Documentary: The Cove
Posted by Michelle Moquin on August 31st, 2009
I hope that everyone had a great weekend!
While getting my mani-pedi on Saturday, the brief comment that the TAO left a few days before about our seas being polluted down to 3600 feet, was something that kept entering my thoughts. What have the mammals done to deserve this?
Then while perusing People Magazine, (the only time I get to read these kinds of mags is when I am being pampered :), I came across a tiny blurb about dolphins, and the 60′s TV series “Flipper”. As a kid, I loved watching Flipper, and even went to a few shows where dolphins ‘performed’.
As I became more of an animal/mammal lover, and more aware, I no longer supported those type of environments that held animals captive. Whenever I read that the circus is coming to town (Barnum and Bailey especially) I send letters to them, telling them exactly how I feel about their ‘treatment’ to the animals. I have read many horror stories of the inhumane ways animals and mammals are treated while in captivity, and it is unacceptable. To me, animals are best left free in their natural environment and habitat.
In fact, I even volunteered for 6 months at the Marine Mammal Center and helped care for sick sea lions that were affected by humans and our carelessness, so that they could return to their natural habitat. It is amazing what a little plastic from a 6-pack can do to our sea life. It was hard work, but knowing that my care helped the mammals to heal and enabled them to be released back out into the sea was worth the cold mornings. And if you have been reading my blog, you know I hate the cold :)
So…this tiny blurb in People Magazine, spoke of a man, activist Richard O’Barry, who has spent his last 40 years of life, advocating for dolphins, recently released his documentary about the plight of dolphins, by the predatory hands of the Japanese. I was not aware of the plight of dolphins in Japan until I read about O’Barry, the dolphin ‘abolitionist’, and his lifelong commitment to these beautiful, smiling creatures.
Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, here’s a clip of The Cove:
Marine Mammal Specialist, Earth Island Institute
Richard O’Barry has worked both sides of the dolphin street, the first 10 years with the dolphin captivity industry, the past 38 against it.
Working back in the 1960s for Miami Seaquarium, O’Barry captured and trained dolphins, including the five dolphins who played the role of Flipper in the popular American TV-series of the same name. When Kathy, the dolphin who played Flipper most of the time, died in his arms, O?Barry realized that capturing dolphins and training them to perform silly tricks is simply wrong.
From that moment on, O’Barry knew what he must do with his life. On the first Earth Day, 1970, he founded the Dolphin Project, dedicated to freeing captive dolphins who were viable candidates and educating people throughout the world to the plight of dolphins in captivity. He launched a searing campaign against the multi-billion dollar dolphin captivity industry, telling the public what was really going on at dolphin shows and urging people not to buy tickets to see dolphins play the fool.
O’Barry has rescued and released more than 25 captive dolphins in Haiti, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Brazil, the Bahamas Islands and the United States. His more than 45 years of experience with dolphins and his firsthand knowledge about the methods used to capture and train them has taken him all over the world to participate in lectures and conferences about the controversial dolphin captivity issue. As he knew it would, this created a lot of hostility toward him by those who stood to profit from the continued exploitation of dolphins.
“They’re in this for money. Take it away, and they’ll quit doing this,” O’Barry says and adds: “Dolphins are free-ranging, intelligent, and complex wild animals, and they belong in the oceans, not playing the clown in our human schemes.”
To recognize his contribution, in 1991 O’Barry received the ‘Environmental Achievement Award’ presented by the United States Committee for the United Nations Environmental Program (US/UNEP).
His book ‘Behind the Dolphin Smile’ was published in 1989, a second book, ‘To Free A Dolphin’ was published in September 2000. Both of them are about his work and dedication.
O’Barry is a Fellow National in The Explorers Club, a multidisciplinary society that links together scientists and explorers from all over the world. Each member is an accomplished individual with at least one fascinating story to tell.
In January, 2007, O’Barry became the Marine Mammal Specialist for Earth Island Institute and Director of Save Japan Dolphins coalition: www.SaveJapanDolphins.org
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Readers: Have any of you seen this movie? The clip has certainly aroused my curiosity, and I intend to see the documentary. Perhaps, you too are a lover of mammals and your support of them is the answer to the question that you asked yourself yesterday, and hopefully today…and tomorrow….and… :) “What can I do to make the world a better place?”
I know I ask a lot from my readers and I don’t expect for everyone to advocate everything that needs support on this planet. But what I do expect, is that you find one thing and dedicate time in your life to helping that one thing, or one area, that makes your heart sing. I know that when I give my time and effort, it makes me feel like I am contributing to the planet and our environment in a good way, instead of just taking and adding to the many environmental problems…..giving, gives my life more meaning and purpose.
Al: I am a bit confused, as maybe you were about my post yesterday. Not sure if you were referring to my age and your pair of drawers :) I was not the writer of the article that I posted under the heading, “The Dream Lives On: Keeping The Kennedy Fire Alive”. It was just something that I found on the Huff. I liked it and it inspired me, so I posted it.
Enjoy the beginning of your week…
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: Your Bad Ass Bitch Editor
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August 31st, 2009 at 4:42 pm
To Whom It May Concern: Thank you for not screwing with my computer today. All weekend it was bewitched — It had a mind of its own.
I was close to throwing my computer down the garbage chute, It drove me nuts for two day doing things I have never seen in 20 years of computer use.
This morning I booted up and everything came back to normal. I feel like I was in the ‘Twilight Zone’ and made it out intact.
My computer is how I reach out and accomplish many chores, as well as blogging and e-mailing friends since I am disabled.
I appreciate having my baby back. Thank you, whomever you are.
HOWIE
September 1st, 2009 at 8:41 am
Hi Michelle,
I too loved to watch Flipper as a kid. I have been to where they filmed the show in the Florida keys while here on vacation with the family. They said they used 7 dolphin, each having it’s own trick, like dolphin stuntmen and stand-ins.
Misty was the name of the dolphin that did that thing where she would get up on her tail, out of the water and go backwards for about 25 feet.
I got to pet one of the flippers and fed him some fish, my brothers got to swim with them and get towed by holding on to their dorsal fin, I was to young then to get in the water with the dolphins :(
They seemed to be treated well,they were kept fenced in pens in the ocean. Like jail cells for dolphins. All the pens were attached to a wooden dock. They were not very big.
Dolphins always look like they are smiling, but they couldn’t have been very happy, living in captivity. They seemed to like children and are very gentle with them. They seem to know.
At that age I didn’t think of the dolphins as prisoners, longing to be free. They looked happy, they were always smiling.
Now they don’t even have a clean ocean to live in, or healthy food to eat. I read the TAO’s comments on how filthy the ocean is.
Remember that that huge mass of plastics and other junk(twice the size of Texas) I blogged in about. Our oceans seem to be a convienent garbage can.
I had a buddy who worked at the Miami Seaquarium as a maintenance diver, he loved his job there. He also had negative views of the animals treatment and living conditions.
Al