Recently, I had the opportunity to watch a very disturbing documentary called The Cove. However, one of the purposes of documentaries is to expose something that the public does not know about. From my viewing, I concluded The Cove has a few objectives:
-to stop the placement of dolphins into captivity
-to stop the brutal slaughter of dolphins
-to inform and educate the public about mercury poisoning caused by eating dolphin meat
The film follows former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry, a man who has now dedicated his life to document and end the dolphin hunting operations in Taiji, Japan. In the 1960’s, O’Barry helped capture and train five dolphins for the TV show, “Flipper”. The show caused a widespread adoration of dolphins, which led to the creation of Sea World and other marine theme parks.
You’d think as a former trainer, Ric would be all for the capture of dolphins, but a singular event made him do a complete 180. Dolphins are a highly sophisticated and intelligent creature. They are not automatic breathers, meaning every breath they take is a conscious effort. Dolphins can end their own life by not taking another breath. One day after filming, one of the dolphins swam into Ric’s arms and didn’t take another breath by voluntarily closing her blowhole in order to suffocate. In essence, the dolphin had become so stressed out that it committed suicide. It was this event that caused O’Barry to see dolphin’s captivity as a travesty that needed to be stopped. The next day, Ric was arrested for attempting to free dolphin from a marine laboratory. From then, he has made it his life’s mission to free every captive dolphin he can. In his words, “I spent 10 years building this industry up, and 35 years trying to tear it down.”
By standing up for what he believes is right, O’Barry has interfered with a lucrative business, and thus, he has been ostracized by many and harassed by more. Each live dolphin that is captured off the coast of Taiji sells for $150,000 and each dead dolphin goes for $600. The Taiji Whale Museum brokers the deals and the town and fisherman share the profits. Taiji is the largest supplier of dolphins to marine parks and “swim with dolphins” programs around the world. Sea World has not allowed Ric to talk about the dolphin slaughter at their park. Even the International Whaling Commission, a intergovernmental agency responsible for regulating whaling, has banned Ric from attending. When the selection process is complete, the remaining dolphins are herded around to a secret cove, slaughtered with knives and spears, and sold for their meat. Approximately 23,000 dolphins are killed in Taiji every year. Even the International Whaling Commission, a intergovernmental agency responsible for regulating whaling, has banned Ric from attending. In 1986, the IWC, a organization Ric described as “toothless”, banned commercial whaling in 1986, a measure which included dolphins. The next year, Japan responded by tripling its kills of dolphins and started a lethal research program on large whales.
When filmmaker Louie Psihoyos and his crew attempted to get evidence of the dolphin slaughter, they were harassed and blockaded by local fisherman. Why? Because if they attack a fisherman, they will be arrested and banned from the coves. If that happens, the fisherman will be able to continue their sinful business without any interruption. One time, a fisherman held up a dolphin and cut its throat in an clear act of provocation. O’Barry was barely able to refrain from hauling off and punching the guy. In another instance, a bleeding dolphin swam towards the film crew, presumably hoping that they could save its life. Before the dolphin got to the shore, it came above water to take its last desperate breaths and went down never to be seen again, leaving a bright red trail of blood. After witnessing this horrible event, one diver broke down and cried, but a gang of Japanese fisherman laughed. Throughout the film, Ric and the film crew are tailed by the local cops. At one point, they stop them in a mall and proceed to interrogate.
The Cove also elaborates upon how gentle, sensitive, and intelligent dolphins really are. One surfer told a story about how, in an act of defense, a dolphin t-boned a tiger shark and saved his life. Dolphins have a highly advanced sense of hearing. When dolphins are surrounded by a crowd of screaming people and filtration noises that make a lot of noise, they experience unbearable amounts of stress. When Sea World was just getting started, it could not figure out why dolphins would die off so quickly. Then, it realized the sound caused by a noisy filtration system was the culprit. The fisherman in Taiji know about the dolphin’s sensitive hearing, so they put poles in the water and bang on the poles with a hammer to create a wall of sound. The dolphins start swimming away from the sound towards the shore, and once they are in the cove, the fisherman rope off the area. There’s something morally wrong with killing off such an intelligent creature. Dolphins can communicate with humans, and humans can connect with dolphins. “Dolphins can understand how to manipulate situations, how to relate with people, how to create innovatively out of their own imagination,” one scientist says. “It’s not about intelligence, its about self-consciousness...when they are in that cove and they see their babies being slaughtered, they can anticipate what is going to happen to them” Ric says.
With regard to international politics, this issue has more breadth than just Japan. At the International Whaling Commission, the Japanese delegates seek the support of bankrupt Caribbean countries- Antigua and Barbuda, and Grenada. Japan gives huge discounts and incentives to these countries for their business. One diplomat argued that the whaling industry goes far beyond fishing and business. It has to do with empire, global positioning, and sovereignty. He argued that Japan is tired of being told what to do by the West, so it desires to control their own whaling without international restrictions.
The end of the film made my stomach turn. The film crew installed secret cameras in the water and on rocks in the cove. The brutality that was used in killing dolphins made me sick to my stomach. The water, which was originally blue, became a disturbing shade of crimson. Fisherman sunk their spears into innocent dolphins.
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