Are 20,000 dolphins killed near Japan every year?

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So says this website. wayn

Is this really true?

[Ice_Wolf]

Well, The Independent states the figure’s around 26,000 cetaceans culled:

Perhaps 2,000 small whales and striped, bottlenose, spotted and Risso’s dolphins have been slaughtered for meat that ends up on the tables of local homes and restaurants, and in vacuum-packed bags in supermarkets. By the end of March, many more will go the same way, part of what is probably the largest annual cull of cetaceans - about 26,000 around coastal Japan, according to environmentalists - in the world.