A low moment....

I couldn't blog last night, eat or sleep (tho' I was exhausted) ...I felt too 
frustrated.......

That morning we'd watched the boats struggle home in a high swell bringing us 
another blue day and the mood was good with the Cove Guardians. 

I'm not going to go into too much detail about the dolphin transfer from one 

of the harbour pens because it's still too raw, and Sea Shepherd tells it 

better ..Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians Page

I was in one of the cars following that poor dolphin and can assure you that 

we did everything in our power to stay behind that truck.... writing this 

sticks in my throat as 2 cars should have had no problem following a slow 

truck.... 

After our failed efforts to follow the transfer the Cove Guardians went for 

an evening walk in Taiji, nobody wanted to go out to eat...... and it was 

better to walk away my frustration than the alternative which would have 

been a large red wine. The police were there to keep track of us as usual.

It was nice to have the feeling of control back...them following us ... 

if only for that short time. 

8:30am ... it's morning as I type.. a new fresh and hopefully better day. 

The boats are out again as expected  ... nature is on the hunters side 

as the seas are not too rough...so we pray that luck is on our side. 

Maybe because I am already feeling low, but for the first time in 

3 campaigns I want to book the first flight out of here. I won't ... I 

know I have to focus and grow from what happened yesterday. But right now

this minute I'm struggling to do it. I'm sat away from the other Guardians, 

including John, because I want to cry. I am sure there have been worse 

moments .. maybe I should read back through my blogs to remind myself...

 ....I can hear the excitement building behind me as 2 boats are in and 

more are spotted heading home .. they are not driving .... there are murmurs 

of another blue day..hell.... maybe I won't cry after all. 

A very short blog I'm pleased to say as we have a second blue day here in Taiji

Wednesday 3rd October .... second blue day :)

4:30am sitting by the harbour wall in Taiji...there is a beautiful moon, and so 
many stars.....it's warm and still.... in fact it's everything we don't want it 
to be! but we know that further out where they hunt 20+ mph winds will make the 
ocean choppy and we pray this will hinder their endeavours .....

The police met us this morning as usual and when I asked if the hunters were 
going out they replied yes. I thought they would, but you always hope .....

5:15am and we see them arriving. They hide from our cameras between bins and 
trucks ... They dont look happy, but of course they'll know how rough the sea 
will be for them..

Then off they go ... and the Cove Guardians wait begins. 
 

6:37am Rather than go straight to the look out point John and I decided to check 
on the dolphins at Dolphin Base. I suggested to John we just take the little 
camera....I wasn't expecting anything to photograph as they'd cleared the crap 
from the pens only yesterday.... but look at it again today!! 

 

8:39am and we are back in the same spot at the harbour, photographing the same 
fishermen who have just returned from a very choppy sea empty handed! It's a blue day.
 

I am so glad that I don't have more to share with you. It's just gone 9pm so time

here for lights out as the weather looks like it will be in their favour tomorrow 

so it's another early start for us. 

Power of the social media network !!!

The peaceful moment John and I were sharing yesterday overlooking the harbour lasted all of 5 minutes as we were rounded up for a group photo at the cove. 

On route we stopped at the Dolphin Base. I hate seeing the dolphins in these small shallow pens, but my initial reaction surprised me. Watching them struggle to survive the typhoon the day before had been so traumatic that I felt relief at seeing them "safe".  But I can promise you that thought  quickly vanished ... When we looked closer we saw debris floating everywhere,..... plastic had blown in and got wrapped on fins...tails were being bashed in frustration... Omg it's an awful place.

There is only one place they should be, and that is swimming free...

With no dolphins in the cove and the boats in the harbour it was an opportunity to escape Taiji for a couple of hours and head to the hills for pizza. This meal with the CGs was do different to the one on our first night. This time people chatted happily and jokes were cracked. 

I'm here for the third time and I know how oppressive Taiji is, so I love to see people "come alive" as they escape it for a while,  John and I included. 

It's Tuesday morning 5:04. We have been watching for for the dolphin hunters to arrive since 4, the police have been to say hello and gone.  I'm drinking soup and typing this now as I have an awful feeling there won't be time to do it later .....The cove is netted again, the sea is flat and I can't imagine for a moment they will not be hunting today... 

