The Cove

Movie: The Cove

I saw it on: August 8, 2009

Cast: Charlyne Yi, Michael Cera, Jake M. Johnson

Runtime: 92 minutes

Synopsis: Rick O’Barry was the trainer for the dolphins used in the 1960’s  “Flipper”series.  “Flipper” is largely credited with the worldwide popularity of trained dolphins in amusement parks and water parks.  Shortly after Flipper was canceled, Rick had an epiphany that it was wrong to keep animals as clearly intelligent as dolphins in captivity.  Since then, he has been on a crusade to stop the practice.

A small town in Japan is the world’s primary supplier dolphins for training in shows.  To put in bluntly: The dolphins not picked to be trained are hearded into a small cove where they are stabbed to death.  Approximately 26,000 dolphins a year are killed this way.

This film is trying to bring this practice to light.  The hi-tech surveillance equipment and techniques used in this covert effort to document the slaughter is often like watching a Mission Impossible episode.  The film does an admirable job.  There are some very disturbing scenes of the slaughter – but I did not feel that they overdid  it.

The problem is not just the wholesale slaughter of the dolphins.  The meat has sky-high levels of mercury.  In spite of this, not only is the meat sold; it is used in school lunch programs.  Since it is not sold as “Dolphin meat”, most Japanese are not even aware that it is being sold in Japan.  Most Japanese are also totally unaware that this is slaughter is taking place in their own country.

The film also spends quite a bit of time examining the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and the efforts being made to overturn the whale-hunting restrictions.  It also dwells on how the IWC pretty much ignores the dolphin issue even though dolphins fall under their purview.

My two cents: This is a movie I feel everyone above the age of 15 should have to see.  It is a real eye-opener.

It was appalling to see the way the Japanese officials steadfastly denied that any such slaughter was occurring.  They insisted that the dolphins that are killed, are killed humanely and instantly.  When confronted with actual footage of the terrible way the dolphins are killed, the only response was “where did you get these pictures”.

The movie is a fascinating and educational glimpse into the politics that enter into the IWC and how the whale-hunting nations are trying to take control of it and how they manage to bypass the restrictions on whale hunting.

I was afraid that the pictures of the slaughter were going to be overwhelming.  They are graphic and are disturbing.  I felt that the producer’s of the film hit a good balance.  You clearly see what is happening, but you don’t feel like they are beating you over the head with it.

I think that anybody over the age of 15 or 16 should be made to see this movie.  It is one thing to read a newspaper article about this subject.  It is another thing to see it happening and hear sound the dying dolphins make – and to see the people responsible to doing it (or allowing it to happen) first denying it and then defending it.