The following press release was published on his website last night.
Ric O’Barry, Founder/Director of Dolphin Project was arrested in the town of Nachikatsuura, a town located in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan at approximately 8:30 p.m. on August 31, 2015 on suspicion of a violation of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act of Japan.
He was reportedly accused of being unable to produce a passport. According to the act, any alien in Japan shall carry on his/her person at all times the passport or provisional landing permit. He is currently being held by Shingu police.
Both the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and the U.S. State Department have been contacted.
O’Barry, the subject of the 2009 Academy Award-winning documentary “The Cove,” is in Taiji to condemn the annual dolphin slaughter, scheduled to commence September 1 of this year.
The dolphin drive hunt takes place from September 1 to March 1 of each year in Taiji, Japan. Dolphins are killed for their meat or captured and shipped to aquariums for captive display.
Due to O’Barry’s efforts, the hunt has received international criticism for extreme violence and cruelty to animals, as well as concern over the toxicity of their meat. A Twitter message by U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, has also condemned the annual slaughter of dolphins.