It's now 7:50pm and I'm so very happy to be wrong ... the boats did go out, but it was a lot choppier further out to sea than we thought and, from our vantage point, we could see the 12 boats pitching over the waves ... It made me think of the dolphins in the sea pens during the typhoon, except the hunters were there by choice. 

So they came back in empty handed and we were there to greet them before setting off to Dolphin Base where we sat and watched the staff cleaning the sea pens ... oh the power of social media! ...... in less than 12 hours of the picture of the dolphin with a plastic bag wrapped round it's fin went viral the staff at Dolphin Base were ensuring that there was not one item of debris left for Sea Shepherd to photograph. What worries me is how long would they have left the dolphin swimming in all that crap if Sea Shepherd had not brought it to the worlds attention. 

   
But the crap wasn't just all around the dolphins ... I watched in horror today as a trainer put her arm down the throat of a dolphin and bring out a handful of rubbish, and then again bringing out a second handful, then opening his mouth to check it was all removed before making him do tricks for his food. But how much debris did he swallow as he struggled to survive the typhoon?? How much is in his stomach??? I had heard this happens from other Cove Guardians, but I had never witnessed it before. I hope I never do again.
 

The weather looks similar for tomorrow, we expect it to be choppy further out at sea where they hunt,  but we don't think it is wavy enough to keep them in ... so an early night for John and I. 

Typhoon Jalawat (Meaning - Carp)

Ok, so yesterday morning we were anticipating the arrival on typhoon Jelawat. 

Everything was fully charged, we had bottled water, food and torches...  Luckily 
by the time it arrived it was no longer a super typhoon, but it was still 
powerful enough to do a lot of damage and whip up the oceans. 

At the height of the storm, about 3pm, John and I ventured out with the other 
Guardians to check on the dolphins in the sea pens.  The rain was torrential  
and within minutes it was through my jacket ... Luckily the jacket we had 
purchased for the camera held out longer so we can share with you what we 
witnessed. 
I would like here to apologise to John for laughing at the camera jacket when I 
saw it. I also seem to remember calling him a few names, like "silly" for buying 
it. 
 

The dolphins in the harbour pens were having a bad time, but the sea wall/ break 
water afforded them a little protection. As we watched the waves breaking over 
the sea wall we could only imagine how the water must have been churning in 
those shallow pens and how hard they must have been fighting for every breath. 

John warned me dolphins in the pens at Dolphin Base would be having a much 
harder time, but I still wasn't prepared. I won't even try to describe  what 
they were enduring, I'll just ask you look the the video clip below and ask you 
to imagine that this went on for hours and hours ..... and that this is the 17th 
typhoon to hit Japan this year. 

By about 7 pm last night the worst of the weather had passed and the Cove 
Guardians went again to check on the dolphins. It was so dark we could only take 
photographs to analyze back at the hotel, but we could see that the waters were 
much calmer. 

And this morning we woke to a beautiful sunny day... made even more beautiful 
when the boats didn't go out hunting. I'm guessing it is because they had a lot 
of work to do unsecuring their boats and putting the nets & tarps back up in the 
cove. Also the weather looks ok for the next few days ....

Once we knew the boats were staying in John and I popped back to the hotel. We 
skyped our 2 younger children ... I put cream on my insect bites ...and got an 
hours sleep. 

As I type this it's 12:22. John and I are sat on a bench  looking over the 
harbour enjoying a rare moment of peace. The police have just left us and we are 
not meeting the other Guardians till 2pm .. so if you'll excuse us ..... 

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… 

2012, First Day and First Slaughter.

First Day and First Slaughter.

29^th September

John & I should have arrived in Taiji yesterday lunch time, but we had a journey thwart with mishaps …  although worse than any of the travel problems we were having was the frustration we felt because we were not in Taiji standing with the other Cove Guardians as a pod of about 30 pilot whales were driven into the cove. The poor whales were so frightened they smashed themselves against rocks and tried to beach …. If you haven’t seen the footage please check the official facebook page 

Desperate pilot whales 

SeaShepherdCoveGuardiansOfficialPage

We arrived at the hotel at 11pm as a few of the Guardians were heading back to the cove to check on the pod. We exchanged a rushed hello, goodnight till we saw them again this morning….

