I just watched the amazingly terrifying documentary film The Cove that won the Oscar award for the best document of 2009. It certainly was an inspiring film and develops perfectly the theme I wrote about a few weeks ago, namely the animal rights of marine mammals. The film follows, in a half thriller-half conspiracy theory -style, the killing of dolphins in a little village in Japan where the sea water turns into red from September to March when 23 000 dolphins are slaughtered. As the film makers themselves say, they collect their own "Ocean's 11" (name couldn't fit their job any better!) with underwater cameras and two freedivers to gather evidence what is happening there.
While Japan's economy or culinary diet is not dependant on dolphins (or on whales for that matter) it refuses to ban this brutal activity or even tries to cover it up. The Cove shows well the politics behind the attempts to protect these animals on the one hand, and the insistance on "cultural tradition" and over-fishing of the oceans until they are empty, on the other.
Ric O'Berry who is the "hero" in the film partially blames himself for starting the fascination around dolphins as he was the dolphin trainer for the famous TV series of the 1960s, Flipper. After working a decade for the dolphin captivity industry, now a multi-billion business, he has since been working to free these animals. And after seeing The Cove, you really don't feel like going to Miami Seaworld (I've actually been there in 1992) - or even Särkänniemi's Delfinaario - where O'Berry worked and captured the dolphins for Flipper.
Below, you'll find the trailer for The Cove. Probably you'll be interested in watching the entire film, afterwards I'm sure you want to act, so click here for a petition (it's targeted to Obama but I guess the USA has more power in this issue than Matti Vanhanen, although in the film you can see a Finnish representative of the International Whaling Commission).
While Japan's economy or culinary diet is not dependant on dolphins (or on whales for that matter) it refuses to ban this brutal activity or even tries to cover it up. The Cove shows well the politics behind the attempts to protect these animals on the one hand, and the insistance on "cultural tradition" and over-fishing of the oceans until they are empty, on the other.
Ric O'Berry who is the "hero" in the film partially blames himself for starting the fascination around dolphins as he was the dolphin trainer for the famous TV series of the 1960s, Flipper. After working a decade for the dolphin captivity industry, now a multi-billion business, he has since been working to free these animals. And after seeing The Cove, you really don't feel like going to Miami Seaworld (I've actually been there in 1992) - or even Särkänniemi's Delfinaario - where O'Berry worked and captured the dolphins for Flipper.
Below, you'll find the trailer for The Cove. Probably you'll be interested in watching the entire film, afterwards I'm sure you want to act, so click here for a petition (it's targeted to Obama but I guess the USA has more power in this issue than Matti Vanhanen, although in the film you can see a Finnish representative of the International Whaling Commission).
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