Ric & Helene O’Barry return to Taiji

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Representing the French group One Voice, dolphin defenders
Ric and Helene O’Barry returned to Taiji, Japan on October 27, 2004
to again witness and document the annual massacre of dolphins, who
are driven into a shallow cove and hacked to death after some are
selected for live sale to oceanariums and swim-with-dolphins resorts.
The O’Barrys, who also helped to document the Taiji
slaughter in 2003, said the fishers were joined this year “by about
20 young people in wetsuits. Some displayed the logos of the Taiji
Whale Museum, World Dolphin Resort, and Dolphin Base. All of these
facilities are located in Taiji,” but are believed to export
dolphins abroad.
The fishers argue that the killing and captures protect fish stocks.
“It seems the fishermen have simply fished themselves out of
a job,” observed Paul Kenyon, director/producer/reporter of a
November 8 BBC special entitled Dolphin Hunters. “But, back in
Taiji, the hunt is going ahead,” Kenyon continued. “The activists
trying to stop them are likely to be exclusively outsiders. That is
not necessarily because the Japanese support the trade. During the
three weeks we were[in Japan], we found no one outside the dolphin
hunting towns who even knew that dolphins are eaten. So, perhaps the
challenge is not to change minds, but to inform them.”