Japan dolphin-killing town to open marine park, serve dolphin meat 
 
 By Agence France-Presse 
 
 Monday, October 7, 2013 7:04 EDT 
 
 The Japanese town made infamous by the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove”, will open a marine mammal park where visitors can swim with dolphins, but will not end its annual slaughter, an official said Monday. 
 
 The town of Taiji has begun researching a plan to section off part of a cove and turn it into a place where people can swim and kayak alongside small whales and dolphins, Masaki Wada told AFP. 
 
 But, Wada insisted, far from having caved in to pressure from conservationists who want an end to an annual hunt that turns waters red with blood, the project was aimed at helping to sustain the practice. 
 
 “We already use dolphins and small whales as a source of tourism in the cove where dolphin-hunting takes place,” he said. 
 
 “In summer swimmers can enjoy watching the mammals that are released from a partitioned-off space,” he said. 
 
 “But we plan to do it on a larger scale. This is part of Taiji’s long-term plan of making the whole town a park, where you can enjoy watching marine mammals while tasting various marine products, including whale and dolphin meat,” he said. 
 
 The park will be separate from Hatakejiri Bay, the place into which the fishermen of Taiji corral dolphins, select a few dozen for sale to aquariums and marine parks, and stab the rest to death for meat. 
 
 The plan calls for the creation of a whale amusement park stretching roughly 69 acres by putting up a net at the entrance to Moriura Bay in northwestern Taiji, the official said. 
 
 The 2009 film “The Cove” brought Taiji to worldwide attention, winning an Oscar the following year, after graphically showing the killing, including by using underwater cameras. Activists continue to visit the town to protest the hunt. 
 
 Taiji, in western Wakayama prefecture, is looking to open part of the park within five years, the Wada said. 
 
 Black whales and bottlenose dolphins caught in waters near the town would be released into the pool, which would be developed as a nature park that also includes beaches and mudflats, he said. 
 
 Wakayama prefecture said the town caught 1,277 dolphins in 2012 and has licence to capture 2,026 this season, which began in September and runs until August next year. 
 
 ['Two Dolphins Swim In The Pool' via Shutterstock] 

 Now, the Japanese town Taiji has unveiled controversial new plans to open a marine park where visitors can swim with dolphins – while the annual hunt of the animals continues in a nearby bay. 
 
 Town officials have outlined plans to section off part of the cove and transform it into an entertainment spot where people can swim and kayak alongside small whales and dolphins. 
 
 However, they were quick to emphasise that the establishment of the park was not a result of pressure from conservationists keen to end the annual dolphin hunt, but was aimed at helping to sustain the practice, according to AFP. 
 
 “We already use dolphins and small whales as a source of tourism in the cove where dolphin-hunting takes place,” said Masaki Wada, a local government official. 
 
 "In summer swimmers can enjoy watching the mammals that are released from a partitioned-off space. 
 
 "But we plan to do it on a larger scale. This is part of Taiji's long-term plan of making the whole town a park, where you can enjoy watching marine mammals while tasting various marine products, including whale and dolphin meat.” 
 
 The town’s plans consist of the establishment of a whale safari park spanning around 69 acres to open within five years, with a net installed at the entrance to a bay in the northwest of Taiji. 
 
 Not far away, however, is Hatakejiri Bay, where the fishermen of Taiji regularly turn the waters pink as they lure dolphins into nets before they are slaughtered. 
 
 The dolphin-hunting practice dates back 400 years and is fiercely protected by locals as an important whaling and culinary tradition which they argue is no different from killing cattle. 
 
 The town was cast into the spotlight - and international controversy – when the practice was captured in graphic detail in the popular 2009 documentary The Cove, resulting in widespread criticism. 
 
 Plans to open a marine park were quickly condemned as exploitative and “unfortunate” for the town by environmental activists, who frequently visit Taiji to protest agains the slaughter. 
 
 Nanami Kurasawa, the secretary general of Iruka & Kujira (Dolphin & Whale) Action Network, said: "The whole plan is based on the concept that they can exploit dolphins and whales freely as their resource, but the mammals don't belong to Taiji. 
 
 "Marine mammals migrate across oceans, and internationally public opinion is that wildlife should be allowed to live as they are. The plan will only ignite more protests over dolphin-hunting.”
– Taiji, the dolphin-slaughtering Japanese town documented in The Cove, has no plans to end its annual dolphin hunt ... but it is opening a super-fun-sounding amusement park, where you can swim with the dolphins and then stop by a food stand and chow down on them. "This is part of Taiji’s long-term plan of making the whole town a park, where you can enjoy watching marine mammals while tasting various marine products," an official explains to AFP. Whale meat will also be on offer. Taiji, where hunters round up dolphins, sell some to aquariums and marine parks, and kill the rest for meat, has come under quite a bit of scrutiny following the documentary. But the 69-acre marine park, set to open within five years, will help the town to keep the controversial hunt alive by drawing in tourists, the official says. Environmental activists, not surprisingly, are calling the plan exploitative, the Telegraph reports.