Editor’s Note: This piece was written by guest contributor Richard O’Barry of the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition. As TakePart reported earlier this week, O’Barry is currently in Taiji, Japan with European and Japanese journalists in anticipation of the start of the annual dolphin slaughter. Today is September 1, the first day of the dolphin slaughter season in Japan. But when I arrived today by bus from Kansai Airport with media representatives from all over the world, the notorious Cove from the movie was empty. There were no dolphin killers in sight.

So today is a very good day for dolphins!

I vowed to be back in Taiji when the dolphin killing began. I’ve often been here alone, or accompanied by a few environmentalists. Sometimes, I was able to talk a major media organization into sending someone. But the people of Japan never learned about the dolphin slaughter, because none of the media in Japan (with the exception of the excellent Japan Times) have ever sent reporters to the killing Cove. Until today!

The Whaleman Foundation are running an auction where the highest bidder will get to spend an afternoon with Isabel or Hayden Panettiere on a private dolphina and whale watching tour off the coast of California!

You and up to 5 guests will join Hayden or Isabel on separate cruises aboard Captain Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Safari off the coast of Southern California to witness some of the most spectacular dolphin and whale feeding grounds and the chance to see the ever-elusive Blue Whale.

The total package includes a private whale watching tour with either Hayden or Isabel and Jeff Pantukhoff, world-renowned whale researcher, marine life film maker and founder of The Whaleman Foundation.

Proceeds from the winning bid will benefit The Whaleman Foundation. The Whaleman Foundation is a public IRS 501 (c) (3) non-profit research, education, conservation, and wildlife film production organization dedicated to preserving and protecting our ocean world. Whaleman’s primary mission is to educate key decision makers, while raising public awareness, on the issues that affect cetaceans (dolphins, whales & porpoises) and their critical habitats through our films and media outreach. www.whaleman.org

The auction opened on August 25th and closed on September 4th.

View full details at the Whaleman Foundation Ebay page and visit the Isabel auction page here. You can also sign a petition to stop all commercial whaling at the first link too.

And there is a short message from Isabel at the site too:

“Hey, I’m currently on set shooting my new movie Red Dawn and really excited about going out to see the dolphins and whales with you. Remember all the proceeds from the auction go to The Whaleman Foundation and our Save the Whales Again! Campaign. Thanks for your support and helping such a great cause!”

~ Isabel

Hayden Panettiere has posted a blog at TakePart.com about her fight to save the whales and dolphins. Although this is not really Isabel news, Hayden does mention Izzy briefly, and I thought this might interest some visitors.

The goals of our campaign are to end whaling along with all commercial dolphin and porpoise hunts worldwide while raising awareness to the other threats whales and dolphins face.

There is a brutal practice in Japan that has unnecessarily and painfully taken the lives of tens of thousands of dolphins and other small whales. They blind and frighten these helpless animals by hammering on metal poles in the water, driving them into small coves where they are trapped in nets and then killed.

I experienced this first hand when Jeff invited me and Isabel Lucas, our Australian spokesperson, to join him on a trip to the notorious dolphin-killing cove of Taiji, Japan in October 2007.

We took part in a peaceful paddle-out ceremony that was being led by fellow campaign spokesperson and Surfers for Cetacean’s co-founder Dave Rastovich.

There, we, along with three other activists, paddled out into the blood red waters where over 30 pilot whales had already been slaughtered. We honored the beautiful animals that had lost their lives there.

- TakePart Exclusive: My Fight To Save the Whales and Dolphins
- More information about the campaign

I’ve added the rest of the Charity-related photos today – these are all from Izzy’s time in Taiji in 2007. Most of these are pretty common pics, although there are a couple of rare-ities in the actual anti-whaling protest album, including one particularly gorgeous picture of Izzy dipping her feet in the sea on a beach after the protest. Oh, and I replaced the Elle photoshoot with larger quality photos – these are exactly the same pictures that were actually featured in the magazine, but they’re just textless and not cropped. Enjoy!

• 2009 – Session #007 x3
• Anti-Whaling protest in Taiji, 2007 x28
• Anti-Whaling protest in Taiji, 2007 – Media Reel Screencaptures x31
• Anti-Whaling protest in Taiji, 2007 – Posing for photos x4
• Anti-Whaling protest in Taiji, 2007 – Other x4

I’ve added the majority of the Charity-related photos to the Gallery today, and there are a few really special ones in there! The photos of Isabel underwater whilst diving and working with the Whaleman Foundation in 2007 are just stunning (and I think these pictures are quite rare plus I haven’t seen the HQs on any other site). I’ve also added a couple of magazine scans featuring articles on some of Izzy’s charity work.

I’ll add the photos of Isabel in Taijii in 2007 next, and I’ll hopefully have some Home & Away screencaps too …

• Charity x107
• The Daily Telegraph (Aus) – December 3rd 2007 x1
• New Idea (Aus) – December 10th 2007 x2

THE Cove’s popularity will please Isabel Lucas. The former Home and Away star was one of several people arrested in the port of Taiji in 2007 protesting against dolphin slaughter. Footage of their surfboard blockade features in The Cove. Lucas was recently in Japan promoting her latest film, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which opens here this week. She says there haven’t been any repercussions. “We weren’t particularly worried because it was such a vague arrest,” she tells Reel Time. The charge was “interfering with international commerce”. “I didn’t mention or bring it up while I was there because it wasn’t the time or the place and the Japanese people were very hospitable and very gracious, and I was there to talk about the film,” she adds, referring to the second Transformers film, another bombastic blockbuster from director Michael Bay, which could be a career maker for the young actress. “It is a different character that I haven’t really played before,” she says, and one she is under strict instructions from Bay not to talk about in detail. Let’s just say the character is a little Sam Worthington or Hugo Weaving. Producer Steven Spielberg’s people asked to see her audition after watching her performance in the coming World War II miniseries The Pacific, which filmed largely in Melbourne. That series will be seen on Seven next year.