Japanese Dolphinariums 101: Shimonoseki Kaikyokan
General Info:
Shimonoseki Kaikyokan (海響館) is a dolphinarium located in the Yamaguchi Prefecture. Shimonoseki is also the home port of Japan’s internationally condemned Antarctic whaling fleet.
News And Mentionable Incidents:
In May of 2015, a finless porpoise gave birth. Both the mother and father were rescue animals that had been at the aquarium since 2012.
In February of 2016, the dolphinarium announced that 5 of their bottlenose dolphins were all pregnant. There names were Lana, Tiara, Arca, Quruli, and Patch. They were all sired from the same male dolphin, Dan.
In March of 2016, Quruli gave birth to a calf that died shortly after.
In March of 2016, Lana gave birth to a calf.
In April of 2016, Patch gave birth to a calf that died the following morning.
In April of 2016, Arca gave birth to a male calf.
In May of 2016, Tiara gave birth to a male calf.
In September 2016, a male bottlenose dolphin calf died when it’s mother jumped and collided with another dolphin in air, the calf was pushed outside the pool. The calf died from trauma.
This aquarium used to be affiliated to JAZA (Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums) but in April 2017, Kaikyokan announced that they will be leaving JAZA because they don’t agree to their ban of purchasing dolphins from Taiji drive. Leaving JAZA will allow them to purchase dolphins from Taiji today. They voiced that they believed collecting dolphins from Taiji is a legitimate practice.
Any Taiji Affiliation?
As of March 2016, Kaikyokan had a total of 8 captive cetaceans. 7 were purchased from Taiji.
What can you do? Knowledge is power and a lot of people would not be attending and purchasing tickets to these places if they knew what was going behind closed doors. You can reach millions on social media! Don't let a language barrier stop you! You can copy and paste the phrases below to their guests on their social media accounts or leave them Google and TripAdvisor reviews.
水族館でイルカショーを見る前に「ザ・コーヴ」を見てください (Please watch The Cove before buying a ticket to dolphinariums)
動物は自然界で生きるべきです (Animals belong in the wild)
You can also comment with the link DOLPHINFRIENDS.JP! It links to The Cove in Japanese!
