PLEASE READ THIS POST!!!!!! - The Cove

Even if you don't read my movie reviews or don't always read my blog, PLEASE do not skip this post.  It is one of the most important posts I will ever put on my website.
It's about Japan's slaughtering of tens of THOUSANDS of helpless innocent dolphins each YEAR.
We must stop this useless and senseless "tradition" of Japan today!
Knowledge is power and I've also included a link for you to sign a petition above, to help call our world leaders into action to stop it.  Please join me to help the dolphins.


Released: 2009
Documentary
Director: Louie Psihoyos
Starring: Thousands of helpless bottle nose dolphins being murdered
Running Time: 92 minutes
Rated: PG-13


The breakdown:  This was an incredibly emotional documentary for me that really affected me.  I'm going to let the IMDB.com website sum up the movie:
"Using state-of-the-art equipment, a group of activists, led by renowned dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry, infiltrate a cove near Taijii, Japan to expose both a shocking instance of animal abuse and a serious threat to human health."

Well, this is certainly the most important film I have watched this year, and an incredibly powerful one.  I had heard about this film from the Oscars actually.  It won best documentary in 2010 and I'm all for the movie getting as much attention as it possibly can.

Ric O'Barry is man who used to train dolphins in the 1960's.  In fact, he captured and trained all the bottle nosed dolphins used for the television show "Flipper" and he now regrets it.  He says if he had known then what kind of industry he was starting he would never have participated.

What he's discovered is a little tiny cove on the coast of Japan in a town called Taijii (pronounced Tie-Gee) that has a big secret.  There every single year from September through March they drive as many dolphins as they can into this cove and murder them.  A few they single out to ship all over the world to be held captive in aquariums as long as they get their $150,000 per dolphin first, the rest, they slaughter in completely inhumane and cruel ways.  They separate the baby dolphins from the parents and kill babies first, but they don't do this right away.  They corral all dolphins during the day and leave them overnight to be killed in the morning.

The fisherman guard this area well when they have dolphins in the cove and try to get onlookers arrested on bogus charges.  They try to harass and intimidate anyone trying to take photographs or video of them or the area and they block just about everyone as best they can from getting anywhere near it.  This made it difficult for the filmmakers to get footage of the slaughter.  Ric O'Barry has been arrested so many times for dolphin releases and activism that anyone in that area knows him on sight and tries to get him away from the cove. 
So they did a covert operation where they took prop makers from Hollywood to make fake rocks to house cameras in and special equipment to be able to capture the footage they needed to show the world what horrors were happening in Japan.

They left their hotel in the middle of the night (while being followed by local police and fisherman) and were able to place cameras where they wanted to document the slaughter.

The numbers they reported are about 23,000 dolphins and porpoise are killed each year just in this one little town.  I don't know how many are shipped off into aquariums, but the ones in captivity are not happy.  Ric O'Barry said that his beloved Kathy that played Flipper, committed suicide in his arms from being so unhappy.  It sounds strange but he said they choose to breathe and can decide not to take another breath.  He said he was with her for a long time and just knew she wasn't happy and I believe him.  They say dolphins are highly intelligent and self aware, who is to say that they can't be happy or sad and choose to end their own suffering?

Whaling was made in illegal in all countries back in 1986 but the Japanese have still been killing all sorts of whales citing that they are only killing them for "research" but they kill hundreds each year and sell whale meat in their grocery stores.  Japan's government is trying to get the whaling ban overturned and has attempted this EVERY SINGLE YEAR SINCE 1986.  They try to buy other countries support with money.  Nations that have fallen on hard times or in general have always been impoverished and would respond well to money.  So Japan is not the only country calling for the whaling ban to be lifted.  They also cite that whales are to blame for depleting food sources like fish and that they are essentially doing "pest control" by killing whales and other fish eaters.  I was happy to see that most countries are not in agreement with the "facts" Japan is trying to push.  They showed a conference where representatives from all over the world come together and speak about issues like whaling and sea life.  It's unfortunately a conference for a world organization that has no teeth, no power, but it is an awareness and a start to solving problems I guess.  The presentation that Japan gave was one noting the "pest control" and that whale populations are fully recovered and that they should be hunted again legally.  Most countries said they completely disagreed and that Japan's "proof and presentation" was essentially morally and biologically wrong and irresponsible.  So you think with so much opposition, the Japanese would give up, but they don't.

