The Cove

So it's the night before the exam and what better way to prepare than by watching and reviewing The Cove. I've been looking forward to watching this, lets see how it is. Before watching this I don't really know anything about this subject, hopefully that'll change by the end. The film was produced by the Ocean Preservation Society who aim to reduce the degradation of the seas and promote the protection of the seas to the public.

The beginning is very well planned, before the film has even started it's giving brief passages of information on the main menu screen which help to gain a background knowledge. The film is 'set' in Taiji in Japan, the town appears to love whales and dolphins but they seem to have a dark secret. Ric O'Barry is a wanted man in this town and is hated by dolphin hunters and the dolphin industry across the world. He originally captured and trained the 5 dolphins for the TV series Flipper.

He then realised there intelligence and the fact that they possess self awareness and that they shouldn't be held in captivity. He claims that although they look happy whilst performing it's not true, they just naturally look happy. They should be moving up to 40 miles a day like they do in the wild but they can't.

Back to Taiji and the film shows boat 'drives'. The boats place poles into the water and bang them with hammers, this scares the dolphins forcing them into a bay where they can be selected by dolphin trainers. It doesn't really seem that bad as of yet. From here they can be taken anywhere in the world and a dolphin can be worth up to $150,000. His world was turned around when Flipper (Cathy) committed suicide in his arms, dolphins and whales takes conscious breaths (they have to think about it) meaning they can choose not to at any point. In this sense Cathy committed suicide.

23,000 dolphins and porpoises are killed each year in Japan, they sell the meat at dolphin and whale shows. The IWC don't count dolphins as whales... they're not big enough. Ric has been banned from all IWC meetings in the future. In 1986 the IWC banned the hunting of whales apart from for scientific research. So the Japanese claim that they hunt them for scientific research.

From here on in the film changes from giving information about the dolphin hunting to what they can do about it and the methods they've been using to get information and infiltrate the bay. The film illustrates that although the fisherman claim that eating dolphin is part of Japan's culture, many in Tokyo, Kyoto etc. didn't realise that people even ate dolphin. It's also considered a poor choice of meat which leads to misleading packaging calling dolphin meat whale meat.

Since the ban Japan has fought to overturn the ban on whale hunting. Their most recent tactic is going to 'bankrupt nations' and paying them to agree with the Japanese e.g. St. Lucia, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda. Another tactic to get the public on the side of the whalers has been to give schools free dolphin meat even though it is highly contaminated with Mercury due to Biomagnification and Bioaccumulation.

I can't really put into words the next part of the film, it's better if you watch it yourself. The waters run red with the blood of dolphins coupled with the endless shrieking from the dolphins.

Overall
I enjoyed this film has it highlighted a trade which I never really knew went on, it's sort of scary the way something this big can go on without people knowing about it. What I didn't like was the way it was so one biased that they spoke to like a handful of Japanese people throughout the whole of the film but I suppose it is a propaganda film.


Sorry for such a long post guys!