Test dolphins

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Hi all. I’m not in my normal cheery mood. Today the fishermen went out TWICE and brought in what looks to be about a dozen Pilot Whales. There is some good news to my story however… so please keep reading through everything that will make you want to break your computer.

Whenever someone asks, “Do you want the bad news first, or the good news?”, I’ll always say the bad news. That way I don’t end a conversation on a bad note.

So that’s what I am going to do now. It starts this morning at around 4:30. My dad starts fussing for me to wake up. We all decided to get up extra early to go and film the Katsuura fishermen bringing in Tuna. My dad and I had to check out of the hotel this morning, to move to another one, so getting out the door was hectic and took a little over an hour. But we made it to Katsuura from Shingu by 6- right when they were unloading this morning’s catch. It was heartbreaking, disgusting and the reality slaps you in the face. We are over fishing! I can’t even go on a rant because I’m so shocked. You hear the fishermen talk about how there used to be hundreds of Dolphins swimming, in the Cove movie. But now they have a harder time finding them. It’s the same with the Tuna and any other sea creature you are eating… these things don’t grow over night and when hundreds are pulled out everyday… things will start disappearing.

After we took footage of the catch, we headed straight for the Cove at around 6:40. When we got there it looked like nothing was going on, until we reached the boat harbor. All the banging boats were gone. So we headed for our “lookout mountain”. We were only there for 40mins before the first catch were being herded in. The footage will be up later tonight. But watching those “dolphins” so scared and heading for shore with those insert swear word of choice here fishermen, banging on poles to drive them in. The banging sound really doesn’t leave your head. It’s been bugging me all day!

Once the “dolphins” were blocked into the Cove. Everyone (the fishermen) left. So we sat and waited for their return. In that time frame, my father and I rushed to the hotel to post a quick update and Sandra and Dwight counted five Pilot Whales. Long finned Pilot Whales, Is what we think they are. Aren’t those supposed to be protected? The government was letting this happen. And we know that because the police stood right there with us as the fishermen drove them in.

About hour an hour later, my dad spotted the banging boats on the horizon. The horror went on again. This time they drove in at least seven Pilot Whales, making an estimated dozen sitting in the Cove currently. We have word from a good source that very few Aquariums buy Pilot Whales. We are preparing ourselves for bloody water tomorrow. So prepare yourselves as well. This isn’t a light subject.

I’ll post more pictures and some video tonight when I find my missing data card!

On a good note however! Sandra, Dwight, my dad, and I all watched the Cove on my dad’s computer, while sitting at the Cove. Most of the tourists, and locals came over to see what we were doing. We reached out and shared this information, using the Cove movie, to at least nine or ten different people. Two of them being the Directors of a Tokyo news station, and thinking of playing the Cove movie on the station sometime. On top of that! We talked to several other groups of locals, and three journalist students traveling from Tokyo. The word is getting out to some of the local and distant community. It’s great! Half of the people had heard about the Cove, but didn’t realize that they were standing in it. And lots of people ignored the gates saying keep off rocks, to get better pictures of the Pilot Whales. So today has had it’s ups and downs.

For the Animals,

Elora Malama

September 20, 2010

No good news…

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Hi everyone. I unfortunately have bad news today. About eight or ten small Whales have been herded into the killing Cove only. We watched the banging boats herd them in from far out into the horizon, to the killing Cove. I have more then enough video, but I do not have time to upload anything now. I don’t have any words… it looks like these might become sushi, because there is such a little amount and they took down the main net that blocked the way out of the entire Cove. The only place there are nets is blocking the killing Cove. More updates tonight, or tomorrow morning for some of you.
Photo’s by Sandra Miller

September 19, 2010

My public facebook page!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Teenage-Activist-This-Girls-Soap-Box/150897888274478?ref=sgm

September 19, 2010

Pictures from today!

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Once again there are no Dolphins in the Cove today! We still had a very interesting day. After confirming that the fishing boats were in the harbor, we headed for the festival in Katsuura. It was so cool! I think it was still setting up, because things were being put together. But they had floating trees with flags on them, the boats were decorated, people were rowing around playing drums, and preparing in the streets for shows. It was very neat!

We went into a local sea-food market and I was completely and utterly disturbed by everything that I saw. The scallops would spit water and bounce as best they could since they were in a box with about a hundred others below them. It was just horror to me. The oceans are dying too quickly and then you look at why. It’s greed. It’s people who either know and choose not to care, or people who are so ignorant that they believe every-time they get a shipment of Clams etc etc. that it will just keep coming forever. I feel like if people were even the slightest bit educated, some of that ignorance would go away. And that’s what our world needs. Because once we save the oceans, (our main source of survival in terms of oxygen and apex predators), then we can work on stopping the on land problems. Oil companies, factory farming and things like that. It just seems that the majority of our Earth’s population choose to ignore everything. “I don’t see it, it doesn’t happen”. I guess I don’t know where I’m going with this… I’m just upset is all.

Today Dwight and I decided that it would be a good thing for my senior project if we filmed some stuff from inside the water at the killing Cove. And the fishermen said we could be in the water with no fishermen or dolphins, so it was allowed as far as we were concerned. One of us always stayed in view of the police, because we didn’t want them to suspect us of anything, it was harmless footage of me talking. It was so scary! So so so so so scary! We booked it out of there… never went on land or anything, because there was a keep out sign. Once we saw that, we swam out. We weren’t trying to break any laws.

Once we were back on shore… this guy on a jet ski came flying around the corner, and we thought it was a fishermen. So all in a panic we were preparing for him to start yelling. Turns out it was a guy and his girlfriend looking for a place to have a picnic. They picked a part of the beach, and set up. Then the guy got back on his jet ski and went into the killing Cove to see what was there. We figured, if he can do that, then there shouldn’t be any problem with us swimming.

