Taylor R.
Honors English 10
May 5, 2011
Dolphins
I.What I Know
Dolphins are one of my favorite animal, they’re just simply beautiful. So when I watched a movie in my biology class called The Cove, I was horrified. It was one of the movies that move you and stir up so many emotions, that you feel like you need to do something. The Cove is a documentary about dolphins being slaughtered in a small town in Japan named Taiji. Who discovered all of this? A brave man named Ric O’Barry.
Ric O’Barry was the man who came up with the first ever dolphin show. He had a passion for dolphins. One day, his passion changed, one of his favorite dolphins, committed suicide right in his arms. Seeing this, he realized he was being cruel to these animals. That very night, he realized a dolphin from a sea pen. Ever since, his new mission was to set free every dolphin. This mission of course, had its downs. Barry got arrested multiple times for trying to free dolphins, but this doesn’t stop him.
In The Cove, Ric O’Barry and his team try to get more information about Taiji. He discovered they slaughter the dolphins for meat (even though, the meat is full of mercury, which is very poisonous to humans). Every time they go to the cove where dolphins are being slaughtered, fishermen shove cameras in their face or push them away. Signs are everywhere stating “No photos.”, “No trespassing.” So they decided the only way they can get inside the cove is go during the night. They end up planting sound cameras in the water and in the rocks. When they listen to the recordings, they were shocked to hear the cries for help. The dolphins were anything, but relaxed.
II. What I Want To Know
I want to know a lot of things about this topic. Some say eating dolphins are like in eating cows in America, that it’s just culture. If that’s the case, how come none of the Japanese know about the issue? Also, why do they kill the dolphins so violently? Does the government really know what’s going on?
I would like to do some research on dolphins. In the documentary, Barry states that dolphins may be smarter than humans. I want to learn more about dolphin’s life styles. How do they act in the wild? How long do dolphins typically live? Are they friendly like you see them at Sea World?
I want to interview Ric O’Barry and find out more information about Taiji. I want to learn more about mercury poisoning. What happens when people have mercury poisoning? How deadly is it? Also, are the killings going on here in the United States? My main goal is just to figure out why the killings are happening in the first place.
III.The Search
Documentary
In my biology class, we’re always watching videos. When Mrs. Cadigan said we were watching The Cove, I had no idea what it was. I knew it had to be bad when two or three students got up and left saying how the movie was horrible. Some students were saying the movie even made them cry. I prepared myself for the worse.
The Cove was a documentary. It started off with Ric O’Barry’s story. He’s worked with dolphins for almost his whole life. In the beginning, he spent 10 years capturing and training dolphins for the hit TV show, Flipper. When a main dolphin named Cathy died, his life changed. He realized dolphins didn’t belong in tanks; they belonged in oceans. He spent the next 38 years trying to tear down something that he created.
If a person were to go to Taiji, Japan, they’d never guess what’s going on. Everywhere you turn, you see something dolphin. Whether it is a statue or a museum, it seems like dolphins are important to them. If only they knew what was going on behind closed doors. Barry invited Louie Psihoyos to witness it. Psihoyos is a diver and an experienced photographer. When driving to the cove, Psihoyos can’t believe how paranoid Barry is. He’s constantly checking his mirrors, talking to himself, slowing down, speeding back up, and checking out every car or possible. Barry explained how he’s always being followed. The Japanese do not like him near the cove, but he’s not going to give up.
At the cove, there are many signs around saying “No trespassing”, “No photos”, and more. About 26 fishermen work at this horrible place. Whenever you bring a camera near, fishermen get in your face, shout at you, and shove a camera right back at you. Barry told a story about how one fisherman wanted Barry to punch him so he Barry could get arrested. He said it was so hard not to, but he just walked away. The fishermen only really care about money. They won’t let anyone and anything stop them from getting it.
Killings aren’t the only things that happen in the cove. Dolphin trainers from all over the world pick the dolphins they want in shows or in zoos. What’s heartbreaking is the left over dolphins get slaughtered. Either way the dolphins are put in a horrible situation. Barry says he’s even witnessed the trainers help the fishermen or laugh and joke with them.
Why do they slaughter dolphins? The government gives them orders. It provides meat to the school children. However, what they didn’t know is that the dolphin meat is very poisonous. It’s full of mercury, which is very dangerous for humans. Another reason why the government ordered to have the dolphins slaughtered was for “pest control”. They thought the dolphins were eating too much fish and need to be stopped because fish become extinct. Are fish really the ones that are going to be extinct now?
The movie ended in a great way. The crew finally snuck in at night and planted cameras to get footage. Then, at a world meeting Barry walked in with a TV stuck on his chest that showed the footage. Japan looked ashamed as the media swarmed Barry. You then find out, a few of the men did get fired. That doesn’t mean the killings ended. They’re still going on to this day.
Interview
For my interview, I had a tough time finding an email. After searching, I came across the OPS website. OPS stands for Oceanic Preservation Society. They have a major part in The Cove. The direction of OPS is Louie Psihoyos, the man that Barry invited to take part in The Cove. When I sent them an email, I wasn’t sure if they’d reply, but I thought it was worth the shot. I explained to them that I’m a sophomore at Youngker High School and how I felt about the issue. When I logged on the next day, I was surprised to see Louie Psihoyos’s wife, Viki Psihoyos had emailed me back! She was very kind too! The only issue was, when they answered my questions, they sent me links. On the other side, the links were new information that I didn’t know. Here is what I asked and the information she sent back!
T: Are Dolphins being slaughtered in more places other than Taiji?
