Lost for words with what i just watched on tele.

[GTV6FLETCH]

Hey every and any one,
Um , I have just finished watching a Documentary from last week that my wifey recorded.
It is called "the COVE", i believe it aired last sunday on channel 2.
I am sick in the gut's right now ,lost for words and close to the angriest i think i have ever been.
so much so i had to come and jump on a public internet forum and talk about it .
It kind of makes me really appreciate nature a lot more than i ever did before,not human nature though.
If you did not see it and am wondering what i am blabbering on about well i'll try to briefly describe it.
There is this little fishing village in Japan called Taji,
every year they go out and round up dolphins and brutally slaughter them.
here is a bit of the web site.

Each year from September to May over 20,000 dolphins are slaughtered in Japan. Fishermen round them up by the hundreds using sound barriers to disorient and herd the frantic pods out of their normal migrations into hidden lagoons like the one featured in The Cove. Bottlenose dolphins, especially ones that look like Flipper, are pre-selected by trainers and sold off for upwards of $200,000 to marine mammal parks around the world, where they will remain in captivity performing as circus acts. After the trainers and spectators have left, the rest of the dolphins are inhumanely killed in what can only be described as a massacre.

The butchered dolphins are later used for food, but the Japanese government has intentionally sheltered people from the dangers of eating them. Consumers of dolphin meat run the risk of mercury poisoning due to high levels of the toxin within the animals. Adding to the danger, much of the pricier whale meat they purchase is actually mislabeled toxic dolphin meat. While the Japanese government defends dolphin hunting as part of their cultural heritage, this tradition has serious health effects on its own people.

The more lucrative captive dolphin industry is the driving economic force behind the dolphin slaughter in Taiji. In the U.S. alone, dolphinariums represent an $8.4 billion industry, while a dead dolphin fetches a mere $600. International law provides no protections against the killing of dolphins, and other slaughters occur in places outside of Japan. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) affords no protections for 71 (out of 80, known) cetacean species, including all dolphins and porpoises, which is why Japan and other countries can legally kill them by the tens of thousands.

If u did watch it please comment here, i need to discuss it with people.
while watching it on tele my 5 year old daughter came into the room and i tried to pause it but she looks at the screen and asks me,"daddy,why is that beach all red and what were the men doing with the sticks".
I couldnt tell her,
my wife recorded it and after 5 mins refused to watch it.
I gotta go and have a smoke, be back.

[fess67]

I saw this program a while ago. It is horrific and as an animal lover I find it odd that people can do such things. I feel the same way about baby seal culls.

It is a fight I can lend a hand to via signature or donation but not one I can influence much beyond that. I learned a long time ago to be angered by what is wrong and do what I can to help but to also accept within myself that the little I help is enough for me.

Is it enough for the dolphins (or any other cause)? I do not know, but it is what I am capapble of and that means I can sleep at night. My current focus is helping the Black Rhino. An amazing creature on the edge. I do what I can and hope others do the same. At night I relax, knowing I have at least done something. Others will do more or less, that is ok.

The world is full of cruel *(^*%$*#@ be happy you are not one of them.

[farmer_rob]

Why do you say "inhumanely killed"? I think most fish are inhumanely killed. (They either die in nets, effectively drowning, or choke to death out of water on the deck of a ship). Ethical food consumption IMO does not include eating commercial net-caught fish. If the dolphins in this documentary are killed quickly, that is not inhumane.

Also, what percentage of the dolphin population does it affect? Are they being endangered by the fishing?

(note - edit due to pressing send by accident before post complete.)

Regards,
Rob

[GTV6FLETCH]

Why do you say "inhumanely killed"? I think most fish are inhumanely killed. (They either die in nets, effectively drowning, or choke to death out of water on the deck of a ship). Ethical food consumption IMO does not include eating commercial net-caught fish. If the dolphins in this documentary are killed quickly, that is not inhumane.

Also, what percentage of the dolphin population does it affect? Are they being endangered by the fishing?

(note - edit due to pressing send by accident before post complete.)

