Documentary Movie Reviews
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The Cove (2009)
Rate:
9
Viewed:
3/26
3/26:
The first time I learned of The Cove's existence was reading
No Animals Were Harmed: The Controversial Line Between Entertainment and Abuse by Peter Laufer.
Animal abuse and captive animals are the very reasons why I refuse to visit zoos, aquariums, SeaWorld,
circuses, roadside shows, rodeos, and so on. People who do are either complete idiots or uninformed about
what's really happening behind the curtains.
I thought The Cove would be another Blackfish. But this time,
it's about dolphins. Making money to capture them to be performers all over the country is naturally harped
on, but imagine my surprise that the rest is slaughtered for food. Who would want to eat a dolphin?
The documentary explains how they're falsely labeled as "whale meat," sold for consumption in Japan.
Another thing I learned is that "the recommended total level of [methyl]mercury in seafood in Japan is 0.4 ppm
(parts per million)." But dolphin meat contains 2,000 ppm of methylmercury. Whoo...that's crazy. In comparison,
a salmon carries 0.02 ppm. What's not reported is that, according to Wikipedia, the documentary was "secretly
recorded over five years with high-tech video and sound equipment, funded by billionaire James H. Clark."
As eye-opening as The Cove has been, winning an Oscar for Best Documentary, I'm disappointed that it's
so short. What has happened since 2009, apart from stopping to serve "whale meat" in school lunches for Japanese
children? Nothing much. Taiji continues to kill dolphins, and the fishermen have learned to conceal the
practice under a plastic cover or inside a tent.
All in all, because of The Cove, Japan looks very, very bad.