User:Veronicag123/sandbox

The article I have decided to work on is called Taiji Dolphin Drive Hunt. This is the link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiji_dolphin_drive_hunt

This is what I plan on contributing to the article
The article's title requires a change specifying that this is actually a "Taiji Dolphin Drive Hunt Controversy." It also lacks historical data referring more about why the locals do this hunt, an expansion as to the initial hunts themselves, such as methodology, and I plan on contributing concurrent and updated efforts from environmentalists, and their active pursuit in trying to stop the capturing of dolphins and small whales. I also plan to elaborate more on the documentary called, "The Cove," as I feel there is more necessary information that can be added, in reference to the link provided already. The heading "ongoing watch" can also be updated, as well as stories of protests may be added to provide information on the extent of the situation, and if there have been any recent changes.

[copied from[Taiji Dolphin Drive Hunt]]

The Taiji drive hunt of dolphins and other small cetaceans is a dolphin drive hunt that takes place in Taiji, Wakayama in Japan every year from September to March, including pilot whaling, which lasts a month longer. The term "drive hunt," also known as "the drive fishery," refers to the quota set by the government of Japan, and the Japanese hunt is one of the biggest slaughters of dolphins and whales in the world.

The annual dolphin hunt provides income for local residents, and has received international criticism for both the cruelty of the dolphin killing and the high mercury levels of the dolphin meat.

History
Residents of Taiji have been refining whaling techniques ever since Wada Chūbei Yorimoto (和田忠兵衛頼元?) began the first commercial-scale whaling operations in Japan in 1606. Initially, whales were taken by means of hand harpoons and small boats. After nets were introduced into whaling in 1675, the industry spread throughout Japan.

Hunting dolphins for commercial purposes in Taiji continues. In 2008, 1,484 dolphins and whales were caught, while fisherman planned to catch around 2,400 in 2009. Some of the dolphins are sold to aquatic parks, instead of slaughtered, and Ted Hammond is one of the main brokers for Taiji.

Method
Fishermen killing dolphins using spikes which sever the spinal cord In Japan, the hunting is done by a select group of fishermen. When a pod of dolphins has been spotted, fishing boats move into position. One end of a steel pipe is lowered into the water, and the fisherman aboard the boats strike the pipe with mallets.

This is done at strategic points around the pod, in an effort to herd them toward land. The clamor disrupts the dolphins' sonar throwing off their navigation and herds them towards the bay which leads to a sheltered cove. There, the fishermen quickly close off the area with nets to prevent the dolphins' escape.

As the dolphins are initially quite agitated, they are left to calm down over night. The following day, fishermen enter the bay in small boats, and the dolphins are caught one at a time and killed. The primary method of dispatch was for a long time to cut the dolphin's throat, severing blood vessels, and death was due to exsanguination.

The government banned this method and now the officially sanctioned method requires that a metal pin be driven into the cervical region ("neck") of the dolphin, severing its brainstem, which causes it to die within seconds, according to a memo from Senzo Uchida, the executive secretary of the Japan Cetacean Conference on Zoological Gardens and Aquariums.

According to an academic paper published in 2013 in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science titled A Veterinary and Behavioral Analysis of Dolphin Killing Methods Currently Used in the 'Drive Hunt' in Taiji, Japan, those killing methods involving driving a rod into the spine and using a pin to stop bleeding that is used by the Japanese in Taiji creates such terror and pain that it would be illegal to kill cows in Japan in this manner. Several veterinarians and behavioral scientists evaluated the current Taiji Japanese killing method and concluded that "This killing method….would not be tolerated or permitted in any regulated slaughterhouse process in the developed world."

Controversy
http://uk.whales.org/wdc-in-action/dolphin-drive-hunts

Including different activist groups, including the ongoing efforts in banning dolphin hunts