The hunt takes place early morning, usually before sunrise.
The noise disrupts the dolphin’s sonar throwing off their navigation and causing them to panic.
This enables the fishermen to drive the panicked dolphins towards the bay which leads to a sheltered cove.
Once inside, the mouth of the cove is sealed with nets trapping the dolphins inside.
Photo credit:Japan Times
At this point, the dolphins are too agitated to hunt.
So the fishermen leave them to cool off for the night.
Protests and condemnation against this practice has forced the fishermen to adopt a different killing technique.
In realty, the dolphins thrash about in agonizing pain for several minutes.
Aside from the physical pain, the dolphins undergo extreme psychological distress.
Since the release of the documentary, the hunt has created an outrage across the world.
Millions of people, animal activists and organizations have demanded that the hunting be stopped.
But this isnt going to happen, because its a multi-million-dollar industry and is supported by the Japanese government.
The government issues permits to hunt dolphins, whales and other marine animals.
About 1,800 permits for dolphin are issued per year.
This is a significant drop from 23,000 permits that were annually issued at the time the documentary was made.
Related:Mass Whale Hunting in Faroe Islands Leave Sea Blood Red
Sources:Wikipedia/Save Dolphins/Huffington Post/Australia for Dolphins