By the time John and I arrived at the cove the dolphin hunters were already preparing for the slaughter.

They split the pod….. the police told me they were intending to release the younger ones, to drive them back out to sea … I don’t know if the police thought that news would please us? If they did then they really don’t understand why we are here.

Time after time the waters in the cove turned red, there didn’t seem to be any attempt to hide the blood. Then the skiffs would transport the slaughtered pilot whales, several bodies at a time, dragged by their tails, to the waiting banger boats that transported them to butcher house.

A break for lunch .. then more slaughter … about 20 in total. We can make a good estimation from the number of ropes tied to each skiff.

And then the younger pod members (looking at the size of the fins I think what the police told us was correct), scared, hungry and exhausted, without their parents and grandparents to look after them and lead them, were driven back into the ocean.  We watched for a long time after the  banger boats left them….., we watched the youngsters turn and head back to Taiji for a while …then they turned again and headed out to sea….  

pilot whales relesed , vidieo

The meal we shared tonight with the other Guardians was filled with long silences. Many said that is two days was the worst they had endured here.

A typhoon is expected tomorrow.. as we walked back to the hotel we could see people preparing for it. The boats in the harbour are prepared for it ….  But nobody will prepare the dolphins in the sea pens, or think to release them …we expect they will be left to their fate.

I will never, ever, understand how this town can say it loves dolphins. Murder and abuse isn’t love.

October (Red October) 2011

THIS WAS NOT POSTED LAST YEAR , I HAVE PUT IT BACK ON  IT AS THERE WAS A YEAR MISSING

12 hours is a long flight … Paris to Osaka Japan. Unable to sleep in the cramped economy class seats gave me lots of thinking time.. which wasn’t really welcome. Here I was, again, travelling to Taiji to be a Cove Guardian for Sea Shepherd… me, a Mrs Average 40 something-year-old working Mum.

Same time last year, early October (Red October), John (my husband) and I had travelled to Taiji and the unknown. This year was different, we were not travelling into the unknown.. and worse than that... we weren’t unknown.   Last year we were tourists, right up until the moment we arrived at The Cove and police took our passport details, …. I knew this time we were “marked”.

So I spent that 12 hours going over every scenario.. every possible question and answer customs might have for me. I worried that if John and I were held what would Sarah do?? Sarah’s our 17 year old daughter who was coming with us. I worried that if they didn’t let us in we’d have spent £££££s on nothing …. I worried that if we did get past customs there was a 100 strong specially trained police squad waiting for us .. I mean, I’d seen all the media hype of them training … I worried and fretted while John and Sarah laughed at me.

So picture my surprise… Osaka airport.. customs .. I sailed past!! The relief!! So did Sarah (not that I didn’t expect her to). I turned to smile at John, only to see John being escorted away by a couple of officials.  Mmmmmm.

So Sarah and I made camp on the cold floor near the doors he’d vanished through and waited…. 90 minutes later a very elated John came back to us. He was elated because .. well.. if we weren’t making a difference they’d have had no wish to detain him. It was a measure of our success.   He’d been questioned by 3 guys with a translator … the usual, why are you here? do you have money? do you have accommodation? how are you travelling … then he was left alone for a while (John thinks it was to give him time to get worried so he just played games on his phone)… then they started again, only this time they asked the question he’d been waiting for “you are with Sea Shepherd?”. John didn’t deny it. He answered every question honestly … stressed he was not in Japan to break any laws ..and eventually they couldn’t delay him anymore.. they had no grounds.  We were not travelling in our colours or waving a SSCS flag so it confirmed to me our passports were marked. And if we needed any more confirmation Patricia (fellow 2^nd timer) who flew in later the same day from the USA was also held.

We were in Japan… phew.

Next we needed to collect the hire car … So picture another surprise .. we complete the paperwork and are escorted to the collection point. Nearly every car in Japan is white or silver… we are standing in a car park full of white and silver cars .. where we are presented with a green one.. a pea green one. Maybe I’m suffering from a little (healthy) paranoia .. but what’s the odds … John had told customs where we were hiring the car from and here it was .. a green car for the Eco-terrorists. We were not going to be missed.

So we drove the 4 hours to Taiji .. as we got close we checked the FB and Twitter updates. We knew the CGs were still around and when we saw a … what is the collective name for CGs??.. well anyhow when we pulled up along side them Sarah, in her excitement, tumbled (literally)  from the car and ran over.