Regards,
Rob

Rob,
um killed quickly no,
they are herded into a small cove where there are 3-4 guys on a boat with spears that stab at what ever they can ,the water in this cove is totally blood red,there are dolphins thrashing around for ages bleeding to death.
percentage wise i am unsure,they have found that the meat is highly toxic as it is full of mercury. these fishermen are selling the meat as whale meat as it is easier for them to get,in turn poisoning people.
The doco also talks about the amount of fish we are taking from the ocean and it does look rather bleak.
It also looks into the massive corruption involved in the international whaling commission.
If you get a chance see it.

regards
Adam...

[pjs2]

Let’s face it people as a species we have reached our peak at getting smarter. We are now only finding faster ways of wiping ourselves off the face of the planet. Everyone wants more money and wants everything faster, well that all comes at a cost. That cost is going to be your offspring.

[farmer_rob]

Rob,
um killed quickly no,
they are herded into a small cove where there are 3-4 guys on a boat with spears that stab at what ever they can ,the water in this cove is totally blood red,there are dolphins thrashing around for ages bleeding to death.
percentage wise i am unsure,they have found that the meat is highly toxic as it is full of mercury. these fishermen are selling the meat as whale meat as it is easier for them to get,in turn poisoning people.
The doco also talks about the amount of fish we are taking from the ocean and it does look rather bleak.
It also looks into the massive corruption involved in the international whaling commission.
If you get a chance see it.

regards
Adam...

Point taken. Sounds bad.

Regards,
Rob

[knumbnutz]

I am in two minds about this.
Firstly, killing to feed is one thing and every nation and culture have a different set of morals and it is hard to judge because we see something as wrong.
For instance i am in China at the moment and I see things here which are totally out of whack with our culture from road use, toilets, getting on a bus and of course eating. Touching food with your fingers is a no-no discusting thing which is why they use chopsticks and they spit bones out over the table, the list goes on and on. Should i be offended or they change? or should i consider myself in their culture and understand that we have differences - not good or bad - just differences and we must accept that(maybe not agree) if we are truly multicultural.

2nd, I hate the killing of whales, rhinos dophins etc and I think it is totally unnecessary. But we kill lots of our animals here too (mostly farmed) and no matter how we kill them the animal libbers would be happy if we didnt kill anything because their morals are superior to ours(in their minds).
So who is right ?
The sad bit is that the Japanese gov is not particularly understanding of what the rest of the world community expects from them as far as international whaling is concerned and scientific research excuse is BS but how they farm in their own waters, well we should never expect them to change, the same as we shouldnt give a toss when others say what we should and shouldnt do here - remember the debate about using animal fur and then some do-gooders in the US said we were to blame as well cause we used lots of furs.
If you showed the video in Japan, I doubt many would raise an eyebrow, it is not discusting to them, thats how they do it.
I saw a video here in China from a cooking show where someone pulled a live fish out of the water, cut it open and while it was still breathing, held its head with a heatproof glove and deep fried the body of the fish. Then said "Look how fresh our fish are". My wife (Chinese) said it was terrible and unnecessary but plenty of people still think that way - in relation to morals.
Like anything, it is consumer demand that is driving the dolphin killings and whether it always existed in their history is one thing, but to stop it relies totally on the japanese consumer and changing their morals. That will make more difference than any law. Same goes for rhinos. If there is no demand then there will be no killing. Drugs are the same etc etc.

Cheers Neil

[zollo]

are sharks any different when they bite a live creature in half?
( i must say i haven't seen the cove, but have heard about it) are the fishermen so poor that they only have this method to capture their food/income? or have they got hi tech dolphin stun guns but choose to do it this way. there is a diffeerence. full SHAME on governments for knowing full well that the meat is poison, yet let the downtrodden populace catch and eat it. they have been letting japanese companies pollute japan for decades and decades, all in the name of the yen (applies all around the world)

[Tommo224]

Have you seen Sharkwater? It's similar, but about Shark Finning.

Sooooo horrible

-edit-
Here is the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggtxA4wuXzY


I'm not saying anything about The Cove, as I haven't seen it yet. But I'll look to acquire a copy, however I'm pretty sure it's going to drill me in to the ground.