Former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry and his team conduct a cloak-and-dagger mission to expose dolphin and whale-hunting in Taiji, Japan in this 2010 Oscar-winning documentary.

In the 1960s, O’Barry captured and trained the five dolphins who played the title character in the international television sensation Flipper. But O'Barry's close relationship with those dolphins, who sparked a global fascination with trained sea mammals that continues to this day, led him to a radical change of heart, a conviction that these intelligent, self-aware creatures, so beautifully adapted to life in the open ocean, should not be subjected to human captivity.

O'Barry's mission brings him to Taiji, a town that on the surface appears devoted to the wonders and mysteries of the dolphins and whales that swim off its coast. But surrounded by barbed wire and “Keep Out” signs, in a remote, glistening cove, the fishermen of Taiji engage in an unseen hunt. The nature of what they do is so chilling and brutal -- and the consequences so dangerous to human health -- that they go to great lengths to hide their activities.

Defying local authorities and fisherman who would happily have them jailed, O’Barry joins forces with filmmaker Louis Psihoyos and the Ocean Preservation Society, along with an intrepid team of underwater sound and camera experts, special effects artists, marine explorers, adrenaline junkies and world-class free divers, to expose the horrors of the cove to the world.

The result is a provocative mix of investigative journalism, eco-adventure and arresting imagery that adds up to an urgent plea for hope.

The Cove is directed by Louie Psihoyos and produced by Paula DuPre Pesmen and Fisher Stevens. The film is written by Mark Monroe. The executive producer is Jim Clark and the co-producer is Olivia Ahnemann.

Director Louie Psihoyos (rhymes with Sequoias) has been widely regarded as one of the top photographers in the world. He was hired directly out of college to shoot for National Geographic and has created images for the yellow-bordered magazine for eighteen years. His ability to bring humanity and wit to complicated science stories carries over to his filmmaking. An ardent diver and dive photographer, he feels compelled to show the world the decline of our planet’s crucial resource, water.

He has been on contract for Fortune Magazine and shot hundreds of covers for other magazines including Smithsonian, Discover, GEO, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, Sports Illustrated and Rock and Ice. His work has also been seen on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Television and the History Channel. Museums and private collectors around the world have sought Psihoyos' photography.

With Jim Clark, he created The Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS), in 2005. The nonprofit organization provides an exclusive lens for the public and media to observe the beauty as well as the destruction of the oceans, while motivating change.

To buy a DVD of The Cove, click here:

http://www.thecovemovie.com/buy_the_dvd.htm

Learn about ways you can help: http://www.takepart.com/thecove/ Save Japan Dolphins: http://www.savejapandolphins.org/

WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING IN THE COVE? A QUICK INTRO TO DOLPHIN HUNTS

• The world outlawed commercial whaling in 1986. And yet, dolphin hunts remain legal because, although dolphins and whales are members of the same family and share similar
  traits of intelligence and self-awareness, so far the members of the International Whaling
  Commission have not agreed to protect so-called “small cetaceans.”

• Approximately 23,000 dolphins are killed legally each year in Japan. The majority are killed at sea, but thousands are killed in dolphin hunts along coastal lagoons and coves. Dolphin hunts also occur in coastal island areas of the South Pacific and North Atlantic

• Dolphin hunts take place both to capture live dolphins for marine parks and aquariums and to kill dolphins for their meat, despite the fact that the meat often contains toxins, including mercury and PCBs at unhealthy levels, and sells at a very low price.
• A live dolphin captured for a marine park show can fetch up to $150,000. A dolphin
  killed for meat draws about $600.
• In coastal areas, dolphins are hunted by “drive-fishing” techniques, in which the dolphins
  are herded and corralled into net cages by loud banging sounds that disrupt their sensitive
  sonar, causing them to panic. Once trapped in the nets, their fate is decided by
  veterinarians and animal trainers who choose which dolphins they will purchase
• Once a live dolphin is selected for a marine park, aquarium or swim-with-dolphins
  program, it is separated from its close-knit family unit, hoisted in trucks and planes and
  transported from the ocean to a far-away pool where it will face stiff odds of survival
• Over half of all captured dolphins will die within 2 years of their captivity. They must
  rapidly adjust to a new environment where they can no longer swim their customary 40
  miles a day in open waters, engage with their social group or use their sonar properly
• Dolphins not selected for marine parks are then “sitting ducks” for local fishermen who
  kill them for the price their meat will fetch. They are typically killed at close quarters
  with spears, knives and hooks. In the open ocean, they are usually killed with harpoons.
• Dolphins killed in the Taiji hunts include bottlenosed, striped, spotted and Risso’s
  dolphins as well as false killer whales and short-finned pilot whales. Several of these
  species are considered environmentally threatened.
• The primary economic driver of dolphin hunting is the multi-million dollar marine park
  business, which allows fishermen the resources to undertake additional slaughter for meat
• Most citizens in Japan are unaware of the dolphin hunts and unaware of the serious
  toxicity of dolphin meat. However, the Japanese government continues to support
  dolphin hunting and has successfully lobbied to keep the International Whaling
  Commission from acting on behalf of small cetaceans.
• International attention and protest has helped to halt some dolphin hunts in the past but
  has not stopped the practice from continuing in the 21st Century

