The Cove

Recently in classed we watched a documentary which was titled The Cove and to be honest I am not too sure where to begin with this topic. First thing I must say is that I never really knew too much information about dolphins. I knew they were pretty cool creatures who could swim well and would jump out of the water together in packs before dipping back into the ocean blue. Years later I remember hearing about sharks and how they attack humans and after seeing Jaws I couldn't stand those creatures. But then to find out that dolphins attack and even kill sharks made me grow more interested in this animal and even one of my favorites (besides the point the Miami Dolphins were my football team of choice).  Nonetheless, what I witnessed in this film just seemed plain wrong to me.  

In the film I learned that over 20,000 dolphins are killed in an area of Japan each year. These people are captivating and killing dolphins before selling their meat. Which was pointed out to be very dangerous as well because the dolphin meat contains a dangerous amount of mercury. So now your killing these capturing these poor animals, slaughtering them, selling their unhealthy meat to the public? None of that makes sense to me at all.  Richard O'Barry who used to catch and train dolphins for the tv show 'Flipper' had an experience that made him not only come to a stop with the capturing of these creatures, but become a leading advocate against the capturing of dolphins.  While training one of the dolphins he was using for the television show, he practically had one of these creatures commit suicide in his arms because of the stress built up through being captivated.

These poor creatures become depressed and stressed while captured and needless to say are being taken out of their naturally environment. Though these activists have made a differences and warned the public of this problem, it is still happening. Something more needs to be done to assure this issue is resolved and is no more. The ecosystem is heavily effected by this issue and if it doesn't come to a stop soon dolphins will become extinct.