CRI听力:Protests Call for Stop to Japanese Dolphin Hunt

Animal conservation activists have marched peacefully to the Japanese Embassy in Washington DC to call on officials to stop the slaughter of dolphins during Japan's annual Taiji dolphin hunt.

Kevin Starbard is with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which organized the worldwide protest against the capture of dolphins.

"The dolphin hunt runs from September through March each year. Japan sets their own quota of roughly 1200 dolphins. They target Bottlenose dolphins, Risso's dolphins, Pacific white-sided dolphins, spotted dolphins. The really beautiful ones they sell into captivity, the other ones are ruthlessly killed in the cove and then the meat is then sold."

Japan says the annual drive hunt is a tradition deeply rooted in their culture, but protesters contend that the practice has almost no cultural value as it started only from the 1960s and is largely driven by commercial interest.

The Taiji dolphin hunting has been riding on the boom of the aquarium industry.

It still supplies captive dolphins to aquarium facilities worldwide.

Similar protests were scheduled to take place in various locations around the world, including New York, Los Angeles, Madrid, and Mexico City.