The Cove (2009)

Directed by

Louie Psihoyos

Genre

documentary film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 30m

Rated

PG-13

Rating

8.0 of 10 from 683 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary exposes the dolphin hunting practices in a Japanese cove. It shows how dolphins are herded, captured for aquariums, or killed. The film also warns about mercury poisoning from eating dolphin meat.

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What happens

The Cove is a 2009 American documentary film directed by Louie Psihoyos that analyzes and questions dolphin hunting practices in Japan. The film is a call to action to halt mass dolphin kills and captures and change Japanese fishing practices. It also seeks to inform and educate the public about the dangers of keeping cetaceans in captivity and the increasing hazard of mercury poisoning from consuming dolphin meat. Psihoyos is a former-National Geographic photographer and a co-founder of the Oceanic Preservation Society, and the film is presented from an ocean conservationist's point of view. Portions were filmed secretly in 2007 using underwater microphones and high-definition cameras disguised as rocks. The film highlights the fact that the number of dolphins killed in the Taiji dolphin drive hunt is several times greater than the number of whales killed in the Antarctic, and asserts that 23,000 dolphins and porpoises are killed in Japan every year by the country's whaling industry. The migrating dolphins are herded into a cove where they are netted off. The young and pretty are sold to oceanariums and dolphinariums around the world, and the rest are brutally slaughtered. The film argues that dolphin hunting as practiced in Japan is unnecessary and cruel. Although The Cove has drawn some controversy over its supposed lack of neutrality, it has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. Most notably, it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 82nd Academy Awards in 2010. It also won the U.S. Audience Award at the 25th annual Sundance Film Festival in January 2009, selected out of 879 submissions in the category. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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