Review of The Cove

Just like my previous post on "The Review on South Park: Whale Wars", this too, brings up controversies on the killing of dolphins and whales by the Japanese.

This documentary stars the famous Ric O' Barry who is known as the first guy to capture and train five dolphins for the movie Flipper. After his favourite dolphin, Kathy, who was the main star in Flipper died, he decided that he would make it his life long objective to set as many dolphins as possible free. He said that Kathy died out of her own will, meaning that it was suicide. He described being down at the pool with Kathy that day when she came up to him with a look in her eyes, closed her blowhole, and went back down. He blames himself for starting this trend of capturing and training dolphins and in the end, unintentionally leading them to their own death out of loneliness and lack of freedom in captivity.

The documentary takes place in Taiji, Japan a town where dolphins and whales swim off its coast. However the activity of catching and slaughtering dolphins and whales took place in an isolated cove nearby with signs "Keep Out" erected everywhere in order to hide it from the eyes of the public. Not even the locals knew about the activity.  Dolphins that were caught were sold to marine parks, and those not sold were made into dolphin meat to be sold in supermarkets. Worst of all, they were also sold in school lunches even when dolphin meat contained high level of mercury of abut 2000 ppm(parts per million)! The crew underwent a lot of challenges trying to get this documentary done as well as to collect solid evidence of their activity. They even used underwater microphones and cameras disguised as rocks.



The dolphins were killed cruelly by stabbing them and leaving them to die slowly. Instant death would probably be a less cruel way to kill them. Why torture them and let them feel the pain over and over again until they couldn't take the pain and die from it?

Throughout the whole movie, it is to be said that dolphin hunting is labelled as a cruel activity of pure evil. When the Japanese fisherman were asked as to why they were doing this, they replied that it's because marine life is their primary food source and that dolphins and whales are consuming too much of it which upsets the balance and supply. In short, pest control. Some said that it is a tradition to the people of Taiji, but were however proved wrong when the crew interviewed the locals about it. All of the villagers didn't have the slightest clue about the killings. So a question was raised, how is it even a tradition if the locals do not know about it? Or is it just down to reality where money making is of the most importance factor of them all?  (a dolphin can be sold to marine parks for $150 000 USD and its meat for $600 USD)

After the release of the film, there were a lot of controversies behind it. Some of the Japanese being filmed in the documentary such as the professor from the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido who revealed the staggering levels of mercury content in the dolphin meat, sued the local media for misleading edits in the comments which had damaged his reputations. It is somewhat true however, that this film is mostly a one-sided story only. But nevertheless, allowing the sale of dolphin meat in the market when it is known to contain a high level of mercury is wrong. Despite several legal lawsuits and much criticism, the documentary had also won the hearts of millions and clinched several awards as well as raising public awareness on the slaughter of dolphins all over the world.