14 DAY TRIAL // Fishermen in the town of Taiji in Japan are done with their latest dolphin hunt, and the results of their hard work are in.
According to green group Sea Shepherd, some of whose members and supporters monitored the hunt from beginning to end, say that a total of 41 dolphins were butchered for their meat.
Another 52 were taken captive, and will soon be sold to marine parks around the world.
Once this happens, the marine mammals will have the pleasure of spending the rest of their lives swimming around concrete tanks, maybe even entertain people by performing some tricks.
As previously reported, one of the bottlenose dolphins that was captured by Japanese fishermen in Taiji is a rare albino specimen.
The dolphin is merely a calf, and activists present at its capture say that, shortly after being separated from its offspring, the baby dolphin's mom lowered itself into the water and failed to resurface.
By the looks of it, there are some who say that the baby dolphin's mother committed suicide.
Mongabay tells us that, despite slaughtering dozens of bottlenose dolphins and taking even more captive, the fishermen who organized and carried out this hunt were courteous enough to let the rest of the pod that they captured late last week return to the wild.
Since the pod in question was made up of over 250 individuals, this means that, all in all, over 150 marine mammals got to return to their home in the ocean.
While some might think this to be good news, Sea Shepherd stresses that, although they have not been butchered or taken captive, the marine mammals that were freed are surely traumatized by the experience they have been through.
The organization says that some of the bottlenose dolphins are therefore very likely to die as a result of stress. Besides, it is possible that many of them have injuries that will ultimately lead to their demise.