It's so strange to me though, the reasons they have for these murders.  They (the fisherman and the government) say it's tradition, it's their culture, but when asked about it on the street, the average citizen of Japan doesn't know this kind of slaughter is happening and they don't want to eat dolphin meat.  In fact, the fisheries are selling the dolphin meat as "whale" meat so the consumer doesn't even realize it.  Ironically, dolphin meat is terrible for human consumption as it is packed with high toxic levels of mercury.  So they are essentially poisoning themselves to death.

The greatest impact mercury poisoning has is on children and unborn fetus'.  At the time of filming, the Japanese government was feeding dolphin meat to their school children and in Japanese schools, lunch is mandatory.  They must eat everything on their plates.  Due to two very brave Japanese councilmen who had children in school, they blew the whistle and the dolphin meat is no longer being served for lunch.

At the end of the film, you finally get to see all the secret footage taken in the cove.  It is brutal and powerfully disturbing.  It moved me to tears and this film will always be with me because of what I saw happen there.  The water, all of it in the cove, turns bright blood red as dolphin after dolphin is stabbed with a harpoon wherever the fisherman can get them, the head, the body, and then left to die a slow, horrible, and painful death.  From what the experts in the film said, the dolphins might very well know what is happening to all of them and are scared and confused.  It very much reminds me of the mass murdering of Jewish people in the holocaust.  How terrible it must feel to know you are about to be killed for no good reason, animal or human.

The Japanese government is very good at covering up what they don't want the world to see.  They explained that a company was dumping toxic waste into a local water source and that lots of people died from what that company was releasing into the environment.  The government covered it up for 12 years while people were dying of this so called "disease".  They actually called it a disease, like it was contagious, instead of just calling it what it really was - mercury poisoning.

What disgusts me is that all over Japan and Taijii is when you are there, they have all these whale museums, murals, sculptures and artwork everywhere.  It looks like they absolutely love and respect sea life when none of that is true.  I'm not sure if the Japanese government is alone to blame.  Do the citizens really know what's going on and just pretend not to to the outsiders who ask them?  Japan kills a ton of marine wildlife every year and ships fish all over the globe.  The seas are being over fished and the marine experts they spoke to said that by 2046, there's a good chance the ocean's food chain will collapse because of us.  7 out of 10 people get their proteins from seafood and fish and I'm very proud to say I'm not one of them.  I used to enjoy tuna, but with the amount of mercury being found in fish, especially bigger, older fish, like tuna, it's not safe for my own personal health.  A second reason not to eat it is due to the amount of other fish like shark and dolphins that are accidentally killed in fishing nets all the time.  Fisherman are raping the seas every single day whether they are catching sustainable fish or not.  I will not participate in this vicious cycle.  The only reason fishermen are catching fish or killing sharks and dolphins is because there is someone willing to pay to eat it.

Here's the main points of the film:
Japan's government is working hard to continue the horrible practice of dolphin slaughter and it's up to the people of the world to join together and stop them.

Dolphins should be free in the ocean to live and not in captivity....not at SeaWorld, not at aquariums, nowhere.  I have believed this for a long time and think that the only way SeaWorld and other aquariums should have any sea life is if they are rehabilitating it to go back in the wild, or if the animal can no longer live on it's own in the wild due to illness or injury.

I encourage everyone to see this movie.  Yes, it is very difficult to watch, but it is so important to know what's happening and learn how to help stop it.

There's a lot you can do to help!
Besides signing the petition with the link I have provided at the top of my blog, you can go to:
takepart.com/the cove
or you can watch the film
The Cove
which I have just told you about
and take action from there at the end of the credits.

Please do something....If you can't donate money, spread the word about the issues.
Stop eating seafood, write to your leaders, donate your time, and help anyway you can.

I can't do much, but at least today, I can help spread the word, and spread knowledge of what needs to be stopped.