Now we are back at the hotel, and I am downloading video to youtube. Please check my account several times because it could take a day to get all this footage up. Thanks for everything everyone!

For the Animals,

Elora

P.S Guess who bought the bread that turned out to be chocolate bread… Sandra. haha! oh well! I got some anyway

September 19, 2010

Sorry!

Hi all! I’m really sorry but some of the video I promised you today will be up tomorrow because a lot of it came off of Sandra Miller’s camera, and it did not download to my desktop for some reason. I just noticed too! Tomorrow for sure!

Have a good morning or night! I need some sleep now.

For the Animals,

Elora Malama

September 18, 2010

Good day! And TONS of video!

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Hi bloggers! Today was fantastic, no Dolphins in the cove!
We took Dwight and Sandra to the temple and waterfall and enjoyed another day in Japan without the worry of Dolphins being captured or killed.

I’m not going to do a massive update via writing today because everything we did is on video. Please check my youtube account to see all the new stuff. This including a store merchant showing us which meat is Whale, my third swim in the Cove and our hike up Tsunami park. It will take a while to get it up, but there will be at least one video within the hour. For those living in areas where it is night you’ll get to watch all of them in a row. Thanks for the support!

For the Animals,

Elora Malama

P.S. for those of you who have been curious about my name, “Malama”, it was given to me traditionally by a good family friend of ours who is from Fiji and has been living in Hawaii for over thirty years. His name is Jim Anthony. I plan on copying his wrist tattoo, like my father did, but put my own animal in the center of it. Jim has a turtle, my dad has a buzzard and a moon, and I want a dolphin whale and shark in a circle. I have such a respect for both men that I want to copy their band that Jim designed.

The name was given at traditional Awa ceremony when I was a baby. It was the first name I had.

Just for those who were curious

September 18, 2010

I want my chocolate bread!

Good morning, afternoon, evening, or night bloggers! I have more good news! The fishermen went out today (very sunny and hot day) in search of dolphin. They came back empty handed! It doesn’t give much to blog about, but that is what we wanted to see today!

I’ll post a short video with this update. It’s footage of a boat coming into the harbor without dolphins.

The hill we like to go to is a viewing park! You walk down these beautiful moss covered trails, and you can read (if you can read Japanese) about different Whales and Dolphins you might see out in the water from the viewing point. Nowadays, that means you can read about the marine life that you watch the fishermen send into extinction.

We ran into the policeman that we forgot to tell where we were going last night! We explained what happened and how sorry we were, he was so shocked we cared so much he was getting a little emotional. He told us that he didn’t sleep all night, because he was worried about me! I felt even worse about my blonde moment! At least things are set straight now, I can relieve my conscious of that.

While Matt was here, he kept talking about this amazing chocolate bread that our favorite bakery sells. However, whenever we were in the store they were not selling it. So Matt explained to me what they looked like. They are long and a little fat like a maple bar doughnut, but the bread does not look like cake but like a small loaf of bread! So we go into the store yesterday and I find something like how he described. I bite into it, and it’s full of mushrooms! Now, I have no problem with mushrooms, but they were not what my taste buds were expecting. Today we went in, and I found something else that looked like what he described… So here I am, sitting in my hotel room getting ready to start blogging. I decided that this is chocolate bread time! So I take a huge bite into this banana and cream bread loaf…. It was amazing! But I still want my chocolate bread! Haha J

Now for my more serious updates:

We went into a local store a block from our hotel to buy something nice for the lady who runs our tiny hotel. We were told that it is something much appreciated here in Japan, and she has been so nice! The first thing I saw when we walked into the probably 1800 square foot building was the huge frozen food section. It was nothing but meat and fish. We walked over to the rows upon rows of fish, and found Whale. At least we think it was Whale, the meat was obviously fish like and it was this really deep red color. On the package, there was a picture of a Whale. We also found squares of Whale meet and possibly dolphin, but we don’t read Japanese so I can’t say I know that for sure. We went to the packaged food area and found some desserts that you could sample. We got our lovely hotel manager some orange and cream cake squares. Still disgusted by the fact I had probably held a frozen square of Whale meet, we went to check out. There, we not only found two huge bags of what looked like Baleen Whale bristles, but there where three baskets of different sized Whale and dolphin teeth! I couldn’t believe what I saw and I had to pick one up! I thought I was going to drop it, I didn’t think about the fact it probably weighed at least eight to ten pounds! We left the store so disturbed. I’m going to try and get a video up of it tomorrow, if I figure out a way to film without being rude.

Today Dwight and Sandra Miller showed up to help spread the word about Taiji, Cove. They answered Paul’s call on the website. It’s so nice having more people here who are just as passionate as we are about saving dolphins! They showed up and were ready to do anything. Since there was nothing to document today (thank goodness), we decided I’d swim out with them, and show them the Cove. They are great! They got their suits and jumped into the water with me, and off we went! We stayed at the opening of the killing part of the cove for a short while, while Dwight took pictures with his underwater camera. (I’ll have something up tomorrow it’s on their camera). This latest swim was not as difficult as the first one was for me… But even Dwight and Sandra said that you can feel the evil in that place and my blood almost turns hot, it’s so strange and unnerving

We went to the same dinner place we did last night. I got, for dessert, Ice cream. But when it came it was frosted flakes and ice cream. Haha! It was good… but strange! Idk, who else eats ice cream with frosted flakes? I know I have weird food habits, especially before I was a vegetarian!

