The Cove’ exposes the truth
Milicent Obbards
Academy Award winner for the 2009 best documentary, directed by Louie Psihoyos, tells a tale of how an undercover team of activists infiltrate and expose a hidden cove in Japan used for dolphin slaughtering.Armed with underwater cameras and film equipment, coupled with calling in favors from some of the world’s foremost cinematographers, gear production managers, scientists, and master divers, Psihoyos formed a team known as the Ocean Preservation Society (OPS).
Referred to throughout the documentary as the “killing cove,” an area hidden from the public eye using “keep out” signs the fishermen of Taiji, Japan are accused by OPS of slaughtering over 20,000 dolphins during an annual fishing drive.
Activist and former dolphin trainer on the 1960s television show “Flipper,” and star of “The Cove,” Richard O’Barry, comes full circle as he denounced his involvement in the entertainment industry and became one of the worlds most renowned activists for cetacean rights.
MCC’s Environmental Action Club Senator Brandon Baldwin, 29, a post baccalaureate pre-med student, watched the documentary and felt empathetic towards O’Barry’s efforts.
“The person who perpetuated this documentary (O’Barry) is someone who had been in the industry, who had profited at one time, and had regretted that his actions had inadvertently added to the over all problem, which is everybody loves the dolphin, but they are not aware of the harm being done.”
O’Barry stayed with the show until one of the five dolphins, Kathy, used for filming committed what O’Barry referred to as “suicide.”
“You have to understand, dolphins are not automatic air breathers like we are. Every breath for them is a conscious effort. Kathy looked me right in the eye, took a breath, held it – and she didn’t take another one. She just sank to the bottom of the water. That had a profound effect on me,” he said in the documentary.
OPS footage from hidden rock cameras expose Taiji fishermen, through the use of knives and spears, slaying the mammals, filling the cove with a sea of red.
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is an international assembly created in 1946 that ensures the conservation and development of large whales in the wild.
Cultural, historical and profitable practices associated with whale killing have made the IWC a necessary defender to the lucrative business of commercial whaling, but large sea mammals such as dolphins and porpoises do not fall under IWC protection.
A vast majority of the world is not aware of the killings and the core focus of the documentary was to develop a worldwide awareness of such actions.
“The earth will survive, but the animals maybe not; not if we don’t change,” Baldwin said.
For more information about the documentary, visit http://thecovemovie.com/.