V: Yes, Unfortunately, dolphins are slaughtered (intentionally) in the Faroe Islands, but this is a tough
issue. They are Viking people, it is traditional.
issue. They are Viking people, it is traditional.
T: Are there any places in the United States?
V: In the US, we don’t know of a slaughter like that depicted in The Cove, but you could look at the slow death the captive dolphins suffer.
T: What have Ric O’Barry does recently?
V: Ric blogs regularly. Find out what he is up to by checking his website
T: How dangerous is mercury poisoning?
V: Mercury, not good. (She sent me a link to a video)
When I watch the video, I was shocked. Mercury is every fish, but it multiplies by ten on every step of the food chain. Dolphins have about a million more pollutants in them then the water that they swim in. Then, it started talking about how Mercury gives people brain damage and can cause mental retardation!
T: Is it true that dolphin trainers help with the killings?
V: Sadly, yes. We have seen dolphin trainers and dolphin killers in the same boat, laughing and joking around after a large school of dolphins had just been killed. Dolphin trainers, who claim to “love” dolphins, don’t try to save any of them.
T: Why don’t the dolphins jump the nets that hold them back?
V: When standing at the mouth of the killing cove, we have often looked down at a school of dolphins trapped. From above, it’s obvious that all the dolphins have to do is jump the nets and they’d be out of harm’s way. But the dolphins don’t have this advantage of seeing from above. They don’t know what’s one the other side of the nets. It’s also important to keep in mind that nets and other artificial boundaries are foreign objects to wild dolphins.
T: Thank you so much for your time!
V: Thank you for being so organized! Most journalists don’t do their homework like you obviously have. Makes answering much easier!
T: Well, thank you again! This means so much to me!
V: Good luck!
I wanted to ask her more questions, but some of them were on the blog site or I thought they couldn’t be answered. I still thought OPS was very helpful and wouldn’t mind someday working for them!
Book
For my book, I picked the book Dolphins by Sally Walker. The book was published in 2008. I didn’t use much of the book since I got a lot of my research using the documentary and links given to me in the interview. However, I did learn some new information.
I pretty much already knew dolphins were considered mammals. What I didn’t know was that dolphins, porpoises, and some whales make up a group called Odontoceti (Page 6). The word Odontoceti comes from two Greek words, odontos and ketos, which means “toothed whale”. Odontoceti have large heads, hairless bodies, paddle-shaped front limbs, and teeth. The Odontoceti group gets divided up into even smaller groups. Three of the groups are marine dolphins, river dolphins, and porpoises. There are 32 types of marine dolphins. Pilot whales and killer whales are also included in that group. (Page 6)
Did you know dolphins used to be a four-legged marine animal that lived on land? So how exactly did they end up with no legs and in the water? Well, millions of years ago, the sea covered more of the Earth than they do now. They way these animals got their food were from the sea so they spent most of their time in the war. The bodies of mammals have changed so they can adapt to where they live. In this case, dolphin’s front legs became flippers and hind legs disappeared. Their body shifted their nostrils from the front of their face to the top so they could breathe easier. Fossils prove that all of this is true. (Page 8 and 9)
When people see a dolphin, they see a smiling creature that looks happy all the time! However, that’s not case. The position of dolphin’s bones and muscles form that expression. (Page 10). So when people mess with dolphins, they don’t think about what could happen. Dolphins are still wild animals and should be respected!
Dolphins are all sorts of different shapes. Some have long snouts like a bottlenose, while other dolphins have very small or no snouts like a killer whale. Another thing that is different on certain dolphins is length. Lengths range from the size of a human to the 5 times larger then that. For example, a dusky dolphin can grow to be about 5 feet and weigh at least 65 pounds. A male killer what can reach up for 31 feet long and weigh 8.8 tons! (Page 12)
How do dolphins communicate? They click, whistle, chatter, chirp, groan, squeak, yap, and bark! What makes dolphins communication so unique is that each pod had it’s own sound. A pod is a group of dolphins together, kind of like a school of fish. Making noises isn’t the only way dolphins communicate. They use their body to communicate by touching and caressing each other! They also slap their tales together. Dolphins are very unique animals (Page 18)
IV. What I learned
I learned so much doing this topic! Honestly, it made me fall in love with dolphins even more. Although, a lot of my research made me mad or upset, there were some happy parts about it. For example, I learned that in the Solomon Islands it was tradition to kill dolphins. They even used dolphin teeth as money, but with the help of Ric O’Barry, he taught them a new way of life and told them there was no need to kill the dolphins. He made them pledge not to kill any more dolphins and then helped raise money for the islands. For the first time in 450 years, they went one whole year without killing a dolphin. 2000 dolphins were saved.
Since starting my research, I feel like I annoy my family. I’m constantly talking about the dolphins and reading new information out to them. My sister and brother love hearing about The Cove. My sister even wants to watch it! Whenever I was working on my paper, they surround the computer and watch videos with me or read a new article. I can’t believe how much information I have found out. My goal now is to inform everyone else!
Works Cited
Earth Island. Home: Save Japan Dolphins | SaveJapanDolphins.org. Earth Island. Web. 10 May 2011. <http://savejapandolphins.org/>.
OPS. Oceanic Preservation Society- Home. OPS. Web. 10 May 2011. http://opsociety.org/
OPS. "OPS: The Hard Truths of Mercury Poisoning." Oceanic Preservation Society- Home. Web. 10 May 2011. <http://www.opsociety.org/covemercury>.
Psihoyos, Viki. Personal Interview. May 9, 2011
Walker, Sally M. Dolphins. Minneapolis: Lerner, 2008. Print.
