actually happen now, and was taken off the menu earlier this year as well as off of one of the super markets shelves. Mostly due to the great work of a Taiji assembly man who is finally speaking out. There is an obvious lack of warmth for him in his own town which gives me even more respect for what he is doing. There is also a fwe Japanese journalists (one who is a fantastic 65 year old lady who is just tenacious when it comes to challenging the Taiji council and pulling facts from all over the place). The Japanese fisheries agency have allready told Taiji that if they get any more negative publicity then they may have to shut down their operations, and it seems to be working in that they haven`t had a hunt since last Monday, (bear in mind they usually kill every other day, over 2000 a year).
The hard part is getting it in the Japanese media, as it has been covered by the worlds journalists before. However we are starting to make small inroads in exposing it to the public here. Most Japanese when told about it don`t believe that they eat dolphin here, let alone have even heard of the tiny village of Taiji.
I will be posting a vid on You tube of the weeks events when I have time and will link it here. IN the mean time if youa re interested then there is a load of stuff on http://www.bluevoice.org
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Did it! Thanks! Rather fast reply, you are very on the ball!
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This should answer some of your questions, and then pose lots more!!
It is a you tube vid but don`t know how to do the whole imbedding thing here.
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LOVE the Cairngorms, did my silver Dof E up there when I was at high school, top memories of hiking the range and nearly getting caught in a wicked storm. Anyone on here done their gold D of E? Always wanted to get it but never got around to taking it.
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First car in Japan was a Mazda MX7, nice car and handled well (4 wheeled steering) but just not practical and couldn't fit anything in it, now I have an Ipsum which I really like and packs shed loads of gear in, alos a Suzuki Kei Van at work which carts turtles about nicely!
However just found out that the Ipsum is called a Toyota Picnic back in UK, just took any street cred out of it that I may have previously had!!
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tell me about it. I am guted, was supposed to have a rowing regatta tomorrow for a coxed 4`s that we have been training for for since March. Just had a phone call telling me it is now cancelled!! Hate how the slightest bit of rain and they call everything off here, not postpone but just bin the whole thing. Very annoying for the whole team.
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Long tall glass filled with ice, half a fresh lime aqueezed in and a light crisp beer topping it up (preferably mexican beer). Called a Char...something something, can'r remember the name!
OR Pimms and lemonade crammed with ice, cucumber, mint and lemon.
OR a well made Mohito!!
Definately my summer drinks of choice.
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Sounds like a good place then Me Jane. Not sure of m schedule yet over summer, I will probably be down in Wakayama and Yakushima most of it but if I am around then will definately pop down as its so close to me.
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Try working for an NPO here, what's great for your conscience isn`t so great for your bank account!!! I am increasingly prostituting myself out to company advisory pannels now as its rather difficult otherwise. Luckily with "Cap and Trade" teetering on the edge of being put into practice there is a fair bit of work out there at mo.
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Also Japans largest nesting site for Logger Head Turltes. Great Island and beautiful nature, well woprtha visit. Will be working there for couple of weeks in August
The monkeys are enjoying the snow!
in Snow talk, trip reports, Japan avalanche & backcountry
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Heard they were all out ojn the lash lsat night "monkeying" around. Few of them look pretty hungover in there this morning!