Actress joins Japanese dolphin hunt protest – Fishupdate.com

Actress joins Japanese dolphin hunt protest Published:  02 November, 2007

Hayden Panettiere paddled out on a surfboard with other activists Photo: NBC

AN actress from the TV series Heroes was among protesters who tried to disrupt a Japanese dolphin hunt.

Hayden Panettiere paddled out on a surfboard with other activists from Australia and the United States, in an attempt to prevent a pod of dolphins being driven into a cove and slaughtered, The Telegraph reported.

The demonstrators clashed with the fishermen who used a long wooden pole to push them away in the water. They were eventually forced to return to the beach.

The confrontation took place in the sea off Taiji, a historic whaling town, 280 miles west of Tokyo.

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) which has been trying to stop the hunting, says that as many as 20,000 dolphins and porpoises will be slaughtered during the season’s hunting.

The hunts have continued despite scientists warning that they are unsustainable and that the dolphin and porpoise meat is contaminated with toxic chemicals such as mercury and is unfit for human consumption.

The Japanese turned their attention to dolphins and porpoises after they were banned from hunting whales by an international moratorium in 1986. The EIA says they persist in the hunting despite worldwide condemnation. The Japanese claim the hunting is for “scientific purposes”.

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