Save Japan Dolphins

I designed this poster for a Social Awareness Project for one of my classes.

The inspiration for this poster came from a Tweet that I saw just a few days before the professor announced this project to the class. The Tweet was about the cruel methods that some Japanese fishermen used to slaughter dolphins in a Japanese city called Taiji. After some research on the details of this cruel dolphin slaughter, I was outraged by what I have found. I summarized it below:

•The slaughter of dolphins in Taiji was also known as Drive hunts

•Fishermen panic and confuse migrating dolphins and other small whales with loud banging on metal pipes

•They herd the dolphins into shallow coves and butcher them brutally

•Over 20,000 dolphins and other small whale species are killed in Japan each year

•Captured dolphins were traded alive — $32,000 USD for each live dolphin

•Their meat sold for human consumption

•Once captured, these dolphins would face Death or Imprisonment for Life

The design for this posted was based on a famous Japanese painting, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. I chose this painting not only because it was an iconic representation of the Japanese culture, but also because of its ironic contrast to the cruel Drive hunts. The painting signified the bravery and determination of fishermen in conquering the ocean, however, ironically, such bravery and determination was nowhere to be found in the fishermen doing Drive hunts in Taiji.

If you love dolphins, or if your children love dolphins, please help to stop the dolphin slaughter!