| With great alacrity do these noble fishermen, | | | | and the mercurial ire of the global community. |
| spear held aloft, carry on their hunt. Though not | | | | So we come to the grand irony, the symbolic |
| dressed in traditional garb or manning the small | | | | gest. If like ours, the dolphin's proto-hand, under all |
| thatched canoes of their ancestors, roughly 26 | | | | the pressures of aquatic Darwanism, had taken to |
| men clamber into vessels at the edge of their | | | | fingers as swimmingly as humans, they would be |
| steep, rocky shoreline. This year, as in every | | | | raising a solitary digit to these clandestinely suicidal |
| year, the small seaside village of Taiji at the | | | | fishermen and their compatriots who will |
| southernmost reach of Japan's great archipelago | | | | purchase, consume and be poisoned by the very |
| prepare for what some may see as the most | | | | meats that they are taking such heat for |
| barbaric and savage of seasons. Though tradition | | | | partaking of. |
| metes out sometimes harsh realities upon our | | | | reveals that according to the Japanese ministry of |
| gentler and more prosaic lives, even this seems a | | | | health has found that the mercury levels found in |
| bit harsh and out of character from the honorable | | | | the liver and other tastier and sought after |
| people who brought us the serene sounds of | | | | organs "exceeds the permitted level by |
| haiku and nature worshiping Shinto. Nets and loud | | | | approximately 5000 times and the consumption of |
| noises are used to coral these creatures, at once | | | | only 0.15 g of liver" and offers "the possibility of |
| regarded for their poise and intelligence and their | | | | an acute intoxication by T-Hg (mercury |
| copper-like, moist flesh, into a shallow cove where | | | | concentration) even after a single consumption of |
| they are at once beaten, speared and | | | | the product." |
| eviscerated. With salacious gusto, barbed gafs are | | | | So, the fishing village of Taiji finds itself in one |
| employed by the men, as is threshing the very | | | | clandestinely satiric situation. The very act of |
| waters, to stab, pinion and pierce the writhing | | | | thumbing their nose at the conviction, conventions |
| beasts. Hoisting them into their boats, laden with | | | | and custom-culling modern society will be the literal |
| the flesh and disembodied death-mates, | | | | death of them. Very poetic really. In order to |
| clicking-their dying calls. These are the last rites of | | | | stave off the demise of their traditional fishing |
| what most would consider our closest cousin (of | | | | rights, they continue to kill the dolphins, which |
| the swimming kind). | | | | spells certain death to the villagers. If one was to |
| This has not gone unnoticed. An onslaught of of | | | | view this as an outsider, as every man, woman |
| publicity and the requisite public outcry met these | | | | and child outside of this piteous, execrable little far |
| fishermen and their grand tradition. Many | | | | off land does, it would be lauded as the single |
| conservation, animal protection and environmental | | | | most insane and Socaratic-ally suicidal venture in |
| activists have swum to the aide of the dolphins. | | | | man's great fallible riddled history. |
| In trying to interject themselves between boat | | | | Yet, in the words of the mayor, espousing great |
| and bottle-nose, many have found themselves at | | | | philosophy in his A Message from Taiji, addressing |
| the intersection of the end of a spear and the | | | | the International Whaling Commission and other |
| end of their life. | | | | critics of the slaughterings ..."We are proud of our |
| "Thus, it was a traumatic experience that our | | | | own heritage and want to hand it down to the |
| values were attacked fiercely by western | | | | next generations." (See mercury poisoning=no |
| environmentalists and animal right activists." S. | | | | next generation.) "We believe we know more |
| Hamanaka, Mayor and The People of Taiji | | | | about our own sea in Taiji than anyone who lives |
| If the honorable Hamanaka-san is terrified by the | | | | hundreds or thousands of miles away from us." |
| ado stirred by the blood-roaled waters, he may | | | | Speaking for the dolphins posthumously, that |
| want turn away, eyes cast geisha-like down when | | | | remains to be proven. |
| the boats come to port, bearing fins and flippers | | | | |