Lightkeepers serves as an advisor and supporter of Leina Sato’s Project Anima, an exploration of music, art, and ritual to support whales and dolphins in Japan.

Our decades-long outreach in Japan to inspire the hearts and minds of local communities and foster appreciation of whales and dolphins has taken many forms, including our on-the-ground documentation of the dolphin drive hunts in Taiji, our campaign reports, consultation on film projects like The Cove, public demonstrations for Japan Dolphin Day, and support of other educational initiatives, including community dialogues conducted by our partner, Elsa Nature Conservancy.

Abandoning or reshaping cultural traditions is a challenging process, and we are hopeful that Leina’s Project Anima will help to inspire a new ethic towards whales and dolphins in Japan.

Watch a video of Leina Saito’s Project Anima in Taiji.

Read Leina’s powerful and heartrending account of her time in Taiji recently published in Deep Times, A Journal of the Work that Reconnects