Well I’m glad that there was not much to update. I need some sleep now, night bloggers! Thanks for all your support.

For the Animals,

Elora Malama

September 17, 2010

Another great day!

Today is turning out to be a another great day! The dolphin hunter boats went out, but came back empty handed. I’ll give a more detailed update later!

For the Animals,

Elora Malama

September 17, 2010

That floppy hat…

Today was another free day for dolphins! My dad, Matt, and I woke up around 5:30 to go check out things at the Cove. We walked outside to find that the storm still had not passed, we couldn’t have been more happy! Driving to the the town of Taiji, we noticed that the water was very rough and choppy today. That was also great! It hopefully meant that the fishermen did not go out with their boats, with fear of costly problems to the boats. What I thought was great, is that it still was a costly problem! That is an estimated 50-ish dolphins they will not profit off of, and it’s been this way for three days.

We came back to the town we are staying in and stopped to get tea and toast in our favorite little corner coffee shop. Sadly, we couldn’t finnish our breakfast because two different smokers came in and I was trapped in the smoke. Now, I have nothing against smokers, unless they throw the cigarette butts on the ground, but I cannot inhale second hand smoke! My throat almost closes up. So I had barely anything to start my day today.

All three of us drove over to where the dolphin holding pens are. It’s disgusting in Taiji Town. Most of the buildings are slaughter houses and fishing decks. I’ll get a picture of it, and do a whole article on it tomorrow, but the dolphin slaughter house… looks like a place in which you might be murdered. The building has this torn brown and rust exterior… with a large door that matches the bad paint job. You get chills, just looking at it.

Today is the day that Matt had to return home to his family. After we dropped him off at the train station, we got word that two more people will be arriving tomorrow. This was great! We drove past the Cove, and still nothing. Today is the third day in a row that dolphins are safe!

Now for the very funny… but kinda sad story. A reporter that we ran into at the Cove, saw my dad’s shirt and was very interested in getting some insight on SSCS. We made plans to meet up for dinner, so he could ask all his questions. He did know who SSCS was. When it came time to meet… I realized why I have been so tired and weak the last two days… I am not eating right. I haven’t been since I got here. My body is used to a certain amount, well the amount it needs, of different fruits, vegetables, proteins and other important foods. But ever since I landed, I’ve had a hard time finding foods with high levels of protein because I do not eat meat and we are staying in a town where people travel from all over to eat fish at. So, we stopped at the store behind out hotel and bought all kinds of food. Tofu, vegetables, fruits etc. It was great having someone with us who spoke both English and Japanese, he was able to help us find what we were looking for. We all wanted Tempora and rice with Tofu for dinner, so we asked the lady behind the counter if she knew of a place….. Now remember how I told you that the police follow us everywhere mainly to protect me? Well the funniest police officer was following us on foot. And he was standing right across the street. This local and his two daughters had come into the very small store, and overheard our conversation. He offered to drive us to the restaurant. Because of his daughters being there, we felt that the situation was safe and it would have been considered very rude to decline his offer. So! Here we all are…. my dad and the reporter and this man’s two daughters pile into the back of the car, and they offer me the front seat. I glance over (now keep in mind that I am so used to seeing the police following me, that this hadn’t phased me at all until he was running to the car around the block) and the police officer is grabbing his floppy hat, sliding his hands down his face, his jaw was practically to the wet ground… and he is carrying all this stuff! He starts throwing his bag over his shoulder and dashing for the little white car around the block. Now I realize what we have done! And i’m about to say that we need to stop and tell him where we are going…. when my dad pipes up and says “Hmm, I wonder what the police think? We always tell them where we are going”.

Dinner was very wonderful! Our new friend ordered everything vegetarian on the menu! And wrote out the names of each thing in Japanese for us! We were so grateful! I hadn’t been eating right, so the different Tofu’s, egg dishes, vegetable, and rice was just what I needed! Our reporter friend wanted to know all about SSCS, why my dad was interested in being a part of them, the difference between killings cow and chicken compared to dolphin, etc. He had it painted in his head that SSCS was a group of nasty threatening people, by the end of dinner he said “you’re not like that at all… You’re just like any dad from anywhere”. It was great! I’m hoping we can open the eyes of the Japanese people, and starting with a reporter is great!

Walking back to our hotel we saw one of our police friends parked out front the building, we went straight to them because I felt so bad! I didn’t want the guy to get fired for loosing us, just because I was blonde and didn’t put two and two together! Our reporter friend translated for us, and everything was worked out. PHEW!

I’m sorry this is later than it normally is, I was typing last night my time and when I hit save draft the internet wigged out, and it didn’t save half of my document! Because I was so tired my dad made me go to sleep, rather than spend another hour up writing, I need to stay healthy.

Well that’s the crazy story for today! Today was good all around!

For the Animals,

Elora Malama

September 16, 2010

Sometimes NO news, is GOOD news…

Hi everyone! Today was another great day for dolphins! We drove to the cove, and none were visibly being herded in. After we waited for a little while, we drove over to where the fishermen’s “banging” boats are, They were gone. The fishermen did go out trying to find dolphin. We wanted a better view of the horizon so we drove up a giant hill, to a park that had an amazing view of everything from the white building of the Cove, to the horizon. I took soo many pictures! You can see them under the page I have titled “Taiji and Cove”. It was very beautiful! However, we couldn’t make out what boats were on the horizon, so we decided to go back to the Cove to see what was going on. When we arrived, everything was so still. It was a good time for breakfast, and we knew we could actually eat knowing that there were no dolphins in the Cove, yet.

