Dolphin Slaughter
© 3 News, New ZealandIn this screenshot from YouTube, a fisherman is seen wrestling a bleeding dolphin.

New footage shot in the small Japanese town of Taiji shows dolphins are still being slaughtered inhumanely and in mass quantities, despite assurances from authorities the annual hunt no longer used such techniques.

The video, shot by US group Save Japan Dolphins, was shot on Tuesday and uploaded to YouTube.

It appears to disprove claims dolphin hunting was made more humane in the wake of 2009's documentary on the hunt, The Cove, which exposed the brutal methods used to kill around 1500 dolphins every year.

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Australian marine science student Nicole McLachlan, who is in Taiji: "One of the hardest things I have witnessed here is the distress and anguish of these animals during a slaughter... ''And today some were taken under the tarps and killed while the rest of their family remained in the waters nearby.


''The cries and thrashing of the dying dolphins could be heard so loudly, even from all the way up on top of that hill ... I can't even imagine what their families were thinking as they waited for their exact same fate.''

Dolphins are herded into a cove and caught in nets. Dragged across the beach, they are taken beneath tarpaulins erected to block conservationists' cameras, and stabbed behind the blowhole.

This method, according to the Japanese, kills the dolphins instantly. Dolphin campaigher Ric O'Barry disagrees, telling the Herald the video clearly shows "dolphins thrashing in agony for minutes amid their own blood and the screams of other dolphins being killed".

The town's mayor says they will never stop hunting dolphins.

''We have a strong sense of pride about this, so we are not going to change our plans for the town based on the criticism of foreigners.''