Let's talk about videos!!!

My video review & reflection on: The Cove (A documentary focusing on dolphins killings in Japan, Taiji.)

                              The Cove trailer                                 

Video taken from: http://www.takepart.com/cove via youtube

(Note: The above is only the trailer, to watch the whole show, visit http://www.takepart.com/cove to buy the dvd)  

 
  Anyway fret not, after watching the video footage which lasted for about at least 1 and a half hour, here is my summary of the video, which is also the review.

 

Review with some reflections...

 This video is mainly about Ric O' Barry (known as Ric in my blog) :

• A dolphin trainer, known for training dolphins in the well-known show, "Flippers".
• After the death of a dolphin he trained, commited suicide in his arms, he realised that he has to stop the captivity of the dolphins and the dolphins should return to the ocean, to where they belong. (Why? Because, although dolphins always looks happy but in fact they are not when they are being captured. And at least this is what Ric felt as a dolphin trainers for years especially after witnessing the death of the dolphin in his arm.)
• Ever since, he started to go against captivity of dolphins and first time was releasing a dolphin in his seaquarium, got caught and sent to jail.
• Even after his released, he still tried to find ways to release dolphins that are being captured and travelled all the way Japan, Taijifor his cause to stop the cativity of dolphin, dolphin killing and bring awareness to people around the world about what is happening in Taiji.

Dolphin killings:

• Killing season: Every September
• Approximately 23,000 dolphins were killed every year in Japan.

Reasons according to the show for the killings:

1. Pest Control: As the dolphins are "over-eating" the fish supply. (Shouldn't human be responsible for disrupting the nature's food cycle?)
2. Culture: It is just the wat of life in Taiji.
3. Money: The dolphins can be sold up to $150k for alive dolphins used for performance and $600 for dead dolphins as food.
4. School lunch: Food supply for school children.
5. Health: Dolphins meat provides high nutritional values.

Dolphin food chain:

Picture taken from: http://qpanimals.pbworks.com/f/rd.gif

  As you can see from the picture above, dolphins are the tertiary consumer meaning to say, they are the end of the food chain. As the world is improving, the oil waste and factory waste are starting to pollute the oceans and the fishes might mistake those waste which may contain mercury and other toxic substance as food. So when dolphin being the last in the chain, its toxic level would be accumulated to about 2,000ppm (parts per million) which is very very very high.

  According to an article published on  Straits Times 21 Apr 08 that "The United States' Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stipulated that fish must not contain more than 1 part per million (ppm) of mercury, and so have equivalent bodies in the European Union, Australia and New Zealand."

  Hence if we, the humans, are going to include dolphins as part of our food chain, we are going to end up as the last consumer in the chain, meaning, we are going to consume very large amount of mercury which will lead to Mercury poisoning.

 

Diseases caused by Mercury poisoning:

• Acrodynia (Pink disease)
• Hunter-Russell syndrome
• Minamata disease

  The disease can cause physical &/or mental impairment especially to fetus, lack of coordination of movements of a person, memory loss and many more...

Want to know more about mercury poisoning? Visit:

• http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002476.htm
• http://www.medicinenet.com/mercury_poisoning/article.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning

A question for us to analyze:

How did the show justify that killing the dolphins are wrong?

1. Dolphins are killed even though we don't eat their meat. (Taking innocent lives!)
2. The killing risk the extinction of the species. (One less animal friend?)
3. Methods used to kill dolphins are brutal/inhumane. (Making the dolphins suffer even more!!!)
4. Dolphins had been known to save human lives. (Humans, please be thankful!)
5. When disguised as food, dolphin meat has high amount of mercury which can cause mercury poisoning. (At the very least, think of ourselves, think of our next generations...)
6. The reason for killing dolphins is claimed to be a part of the Japanese culture. (But hey, after interviews done, majority of the Japanese are unaware of this practice. Culture? Really?)
7. Dolphins are intelligent and have high self-awareness, which elevates the cruelty in killing them to a higher level. (Honestly, all animals have self-awareness right?) 

What the Japanese also claims:

• That the time given to the dolphins are enough for them to reproduce which account to the risk of the species getting extinct.
• That the reproduction rate of the species is believed to be high hence also account the the risk of the species getting extinct.

My conclusion:

  Everyone has their own stand, own perspective and own ways viewing things. Hence there is no right or wrong at these issues but base on our conscience and moral values, let's think about even the killing of cows, chickens etc. is it really right? Let alone say killing of dolphins which is so not common...

  (Ouh.. My personal stand is that I do not approve of killing animals as food but on another thought, not all people can survive on vegetarian diet. Hence, I assume that I am in the same mind as the majority whom thinks that killing cows and chickens are normal but not for dolphins.)

Thank you for reading! Come back for more discussion! ^^

Signing off,

Evee

My World, My Life, My Attitude, My Geography