Every year, in the tiny cove of Taiji, in Japan, a massacre of innocent dolphins is carried out. There starts the trade of animals that will be taken to aquariums all over the world and trained to entertain the paying public. Those who are judged unfit are ruthlessly killed…
When we go to a dolphinarium and watch the dolphin show we seldom stop and think about how these animals live, nor do we ask ourselves where they come from or how they got there. Dazzled by their skills, we are unable to see their sufferings. If, on the other hand, we decided to go beyond that sparkling surface, we would find out that in a tiny cove in Japan, every winter, a real massacre is carried out, when groups of fishermen take advantage of dolphins’ migratory routes to trap whole pods from which, with the help of experienced trainers, they select the specimens most suitable for living in captivity. While these are torn away from their families and sold for a lot of money to aquariums all over the world, the others become easy prey for the fishermen because, once attacked, they don’t abandon their most fragile family members. The slaughter begins and water turns red with their innocent blood. The same red that stands out in Roger Olmos’ moving black and white illustrations, drawn in pencil, that go along with the compelling tale of Geert Vons.
Every year, Sea Shepherd’s volunteers risk being arrested – and sometimes even killed – to document the massacre of dolphins in the Taiji cove: they can’t do anything else, because Japanese laws are on the fishermen’s side, and every attempt at hindering them is punished as a crime. This is why it is so important to let this story be known, especially to children: if they discover what cruelty hides behind dolphin shows they won’t want to watch them anymore, thus contributing to the closing of aquariums and the end of the trade of these animals.
This book is part of the series conceived by #logosedizioni, in collaboration with Sea Shepherd, with the aim of using art and illustration to make people of all ages aware of the crimes committed every day against the oceans and the creatures that inhabit them.
Age: 10+
Languages: English and Italian.
Edition: 2021
