Movie: "The Cove"

        'The Cove’ was one of the most influential, and perhaps heartbreaking documentary movie I have ever seen. It is about issues of dolphin slaughter that takes place regularly in a quiet cove in Taiji, Japan. Thousands of dolphins are trapped, some are captured and sold to dolphin aquariums, but most to be brutally killed for food. The team of activist, filmmakers and free divers are on a mission to record footages of the slaughter to expose it to the world. They go in at night with night vision and set up camera disguised as ordinary rocks. Since the local people will do anything to protect their secret slaughter, it’s an act of incredible risk to infiltrate the cove. According to the film, most of the people in Japan have no idea about the dolphin harvest in Taiji and they don’t eat dolphin. They have a right to know that the government is letting the sale of mislabeled meat and is toxic (high level of mercury concentration). So why does these horrifying acts still happening and will the people in Taiji survive without doing this? To me this is an interesting aspect of the film. This documentary film isn’t trying to give the audiences an opinion, it is only filmed to give you a view of a situation. I think it is not propaganda, meaning the audiences are able to understand if the point of view is a truthful illustration of the topic because it isn’t just a single side of the controversy.

        For me the footages of dolphin slaughtering certainly deliver the unethical process. This is like seeing a baby seal beat to death, except we might think baby seals are adorable. The Cove also emphasizes dolphins are smart animals that they are self-conscious. A few scenes in the movie are showing bleeding dolphins struggle for their last breath, to actually see their suffering, is devastating. The Cove is hard to watch sometimes, and the slaughter scenes are certainly not for the heartache but it is something that needed to be exposed. I hope the movie will bring a slight change in whaling policy, it’d be more helpful for the audiences willing to do more than just hand clapping.

robinnnnn

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        It’s been a delightful experience going out for boat survey, enjoying the moments with these beautiful and energetic creatures in the wild^^ Before entering HKDCS I didn’t have much knowledge about dolphins and the problems they are facing in the world, I was getting the wrong messages from sea aquariums about marine mammals captivity and welfare. I have misunderstood the information that whales and dolphins performing in aquariums are living in standard, don’t need to worry about food and having a good time with ‘smile’ on their faces. When I actually go on the boat survey to watch wild dolphins swimming freely, chasing fish occasionally and relaxing in the afternoon, I realized that captivity for them is unethical and causes several physical, mental health problems leading to high mortality rate. Two weeks after my internship has started, I slowly built up my knowledge about the ecology and ranging patterns of cetaceans, humpback dolphin and finless porpoise in particular. Every effort made in the field and slight changes of the environmental variables recorded on datasheet can have significant alternation on the results, therefore it’s crucial to keep the errors in minimum. Consistency is another essential part of doing line transect surveys, it allows a comparison of results over different temporal scales, and to detect changes from both population and individual levels.

robin