The Cove is a very disturbing documentary about the killing of dolphins in Taiji, Japan. The movies main actor is Richard O’barry; a man who is best known for his role in the hit television show from the late sixties Flipper where he was Flippers the dolphins trainer. He and many other people in the film are activists against the whale market in japan. They are particularly interested in exposing the dolphin drive hunting in Taiji which is incredibly inhumane.
The fisherman in taiji use sound to push the dolphins who are migrating through the area into a cove where they then slaughter them sometimes in the thousands. In Japan they try justifying the killing of dolphins in many way, for instance they have tried convince the International Whaling Commission (I.W.C) that dolphins belong to a lower family of whales that should be considered different from killing the much larger whales. They also claim that there is no definitive evidence that can show that dolphins are any more intelligent than other sea mammals. The exposure of the trading of these dolphins for high prices to places like Sea World is also a big surprise in this film, and should not be supported by the public who go to these shows and watch the dolphins perform tricks. The fact remains that dolphins are intelligent in the eyes of science and the methods that are being used to kill them are wrong, and their meat is dangerous for human consumption. Dolphins are top predators and they have an extremely high amount of mercury in their meat which in large amounts of consumption can result in many different birth defects and illnesses. The Japanese are actually being fed this dolphin as seen in the film and not even being told that that’s what their consuming.
This along with the other corrupt government cover-ups in Japan are exposed by Richard O’Barry and his crew, and the methods they used to gather the footage were both clever and dangerous for their own safety. Thanks to them we can now see with our own eyes the tragedy of what’s being hidden in Japan from its people and the rest of the world.
