Japan's Dolphin Slaughter Town Is Opening a Marine Park...

Taiji, the dolphin-slaughtering Japanese town documented in The Cove, has no plans to end its annual dolphin hunt ... but it is opening a super-fun-sounding amusement park, where you can swim with the dolphins and then stop by a food stand and chow down on them. "This is part of Taiji’s long-term plan of making the whole town a park, where you can enjoy watching marine mammals while tasting various marine products," an official explains to AFP. Whale meat will also be on offer.

Taiji, where hunters round up dolphins, sell some to aquariums and marine parks, and kill the rest for meat, has come under quite a bit of scrutiny following the documentary. But the 69-acre marine park, set to open within five years, will help the town to keep the controversial hunt alive by drawing in tourists, the official says. Environmental activists, not surprisingly, are calling the plan exploitative, the Telegraph reports. (More Taiji stories.)