To say that he had a conscience attack would be over dramatic. Circumstances colluded to allow him that opportunity to change his almost preordained work. He was fighting for his fishing licence in Futo after challenging the Futo Fishing Cooperative for overfishing dolphins and whales, outside the international quotas set by the IWC and local government. His family also received anonymous threats for this too. Ishii also claims he'd seen films depicting the dolphins as intelligent animals and not merely another fish. Another factor was that he felt the pain of the cries of dolphins as they were rounded up to be killed. Thus in 2002, Ishii decided to start a cetacean watching business, to show the Futo fishermen that a viable business could be done and the slaughter could stop. Foreign and dometic media has helped him tremendously and till this day, while Futo continues to round up dolphins for sale and slaughter, Izumi Ishii continues his rather successful cetacean watching business, trying to show his former colleagues that there are better ways to make a living.
Ishii Izumi's website (in Japanese) is here
Please feel free to send him an email of encouragement.
You can read more about Izumi's story here
Oh and he uses canon cameras