I was/am feeling very nauseous today. I have a lot of allergy problems, and the new environment is getting to me. That or I am coming down with a slight stomach flu bug. I hope it’s just an allergy thing, that will eventually pass, there is nothing worse than the flu! I am also very home sick! I miss my pets, and my family… and my friends! Soo much! I know I’ve only been gone a week, but I started to think about how long I will be here and I do miss my life back home. But I have to say I am proud and happy being here and doing what it is I am doing. I feel like I have a moral responsiblity to the people in my generation to show that no matter our age, we can all do something very important. I’m living proof of that and so are thousands of other teens, kids and young adults who have stepped up and done the same thing.

It’s pouring! I mean RAINING! I don’t even think the term “cats and dogs” works here, more like “tigers and bears”! I would imagine it’s been the hardest rain in a while, considering locals told us that is hadn’t rained in weeks when it was drizzling Monday morning. Still no dolphins at the Cove. We plan on getting some dinner soon…I am posting a video of the beautiful waterfall in Nachi. Hope it’s a nice relief to go with the good news!

Thanks for the support! I’m so happy there is nothing to say! It means that the dolphins are safe for another day.

For the Animals,

Elora Malama

September 15, 2010

Interesting day…

Hi everyone! Today had the potential to be very low key, but ha! What were we thinking? Of course something was going to come up!

We arrived at the Cove around 6:45 am. The fishermen were nowhere in view. We sat there for about a half hour, and no dolphins were being herded into the Cove. The police did not know what the fishermen’s plans were. Below is something I wrote while sitting on a rock….

I’m sitting on a giant rock at the Cove. Behind (about two feet) from me is the blocked off trail to the Cove. It looks like a castle wall. This place is so beautiful and I really can’t even describe it. My pictures don’t even do it justice. The water is so still, and only the wind moving the current is stirring it. No Dolphins were chased into the Cove this morning. We have word that the Dolphin trainers only want to choose Dolphins for aquariums in September, and the rest of the season is up to the fishermen. It’s a real shame, this place. I mean, it would make an incredible dive site, hiking “park”, and if the fishermen really wanted to make money, a boat tour out to watch dolphins in the water.

After we decided that the fishermen probably were not going out today, we left for breakfast. We went to an adorable little bakery and got some egg Danish, doughnuts, and sandwiches.

We then went back to the Cove, ate our food while checking to see if any dolphins were being herded in. None were. So we packed up our things, and went to do some sight seeing. Besides what is going on at the Cove, I want to learn about culture and see Japan. We drove to a temple at Nachi. We hiked so many stairs, and had an amazing view of the land! It was really cool being inside a temple. I have never been in a Japanese temple before! After viewing that for a while, we came down all the stairs and walked over to the waterfall. It was breathtaking! I didn’t want to leave! The sound is almost hypnotic. I have a video of the sound I’ll post it tonight. It smelled like incense and wet trees. Very relaxing.

Heading back to Taiji, we stopped at a restaurant down the hill of the park. This is where things got interesting. I had left out rental phone in the car, by mistake. It turns out the police had called up 11 times! I felt terrible! I thought the phone was in my camera case! But the cops that have been following us around got a call, stopped Matt while he was outside, and asked for us. I really thought this is it. We are being arrested. They have found something to charge us with… but we have done absolutely nothing wrong!

The police said they wanted to ask my dad more about the death threats that were sent to Sea Shepherd. So they had all three of us follow them back to the police station. At first, we all walked up stairs, into an office, and into the interrogation room. This was not a friendly place AT ALL! The room was about the size of a closet. The walls were this dirty white color made that me feel like I was in prison… without being in prison. My dad explained to them that I was not Sea Shepherd, and that I had nothing to do with this. Matt and I were escorted into the hallway OUTSIDE of the office, where the room was, that my dad was in. We sat on this bench in front of a flight of stairs going up and down. On the landing below us, there were about 14 wanted posters of various Japanese men… the window was a frosted glass, so we could not see out. The walls were the same dirty white as that horrible room! I started to bite my nails… I do that when I am really nervous. Its unconscious, but I do it. I think Matt could see I was confused and worried about my dad walking back through that door handcuffed. He started talking to me about “Whale Whores”, which is a South Park episode about Sea Shepherd that we all watched last night. We started laughing so loud and so hard that everyone was looking at us funny. We talked about my school, and how I like to sing and act. It was really great having someone else there with me. I feel like now knowing a little about what to possibly expect, if my dad were arrested just for being who he is… that I could be brave, and do what I had to do to either get home, or find out how long he is being held. Thank you Matt, for that!

About 45 LONG minutes later, my dad was sent on his way. We went back to the hotel, got our swimsuits, and headed straight for the water! It was so hot!

I don’t have any words really, to describe the swim… I have a video I took after it, on my Youtube account. I said everything I needed to say, then and there. I am blabbing, but it’s about what I saw and felt.

When we got back to the hotel, we couldn’t find my passport! We had put it in the glove compartment, but when I went to get it, it was gone! About 20 minutes of searching the car and my room…. I was freaking out! I thought someone had stolen it, and I couldn’t figure out why they would do that! All the police have a copy of it! But after Matt and I went to go look in my backpacks… my dad found it. So, in this car… there is TWO glove compartments….. it’s very strange! On opens on the bottom, one on top of it. It was in the one on top, but that thing looked like an airbag. We must have put it in so fast we didn’t pay attention. Haha, just something funny to lighten the mood!

I love all the support! Thank you so much! You are all so wonderful!

For the Animals,

Elora Malama

September 14, 2010

Thank you!

I just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for all of the kind words, blessings, and help! I got tears in my eyes reading all of your comments. I have kids 6yrs old and up and people who live in Japan following this blog, and supporting me! I think that is so special!

