All the dolphins driven into the Cove yesterday, all 52 bottlenose dolphins and 7 Risso's dolphins, were slaughtered in the last hour.

The Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians were able to video baby dolphins being thrown onto the gutting barge. Seventeen-year-old Elora West described the scene as “brutally horrific.”

No mercy, no survivors, no empathy, and no humanity – that’s the reality of the ongoing tragedy of the Cove.

Scott West is currently tailing the trucks carrying the corpses of the dolphins. He will be posting pictures and video later.

We have had some people express criticism that Sea Shepherd is not cutting nets and releasing dolphins. That is not why the Cove Guardians are there. They are there because for the first time ever, the fishermen of Taiji have been under our surveillance from the beginning of the killing season. This has never been done before. We are the eyes of the world, focused on Taiji.

It is not possible to cut the nets and to release the dolphins. Sea Shepherd did this in 2003 and released and freed 15 dolphins. Since then, security has been increased tremendously. It is not physically possible to cut these nets.

The group Blackfish tried this, cutting the nets in the harbor (not the Cove), and they failed.

Scott and Elora West and the Cove Guardians have a difficult and horrible task in Taiji. They cannot physically release the dolphins, but they are there to document the atrocities and report on the numbers slain. Any attempt to release a dolphin will simply result in the Cove Guardians’  permanent removal from the situation.

It is not fair for people who are not there to pass judgment on those who are there.

What we must do is to stand our ground at Taiji and to keep the killers under surveillance. We must continue to express our outrage to the Japanese consulates and embassies around the world. We must not allow this horror to be unobserved or forgotten.

Read more Taiji postings . . .