KYODO NEWS - Aug 21, 2017 - 21:09 | Lifestyle, All

A temporary police box opened Monday in the Japanese whaling town that was the focus of the Academy Award-winning documentary "The Cove," to monitor activities by antiwhalers ahead of the start in September of the dolphin hunting season.

Seven officers will be stationed at the temporary police box in the town of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, through the end of March.

(The Kumano Shimbun / Kyodo)

A temporary police box has operated in the town throughout the hunting season since 2011, a year after "The Cove" was awarded the Oscar.

The film documents the annual dolphin drive hunts in waters off Taiji, a tradition and practice criticized by animal rights advocates as cruel.

Last year the police confirmed some 80 antiwhalers in the area.

Acts of vandalism such as destroying whaling monuments and cutting fishing nets have occurred in the town. Earlier this year a pod of dolphins escaped from a facility in Taiji after a net was cut.

"The temporary police box is effective as the number of antiwhalers visiting the town has decreased since the launch. Please stay on alert so that the residents can live their lives with a sense of security," said Hayato Hotomi, head of the security department of the prefectural police, during the opening ceremony.