The killing of 20,000 bottlenose dolphins in the Pacific Ocean in Taiji Bay, Japan is devastating and these killings are becoming an epidemic because multi-million dollar aquariums and marine parks like SeaWorld is the main customer requesting dolphin shows. In the documentary The Cove,1 Richard O'Barry states that “aquariums demand the most beautiful dolphins and other dolphins are killed for their meat”. Although these dolphins are killed, the other few, which are difficult to produce in approximate quantities, are kept alive for profit and sold to marine parks. “20,000 dolphins are killed every year between September and March,” Sea Shepherd3. Spear shafts are used to kill dolphins and this technique makes the waters red with blood. Now dolphins are being impaled with metal rods to cause paralysis.1 People should care about this topic because if the killings continue, the side effect will be a rapid extinction of the Japanese bottlenose dolphin, global mercury poisoning resulting from the consumption of contaminated dolphin meat and major disruptions in the ocean ecology food chain. A journalist: “Boyd Harnell2 there have been cases linked to Japanese children with birth defects because the mother had consumed dolphin meat contaminated with mercury.” This problem is occurring in the Pacific Ocean; the killing of bottlenose dolphins takes place in Japan, in particular in Taiji Bay.1 This bay is a naturally isolated lagoon and it is here that these massacres take place.1 This problem is global because these carnages do not only occur in Japan, but also in Peru. Furthermore, Japan is receiving much of the controversial heat. This is a local problem due to government secrecy and cover-ups to help... middle of paper... explain in detail how dolphins that don't survive are killed. Inform others about the link between the captive dolphin industry and the dolphin slaughter in Taiji. Works Cited1. Psihoyos L. Dir. O'Barry R. Actor. The Bay [film on DVD]. Madman: 20092. Boyd H. 2010. Experts fear Taiji's mercury tests are fatally flawed. The Japan Times [Internet]. [June 25, 2013, cited February 4, 2014]. Available from: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2010/05/23/life/experts-fear-taiji-mercury-tests-are-fatally-flawed/#.UvQTlPldU-U3. Taiji dolphin hunt continues [Internet]. January 29, 2014: Sea Shepherd; [cited February 3, 2014]. Available from: http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/2014/01/29/taijis-dolphin-hunts-continue-15494. History of the killing of Taiji cetaceans [Internet]. Sea Shepherd; [cited February 3, 2014]. Available from: http://www.seashepherd.org/cove-guardians/cetacean-kill.html