Finally watched the Cove

神倉神社
Originally uploaded by angrydicemoose

I originally wrote this as a comment on this blog post I found about the Cove, after I posted the comment, I noticed that Takepart.com had actually sent an email to the blogger which he followed up here. All three of the posts are must reads in my mind as it outlines issues the filmmakers of the Cove missed completely.

Anyway, I haven't posted on my blog in a while, so I decided to just grab my comment and post it as a blog post.

Some background though, my maternal grandfather is originally from the town adjacent to Taiji (where "The Cove" is). Whenever I've visited the region, the people there have treated with amazing warmth and kindness. I had an opportunity to learn about Taiji's whale hunting from a relatively young age. Having been educated in the United States, I could easily see myself as blindly joining in the anti-Japanese outrage stirred up by the Cove. It's fun and easy after all and I love fun and easy causes. Unfortunately, the Cove is such a poorly researched movie that aims for entertainment. To compound the situation, people without an opportunity and/or an interest to actually learn are bound to swallow everything that the filmmakers of the Cove are serving up.

High mercury content in the food chain is definitely a frightening issue, I'll think twice and thrice and not eat whale or dolphin meat and would not feed it to any child. The pollution of the waters is an important issue for a country like ours that is heavily dependent on the resources from the ocean. So's the issue of overfishing the limited resources that are in the ocean. But, the Cove isn't about that.

The fisherman of Taiji have been whaling since the 17th century. Before the Meiji Restoration while some Japanese did lead a vegan diet, a lot of Japanese led a pescetarian diet. It wouldn't be a stretch to understand a diet including whale (and/or dolphin) meat was considered to be pescetarian.

My issue with the Cove (which I finally watched the other night) outside of outright falsehoods and lack of research is that I find their approach to be disingenuous at best.

While one would hope to make the assumption that the goals of the filmmakers were to educate their audience on dolphin hunting and capture in Taiji and to bring an end to this practice, I'm not so sure that the assumption would be true.

The filmmaker's answer to the point that dolphin hunting is part of the culture is to reply that certain cultures are wrong and need to be changed, and that if it's culture why don't most Japanese know about it.

The fishermen of Taiji honestly take pride in their craft and have the highest respect of the dolphins even as they slaughter them. They have a whaling museum right on the waterfront (it's hard to miss, it even shows up in the movie) as a tribute to their craft and the animals they hunt. To confront these fishermen without attempting to show any understanding for why they might hunt dolphins is nothing but an insult from the perspective of the fishermen, not the most effective way to start a conversation.

Any guilt that the filmmakers want to impose upon the fishermen isn't going to be effective either. The guilt that the filmmakers feel is completely the filmmakers guilt. Remember, the fishermen take pride in their craft and hold the whales and dolphins in reverence, especially because the animals they hunt are noble and "intelligent". While the practice might not always follow the teachings, growing up in Japan I was often taught that we should use all parts of whatever animal we eat, as there is no waste in whatever we catch.

This isn't shooting buffalo from rail cars to them, it's a craft and a tradition passed on that they are upholding. If anything, the fishermen on Taiji believe that they know more about dolphins than the filmmakers, so the filmmakers attempting to educate the fishermen by condescending is not an effective method.

There is no coverup about dolphin hunting in Japan, while it might be huge news for the filmmakers and anyone who has no understanding of Japan dolphin hunting just isn't a big story that everyone in Japan feels the need to know. When I visited Taiji well before the Cove came out I learned about the dolphin hunting, but then most people in Japan have not been to Taiji. They might visit the Kumano shrines, but Taiji is pretty easy to mix. Dolphin hunting isn't known nationally because it's obscure, no one is trying to hide it. Because it isn't practiced nation wide it is unique, but there is no coverup. The local newspaper does have an article about the hunt when it happens every year, the news just isn't big enough to be national. Though this year with the uproar caused by the Cove, networks have put up stories here and here. The coverage has not been all positive towards the Cove.

Taiji is located in the Kumano region of Japan. In the Kumano religion, people look upon nature as their god, the waterfall of Nachi and the rock on Kamikurasan being examples but the whole Kumano region is considered to be holy. This isn't a nationalist issue for the fishermen or the people of Kumano. It's the natural response that the fishermen have towards outsiders coming in and expecting to be able to have their will imposed. The filmmakers were not welcome because they were being assholes, it wasn't because they were against dolphin hunting.

The Japanese have held foreigners that come to engage in dialogue about environmentalism and nature in high regard. While C.W. Nichol is naturalized now and the Japanese do listen to him when he talks about environmentalism.

Attempt to impose anything on anyone and there's a decent chance that the target would be unwilling. If the filmmakers truly wanted to be effective they would have done their research and found that a different route might have been more effective.

