I watched the documentary The Cove last night. It is very very good. It does have some very disturbing scenes of dolphins being slaughtered and the water in the cove where the slaughter takes place turning bright red from all the blood. However this is only a small part of the film and appears near the end.

Most of the film, by the Ocean Protection Society, is about the men and women who form the group that infiltrates Taiji, Japan and films dolphin killing in "the cove." For those of you who are addicted to the Animal Planet series about the Sea Shepards who stalk the Japanese whale hunting fleet in Antartica, you will recognize at least one of the people.

The group includes two world champion free divers (these are people who dive as deep as they can on one breath)( who are married couple) and do the underwater placement of HD cameras and audio recording devices, others who place the devices cleverly hidden in fake rocks custom produced by a famous movie studio in the Bay Area, and the leader who spends much time talking with Taiji officials and police (who follow the group everywhere). The whole effort was done with lots of high-tech nighttime recording and vision equipment (military grade stuff). There are also peaceful confrontations with the International Whaling Commission and Japanese officials responsible for fisheries.

Overall, the Taiji fisherman kill 23,000 dolphins EACH year over a period from September to March. The Japanese whaling industry kills over 1000 whales. The dolphin and whale meat is eaten by Japanese. Much of the dolphin meat is labeled as whale meat to fool Japanese shoppers. The dolphin meet carries mercury up to 2000 times what is considered the safe limit by the Japanese government. Mercury poisoning destroys the neurons in brains of fetuses and dramatically stunts the development of children. Meanwhile, the Taiji mayor has been pushing to put dolphin meat on the required menu for all public schools in Japan.

You can rent it from Netflix.

For more information see National Geographic article:

www.takepart.com/articles/cove-movie-seeks-to-end-japans-dolphin-hunt/47504

For more info on whale and dolphin hunting see

www.takepart.com/issues/whale-dolphin-and-porpoise-hunting/13814