Concerns grow for trapped minke whale in Japan’s ‘The Cove’

Workers pour sake on a commercially captured minke whale in Japan in 2019

Credit: KYODO/REUTERS

A minke whale that has been trapped in a small cove in Japan for 15 days is visibly distressed and weakening because it has been unable to feed, according to an animal rights activist, who is calling for the local government to force fishermen to release the creature.

The adolescent minke whale is surrounded by nets off the town of Taiji in Wakayama Prefecture, a community that was thrust into the spotlight for its controversial annual dolphin hunt with the release in 2009 of the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove”. 

The animal was unintentionally caught for local fishermen on Christmas Eve, said Ren Yabuki, director of the animal rights organisation Life Investigation Agency.

“It is clear to see that the whale is distressed and it must be hungry by now as it has hardly been able to eat anything for the entire time it has been in the nets," Mr Yabuki told The Telegraph. 

“We did hear that the fishermen were planning to kill the whale yesterday morning but we have heard that they did not go ahead with that plan due to pressure from the governor of Wakayama,” he added. 

Mr Yabuki is calling on prefectural authorities to release the whale and is spearheading an online campaign to increase public pressure on local officials.

“So far we have won a delay and we hope that lots of people will message the governor about this, but we cannot be sure that they still will not kill it — and that could happen at any time," he said. 

Mr Yabuki is attempting to monitor the wellbeing of the whale with a drone, but he said he had been “attacked” on a number of occasions by local fishermen who apparently object to his campaign. 

It is not clear why the fishermen are refusing to free the whale as the last time a whale was caught, a humpback in November last year, they released it after one day, said Mr Yabuki. 

The campaign has the support of the Dolphin Project and the Humane Society International in Australia, which said in a statement that Taiji fishermen were claiming there were safety concerns over releasing the whale. 

However, spokesperson Georgie Dolphin added: "HSI notes that safety concerns and the tides did not prevent the fishermen from driving a pod of striped dolphins straight past the trapped whale into the Taiji cove today.”

“Intentionally subjecting these leviathans to prolonged suffering is inhumane and unjustified," said Ms Dolphin, who heads the group’s animal welfare programme. 

"This minke whale has now been trapped in the nets for two weeks, becoming increasingly distressed and agitated, ramming the nets and deep diving in an effort to escape. We fear time is now running out for the whale, who will be getting weaker by the day." 

Taiji has struggled to repair its international reputation since "The Cove" film showed hunters rounding up dolphins in the open sea and corralling them to the coastline in so-called drive hunts, after which some were sold on to aquariums and others were killed for their meat.