The filmmakers could have learned why the fishermen hunt dolphins, if the filmmakers showed their respect and their willingness to learn.
common ground on the issue and a route to engage in dialogue. The Japanese and the people of Taiji do care about the environment and conservationism. Making a levelheaded argument for the conservation of the resources provided by the ocean are something that the Japanese are increasingly concerned with (dolphins are not endangered now, I can imagine it will get harder to get species of dolphins classified as such).

Whether out of ineptness or by design the filmmakers chose to focus on only spinning a good yarn, whether that meant building cameras on rocks in them or creating "facts" when the reality did not support the storyline they were creating. The Cove is a fascinating movie, with the kind of research and storylines that would make Fox News proud..

Where they could have engaged in dialogue, the filmmakers did everything to offend and belittle people with whom they could have found a common ground. An issue that didn't have to become a nationalistic one has now been turned into one. Once it's reached that point, dialogue doesn't matter as all sides aren't interested in having any rational discussion, but only in pandering to their bases.

Having said that, there is no guilt on the side of the fishermen of Taiji, but it is a living they are making. The guilt is something that the foreign audience could better identify with. Boycotting Sea World and other zoos/aquariums that have dolphins could kill the business of dolphin capture.

Comments

[Nomoreinstantnoodles.wordpress.com]

I watched The Cove too earlier this year and spoke to some friends about it when I visited Okinawa. Just like you there is this vague ambiguity about the misinterpreted facts and cultural misgivings about the show. Then tell us about the real facts, straighten the record about this show. I felt that I learn nothing from your blog other than it was an erroneously portrayed documentary. You and so many Japanese bloggers out there can do so much more than just criticize the show. Don't just point out what is wrong, tell us what is right! Please tell us your side of the story :)

[Zharrin]

So it is a self-respected craft, the killing of the dolphins, that has been done since the 17th century. Ok, fine. BUT, we have learned much more through science, about these sentient and intelligent beings, that the 17th century hunter could not have known. We as humans, were stupid in the 17th century. We knew nothing of what we know today: nothing about atoms, black holes, E=mc2...nothing scientific was known back then. BUT, we know now, and we still kill and capture them. It is cruel to do what we are doing, especially because we have the knowledge that we did not have in the 17th century. From learning we can become more compassionate to beings that we have now proven to be almost as intelligent and feeling as humans. To me, killing a dolphin is similar to slicing the neck of a human; a kind, untainted human, at that.
Even worse (and this blog does not mention it once) is the CAPTURING of the dolphins to sell to aquariums, where they will live a life away from their families, and freedom, and, life as they know. They are forever more imprisoned. To me, that is even WORSE THAN THE KILLING. Dear readers, do not be fooled by this bloggers seemingly altruistic motive for the dolphin hunting. It is about the almighty dollar, and the dollar only. It is about GREED over compassion.

ps I am Japanese; born and raised.
--Noriko

[Lance]

The comment from in the doc. either the Japanese rep for the Whaling Commission or possibly it was the lead scientist in Japan in charge of whaling says that culling dolphins is important because 'the dolphins eat all of the fish'..WTF!!!

[Kuroda Michizane]

There are many *many* misconceptions about whaling and dolphin hunting due to the fact that Animal Rights groups cannot say anything without lying.

- Hg
Mercury Poisoning is somewhat of an issue with dolphin meat, but no more than Tuna.
Can anyone seriously think the likes of O'Barry or Watson care about Japanese people's health while demonizing them as they do? And, in Watson's case, even assaulting them?
Mercury Poisoning is not an issue, at all, with whale meat. The reason is twofold. (a) whales feed very low on the food chain. (b) most of the whales caught are in the Southern Ocean, where there is little pollution anyway.
In fact, Minke whale is exceptionally healthy.
It's so low in Hg that -- if it were available in the US -- the FDA would **recommend** pregnant mothers eat it.

From EIA, an anti-whaling NGO.
http://www.eurocbc.org/Mercury%20Rising%20Japan%20cetacean%20meat%20media55-1.pdf

Antarctic Minke (AMW) 0.11ppm
Southern Hemi Minke: 0.04ppm
Red meat sashimi AMW: 0.07ppm
AMW whale meat: 0.04ppm
Whale blubber AMW: 0.09ppm

The max is is 0.4ppm in Japan.
Compare that to 1ppm in USA. Or 50ppm for World Health Organization.

http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/Product-SpecificInformation/Seafood/FoodbornePathogensContaminants/Methylmercury/ucm115662.htm
FDA RECCOMMENDS shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock, catfish for Pregnant Women

Shrimp 0.05ppm
Canned Light Tuna 0.118ppm
Salmon 0.014ppm
Pollock 0.041ppm
Catfish 0.049ppm
http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/Product-SpecificInformation/Seafood/FoodbornePathogensContaminants/Methylmercury/ucm115644.htm

Compare to Antarctic Minke Whale (from 3 separate sources) 0.07ppm

Compare that to seafood FDA opposes:
Swordfish 0.976
Mackerel King 0.730
Shark 0.998
Tilefish (Gulf of Mexico) 1.450

All at least 10 times higher than Minke.