I wanted to say to anyone that has said they wish they could do something like I am doing, go for it! We as kids, teens, and young adults are the future generation, and we need to make sure our oceans are protected!

We are going swimming now! We just came back from touring a beautiful temple and waterfall! I’ll have a massive update when I get back to the hotel.

For the Animals,

Elora Malama

September 14, 2010

September 14th, 2010 9:50am

Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you know that no dolphins, so far, have been driven into the the Cove today. We are going to do some sight seeing, then some swimming around the Cove area for fun! I’ll have another massive update later today. Thank you all for the support!

September 14, 2010

September 12th, 2010…

Hello all! I have so much to tell you about today… so brace yourself and get nice and comfortable, haha! I started documenting sitting at the Cove at 6am this morning. Below is something I wrote watching the Captive dolphins.

Sitting at the Cove now. So far, three dolphins have been chosen for aquariums. I asked the police what they planned to do with the rest, they responded with “I don’t answer”. I am trying to prepare myself to see blood come out of the killing Cove. I don’t know what is going to happen, no one is responding right now.

About a half hour has gone by, I’m just sitting here eating an orange and watching absolute horror in the water and on land. In the water dolphins are jumping, clicking, blowing and thrashing around. On land, two Japanese women were walking down the path, but the fishermen left them alone. We have been harassed all morning about walking down the path (that is not gated off, I feel l should make that clear).

I have been walking alone down walkways to different sections of the beach, the police came up to me and told me I could not film or take pictures. We asked if it was against the law, and they did not answer. So I kept taking pictures.

It’s interesting how upset they get over a picture of a rock… they are not hiding the fact we make them very nervous! My father is on the phone now with someone that police asked him to speak with. Things are getting ugly. The dolphins are so scared. Five fishermen are standing directly behind me, and a police officer is sitting next to me. The guy on the phone is saying we need permission to take pictures of the fishermen. We responded with “the fishermen are taking our pictures, they didn’t ask us if it’s true they need permission”? —–The man on the phone was completely befuddled. After the phone was passed around several times, they man said we could take pictures of the fishing, boats, land, and animals… but not the faces of the fishermen.

About an hour after I wrote that, we went walking to the main beach/rock area. About 12 or 15 dolphins had been separated from their pod, and moved in the big area that is connected to the rock beach. I rolled up my jeans and walked into the warm bath like water, just trying to cool down. I tripped. Of course! Ha-ha, I twisted my toes and down I went, unto my butt now sitting in ribcage level water. I didn’t mind, it felt nice against the wind. I think I sprained my smallest toe though. It was surreal walking around in the water there, about 30 feet away from these amazing animals that should not have been there. About five minutes later, I’m still in the water, and one of the fishermen boats comes flying around the corner of the killing Cove, and straight for the rock beach! I booked it out of the water! It was at that moment things got really crazy….

Anti Sea Shepherd protesters, police, coast guard, and more people who looked all official started to line the sidewalk and come talk to us. There were probably all of three protesters on the sidewalk… I couldn’t help but chuckle. I mean, I’m all for supporting what you believe in, but to support murder is just plain ignorance and hate. They were filming us and taking our pictures. Now wait a minute… They didn’t ask our permission. So we asked the police to tell them to stop. We said that if they want to film us, we get to film them. They had no interest in doing that. The protesters held up signs of Paul but stayed away from us… my dad and I went walking down the beach, out of the sun… We forgot to put on sunscreen. Matt decided to stay and listen in on what was going on.

Sitting on the other side of the beach… I was trying to block out everything around me. Like the dolphins, the fishermen, cops, protesters, and the cameras. I was looking at the water, trees, hills and sky, birds, rocks, even bugs! And realizing how breathtaking this place is! It’s SO beautiful. It’s sickening to think what goes on in such a beautiful place….. but I almost threw up witnessing some of it.

Later this afternoon more protesters showed up. They had very high quality cameras, almost as if they were making a movie. There were about twelve of them now. I would walk by, and they would yell at me in Japanese… Talk about frightening. I felt like the Right-Wingers would kill me in my sleep if they could. And guess who comes into the story next!? Yeah… The Right-Wingers. Screaming about how what they do is okay here in Japan, and if we want to take pictures they will guide us to another location in Japan. They were talking about how they never forget the atomic bombings of Japan and reminding us that America did that. And yes, they were screaming through a bull horn while driving around the small town of Taiji.

Later in the day, keep in mind we had been there since 6am so later was really more like one or two in the afternoon. There is an estimated 15 dolphins that were taken for captivity today. I am not sure on that though. We were trying to count how many boats left with dolphins in slings, but we eventually got used to the sounds of the boats and lost count.

At one 0′clock the dolphins that had been separated, and netted in towards the rock beach, were still there. I figured out I was allowed to climb onto the rocks that were semi below the pathway. I walked all the way to the end of them, closest to the dolphins and sat down. They were probably about ten or 12 feet from me, but they kept moving in circles, so at times they were very close to me. But then they would migrate towards their other pod members in the cove area. I’ve never been more heart broken. I can honestly say that is one of the hardest things I have ever done. They were talking with each other, babies were separated from their mothers, fins were angrily hitting the water, and sometimes they would come up vertically to try and see above the water. I could look them right in the eye when they did that. Their eyes would roll in the back of their heads when they came back down. Now, none of these dolphins had the mysterious “Dolphin Smile”, they were so distressed.

