This is only a short news item but probably one the biggest ever stories to appear on our pages!
We are of course talking about the movie “The Cove” most of the Dive Right staff having been waiting for this film to be released in the UK and finally it happened this weekend!
This film has more suspense and action and real heroes than any Hollywood blockbuster, with no special effects just hard facts! But be warned this will make you feel very passionate! You might be slightly shocked to hear what happen in small cove in Japan, year after year but this film does have a happy ending, with such a major impact a cross the world, the outcry could not be stifled! With sister townships in Australia cutting all ties (quite rightly so in my opinion!!) no amount of covering up by certain Japanese officials and fishermen could hold back the voices of the international community! So much so that the cull didn’t happen this year!! Now that has got to be a major victory in marine conservation!!
I personally urge you to go long and see it (and get involved if you feel you need too!) It’s in the Watershed cinema for only 2 weeks, trailer can be found here http://www.thecovemovieuk.com/ and the synopsis is below...
The Cove begins in Taiji, Japan, where former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry has come to set things right after a long search for redemption. In the 1960s, it was O’Barry who captured and trained the 5 dolphins who played the title character in the international television sensation “Flipper.”
But his close relationship with those dolphins – the very dolphins who sparked a global fascination with trained sea mammals that continues to this day -- led O’Barry to a radical change of heart. One fateful day, a heartbroken Barry came to realize that these deeply sensitive, highly intelligent and self-aware creatures so beautifully adapted to life in the open ocean must never be subjected to human captivity again. This mission has brought him to Taiji, a town that appears to be devoted to the wonders and mysteries of the sleek, playful dolphins and whales that swim off their coast.
But in a remote, glistening cove, surrounded by barbed wire and “Keep Out” signs, lies a dark reality. It is here, under cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and an underhanded market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in an unseen hunt. The nature of what they do is so chilling -- and the consequences are so dangerous to human health -- they will go to great lengths to halt anyone from seeing it.
Undeterred, O’Barry joins forces with filmmaker Louis Psihoyos and the Oceanic Preservation Society to get to the truth of what’s really going on in the cove and why it matters to everyone in the world. With the local Chief of Police hot on their trail and strong-arm fishermen keeping tabs on them, they will recruit an “Ocean's Eleven”-style team of underwater sound and camera experts, special effects artists, marine explorers, adrenaline junkies and world-class free divers who will carry out an undercover operation to photograph the off-limits cove, while playing a cloak-and-dagger game with those who would have them jailed. The result is a provocative mix of investigative journalism, eco-adventure and arresting imagery that adds up to an urgent plea for hope.
