The Cove
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The Cove – sp – Rick Barry , the man who trained the original Flipper the dolphin and made it into a successful TV show which ultimately led to Dolphin Aquarium Shows and Swim with Dolphin Exhibits all over the world, has had a change of heart. He now believes these intelligent creatures greatly suffer by being in captivity and should be allowed to run free. He has identified a cove near Taijii, Japan where thousands of dolphins are both regularly captured and sold into captivity or are slaughtered and their meat which has toxic mercury levels are shipped all over the world for food consumption, often labeled as whale meat.
Mr. Barry has connected with film maker Louie Psihoyos to make this documentary film which features a clandestine, dangerous undertaking in which the secret activities of capture and murder of the dolphins in this cove are recorded. They used a team of a man and a woman, who have the ability to free dive without scuba equipment, to plant listening devices and video cameras hidden in artificial rocks. The result was a heart wrenching and bloody film sequence which Barry then dramatically presents at an international meeting. While somewhat disjointed and repetitious at times, the story is unique and compelling. The film makers hope that this documentary (which won Audience First Choice at Sundance Film Festival) to be released 7/31/09, will influence world public opinion leading to changes of these terrible practices. (2009)