'The Cove' puts Japanese fishermen on the defense

Following the success of "The Cove," a documentary about the dolphin-hunting village of Taiji that won an Oscar on Sunday, Japanese fishermen are particularly sensitive about the filming of whaling or dolphin-hunting — or the morning catch of Dall's porpoise, which I was filming.

Past media coverage of Taiji, in southwestern Japan, and international opposition to Japan's whaling have made fishermen involved in hunting dolphins and porpoises wary of the press.

So I knew I would not be welcome Wednesday morning as I drew up to the snow-buried quayside in Otsuchi — in northern Iwate prefecture, some 500 miles (840 kilometers) northeast of Taiji — to try to capture evidence of the hunt on camera.

Sure enough, lying in an open warehouse on the wharf were rows of about 30-odd carcasses of Dall's porpoises, with their distinctive black bodies and white bellies.

I had been tipped off about the porpoise hunt in Otsuchi by members of the conservation group Environmental Investigation Agency, and a freelance cameraman hired by the group was with me, showing me around.

Iwate catches the most porpoises of any prefecture in Japan, according to the latest available figures from the fisheries ministry. In 2007, 10,218 porpoises were caught in Iwate, almost a third of which were Dall's porpoises, which are named after the American naturalist W.H. Dall.

Soon after I was pushed away by the fishermen, the police arrived.

First, two uniformed officers in a patrol car spent 20 minutes checking my ID. Before they had finished, two plainclothes detectives arrived in an unmarked jeep.

One of their first questions: "Are you filming something like 'The Cove'?"