If we can’t save the dolphins, what hope do we have ?
By Ian Hunter, Catholic Register Special
“Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.” So wrote Scotland’s bard, Robert Burns, nearly three centuries ago. Today, thanks to a DVD called The Cove, man’s inhumanity to dolphins is making countless thousands protest. Online petitions against the senseless slaughter of dolphins that occur annually in a cove at the Japanese village of Taaji have embarrassed the Japanese government — particularly after The Cove won the 2010 Oscar for best documentary.
Each September dolphins are driven towards a cove on the Japanese coastline by fishing boats that lay down a “wall of sound” that serves to terrify the dolphins, which have acute hearing. Fleeing from the noise, the dolphins can effectively be herded into one small, secure cove at Taaji, where they are penned in by nets. Marine museums and commercial aquariums come to Taaji to select specimens for a lifetime of captivity. The dolphins that are not selected are slaughtered and their meat marketed through Asia, often misleadingly labelled as whale meat. The dolphins contain worrisome — indeed sometimes toxic — levels of mercury. Nevertheless, until recently dolphin meat was a staple in the compulsory lunches that Japanese schools provide to students.
Each September dolphins are driven towards a cove on the Japanese coastline by fishing boats that lay down a “wall of sound” that serves to terrify the dolphins, which have acute hearing. Fleeing from the noise, the dolphins can effectively be herded into one small, secure cove at Taaji, where they are penned in by nets. Marine museums and commercial aquariums come to Taaji to select specimens for a lifetime of captivity. The dolphins that are not selected are slaughtered and their meat marketed through Asia, often misleadingly labelled as whale meat. The dolphins contain worrisome — indeed sometimes toxic — levels of mercury. Nevertheless, until recently dolphin meat was a staple in the compulsory lunches that Japanese schools provide to students.
The documentary crew which made The Cove included animal activists, camera and sound technicians, and free divers — divers trained to remain submerged for several minutes without oxygen. The film crew made six trips to Japan. Each time they were harassed by locals, abused by Taaji fishermen, threatened and followed by the local police. From the highest levels of the Japanese government down to the local town council, the authorities were determined to prevent the world from seeing what happened in the cove at Taaji. But by dint of meticulous planning and daring, the film crew have exposed Taaji’s shameful secret.
The cove itself is a natural fortress, surrounded on three sides by rock cliffs. The only land exit is gated and reinforced by barbed wire. There are 24-hour patrols. It took ingenuity and courage to find a way in. The film crew managed to plant cameras (hidden inside fake rocks) on the cliffs; free divers were able to position underwater microphones. What they recorded is sickening.
The documentary gets added impact and poignancy from the presence of Ric O’Barry. As a young man, O’Barry was a dolphin trainer at the Miami Seaquarium. Later he trained dolphins for the successful television series Flipper. It was only when one of the Flipper dolphins died in his arms that O’Barry had a change of heart. From dolphin-exploiter he became the world’s best known dolphin-crusader. In 1989 he founded the non-profit Dolphin Project. He has since been arrested many times, in different parts of the world, for his tireless efforts to free captive dolphins.
As depressing as is the attitude of the Japanese government to the dolphin slaughter (last March the government issued this statement: “Dolphin hunting is part of the tradition of the fishery of [Japan] and it has been lawfully carried out”), it is exceeded by the attitude of a behemoth of government lackeys called the International Whaling Commission. The commission (which has banned O’Barry from attending its meetings) turns a blind eye to what happens in Japan. Indeed some member countries in the IWC have no whales anywhere near their territorial waters, but they nonetheless accept generous subsidies from Japan and vote compliantly.
The IWC stages its elaborate conferences in exotic locations, where delegates gather to posture and preen and prevaricate on behalf of their respective governments, while each year approximately 23,000 dolphins are slaughtered in Taaji. It is an arguable point, perhaps like setting the order of precedence between fleas and lice, but I contend that the IWC bears greater moral responsibility than the hapless Taaji fishermen.
I am no cinema buff but I found The Cove breathtaking; more suspenseful than James Bond, more tragic than King Lear. It is not a movie I will forget. The final scene, after the slaughter is over, shows a Japanese scuba diver, part of the killing team, swimming languidly in a sea of blood. The voiceover says something like this: If the world cannot stop this, what hope is there of changing anything?
(Ian Hunter is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Law at Western University.)
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