I walked back over to my dad and Matt, when a news-paper reporter came over and interviewed my dad and me. He wanted to know why we are here, if we plan to cut nets or free dolphins, and what our story is. We explained that my father is with Sea Shepherd, and that I am a student in highschool working on my senior project. We told them nothing but the truth. He asked my dad a few questions, he explained that no we do not plan to cut nets or free dolphins, but he is here to let the world know what is happening at the Cove. The reporter asked what my project was on, I told him I am working on my senior project about Japanese culture and daily lifestyle. I told him that I understand the killing of dolphin is a cultural thing the fishermen have been claiming to do for 400 hundred years, so I came to document what I see, because I am interested and I care about dolphins too. We even told him about my blog and how I am writing down everything I see and feel. He was very interested in my project, and he was very nice! He stayed and talked with us for over an hour, and we made a very good connection. He is very curious about Sea Shepherd, has a wife who is also vegetarian, so he understood that.

Soon a TV news reporter took my dad aside and interviewed him. They asked him similar questions.

I am having a hard time wording this section… I don’t want to sound self-absorbed, but I found this very funny and very sweet and it was a part of my day, so why not share it! I share everything else! While we were talking to the news-reporter I mentioned that the Right-Wingers sound like they do not like us very much. He told me that they don’t think I am Sea Shepherd, because I am too pretty. I don’t know who from Sea Shepherd they have met, but everyone I have is very pretty! So I don’t know what they mean by that… But one man standing on top of one of the hills, I believe he was a Right-Winger, screamed several times asking me to marry him. It’s very funny… but extremely awkward!

I started to realize that the police will send one of their men to follow me when I walk around the park. They are protecting me from fishermen and right-wingers, they do not want any problem at all! They realize if something happens to me it will be a huge national scandal… So they keep a close eye on me. It’s comforting knowing that the police are there for me, instead of spitting on the ground I walk on. Only because I am with my dad, and he is Sea Shepherd, Sea Shepherd is not welcome here.

GOOD NEWS FOR THE DOLPHINS! It’s unfortunate for the dolphins that were taken in captivity. I won’t be able to sleep tonight. The sounds of theire tails hitting the water and those boats driving them off to their holding pens, will just haunt me.

However, the rest were let go today! It took them about an hour to drive them out of the Cove and into the ocean, but they did! Seeing them jump and swim towards freedom was amazing! IT was worth the hours of waiting in the HOT sunlight. I have to say though… if it weren’t for the fact we were there (we being all activists from any group) those dolphins would have suffered a terrible fate! I will post the videos of them being let go later tonight. It will take a while.

Leaving, we had everyone that was on the police squad follow us to our car, the Right-wingers were filming us, and the news reporters taking our pictures. I felt famous. I really didn’t enjoy it, but if it gets the word out about the Cove, I’ll do anything.

Today was rough. But it had a happy ending!

For the Animals,

Elora Malama

September 13, 2010

Lets move on…

I’m sorry for all of the panic and disputing that happened here while I was away from my computer. I have been at the Cove all day and dealing with police, fishermen, protesters, and right-wingers. The police have been very nice and helpful towards us, the fishermen are leaving us alone and the right-wingers eventually got bored and left.

Thank you all for the kind words! I will have another massive update up later tonight.

For the animals,

Elora Malama

September 13, 2010

Eventful and emotional day…

The best place to start a story is at the beginning, and I have a very long and eventful story to tell. Starting with when we woke up.

We woke up at 5am, ate a Japanese style breakfast and hit the road. It took us a total of seven hours to get to Taiji from Wakayama. I love road trips! I have been on more then my fair share over the years, and let me just say that this was the strangest one yet! Nothing bad or weird happened, it was just the fact we were driving through miles and miles of Japan, witnessing a entirely different culture. We stopped at this adorable little bread shop, were they actually made the bread there where you could see. We got some doughnuts and cheese bread and started back on our journey. The cheese bread was amazing! I didn’t know that the Japanese made such amazing bread and doughnuts! You wouldn’t think that, but they do. It’s the best cheese bread I’ve ever had.

About an hour into our drive, Matt Smith, a Sea Shepherd supporter who answered one of Paul’s calls to come and be the eyes and hears of what is happening at The Cove, called us. He said that the Japanese Right-wing Nationalists were screaming his name and information through a bull horn, accusing him of being responsible for the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. He was being accused of something so extremely horrific, because he was an American citizen.

My dad and I got to talking after this conversation. I mentioned that I have never seen a Dolphin in person before, and how the first ones I will see, will either be captured or slaughtered. He said I was very brave for coming here and being prepared to witness that… but what is being brave? I mean, I know the dictionary term for it… but what does it feel like? Right now I can’t tell if I’m brave, or naive and stupid. I am well aware of the danger being here, I can be arrested, deported, banned from the country, or a Japanese fisherman may decided to attack me. I highly doubt they would go to that extreme with me though. I am a minor, I’m American, and I’m a girl. I’ve always been frustrated with my age, because I can’t go and do most of the things I want to at sixteen. But now being a sixteen year old girl … that might just save my butt! I guess I am very brave… or maybe the reality of all this hasn’t hit me yet. I’m realizing more and more every hour, just how greedy the fishermen are. And they do not like it when something gets in the way of that next paycheck.

When we first arrived to Taiji, the first thing we did was drive directly to The Cove. It’s surreal. We pulled into the parking lot, and we walked over to these two fishermen talking with an American man, we figured that was Matt. The hill we were standing on was a perfect view of The Cove (not the slaughtering place, but the body or water itself). 80+ dolphins were being held in a small area that was surrounded with netting. You could see and hear them all panicking. They were slapping their tails against the surface, clicking, and screaming moving around in this small ball they formed in the middle of the net area. It was so hard to watch. And honestly I have absolutely no words for how it made me feel. In my links section of this blog, you will see my youtube “KahakaiGirl” the video is uploaded there. Come up with your own words for it. It’s just wrong.

