The Cove

So the other day in class we watched The Cove, a documentary by the OPS (Oceanic Preservation Society) - and it was one of the more heartbreaking movies I've ever seen. It featured Ric O'Barry, who was actually the trainer on the 60's television hit series, "Flipper". Flipper was really the beginning of the dolphin craze, because Flipper (or Kathy) captured the hearts of Americans and raised the interest in dolphins and their intelligence. That's when Sea World began it's whale and dolphin shows, and vacation spots began advertising "swimming with the dolphins".

At the beginning of the documentary Ric O'Barry talks about the incredible regret he feels because he didn't realize that he was creating a monster. He told a terrible story about how he believed Kathy the dolphin committed suicide in his arms, and that night he was arrested for the first time for trying to free the other dolphins on the set. This awesome picture from creative commons made me curious about the webpage on Ric O'Barry's shirt, so I looked it up, and it has a ton of information about the present movement on the dolphin massacre happening in Taiji, and the rest of Japan. Check out SaveJapanDolphins.org to see some interesting news stories.




The story that I found to be the most interesting was one from November of 2012, reporting a public protest of the dolphin hunting in Tokyo. This was huge news because before the release of this movie, many people in Japan were totally in the dark to the dolphin hunting. It was extremely covered up and controlled by the government, but The Cove managed to raise enough attention to make people not only upset about this slaughtering, but angry enough to stand up and do something about it. This is huge because it was the first protest including Japanese citizens. Of course, they weren't met graciously and extreme nationalists went as far as to spit on the pro-dolphin posters.

At the end of the movie Ric O'Barry stood in the streets of Taiji, (?) I think, with the television on his front the same way he walked into the IWC (International Whaling Commision). The ending of the movie showed how little the citizens of Japan knew about the dolphin hunting. The beginning talked about it a little, explaining how it would seem to the world as if Taiji loved whales and dolphins with its museums and boat tours. I think this protest is a sign that the people of Japan are becoming aware of the atrocious actions fishermen are taking towards these dolphins - and they're not ok with it.

Let's forget about the fact that hunting the dolphins is cruel, the more horrifying aspect of these killings is that they are pointless - in my opinion at least. They're no good for food, they're completely saturated with mercury, a point which was justly shown in the movie when the figure head who continuously supported the dolphin hunting tested positive for mercury poisoning.

On the SaveJapanDolphins website I also found a super upsetting article about how the methods of dolphin slaughter are, in fact, inhumane. Well...I could have told you that, but what I couldn't have told you is that they've re-modified their method of killing the dolphins. Even though the movie ended with the bad guys being fired and poisoned and relieved of their positions guarding the Cove, it seems as though that did not last long. The previous method (which was said to be "new" and "humane") of jabbing a lance into the throats of the dolphins (which was supposed to cause "instantaneous death") has been re-vamped to something even more horrible. On top of that, since the release of the movie, the fishermen have upped security, and now there is a large tarp covering the entire cove to keep people from seeing what goes on in there. The "new" method they've adopted is pulling the dolphins under the tarps and stabbing them behind the blowhole. They continue to screech and flail about for minutes on end. There's a really terrible video of it that was taken by a kind of second generation OPS group from Germany. If you'd like to check it out, click here.

Sometimes I think I'd be better off knowing things like this, because I feel like there's nothing I can do to stop it. The more movies we watch in class the more I feel like the government completely owns us - and that industry is vastly more important than the individual, or the earth even. But... I guess knowing is the first step, and I hope to see more protests going on in Japan full of people who are sick of feeling like they can't change things.

'Til next time!