Uncertainty

In the wake of Friday's tragedy in Japan uncertainty is the name of the game. People uncertain where their loved ones are, the extent of the devestation is still uncertain, and the future of the nuclear situation remains uncertain as well.

Another dimension to the uncertainty is the lives of all animals in Japan who are suddenly homeless, lost, scared, seperated from their owners, or trapped and suffering somewhere.

We now know that all of the dolphins being kept in offshore sea-pens in Taiji have died. The 24 dolphins were killed when 6 seperate surges managed to push the pens into the jagged rocks at shore.

It remains a mystery though whether any more dolphins or whales were killed in marine parks throughout the country.

The future of the dolphin hunts also remains uncertain. We don't know the status of the banger boats in Taiji, although we have heard that some whaling vessels were detroyed. We were fortunate that the annual hunt ended early this year, but the loss of those 24 dolphins means a huge hit to the pocketbook for the fishermen. It remains to be seen whether they will apply for more licenses and resume the hunt.

Of course it will be quite some time before life returns to some sort of normalcy in Japan, so for now we must all ride that wave of uncertainty and hold out all hope for all the missing and hurt.