Chapter 521: Masterful
Richard's actions were not directed against Japan.
He was active in Florida, Norway, and Iceland, and was even arrested and imprisoned many times. He spent some time in detention almost every year.
"A dolphin in the right place can earn them a million dollars a year. If you interfere, they will break your hands ."
"My colleagues, Jane Tipson and Jenny May, died because of this. We were on a hunger strike to stop the trade of dolphins in Norway. On the tenth day I fainted and ended up in the hospital. Then Jenny became their target. They followed her to the beach and strangled her to death with her belt."
"Oh my god."
Mugalen was speechless and just stood in awe of the old man in front of him.
As in previous street interviews, in Richard's view, Japan's slaughter of dolphins is just the behavior of a few small towns and governments.
Japan has not always been like this towards wildlife. Its area is much smaller than that of Sichuan, but there are 800,000 wild boars, more than 4 million deer, 30,000 bears, and 150,000 monkeys among large mammals. The numbers may be unbelievable, but they are true.
Bifang explained to Mugalen: "There are less than 20,000 black bears in the whole of China, but in the island country of Japan, there are more than 30,000, so many that they need human control. So there are many deeper reasons why Japan slaughters dolphins."
There are so many black bears that even killing a hundred may not be enough.
The eating habits of the Japanese are somewhat different from those of other major developed countries. Most other developed countries are continental countries, and some also have large pastures in the central countries. The meat in these countries is mainly derived from livestock such as cattle and pigs.
Since Japan has a small land area and many volcanoes, it has no choice but to rely on the sea for food.
Even though the economy has developed and imported meat has increased , the proportion of fish has been much lower than before modern times, but it still occupies a more important position in the Japanese diet than in other countries.
In such an environment, the Japanese themselves have different ideas about catching marine fish and marine animals than most people.
When it comes to fishing, there are fishermen. The Japanese and the dolphins are like hunters and wolves.
It's even a little different. In the past, hunters killed wolves to protect deer. Now the Japanese kill dolphins. What are they protecting?
To protect the ocean that they have drained away?
It is obvious that they killed all the deer, and then turned around to kill the wolves. They said that the wolves killed all the deer, so the number of wolves should be controlled. Isn't this a bit unethical?
Richard felt that the Japanese did not realize this, and were like a child who broke a vase but refused to admit it, insisting that it was his cat that broke it.
"Some people say that if you eat beef and mutton you have no right to condemn the killing of dolphins or other animals. This is not true. After all, livestock and wild animals are different."
"Humans breed livestock, form a contract with them using feed, and collect their meat. This has even become so rigid that one pound of meat is equivalent to several pounds of feed. This is a kind of planting-style equivalent exchange."
"But wild animals don't owe you anything. There are always animals that are not suitable for eating due to various reasons such as population size. Humans now have the responsibility to actively maintain the ecological balance because human capabilities have evolved too quickly in the past 100 years."
Driving into the mountains along the winding mountain road, I saw something and shot it down and pulled it back.
Wild animals can no longer rely on high mountains and dense forests to protect themselves.
The same is true at sea. If you read the novel "Moby Dick", you will know that in the past, catching a whale was a risk to one's life. It was a hymn to human hunting, a proof of courage, and a game between living things.
This is the normal hunting relationship in the real food chain.
Now we can catch up with them easily with a big ship, kill them with one shot, and hoist them up with a crane. Not to mention gutting them, if necessary, we can even install a production line in the ship to can them directly.
As Denmark's largest fishing ground, the Faroe Islands live a comfortable life with an average income of 70,000 U.S. dollars per capita by relying on commercial fishing of herring, mackerel and other fish.
But even so, the locals still haven't given up the tradition of hunting whales. Using the gimmick of helping teenagers build up their courage, they have been carrying out large-scale activities to hunt whales and dolphins. They don't eat the meat from the large amounts of slaughtered whales, but would rather throw it into the trash.
There are news reports condemning it almost every year. Two years ago, because whaling made too much noise, more dolphins were killed in retaliation...
The reason why it is called retaliatory is that they have a criminal record. In 2012, due to dissatisfaction with the EU's mackerel fishing quota, Iceland and the Faroe Islands ignored the advice of ICES and arbitrarily increased the mackerel catch from 630,000 tons to 800,000 tons.
The same situation happened this time. The slaughter volume of several hundred dolphins in previous years suddenly increased to 1,428 dolphins this year. A large number of dolphins that could not be eaten in time were thrown into the trash for no reason.
If humans were allowed to eat whatever they wanted, it would be easy to kill off any species.
In the past, people were content with having something to eat, but now that the average Japanese income is 40,000 U.S. dollars a year, they still want to get it all from whales. That's asking too much.
