Flipper trainer detained in Japan

Flipper trainer-turned-marine activist Ric O’Barry has been detained in Japan after trying to enter the country on Tuesday (19Jan16).
O’Barry spent years training the dolphins featured in 1960s TV show Flipper before starting his own conservation organisation, and he later starred in Academy Award-winning 2009 documentary The Cove, about a dolphin hunt in the small Japanese village of Taiji.
He was detained by immigration officials at Narita International Airport in Tokyo as he attempted to enter the country on Tuesday with a tourist visa.
According to his lawyer, Takashi Takano, O’Barry was told by officials he could not use the visa because he is not a tourist, he was accused of having links to marine conversation organisation Sea Shepherd.
Takano, who is appealing against O’Barry’s detention, tells the Associated Press, “The Japanese government is cracking down on those who oppose their war on dolphins.”
O’Barry was previously arrested in Japan in August, 2015 while protesting against a dolphin hunt.