Today I went and watched “The Cove”. Unfortunately it did not get much coverage here so I had to drive over 1 hour to get to the cinema that it was playing at. I walked into the cinema; I was late as usual, got my ticket and walked in as the advertisements just started to play. I came in quietly to not disturb the other viewers but as I looked around not a person in sight. It was the first week of the showing and was also in peak time of the cinema, but yet no one. Was I the only one in my area who cared? From word go it impacted me, as if no one could bother spending 1.5 hours of their life to see what is truly happening in our world and prefer to turn a blind eye and watch two robots smash each other instead in the movie Transformers.

This movie causes a variety of emotions and feeling throughout the development of the film. You feel empathy towards Ric O’Barry who personally blames himself for the dolphin drive. He has taken this massive burden upon himself and for the 10 years raising captive dolphins he has spent the last 35 years trying to undo it. Every scene with him in it you can see the quilt that he holds in himself. As the dolphins screams play on the computer he just sits there, quiet, still, and staring pointlessly.

I won’t go into much more detail into the film then that. But it is a must see and you must experience the movie first hand to get the same effect. No words can explain it. In a sense you feel helpless, you see a series of IWC footage of Japan spitting out lies to the world and you really wonder how this can be happening in the 21st century. Corruption and greed run this world.

The film also explores the concept of the tradition of the whaling and whether these dolphin drives are traditional or not. The movie cleverly explores these ideas and portrays it to the audience using Japanese officials own words. It’s simply a barbaric practice, it is not traditional at all.

The film further explored the relationship of this apart ‘tradition’ to the Japanese people on the streets. They have no idea what is happening in their own backyard and the Japanese Government wants to keep it that way.

This single cove is much worse than a slaughter house and should not be happening in a nation as advanced as Japan. They spear all the dolphins in the nets then drive off taking to shore for a smoke while the dolphins smash around bleeding to death, desperately trying to escape. Once they are all dead the whalers drag them ashore and start hacking into them selling the meat off to school kids, pet food companies and the general market marked falsely as other meats.

“It’s not about the money, it’s about pest control” Japanese whaler.

The Japanese Government and fisheries is corrupted and must be stopped. The only way that is going to happen is YOU. Everyone reading this has a role to play in this and it is not going to stop unless we all do our bit. Whether it’s the donation of time, materials or money; it is all necessary.

I encourage EVERYONE to go watch the movie “The Cove” to show your support for Ric O’Barry, OPS and Sea Shepherd.... and most importantly for the dolphins!