The Cove

The Cove
Adrenaline pumping and covet action sequences are not the usual things you expect from a documentary. Filmed in the dead of the night with high resolution night vision and heat vision cameras, The Cove, a documentary about the killing of dolphins in Taiji, Japan is certainly not a film for the faint hearted.

The documentary follows a group of activist called Oceanic Preservation Society, OPS together with Ric O’Barry attempt to shed light and save the dolphin slaughtered annually in the coves in Taiji. It shows attempts of cover up the horror in the cove by the Japanese government and the ways they are trying to maneuver around the restriction places by the IWC (international Whaling Commission).

It is difficult not to feel a tad of sympathy for the dolphins slaughtered in the coves but the documentary brought me thinking: If slaughtering of dolphin is bad, so does slaughtering of life stocks in the world! What is the difference between the slaughters?

In the documentary it was stressed by Ric O’Berry the pioneer in the field of dolphin training that these creatures are intelligent being with consciousness that match on that of our own. He mentioned that the dolphins are free bound creature meant to be in the wild with plenty of space for them to roam. Being the one who started the worldwide craze of dolphin and whale love with his series, Flipper, Ric feels that it is his responsibility to put a stop to this. Such hypocrisy!

In my opinion, just because a creature shows sign of intelligence doesn’t make them any different than any other creature. If you look at it this way, it is wrong to kill no matter what the reason is then it is wrong to kill. One does not simply say that because we kill livestock, chicken and cow, for provision it is ‘alright’ to slaughter them because the Japanese does it for the same reason; for food. It is important to understand that human are creature of habit and culture is a staple in our life. What the Japanese are doing is continuing that culture; the culture that was once steep with dolphins as part of their diet. It takes longer time for them to understand the reason why they have to stop and that time is what not conveyed in the film.

It is also wrong to think that dolphin hunting or killing is inhumane because of what is shown in the documentary. Compared to the way the world treat its livestock, killing dolphin and whale paled in comparison. What barbaric is not spearing the spine of a dolphin but ‘growing’ thousands of cow and chicken in tight, space constrain farms and mechanically slaughter them in cost efficient way. That in my opinion is barbaric. And this point is not conveyed in the film at all.

The documentary is a great eye opener despite everything. The ways the activists are trying to spread the message across with alternative media and guerilla methods really show how passionate they are about the subject matter. Their willingness to sacrifice their time and more importantly freedom selflessly for the benefit of another creature is really commendable. But it clearly fails to put the whole situation into a correct perspective. Biasness towards the subject, one that will affect the lives of many is unacceptable. Emotion only should not be the reason for one to set on a course that will change how others live their life. The consequences are too great and the effect would be devastating.