The Cove Dolphins

In 2009, a film titled The Cove sent shivers down the world’s spine by revealing a small Japanese town’s disturbing secret. The exposure of this town’s secrets depended on a tiny crew that could produce terrible damage by leaking the ongoings of this secluded village. The crew achieved it's goal by producing an Academy Award winning film that changed the views of the world and, most significantly, brought hope and awareness to the specific species targeted by the town. Taiji, Japan has aided in the killing of various species of dolphins through gruesome and inhumane practices, all while hiding in a little cove secluded from the world. Now, in the modern century, the people of Taiji have found a loophole around the 1986 law banning commercial …show more content…
The majority of the world recognizes this dolphin from the show, Flipper. (Mark 1) Using Flipper as a stage name for the young dolphin, Ric O’Barry had actually named her Cathy (Cove 17:53). O’Barry had trained Cathy for her entire television career. (Mark 1). But, whenever Cathy committed suicide by purposely not breathing it changed O’Barry’s prospective about dolphins and dolphin captivity. Now, constantly in Taiji, O’Barry spends his time trying to stop the dolphin slaughter. O’Barry used The Cove as his big chance to show the world what this little seaside town does to dolphins. As the audience sees in The Cove, O’Barry drives with a mask on his face and hunches over to look like an old man so that the police would not stop him because of his infamy in Taiji. (Cove 3:53- 17:53) In The Cove, the will and dedication in O’Barry’s eyes shines inspiringly. As Paul Watson states, “Ric is one of the most focused people in the movement‐ knowing what his objective is and pursuing it. And his objective is freeing dolphins and stopping the capture and killing of dolphins around the world. And there is no one who has done that with more passion than he has” (Mark 5). The Japanese government owns the cove and maintains twenty-four-seven security on the site (3). In the film, O’Barry’s OPS team gets through the security in the middle of the night and drops a listening device, into the cove, to hear …show more content…
Due to the protest and controversy surrounding the dolphin slaughter, the museum does not let any person against whaling and dolphin slaughter into the facility. In Addition, the museum does not allow the admittance of any North Americans or Western Europeans (116).An iconic attraction to the museum, dolphin shows allow audiences to consume fried or barbequed dolphin whilst watching the abuse of dolphins (117) Ric O’Barry, an experienced dolphin trainer, states that the majority of dolphins in the shows feel anxious and stressed from the loud noises produced by the crowd (Cove 13:13). The museums torturously small tanks remain poorly maintained and an unhealthy place for dolphins (Mark 2). The Taiji Whale Musuem makes a great portion of their revenue from shipping dolphins, for captivity, throughout the world (Powell 3). A typical strong, female dolphin could be worth $150,000 while a deceased dolphin only $500 (Casey