Last week in class I talked dolphin hunting in Japan. According to CNN dolphin hunting has been going on since the 16th contrary, and has become the town of Taiji economic and food source. With technology and the academy award winning documentary, The Cove, Taiji has been put on the map. The brutal killing of dolphins, and capturing them for marine parks is inhumane. The fishermen use the technique called drive hunting. First part of this is that the fishermen bang metal rods to defen the dolphins, then drive them into a shallow cove. Once that happens they put a net trapping them there, and finally stab them in the spinal cord. The killing isn't eh only thing that happens in that cove, the fishermen look for cute dolphins to be sold around Asia and Europe at parks. Cute baby dolphins are ripped away from their mothers and have to their whole family die. Fishermen came across a rare baby albino dolphin named Angel, she lives in the Taiji aquarium, the story of how she got there is just terrible. Fishermen pulled her apart from her mother and then backed the boat into the babies mother, Angel watched her mother die, and now according to several sources such as OPS, Angel just sits in the tank depressed. According to Ric O'berry the dolphins smilie is the most deceiving thing.
While doing research on this topic I happened to take a break and wound up on netflix. I came across a documentary similar to the dolphin subject. Over the weekend I watched the documentary Blackfish. Blackfish is about the captivity and training of orcas. It shows the dark side of sea world and other marine parks. Like the dolphin hunt, Orcas have been hunted through history and devised a way to escape being killed. They separate. Half of the pod goes one way, while the other half consists of mother and babies go the other way. In the 1980's when orca became in demand, people used helicopters to find the Orcas after they split up. The orcas have no chance unfortunately and the baby orcas become attractions in parks such as Sea World.
Being held in captivity is no way to live for any sort of animal. Eventually we all go get depressed and go crazy. Thats what happened to an Orca at Sea World. The Orca attacked a trainer and she died. These creatures are wild animals, not meant for captivity. Shows such "wild and untamed" makes zero sense. They are animals they aren't going to be tamed. Wild are scary yes but I wonder if animals could speak would they say we are the crazy species? are we the one ruining their lives? We've lost respect for our planet and forgot we aren't the only species on Earth.
This blog brings up a point that has been much debated about in recent times by countries like Japan and the United States. On one hand, you have a country that has hunted dolphins and whales for centuries, and it is an incredibly important part of their economy and culture. On the other hand, you have countries and people saying that what they are doing is "inhumane." Though it is somewhat disturbing that these dolphins are being killed and captured for financial gain, it isn't that crazy. They are doing it because it is the best way to capture the dolphins. It may seem inhumane, but some would argue that it doesn't matter how they trap the dolphins if they are just going to kill them, and the way they kill them does not result in a painful death anyways. The counter argument to this is that some dolphins are not being killed and instead taken to be shown off. This brings up a separate issue of putting wild animals in captivity and whether or not that is okay. Some may say it is not because these animals are wild and need to be set free, but this leads to them being placed inside f natures unforgiving grasp. In captivity, it is no longer survival of the fittest; they get all the food that they want and are cared for when they are sick or injured. Because of this animals that live in captivity live longer than their wild counterparts.
ReplyDeleteThis blog brings up a point that has been much debated about in recent times by countries like Japan and the United States. On one hand, you have a country that has hunted dolphins and whales for centuries, and it is an incredibly important part of their economy and culture. On the other hand, you have countries and people saying that what they are doing is "inhumane." Though it is somewhat disturbing that these dolphins are being killed and captured for financial gain, it isn't that crazy. They are doing it because it is the best way to capture the dolphins. It may seem inhumane, but some would argue that it doesn't matter how they trap the dolphins if they are just going to kill them, and the way they kill them does not result in a painful death anyways. The counter argument to this is that some dolphins are not being killed and instead taken to be shown off. This brings up a separate issue of putting wild animals in captivity and whether or not that is okay. Some may say it is not because these animals are wild and need to be set free, but this leads to them being placed inside f natures unforgiving grasp. In captivity, it is no longer survival of the fittest; they get all the food that they want and are cared for when they are sick or injured. Because of this animals that live in captivity live longer than their wild counterparts.
ReplyDeleteHana, your recent posts really suggest the view that Swift expresses in the final book of Gulliver's Travels--the idea that people are, at their core, not a rational animal, but just one of the most vicious and aggressive animals, who use their reason simply to do even more brutal things. All the other animals hate man in the fictional world Swift constructs, and it's not difficult to see why.
ReplyDeleteAgain, though, Swift suggests that individuals can be different--that it is possible to overcome the worst instincts and the worst self, and not just to displace this instinct into a slight less violent form--Brady, your responses too have struck a very Swiftian chord, suggesting that a social darwinist perspective is the natural state of things.
In all cases, the common theme is the way that humans tend to alter nature--by capturing and controlling it, but also by conquering themselves and their own worst selves.