Calling All Surfers: Help Stop Senseless Dolphin Slaughter in Japan

This footage, from Sky News' Asia correspondent, Peter Sharp, makes for disturbing viewing. Watch it, take your hat off to Dave Rastovich and the other surfers, then check out Save Japan Dolphins and get in touch to help. Post comments here, there and anywhere you can think of to help make the world sit up and say "No" to the repetition of this kind of slaughter. And act quickly: between now and mid-December, thousands of dolphins and porpoises will be killed in Japan.

Every surfer knows that this practice cannot be defended as a quirk of local custom or tradition, or on economic grounds. We know this because we see dolphins in the water, surfing waves with more grace than we will ever have. We see them playing with us, interacting with us, communicating with us. This isn't the stoned lyricism of a diehard hippie, it's a reality that we know and experience as people who frequent the ocean.

There isn't, to my knowledge, A Surfer's Manifesto, and there is, I know, a fair bit of disagreement on this and that in contemporary surfing, but on this issue we can all agree. The slaughter of a few days ago in Taiji, Japan is an outrage. It must not go unacknowledged. Surfers of the world, unite: help stop the slaughter.

Comments

[Slatehead]

I didn't know the Heroes babe was a surfer! Flippancy aside, what is shown in the footage is disgusting and non-surfers will, I amm sure, agree. Well done for putting this up and lets hope it helps build some momentum.

[Buck]

No place for this in the modern world - these are wondeful animals that we are lucky to share the ocean with. Would be interested to know what protest there has been from the many Japanese surfers out there - they can't all be at Manly beach right now?!

[Jon]

totally out of order

[Vince]

Shocking! Absolutely shocking. We should all try and get the word out on this. Moving forward, a universal manifesto on issues that relate to surfers and the ocean could be a good call. It would strengthen the pressure we can apply via institutions such as the one Rasta's leading. Not a solution, as wider systemic issues would also need to be addressed, but definitely a step in the right difrection. Good idea, Alex!

[stef]

sick ,sick,sick,no suprise its the japanese!!this needs to stop!wake up everyone time is almost up
!!

[penfold]

It's good to see high profile surfers like Rasta getting stuck in against such horrendous things. I shall be posting about the same later in the week...

[Nikki]

If you're interested in helping to put an end to the Japanese dolphin slaughter, check out Oceana, the largest group working solely to save our oceans.

The Ocean Blog has information on contacting the Japanese Embassy and other resources to further educate people of this atrocity.

Please contact the Japanese Embassy or write your local newspaper to mobilize the masses!

Many thanks!
Stop the Dolphin Slaughter
http://community.oceana.org/
displaystory/2007/11/7/183440/117