Anger has erupted in an Australian coastal town which has a sister-city relationship with the town of Taiji in Japan.

Councillors of Japanese heritage and others have been verbally attacked in the Western Australian town of Broome, over a dolphin cull which occurs each year in Taiji.

The dolphin slaughter, which is documented in a new movie, “The Cove,” has also led to an attack on an historic Japanese cemetery.

ABC News Australia reported that opponents of the cull hung pictures of dolphins in the cemetery.

Japanese people have been well established in Broome since they arrived in the early part of the 20th century as pearl fishers.

The Broome council last week voted to suspend its sister-city relationship with Taiji, where environmentalists say more than 20,000 dolphins are killed each year.