In the waters off Taji, Japan, occurs an horrific event of a gruesome dolphin slaughter, where at least 2,000 dolphins are taken around September each year.
World renowned Filmmaker Louie Psihoyos has made a documentary movie capturing the horrors of a "thriving operation that captures dolphins, the healthiest and handsomest of which are sold to aquariums worldwide. The rest are slaughtered, often ending up as food for human consumption, despite high mercury levels."
Louie Psihoyos recruited an expert team of divers, special-effects artists and sound specialists and used state-of-the-art equipment to infiltrate the remote cove and film the dolphin slaughter.
"The cove is like a fortress. It’s protected on three sides by steep cliffs. To get in, you need to go through a natural tunnel system that’s protected by a dog and a sensor"
The video here details the making of The Cove, (trailer), and gives us a vivid insight as to the levels of difficulty that were congruent with its actual shooting.
According to one of the experts on the team, from TV's Flipper, Ric O'Barry,
"Japanese fishermen, think of dolphins as being in the same category as fish, because the Japanese character for "whale" translates literally into "monster fish."
Louie Psihoyos comments that the cruelty inflicted on these intelligent creatures, is
"the most telling violence comes when the violence is over. When the dolphins die, their bodies sink. Divers are sent to retrieve them. Afterwards you see them smoking by the campfire with a blood-red sea behind them. There’s something so banal about it. The most revealing part is that they just had a hand in that atrocity, and life goes on.”
Thanks to alex for the tip, re-comment in Meet Sara the Walrus
