Catastrophic Cove

All I have to say about this documentary is wow. This documentary film crucially analyzes and questions the ways and morals of Japan's mass dolphin harvesting. Throughout the film, a well noted dolphin activist, Ric O'Barry, attempts to frame and capture the notorious actions that the Japanese fishermen are doing. As well as trying to protect the dolphins and free them, Ric O'Barry also does a very adequate job of educating the public on mercury poisoning that resides in the meat and highlighting the potential hazards that can occur.

This film is obviously is told from the ocean conservationists point of view, solely because he wants to illuminate what is going on the island of Taiji. He notes that the dolphin drive that is going on now accounts for over 23,000 dolphins being harvested each year, which is several times greater than the whaling industry that happened in the Arctic. It saddened me to find out about how these Japanese fishermen tortured and herded these dolphins, abusing them as if they were not alive. The scene that really grabbed my attention was when the female marine biologist was observing the dolphins within the cove and she spotted a certain one. This certain dolphin was swimming on top of the water, desperately trying to escape. Rather than escaping, it soon bled out from all of the spear wounds and sadly never came to the surface again.

Although this film has seem to cause a plethora of controversy, I believe that this documentary does a profound job at showing the "real and humane" side of things, as well as exposing the Japanese people for their inexcusable actions. The secret filming that went on showed that many of these island inhabitants did not want the rest of the world to know what they are doing and how, because ironically, they knew it was very wrong and that they would get shut down by the government.

I believe that Ric O'Barry was doing the right thing in protecting these intelligent creatures and I congratulate his courage for going against the Japanese people with such gusto. In any situation he could have been hurt or killed, yet he trifled on and continued to act on what he believed. In this clip here, it shows how dedicated these activists were in saving these creatures. All in all, this film was very interesting and it shined a light on a topic that a majority of  the world doesn't even know about. I guess the most shocking thing besides the cruelty towards these dolphins, was the fact that other Japanese islanders did not have a clue about what was happening or how their dolphin meat came to be.