Within eyes sight, there was the Whale Museum. That was almost sickening. Apparently you can go read about Whales, then walk half a mile to watch one be slaughtered. The fishermen we walked into, were very polite. They shook my hand, and told me I was welcome there… that was unexpected. I was prepared to be spat at, screamed at, and trying to walk around with a bunch of fishermen around me that had no sense of personal space. But it’s a cultural thing, everyone is very polite, and kindness is huge here. (Not always as we have seen from most footage there).

We went into town, and spent the next hour with the information booth trying to find a affordable hotel, with internet and food. We found one… but we are only in this one for two days. A lot of traveling from place to place going on here. It’s good for me though, I’m seeing more and more of Japan everyday, and that will only make my senior project more interesting.

After we got the hotel room, and ditched our stuff and headed for the Shingu city police station. Sea Shepherd had received some very disturbing death threats. They said that any Sea Shepherd member that walked into the country would be killed. I went in recording the conversation, we were both prepared to be arrested. My father being apart of Sea Shepherd, and me because I was with him, and I had lots of cameras. When we first walked in, there were three police officers standing behind the counter, non of them spoke english. One man new enough to call someone else who could help us. In the mean time, we had conversations looking for translations in books etc.

By the time someone was there that spoke enough english to understand what we had to say, there were almost seven police officers, standing behind the counter, staring at us… we must have completely thrown them. Here are two white foreigners reporting threats of death, not what the expected walking into work today. The one man who was able to understand us and helped us out, knew Sea Shepherd really well… and was quite surprised that Sea Shepherd was there. They took our information, photocopied our passports, and told us they would call us because they needed to wait for someone who could translate all the English to move forward in whatever they were planning to do.

They sent us on our way… however, when we were walking out of the building another Japanese official (who looked like the guy in charge with his clip bored and everything), was talking to the cops. He saw my dad’s shirt and seemed pissed. His attitude was not friendly at all. It didn’t phase me, I expected behavior like this. But as we were walking to our car, we got a bit of a scare. One of the police men started to call us back. Him and the “in charge looking guy” were standing on the front walkway. Here I am, walking towards this angry looking man trying to mentally prepare myself to be arrested, or try to find my way back to the hotel because my dad was arrested. But the “in charge guy” mumbled something to his officer, and they shooed us away!

We got in our cars, and as we drove off we watch two of the police men get into a White Sedan and start to follow us. They followed us for miles, then we pulled over so I could take some pictures of the water. They kept driving but as we got further down the street they pulled in behind us. It’s official. We are being followed. I guess I can get used to my picture being taken, and all my actions being filmed for the next two months. Thats comforting.

We met back up with Matt and headed straight for The Cove. It was getting really dark… By the time we were at the Cove the sky was black. The moon and stars were shining so brightly though! It was beautiful. The air smelled like a hot day on the beach, and crickets were booming with sound all around us. But in the distance you could hear 80 dolphins screaming for freedom. We walked up to the same hill we were at before, and fought the urge to want to cut all those nets. But that won’t do us any good right now. The fishermen have said they plan on not killing dolphins the entire month of September, but are only driving them into The Cove to sell to swim with dolphin programs. One fishermen even told Matt no dolphins will be killed tomorrow. At least I can sleep tonight knowing that the lucky dolphins will be set free…. the rest will suffer a fate worse then death. Captivity.

We were being spied on by fishermen and a single police officer. But once again, all we did was stand there and do nothing. As the time past, more and more fishermen were arriving to check us out. They were walking up and down the street, shinning lights in the water looking for swimmers, and collecting in the parking lot where are car was.

I’ve never been so scared to walk to my car before, there were so many dark corners I didn’t know who or what was around. Matt was shinning flashlights everywhere to ensure it was safe to walk further, and my dad and I were filming the police and fishermen we could see. I felt like I was in a movie… This whole experience it surreal.

After we left we came back around and I took a picture of all the fishermen standing at the railing, they did not like the flashing camera in there face. But hey.. they had my picture, I have there picture.

We left and headed back to the hotel. We walked a couple blocks and found some yummy soup. I should go now though, I have a early morning. We plan on being at the cove at 6am to document what happens to the dolphins. New pictures should be posted. But we are currently save and ready to document some more.

For the animals,

Elora malama

September 12, 2010

Quick update…

Was just at the cove, I don’t have much time to write anything else, sorry!

Here is the URL for the footage.

For the Animals,

Elora Malama

September 12, 2010

First Breakfast…

This morning we got up around 5am, in Wakayama. To my surprise I’m not tired! Maybe I’m just too excited about today.

This will have to be a quick post because I’m heading out the door.

We went up to the 9th floor of our hotel, to get breakfast. The buffet was a line of different Japanese “breakfast” foods. Rice, fried eggs, chicken cutlet, fish, salad, cold noodle slaw, and to my surprise Miso Soup. I didn’t eat the fish or meat, but the food was very yummy. It was interesting eating things I would consider lunch or dinner foods, for breakfast.

Well that’s all I have time for, sorry!

For the animals,

Eloramala

September 11, 2010

First Day in Japan…

Oh where to begin… Well first I must warn you that I’m very tired and I may not make a lot of sense right now! This has been a 25-hour day for us, with many events I want to share with you!

Starting with the flight. This is something I wrote somewhere over the Pacific Ocean in my project journal.

