A female dolphin has been captured on camera comforting her pod before she was killed by hunters in Japan.

Images and videos showed fishermen trapping a whole family consisting of several pilot whales, after hunting them for hours in the western Japanese town of Taiji, on Sep. 10, 2019.

Taiji is known for hunts that involve driving hundreds of dolphins into a cove and clubbing them to death.

The town became notorious after the 2009 documentary The Cove showed this practice.

The dolphins are no longer clubbed to death, but a metal rod is stabbed into the back of their neck and they bleed and suffocate.

Two days

The stalking, trapping, slaughtering and taking captive of other live dolphins occurred over two days.

The dolphins were pilot whales, which are one of the largest species of oceanic dolphin.

The killings were documented by Dolphin Project, campaigners who track and describe the killings to a wider public to draw the world's attention to the plight of the dolphins.

How killing was carried out

A nursery pod of pilot whales was first driven into shallow waters.

Exhausted and traumatised, the family surfaced and spy hopped as they caught their breath.

This action involved the dolphins sticking their heads out of the water surface for air.

The nets were then dropped and their fates were sealed as it formed an enclosure they could not escape from.

The dolphins then swam in a tight circle, always touching one another.

The female dolphin, the matriarch, could be also be seen swimming around them, always rubbing up against members of her family.

Without food or shelter, hunters left the family alone overnight.

Slow process

Just after sunrise, dolphin hunters arrived at the Cove.

Eight pilot whales were separated from the rest of the family and taken away for a life in captivity.

They will likely be kept in pens, or else, their fate remain unknown.

They were taken to the shallower waters by the shore first.

While they were trapped and waiting, the hunters began the slaughter process of the rest of the dolphins.

The matriarch dolphin was separated from the nursery pod and killed first.

The conservation group said: “The matriarch was killed and alone, she was taken to the butcher house."

“We could see her dead body floating on the surface as the boat prepared to take her away.”

Those held captive then watched the rest of their family members slaughtered by the hunters.

The dead family members were then dragged past those held captive, as the bodies made their way to the butcher house.

The slaughter process was long, bloody and loud.

The pilot whales thrashed against the water as they were dying.

The first batch that was killed protested the loudest.

Those documenting the scene said the later batches that were waiting to die protested the softest, almost as if they knew their fates were sealed and they will soon be killed.

The hunters slaughtered this family in phases, presumably because of their size.

They appeared to kill three to four individuals at a time, so those left waiting for their turn at death had to swim in bloody water and witness their family slowly dying.

Resumed hunting

Court hearings to stop dolphin hunting began in Taiji on Sep. 20, with activists arguing the practice violated animal protection laws due to their “extreme cruelty”.

Japan, which for decades conducted what it called scientific research whaling as a member of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), announced in December 2018 that it would withdraw from the organisation and resume commercial whaling.

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