The change in food ethics is a long process, and some foods that we previously took for granted will gradually be removed from our diet.
Foods that are not prohibited by law can be chosen based on personal understanding. There is no need to make a one-size-fits-all decision, and there is no need to force others to be consistent with you.
However, as a member of the human race, when we enjoy meat that is fed with feed and chemical products that pollute nature, we should be kinder to nature within what we think is reasonable and within our means.
Mugalen understood: "First, they are greedy, second, they refuse to admit their mistakes, third, they destroy nature, and fourth, they commit bloody massacres. Strange, they are quite capable. "
"That's right," Richard confirmed.
"If it were not against the law to kill me, they would have done it."
Thinking of the two companions still lying in the hospital, everyone nodded.
Richard sighed: "Maybe it's all my fault, because the show "Dolphin Tale" created this multi-billion-dollar industry. The show inspired people's desire to swim with dolphins, touch and kiss them."
"No." Bifang shook his head. "I can tell you don't study Marxism. According to the materialist view of history, as long as dolphins are still smart and have performance value, this industry chain will emerge sooner or later. The only difference is sooner or later."
The car quickly drove past the town government, and after confirming that no one was following, it arrived at the foot of a remote and deserted mountain.
Mandy opened a black bag, which contained dozens of raincoats of different colors neatly arranged. She picked out camouflage raincoats and distributed them to everyone. Taking advantage of the heavy rain when few people were going out, everyone went up the mountain.
The heavy rain made the mountain road very muddy. Jarrett almost slipped when he stepped on it, but fortunately Mugalen behind him helped him.
"You two are too old. You should stay in the car." Mugalen pointed at Jarrett and Richard.
Richard shook his head. How could he be absent?
Jarrett couldn't do it either: "We have limited equipment. I have to observe the entire bay before I can decide where to put the camera. Otherwise, I can't shoot a qualified documentary."
There was more and more mud on their feet, and everyone felt that their shoes were at least twice as heavy. Mandy accidentally stepped into a puddle of mud, and when she pulled herself out, her shoes were gone.
Bifang poked it for a long time with a exploration stick before he finally fished it out.
"Oh my god, I don't want to wear it anymore." Mandy held up the muddy sneakers.
Bifang said: "If you don't want to wear it, you can go barefoot. If you don't want to be bitten by some strange insects, or scratched by sharp stones, bleeding a lot, and finally invaded by bacteria, the wound will first start to fester, then the whole sole of the foot will start to swell, and finally become bloated and full of bruises, and finally have to amputate the whole calf or even the thigh..."
"OKOK... Please stop talking, I still want my legs back."
Mandy begged for mercy repeatedly, rinsed the mud in her shoes with mineral water, put them on her feet, and continued to move forward, supporting each other.
Not long after they walked, a yellow iron plate blocked the crowd's way.
It read: "Beware of falling rocks." "Ferocious beasts are around."
The iron sign was very large, blocking the entire way. Next to it was a barbed wire fence full of iron spikes, which extended all the way to the edge of the cliff next to it.
Richard smiled bitterly, “If it doesn’t rain, there will still be fishermen patrolling the nearby mountains with knives. This is also a national park. Those fishermen told me: ‘If what happened here gets out, we’re done.’ They said so themselves.”
Bifang touched the iron spike, walked to the cliff next to him, and then pulled everyone across the defense line one by one.
After passing through layers of trees, the crowd was finally able to see a bay surrounded by mountains on three sides through the gaps in the woods.
“Is this Dolphin Bay?”
Bifang and Mugalen looked at the shallow bay at the foot of the mountain. The coastline was only a few dozen meters long, with low mountains on both sides. However, on such a narrow coastline, there were thousands of dolphin carcasses.
Dolphins always come to Taiji Town along their migration route, which has not changed for thousands of years, and fishermen only need to wait for them to fall into their traps.
A dozen fishing boats were lined up in a row. They put some long poles with flanges on the end into the water and then hit the pole heads with hammers, which created a wall of sound.
They took advantage of the dolphins' sensitivity to sound and drove hundreds of them to the coast.
They were all running for their lives, fleeing from that wall of sound.
Once in this bay surrounded by mountains on three sides, as long as the last exit is blocked with a fishing net, no dolphin can escape.
Every year during dolphin season, this shallow bay turns blood red.
It is real blood red, without any exaggeration. From the satellite, you can even clearly see that this bay has turned into a red spot.
All dolphins that were not selected by the aquarium were killed, regardless of size.
The massacre at Dolphin Bay was a brilliant massacre, brilliant in that it was a massacre that severed a heritage.
It killed all the dolphins that were frightened and realized the cruelty and evil of humans, so that the dolphins still naively believed that humans were their friends, and thus fell into the trap again and again.