It’s strange.. here was a group of people we’ve never met and we’re instantly good friends.

The CGs (Rosie, Marley & Carisa ) were watching for a baby humpback that had been spotted …the fishermen had been to investigate ..  but he’d disappeared. I’m still hoping his Mum was waiting for him to tell him off for venturing so shallow.

And so our 2 weeks began.

Rosie Kunneke was our leader.  I can see why Sea Shepherd picked her for the role. As a veteran of several campaigns, who didn’t appear to know the meaning of the word “fear” when it came to the protection of our dolphins, she instilled confidence in her “troops”.  Her bravery was infectious …. And her passion was unquestionable.  I think in the whole time we were with Rosie I only saw her frustrated once…sad lots of times when we witnessed the cruelty inflicted on those beautiful dolphins… but frustrated only once…  people had facebooked asking why we Cove Guardians “weren’t f **cking doing something”.  The comments really got to her…

And they got to me … because we are doing something. I agree this campaign is not Sea Shepherds usual direct action approach, but if any idiot, sorry I mean if anyone doesn’t think we’re making a difference I can only refer them to

Operation Infinite Patience: Return of the Cove Guardians

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/2011/08/30/operation-infinite-patience-return-of-the-cove-guardians-1277

If we weren’t doing anything why else would the fishermen go to great lengths to stop us getting photographs? The cost of the coastguards and police must be ridiculously high. One day Sarah, Patricia and I were at The Cove as a pod of dolphins were being killed and there were 5 officials to each one of us girls. They just stood and watched us … . 

I can assure everyone that we’d love nothing more than to jump in and save the dolphin, but we wouldn’t get close and even if we did cut nets to free them we couldn’t drive them back out to sea. Last year I watched as part of a pod were released ( a PR stunt??).. the banger boats really struggled to drive them back out to sea.  We guessed that they didn’t want to leave the rest of the pod that were being slaughtered and that they didn’t have a leader.

Someone commented on Facebook that this year there seemed to be a lot more pods being chased and escaping. I’m only speaking for me, what I believe, but I think it’s not that more dolphin are eluding the fishermen, it’s that we can see the chase through the better cameras. Last year what John and I saw as dots on the horizon are confirmed banger boats, we can see the formations, the black smoke they make as they speed up and change direction at about 10 miles out… we can see the pods breaking the water 2/3 miles out. 

The chase is the part I hate the most. Knowing there’s a chance…willing them to swim far, fast , deep….  2 or more hours most mornings with my heart pounding. They lose them, they find them, they chase north then south.. they cross the shipping lane… they break formation…and on it goes…..

Last year there were 2 occasions where I’m sure Scott West would have written on our CG report card “could have done better”  J and this year we did. Scott if you are reading this then know what a difference a year makes.

Last year John staked out for hours to get photos of a slaughter only to be found by the police/fishermen before it started … this year he stayed hidden from the police who only found a pea green car… he attributes this success to the hours he spent building tree houses with our kids J

The other time was when we went to photograph a dolphin being loaded onto a truck to be transported to its life in a tank. We got the photos and returned to the other Cove Guardians were Scott asked had we not thought to follow the truck … This year the truck was followed! Not very covertly in the pea green car … but successfully to Adventure World.

Did John and I do the right thing taking a 17 year with us? Taking her out of school in her A Level year?? We have no doubts that we did. What did Rosie call her..… oh yes, “Kick-Ass” . And she was. She did so much more than anyone expected of a teenager and showed no emotion in front of the fishermen. Her efforts to speak Japanese were a great help to us and appreciated by the locals.

It was a hard and bloody 2 weeks.  I am so grateful to Sea Shepherd for the opportunity for my family to join their team and be part of Operation Infinite Patience. I know we helped make a difference as more CGs meant we could cover more areas which was vital when so much was happening.

I am grateful to the change in the weather which kept the boats in as we left Taiji to travel home…appeasing our guilt …to leave knowing the boats were hunting would have been soul destroying.  

We leave our hearts with Rosie and the CGs to follow and will support them by contacting the Japanese Embassies each and every time a pod is driven towards The Cove.

Till next year xx