• The Cove Movie Website
  http://www.thecovemovie.com/academynominee.htm
• The Cove Movie Blog
  http://thecovemovie.com/_blog/Blog
• The Oceanic Preservation Society
  http://www.opsociety.org/about-ops.htm

The Truth About The Dolphin Slaughter and Mercury Levels in Dolphin Meat

In Japan, fishermen round up and slaughter hundreds and even thousands of dolphins and other small whales each year.

In the small fishing village of Taiji, entire schools of dolphins are driven into a hidden cove after a prolonged chase. Once trapped inside the cove, the fishermen kill the dolphins, slashing their throats with knives or stabbing them with spears. The water turns red with their blood, and the air fills with their screams.

This brutal massacre — the largest scale dolphin kill in the world — goes on for six months of every year. Even more scandalous, members of the international dolphin display industry take advantage of the dolphin slaughter to obtain some few, show-quality dolphins for use in captive dolphin shows and dolphin swim programs.

It is commonly assumed that Japanese fishermen hunt dolphins to supply a small minority of Japanese people with dolphin meat. But unlike the expensive whale meat, dolphin meat is not considered a delicacy in Japan, and the real reason the Japanese government issues permits to kill dolphins by the thousands every year has nothing to do with food culture. It has to do with pest control. As shocking as it sounds, some Japanese government officials view dolphins as pests to be eradicated in huge numbers. During a meeting at Taiji City Hall, the fishermen of Taiji admitted this to us. "We don’t kill the dolphins primarily for their meat. We kill them as a form of pest control," they told us. In other words, killing the competition is their way of preserving the ocean’s fish for themselves.

Most likely in order to push the food culture issue even further, the Japanese government recently introduced pilot whale meat to children's school lunch programs, despite the fact that the meat is tainted with mercury and not fit for human consumption. The Japanese government and the dolphin hunters do not warn the Japanese people of this danger, although the dolphin meat should be labeled as toxic. Much of the tainted dolphin meat ends up as counterfeit whale meat in Tokyo and other large cities.

Science has established that dolphins are highly intelligent and complex marine mammals. How can "pest control" on dolphins continue with so little opposition from the Japanese people and the outside world? The answer is secrecy. Since we first traveled to Japan in 2003 to document the dolphin hunt and expose it to the world, the fishermen have become increasingly paranoid about being photographed and filmed. Today, they hide the dolphin slaughter behind barbed wire, ropes and tarpaulin. Killing the dolphins before daylight breaks, they station guards at the mouth of the killing cove to ensure that no one witnesses the bloodbath.

The fishermen say they kill the dolphins "quickly and humanely." That's an outright lie. The methods used to kill the dolphins are so savage, it's hard to believe it unless you witness it for yourself. And once you've seen it, the images and sounds of the screaming dolphins never go away. The fishermen know that the world will be outraged when the truth gets out. And so, guided by their government, they hide behind phrases such as "food culture" and "tradition." They even once told us they are proud of what they do. If they had told us they were having fun while killing dolphins, we would have believed them. We have heard them laugh out loud as they were throwing spears at the dolphins and hauling them ashore with ropes, or dragging still live dolphins by their tail flukes to be slaughtered. If they were really proud of this, then why do they go to such extreme measures hiding it? Why won’t they even let their own people know about the hunt? We asked them this once, and the answer was: "It is none of their business." But it is their business. The Japanese people have every right to know about the dolphin slaughter. And they have a right to know about the mercury-poisoned dolphin meat that is being fed to their children.

http://www.savejapandolphins.org/educate.php

Audio Interview with Louie Psihoyos, Director

by Mel Stern

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