AR-News: JP dolphins need your help URGENTLY

[Masako Miyaji]

Forwarded for Elsa Nature Conservancy: please forward
this to your friends and colleagues.

***Infamous Taiji Dolphin Drive Frishery supplies
victims to Dolphin-Assisted-Therapy Program***
Urgent Request:

The following is the latest information concerning the
Dolphin Healing Center in Kagawa prefecture, Japan. I
will itemize what we investigated below.

We need LOTS OF protest letters from abroad to be
against the construction of this Center as soon as
possible, for we found that there is a high
possibility that letters from abroad will be able to
stop this project.

What we would like to ask you to do:
1)Please write a letter, short or long, and fax/e-mail
it to the place below as soon as possible. 
   
 To:Mr. Shinya Akazawa, Mayor of Sanuki city, &
Machidukuri-suishin-ka  
   Fax:+81-87-894-4440
   E-mail:hisyo at m.sanuki.ne.jp
   Address:5385-8, Shido, Sanuki-shi, Kagawa-ken,
769-2195 Japan

2)Please send this information to wherever, and ask
people to send faxed letters or e-mails. 

3)Will you please send the copy of your letter to Elsa
Nature Conservancy, Japan (E-mail:pah03724 at nifty.ne.jp
  
Fax:+81-29-851-1637) so that we can show it to the
media? 

Please read the following Background & Information so
that you can understand why we asked you the above.

Background & Information:

In Sanuki city, Kagawa prefecture, about 500 km
southwest from Tokyo, Japan, a plan to build a big
Dolphin Healing Center is progressing. It already
experimentally started with two dolphins from Taiji
drive fisheries a few years ago. This plan was once
suspended, because the town which started this project
was mergered with other towns to become a city.
However, the project itself was taken over by the new
city, whose name is Sanuki, and a number of scientists
showed interest in it and started to support the plan.
A citizen- organization(NGO) already started sign-on
campaigns to promote this plan.  

1)Sanuki-city keeps three bottlenose dolphins in the
sea pen at present. This plan started by Tsudamachi
(name of a town) with two dolphins from the drive
fisheries in Taiji. In January, this year, they
brought in additional three Taiji dolphins, but one of
them died in February, and another female died on
August 21, this year.

2)The coastal sea area where the sea-pen for dolphins
was constructed is well known as the place hottest in
summer and coldest in winter, and, accordingly, the
temperature of the sea water extremely rises up in
summer, and goes down in winter. The place of the sea
pen is next to the reclaimed land, and often occurs a
red tide. The degree of the transparecy of the water
is very low.

3)As mentioned at 2), the environment of the sea pen
is very bad, but the city/people concerned mentioned
that this was an experiment whether dolphins can
survive in this environment or not.

4)As I mentioned at 1), dolphins they keep are from
Taiji. If the plan is promoted, they continue to
supply dolphins caught by drive fisheries in Taiji.

5)This plan was originally started by Tsudamachi
before the merger of towns. Though former Tsudamachi
insisted that the plan should be taken over and
promoted by the new city, it seems that the city
itself is not so enthusiastic about this project. And
I heard that GAIATSU, the external pressure, would be
very effective to stop the project just like in Futo,
where the drive fishery has been suspended for three
years and dolphin watching started last year. We think
that if we could send many protest letters against the
facilities, or request letters to stop this project,
we might be able to make a complete halt of this
project.

6)The city assembly will be opened around September
10, and this issue will be discussed and the budget
for the new fiscal year for this plan will be decided.
(It is needed to make them not to admit this budget,
first.) 

5)A group named "Tsuda Dolphin Tomo no Kai"(Friends of
Dolphins in Tsuda) already collected about 10,000
signatures to request to promote the plan of this
Dolphin Healing Center. This group is going to submit
them to the mayor of Sanuki-city around September 10
in time for the city assembly. 

With respect to this issue, the external pressure is
very important. If we could send many letters, faxes
or e-mails to the place, we might be able to stop this
project, which will give significant influence on the
future construction of this kind in Japan.

Elsa Nature Conservancy
P.O.Box 2, Tsukuba Gakuen Post Office
Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305-8691 Japan
Tel & Fax: +81-29-851-1637

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