Japan News Today

Just watched The Cove, a documentary about the yearly slaughter of thousands of dolphins near a small Japanese town called Taiji.

This is a great documentary, I recommend it highly. After you finish watching it, it has much more impact than any Michael Moore film in my opinion.

The movie is about former dolphin trainer Ric O’barry’s crusade to end the secretive slaughter of thousands of dolphins being conducted yearly at a small little fishing town called Taiji.

With a really diverse team that gets assembled they secretly film what these Jap fishermen are doing and exposing it to the world.

The bottom line is the dolphin culling is done for money more than anything, not food or culture. The quality dolphins that are captured are sold for about $150,000 USD to places like Sea World. The rest is sold for $600 per dolphin as Mercury tainted meat in supermarkets and schools.

The Japanese like to conduct their dolphin holocaust in a tiny little cove where it is impossible to see what is happening. I love how these Jap fishermen try to do the killing as discretely as possible.

There’s one funny one called “Private Space” because its the only two words of English he knows.

Ric O’barry talks about one incident where Private Space  and one other Jap fisherman try to goad him in to a fight by taking a baby dolphin and slitting its throat in front of him. They were essentially trying to get him to do something stupid so they could get him kicked out of Japan. Ric calls it being ‘taken out of the game’

Picture of Private Space below

Typical Jap Fisherman

The whole film is a lead up to the secretly filmed killing and the process involved for how they get the secret cameras in place during night time commando runs.

By secretly sneaking in high definition cameras built in to what was made to look like a rocks, Ric and his team got great, great footage of the Jap fishermen in action without them knowing. Getting help from a former Industrial Light and Magic employee the cameras did a great job while still staying hidden. Cameras were also placed underwater with microphones so you can clearly hear the screams of the dolphins as they’re speared.

There are many scenes from the movie all over Youtube but they are generally bad resolution. When you watch the movie you can see clearly the gory details of what is happening in clear high definition. You realize all the pictures you see about this stuff on the web are not photo-shopped they really are that gory and ugly.

There is one shot from an underwater camera where the water that is clear suddenly turns dark red with blood as you hear the dolphin screams. The Jap fishermen like to use thin sharp spears to impale the trapped dolphins. They look like they’re having a great time. Can you believe this is the culture that created Hello Kitty and likes to dress up their pets in cute little outfits?

Check out Flipper trying to jump out of the water to escape

For me when I saw this movie it made me think of below except back in 1937 the Japanese were doing it to human beings in one of worst atrocities of World War 2.  The pictures do look eerily similar I think. Cruelty seems to be a Japanese cultural characteristic.

If  you want to help Ric O’barry and his cause click on the link to go the website that has been set up.