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 Japanese 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 Japanese 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 Japanese 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
Japanese 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 Japanese 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 Japanese 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
February 27th, 2010 at 4:59 am
[...] The Cove Documentary Upsets Dolphin Slaughtering Town Taiji Japan, Japan News, Reviews Found a good article on Yomiuri describing how the town that actively sanctions the slaughter of wild dolphins for profit is upset their hidden activities were exposed in the Aademy Award-nominated documentary The Cove. Click on this link for a review of The Cove. [...]
July 13th, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Using the word “Jap” is the same as using “chink” or “gook”…it would be nice if you add (if possible) the rest to spell out Japanese. I learned this the hard way. Thanks.
July 26th, 2010 at 7:58 am
[...] to a lifetime of back flips. It is ironic this happened in Japan. Watch the documentary The Cove http://www.japannewstoday.com/?p=1160 and you’ll see [...]
September 10th, 2010 at 2:56 am
[...] to a lifetime of back flips. It is ironic this happened in Japan. Watch the documentary The Cove http://www.japannewstoday.com/?p=1160 and you’ll see [...]
September 15th, 2010 at 12:06 am
We don’t have to be all racist here. The issue is Doplhin hunting and not how bad the Japanese people are. All cultures have their own evils and shortcomings. If we are to notice the dirt on someone else’s eye, we have to see the plank we have on our own. We have to sort our mistakes by ourselves like the Japanese government should look closely at this bad practice.
March 27th, 2011 at 7:27 am
[...] The Cove Movie Review [...]
April 22nd, 2011 at 2:07 am
Even if the author of this blog highly recommends the movie, the “fake” documentary film, the Cove is merely promoting the racial discrimination against both Japanese nations and culture. I strongly disagree with Hairy Pattah’s considering Dolphin hunting as the bad practice, ignoring other cultural wild hunting performed by other nations, Alaska, Norway, Aussie, Canada, etc. Particularly, Aussie keep slaughtering Kangaroo for their fashion and culinary culture but they brutally slaughter them in cold blood. What is the difference between 2 different eating cultures? Simple, the race.
In addition to the racial discrimination, Sea Shepherd announced that the god caused the earthquake to punish Japanese. And many supporters of Sea Shepherd admitted it even if many other non-supports of the group were disappointed with them. I would like to be one of them who strongly denied the racist group.
June 11th, 2011 at 10:31 pm
[...] The Cove Movie Review [...]
October 17th, 2011 at 12:12 am
Is this slaughter still going on? If it is That is disgraceful. As a Canadian O am appalled by our baby seal hunt and have boycotted the boots they are made from as well as products that come from that region. They are both hunts that are cruel and needless and need to be ended.
After just watching The Cove on CBC television I wondered if it had been stopped permanently and also if the killing of Pilot Whales had been stopped as well.
Thanks for providing the info.