TOKYO, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- An annual culling of dolphins in a small Japanese village is generating criticism from Western environmentalists.
The 3,500-person village of Taiji sees local fisherman hunt nearly 2,000 dolphins and porpoises from different species from September to March. Most are killed for their meat to be sold in markets but some are moved to aquariums.
The dolphins are driven into the killing cove and then slaughtered. The tradition was depicted in the 2009 Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove.
Four dolphin pods have already been driven into the cove for slaughter.
"These dolphins are a gentle and docile species, but they continued to fight and struggle to stay alive," Melissa Sehgal, Sea Shepherd's campaign co-ordinator for the Taiji project, told CNN.
