The annual Taiji hunt in Japan has started, in which hunters will spear, slice, and knife down dolphins in the country.

Japanese Fishermen killed 5 Risso’s dolphins on August 30, 2019, as part of the Taiji Hunt, a controversial hunt in Japan, which allows people to trap, capture, and kill dolphins.

Taiji: After nearly four hours of hunting this morning, the banger boats found a small pod of Risso’s dolphins. All five of the Risso’s dolphins were slaughtered today and CMs listened to their thrashing below the tarps as they were killed. Sept 2, 2019 12:40pm #dolphinproject pic.twitter.com/GGhnqN522C

— Dolphin Project (@Dolphin_Project) September 2, 2019

The Dolphin Project, an environmental group, said that Japanese fishermen tracked a pod of dolphins for 4 hours and killed 5 of them.

But local news agencies claim that all the boats returned to the south coast of Japan empty handed.

The Taiji hunt will end in March, the hunting season is 6 months long, in which nearly 1,700 mammals are legally butchered or caught.

Taiji Fishermen argue that the annual hunt has a lot of economical benefits, despite facing a lot of criticism from the world.

Fishermen said that dolphins catch fetch high prices from aquariums.

The Dolphin Project condemns the practice and the killing of the creatures. The group says killing dolphins is extremely cruel.

The group says it only takes 30 minutes for a dolphin to drown during the hunts.

In a report that was released by the MailOnline, dolphins are held underwater to suffocate to death and others are speared to death.

Hunters sometimes use a metal pole to ram a metal pole into the dolphins, and then, hunters use a cork stopper and place it in the hole where the pole was forced to try and conceal the blood.

Marine experts believe that dolphins that are captured usually end up committing suicide.

Dolphins that live in open waters are known to live for 60 to 70 years, but the captured dolphins are known to die as young as 8-years-old.