Photos of Tajii’s first dolphin catch of the 2009 season.The Guardian delivers a particularly graphic description of the 100 bottlenose dolphins and 50 pilot whales taken in the first hunt of the season in Taiji, Japan.

The hunt goes on for about six months, in which Taiji townfolk will catch about 2,300 of Japan’s annual quote of 20,000 dolphins.

In a typical hunt the fishermen pursue pods of dolphins across open seas, banging metal poles together beneath the water to confuse their hypersensitive sonar. The exhausted animals are driven into a large cove sealed off by nets to stop them escaping and dragged backwards into secluded inlets the following morning to be butchered with knives and spears. They are then loaded on to boats and taken to the quayside to be cut up in a warehouse, the fishermen’s work hidden from the outside by heavy shutters.

In the international hot seat of the documentary movie “The Cove”, and its blistering expose of dolphin and whale slaughter, Taiji officials said that all the pilot whales caught on the first expedition had been slaughtered; that half the bottlenose dolphins would be sold to acquariums and the remainder set free.

With cries of “We did it!” press reports don’t seem anchored in the fact that this hunt goes on for months, and the killing is far from over.

Indeed, the release of “The Cove” has created a seige-mentality, reports The Guardian. The Australian coastal town of Broome suspended its 28-year sister-city relationship with Taiji, after receiving thousands of emails protesting the slaughter of dolphins.

The residents of Taiji feel they are the victims of racism. “Westerners slaughter cattle and other animals in the most inhumane ways imaginable, but no one says a word. Why is it that only Japan gets this kind of treatment?”

More Anne writing on dolphins: When the Subject is Women’s and Whale rights, the Japanese Fall Far From Grace (Cove trailer embedded)

Let’s Hope Smart Sensuality Pink Dolphins are Smart Enough to Stay Out of Japanese Waters