Some more seafood that has higher levels of Hg than Minkes...

Tuna Bigeye 0.639
Tuna albacore 0.353
Tuna 0.383
Tuna yellowfin 0.325
Marlin 0.485
Bass 0.219
Carp 0.14
Halibut 0.252
Lobster 0.169
Perch 0.14

[Kuroda Michizane]

"about these sentient and intelligent beings"

Pigs are just as intelligent and sentient.
Also, this is another one of those areas where Animal Rights groups make stuff up out of thin air.
All this nonsense about dolphin intelligence started with John C Lilly -- an LSD drug addict who claimed he could talk to dolphins in isolation tanks. Yea, that sounds really credible.

What's amazing is that there hasn't actually been any revelation on dolphin intelligence since the 70s... just a lot of rehashing of the same nonsense and reworded in another way.
As it stands today the 2 things dolphin-lovers claim proves cetacean intelligence is brain-to-body ratio, and the ability to recognize themselves in the mirror.
Now, my dog can recognize himself in the mirror.
And just like a dolphin, you can train dogs to do many tricks as well.

But one thing that truly interests me is that whales are not capable of either of these.
Truly, for all that anti-whalers claim Japan's Research is a fluke, they apparently know nothing about cetaceans -- let alone whales.
As we can see in my previous comment, cetacean worshipers didn't even know there is a difference between Odontoceti (toothed cetaceans) and Mysticeti (baleen whales); otherwise they'd know all the nonsense about Hg only applies to the former.
And here, they're once again being proven to be completely ignorant about cetaceans.
You see, even while there is little correlation between brain-to-body size ratio and intelligence, only dolphins have a high ratio. Whales, like the minke, have a lower ratio than even cows.
http://www.highnorth.no/Library/Myths/br-be-an.htm
Which brings me to a further point, cetacean's closest mammalian relatives are in fact even-toed ungulates -- ie: cows.

I find this very curious. There was a time, as a child, when I was into airplanes -- and I could identify all sorts of airplanes and tell you about their differences. But cetacean lovers can't do this. In fact, Elora West -- the latest racist to visit Taiji -- admitted on her blog that they stopped telling what species of dolphin was being caught because *they can't tell the difference*. Really? There are only a few species hunted in Taiji... Spotted, Striped, Rissos, Pilot, Bottlenose, White-sided.
I have no interest in dolphins whatsoever, outside of debunking the vicious lies and hate mongering of groups like SS, and yet even I can tell those apart.

This tells me all the furor about dolphins, actually has nothing to do with dolphins.
I think this is about several other things:
- Misanthropes uncomfortable with themselves and modern society, but who find it easier to bash other people outside of their own country. Specifically, other people who don't speak English and largely have no idea what's being said about them behind their backs.
- People who want to feel better about themselves by bashing other cultures
- Out and out racists finding a forum where it's socially acceptable to express their racism

[Kuroda Michizane]

"culling dolphins is important because 'the dolphins eat all of the fish'..WTF!!!"

Were you previously unaware that dolphins ate fish?
Or are you manufacturing outrage in a hypocritical manner?
Australians cull kangaroos, camels, and even endangered dingos for much the same reasons.
There's constant flipping back and forth in the US about killing wolves for the same reasons.
I could come up with a ton more examples to this.

Why is it this concept of culling animals is outrageous only when it's Marine Mammals like cute dolphins or cute seals?
And why is it the people always outraged about it are foreigners to the cultures they're attacking, and have no interest in even understanding what's going on?

[Kuroda Michizane]

"It is about the almighty dollar, and the dollar only. "
"ps I am Japanese; born and raised."

I'm calling bs.

[UG]

Lemon-Butter Dolphin

1 dolphin steak with skin,
1/8 cup butter
1 lemon

Salt & pepper

Rinse off your fish and pat dry. Sprinkle the meat side with salt and pepper and squeeze lemon juice over.
In your pan, melt your butter. Place skin side down and cook 8 minutes. Flip and cook an additional 8 minutes.
Serve. The flesh should flake easily off the skin, you should not eat the skin.
Serves 2.