Of all the things I wanted to do before I hit 50

30^th Sept (morning)

Of all the things I wanted to do before I hit 50 
I can honestly say standing out in a typhoon 
trying to photograph men buying freshly slaughtered 
dolphin meat wasn't one of them. But here I am ...

Up at the usual 5am we weren't expecting the worst 

of the typhoon till late afternoon and left the 

hotel to low winds and calm waters. Only the 

absence of the tourist boats and seeing the fishing 

boats had anchored away from the sea walls reminded 

us it was on its way. 

We arrived in Taiji to find the banger boats 

safely moored in anticipation of the typhoon. 

We checked dolphins in the sea pens and then sat 

and watched the rains arrive from the south… 

Thinking there wasn't a lot we could achieve for 

a while John and I decided to go get supplies. As 

we drove away from the town we passed a very 

surprised meat buyer with his police escort. 

They must have thought we had already 

left. U-turn!! 

And one thing lead to another, in u-turning back 

to the butcher house we stumbled across a skiff 

heading towards the cove … why would they be going 

there with the impending weather?!?! So another u-turn 

had us driving to the cove where 8 policemen watched 

us videoing the dolphin hunters remove the last of 

the nets and signs. It was lovely to see the cove 

as it should be.. a place of beauty, a place to be 

enjoyed.. It’s a shame that as soon as this weather 

passes Taiji will transform it back to be their 

dirty little secret, the thing that brings so much 

shame to their town. 

Net free cove

As I type it’s 12.30 and we can hear the winds starting to 

pick up. Soon the Cove Guardians will be going again to 

check the dolphins in the sea pens and my stomach is in 

knots. Not because I’m frightened to go out in the typhoon, 

but because I don’t want to see what I fear we are going to 

see…