Looking for an informative but interesting flick? Sundance winner TheCove offers summer entertainment plus lots of suspense – while informing the public about a “secret” that’s purely disturbing.
Every year in Taiji, Japan, 23,000 dolphins are slaughtered in a cove for their meat. Former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry is at the forefront of uncovering Taiji’s hunt to the public. But is this practice a cultural difference, or just plain wrong? Here’s a trailer:
So what’s the environmental/ethical impact? The film argues these points:
Approximately 1% of the Japanese eat dolphin meat – but the majority do not know this even occurs (Often it’s mislabeled as whale meat)
The recommended amount of mercury in seafood in Japan is 0.4 ppm (parts per million). Dolphin meat has 2000 ppm, making it extremely toxic for consumption
We’re overfishing the sea & therefore, throwing off the ecosystem
Like Eye of the Whale, this film addresses many other ethical questions during the process of uncovering this scandal. Aside from the climate change issue, there’s plenty of reasons you should be thinking about every purchase and tossing what’s no longer used.
As an animal lover, I was pretty upset after seeing the flick . But while there are some tough scenes to see, I definitely recommend watching it.
These slaughterings begin September 1st each year. Want to do something? Visit the Cove’s website for more information.
Posted by Julie
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Julie Hancher is Editor-in-Chief of Green Philly, sharing her expertise of all things sustainable in the city of brotherly love. She enjoys long walks in the park with local beer and greening her travels, cooking & cat, Sir Floofus Drake. View all posts by Julie Hancher
3 thoughts on “The Cove Review: Documentary of Taiji's Secret”
I don’t get it, how people can murder those beautiful and friendly creatures. Dolphins are not cute but also intelligent and smart. We should threat them with respect. And that goes to many other species that are maybe not so good-looking, smart and friendly but also need some respect and care. I hate when those mass murders on animals are just belittled by people who never seen an animal bleeding out.
An excellent, harrowing documentary. Won awards at the Galway Film Festival a couple of years back. Think he made another recently. More needs to be done to highlight the trade in animals for aquaria – cruel and unnecessary. Much better to preserve ecosystems and design, sensitively, options for viewing. Here in Ireland there have been numerous attempts to promote ecotourism and whale and dolphin watching trips. These are somewhat hampered by the weather but more by the lack of infrastructure (roads, rail, public transport, etc, to get people to the ports from which boats can take passengers on trips) and lack of government support. That’s what we need to lobby for. It needn’t be expensive or particularly dangerous and it would be possible to have wonderful viewing platforms all along the coast with a bit of imagination. Sure there must be a similar story in Japan, an island nation, and even in the coastal States. Many thanks for these good thoughts.
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Looking for an informative but interesting flick? Sundance winner The Cove offers summer entertainment plus lots of suspense – while informing the public about a “secret” that’s purely disturbing.
I don’t get it, how people can murder those beautiful and friendly creatures. Dolphins are not cute but also intelligent and smart. We should threat them with respect. And that goes to many other species that are maybe not so good-looking, smart and friendly but also need some respect and care. I hate when those mass murders on animals are just belittled by people who never seen an animal bleeding out.
An excellent, harrowing documentary. Won awards at the Galway Film Festival a couple of years back. Think he made another recently. More needs to be done to highlight the trade in animals for aquaria – cruel and unnecessary. Much better to preserve ecosystems and design, sensitively, options for viewing. Here in Ireland there have been numerous attempts to promote ecotourism and whale and dolphin watching trips. These are somewhat hampered by the weather but more by the lack of infrastructure (roads, rail, public transport, etc, to get people to the ports from which boats can take passengers on trips) and lack of government support. That’s what we need to lobby for. It needn’t be expensive or particularly dangerous and it would be possible to have wonderful viewing platforms all along the coast with a bit of imagination. Sure there must be a similar story in Japan, an island nation, and even in the coastal States. Many thanks for these good thoughts.