The Cove

This is a difficult movie if you care about animals at all. The Japanese are one of the only groups of people left that actively hunt and slaughter whales and dolphins. After 1986 it was pretty much agreed upon that no one would hunt and kill these animals anymore. They have found a few loop holes like killing them in the antarctic, about 1000 a year and claiming its for science. The other is much more brutal and that's what this documentary is about.

In the small fishing town of Taijii in Japan there is a disgusting and dark secret. On average they kill 23,000 dolphins and porpoises every year, but only after they sell off the best of them to be trick animals in captivity like at Sea World.

What the Japanese of this town noticed is that every year there were pods of dolphins swimming by on their normal migratory patterns, combine that with the knowledge that dolphins are very sensitive to sound and you have the set up. They use a line of boats that have metal tubs going into the water, they hit the tubes with hammers, scaring the dolphins towards a cove they use, and then put in nets. People come from all over to pick out the dolphins they want to buy, each going for about 150,000, all the rest are corralled into another smaller cove where they disappear.

The fishermen are very careful about who can see the smaller cove and have done a good job about keeping it under wraps so then no one has any proof of what they are doing. By the way a dead dolphins meat goes for about 600 US dollars, not a huge cash cow. The documentary follows a group of activists as they discuss what they know about dolphins, the history of whaling and the trade of meat.

They come up with a plan to record the slaughters with hidden cameras, and spend most of the film setting that up. When you do see the slaughters it will make you sick, my breath was wavering and I was trying very hard not to cry. Its hard enough watching them stab the dolphins with spears, but seeing them try to escape, or seeing the babies being killed is to much.

The film also touches on over fishing the oceans, degradation of the ecosystems and mercury content and poisoning, all real and serious problems. The main activist of this mission is the man who created the show "Flipper" and trained the dolphins to do tricks, now he works to set them free. He feels responsible for their current incarceration and destruction.

The waters literally run red with the blood of the dolphins, and the fishermen seem to have no shame over what they do. Like I said earlier this is a hard thing to watch and harder to swallow. If this appeals to you to learn about then also see the documentary "Sharkwater" which focuses on the destruction of the shark populations of the world, a very big problem if we kill to many of them. The dolphins are cute and have the smile, but the sharks are just as much at risk if not more so since they aren't protected like the dolphins and whales are, as well as being demonized as man killers (which they aren't)

8/10 stars.

Director: Louie Psihoyos