[Ninong]

2,500 dolphins rounded up and slaughtered

It's that time of year again. The annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. The meat was tested and found to contain 30 times the government-allowed level of mercury, so a local official put out a notice to the townspeople warning them not to consume such "toxic waste." That didn't stop the "fishermen" from herding 2,500 dolphins into a narrow cove where they were netted off and then speared to death.

If they can't eat the meat, then why are they butchering the carcasses and preparing the meat for sale? Maybe they intend to sell it to customers who are less informed about the mercury levels?

Secret film will show slaughter to the world

Covert operation finally exposes Taiji's annual dolphin horror

For the first time ever, graphic feature-length footage of the annual slaughter of some 2,500 dolphins in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, has been captured during a unique yearlong covert operation.

The secret filming by members of the U.S. conservation group Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS) — equipped with state-of-the-art technology and financed to the tune of $5 million by Netscape founder Jim Clark — is being turned into a major documentary feature film destined for worldwide release this summer (although distribution in Japan is at present not certain).