“As I am writing this I am flying over some part of the Pacific Ocean. Of course you’ll be reading this after I land… but I have about six more hours stuck in the air. I keep looking out the window, to see nothing but water and clouds. It doesn’t change… just water and clouds…. That’s all I will fly over until we reach Japan. It is unsettling; I don’t like the thought that in an emergency situation, we would have to land in the water! I love the ocean, and I’m not afraid of water at all, but landing an airplane on it! That’s a different story. Haha, I worry about unlikely things. That is one thing you will get to know about me through my blog/writing, I am very dramatic

My lunch was interesting…. I’m actually not a hundred percent sure what it was. I know it was yellow rice and beans, but there was this brown substance that looked like cat food, but tasted alright for airplane food, I guess. I think it had some bell pepper in it; all I know is that is was vegetarian.”

My flight was very nice actually. It went by quick and it felt more like eight hours, not 11. I don’t like flying, but this was a nice and easy trip out of the country US.

Immigration and Customs: At first when we walked into the floor that is nothing but Immigration, there were probably about 200+ people waiting in line. I thought it was going to take forever! You should have seen the line… There were Japanese officials directing traffic and you couldn’t walk ten feet without being filmed. But! We made it out of there within the hour, and on we went to get our car.

The airport was very colorful and alive. Everyone is very friendly here. We bought some maps and rented a phone.

First time driving: Our first step outside… It’s probably about 90 degrees!! Keep in mind I am wearing knee high boots and jeans and my dad, is in a heavy long sleeve shirt w/long pants. The weather still has not changed. It seemed to get even hotter as it got dark out. Anyway, fifteen minutes after trying to find the rental car place, we are drenched in sweat walking in. The car rental people were very nice! And very helpful! In Japan you drive on the left side of the road, and your steering wheel is on the right side of your car. It’s very weird to get used to and we had an interesting trip to our hotel.

Let me start by saying that it took us five minutes to figure out how to take the parking brake off. And for those of you who know my family, we can never go anywhere without something interesting happening! So this was some sort of sign to me… crap! We’ve been up for hours traveling all day, thirsty, hot, and now we have to figure out how to drive here and what the heck all the road signs say!

But besides the tollgate not having a real person at it, so we had to figure out money and me bumping the GPS and then having to reprogram it, the trip was great! It was very stressful because we don’t read Japanese, but we found our way here all right!

Parking was crazy! The streets are very, small and there is a lot going on. People will go in the opposite lanes to pass you, bikes own the road, and pedestrians are everywhere! We ended up driving the wrong way up a street, and a nice but funny old man with a dog was waving us in the other direction!

Town: The town of Wakayama (or at least where we are in town) is defiantly for shoppers! I have no way to describe it. It’s very quaint and the people are very nice. There are long pedestrian and bikers malls. You walk down these tunnels like sidewalks and along the sides of you are cute shops and restaurants. I don’t have much else to say about the town. I have only seen eight blocks of it currently. And we leave Wakayama tomorrow morning. But I will say all of the people here are lovely.

Food: I’m having a hard time wording this section, because I do not want to offend this culture. What it comes down to is, yes, a difference in cultures. In the US a “vegetarian” usually means no meat/fish. But here in Japan, you ask for a vegetarian option and people immediately say “fish”. We went to three different restaurants looking for vegetarian food, and everyone started giving us Sushi options. It showed me just how much fish is apart of the Japanese food culture. I’d compare it to hamburgers. Most of the US eats hamburgers and most of Japan eats fish.

Our dinner experience tonight was amazing! We found this traditional Japanese restaurant. We walked in and there were water fountains lining the floors, it smelled like you were on a hike! Then you walk through these big double doors and there is a restaurant, and an area behind a wall that looked to be some sort of meditation or relaxing space of some kind. They made us take our shoes off, it’s the first time I’ve done that in a restaurant! We had Miso soup and vegtable tempura with hot tea. It was beyond cool eating such a fancy Japanese dinner, in Japan!

Now I am going to get some sleep, so I can wake up all fresh and ready to go tomorrow. We are headed for Taiji.

For the Animals,

Elora Malama

September 11, 2010

Unknown…

I’m sitting in the airport now. I don’t know what to think about this trip anymore, all I know is I probably will not return home the same person. There is so much I want to learn about Japanese culture. Food, history, daily lifestyle etc. and how it is different from how I live in America, it’s obviously different. I’ll keep a journal and write about who I meet, what I see, and how I am feeling about my experiences, so I can share and hopefully bring you along in a sense on this amazing journey I’m about to take!

This trip will also become my Senior Project. So documenting everything I see and do both in pen and in film is very important! I’ll post whatever videos and pictures I collect when I can.

I am a pile of mixed emotions right now… I know what Im about to do is potentially dangerous. And this is my first time traveling internationally. I’m excited, scared, jittery, intrigued, and suspicious. I’m kinda something else that I can’t find a word for… it’s hard to explain. I am the kind of person who is always very happy and content where I am, but I’m always wanting to see what it is that lies around the corner. Who else is like that? I start running ahead because I am curious, but I am not pausing to think about what dangers might be around the corner, all I know is I want to see.

Still I’m excited! I have a feeling though, that once I land, I’ll be feeling a completely different set of emotions I might not even know what to do with. I’m glad I’m making this trip with my dad, we make a good team!

September 10, 2010

My First Post

Hello world! My name is Elora Malama and I am a teenage activist and this is my soapbox! I created this blog so I can update you on all my experiences from around the world. I am very passionate about writing and photography. I love all animals and do what I can at sixteen to help stop animal cruelty, both on land and in the water. So please subscribe to my blog, and follow my story as I go to Taiji, Japan where the movie The Cove was filmed.

I will post something new every step of the way, and all of it will be through the eyes of a sixteen year old girl.

For the Animals,

Elora Malama

September 10, 2010