A FALL FROM FREEDOM-VIDEO

Be Sure to See this Film

Whales and dolphins have captured the imagination of people all over the
world. They have come to symbolize not only an alien form of intelligence,
but a sense of ultimate freedom in their marine environment and a comradery
among their herd mates that we envy and admire.

A FALL FROM FREEDOM is the first film to expose the long and sordid history
of the captive whale and dolphin business; a history that continues to this
day. The illegal capture and transport of killer whales, the thousands of
dolphins that are killed in order to provide marine parks and aquariums with
replacement animals, and the ability of these facilities to mis-educate the
public about these animals.

These, and many other issues, are covered in graphic detail in this 80
minute film. View now for free.
In theaters starting this September.

The Cove, the dolphin slaughtering documentary

These are the links to the article on The Cove, the dolphin
slaughtering documentary (October 21, Tokyo, Japan)

Please watch the footage on CNN site. You can see that many
cameramen came to TIFF The Cove yesterday.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/showbiz/2009/10/21/lah.japan.dolphin.cove.cnn.html



Japan dolphin town defends hunt as film debuts
http://in.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idINIndia-43328920091021?rpc=60


Wed Oct 21, 2009 6:08pm IST



Blog by the Director
The Cove at TIFF, as told by the Director
http://www.thecovemovie.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=5047&PostID=93418




TOKYO, Japan - A town at the centre of a controversial dolphin
slaughtering documentary could sue the film makers, local
fisheries officials said Wednesday, as it premiered at a Tokyo
film festival.
http://oceanicdefense.blogspot.com/2009/10/japan-dolphin-hunting-town-threatens-to.html





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Mercury danger in dolphin meat

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090923f2.html



By ERIC JOHNSTON
Staff writer

SAPPORO — The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, as documented in the film "The Cove" has sparked an emotional international debate, with animal rights activists decrying the capture and slaughter as unnecessary and cruel, and those in Japan who defend the slaughter as both legally permissible under international treaties and an ancient tradition.

But for Tetsuya Endo, a professor at the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, there is a far more important issue related to the hunt that the public and the government must address.





Dolphin and whale meat is high in mercury, and Endo, one of the world's foremost authorities on mercury levels in dolphins and whales caught off Japan's coastal waters, has discovered Taiji residents who eat the meat sold in local stores have extremely high concentrations in their bodies.

"Between December 2007 and July 2008, myself and a team of scientists and researchers took hair samples from 30 male and 20 female residents of the Taiji area. In three cases, the levels of mercury present were more than 50 parts per million, high enough that it was possible nerve damage, like that seen in victims of Minamata disease, could occur," Endo told The Japan Times in an interview last week.

Endo's tests revealed that one Taiji man in his 50s had a mercury level of 67.2 parts per million. The average mercury level of all 50 subjects was 21.6 ppm for the men and 11.9 ppm for the women.

The average level of mercury present in Japanese people as a whole is only 2.55 ppm for men and 1.43 ppm for women, which means Taiji residents had mercury levels about 10 times the national average.

Meat from pilot whales is quite common in Taiji area stores, and hair samples taken from people who said they ate pilot whale meat more than once a month had an average mercury level of 25.6 ppm, while those who ate the meat once every few months had an average level of 15.5 ppm.

"We discovered that people weren't eating whale meat every day. At most, they were eating it a few times a month. The problem is that although the frequency of eating the meat was low, the levels of mercury in the meat were surprisingly high," Endo said.

Three of the subjects agreed to stop eating whale meat after learning their mercury levels were high.

By the time Endo's study was concluded in July 2008, their levels of mercury had dropped considerably.

The revelation that Taiji residents who ate whale and dolphin meat had high levels of mercury was not a surprise to Endo, as previous testing showed that the meat had far higher levels than the government standard for fish in general.

Between 2002 and 2006, Endo led a team that purchased 60 different samples of whale and dolphin meat in Taiji and neighboring Nachikatsuura.

"The tests showed that the average levels of mercury and methyl mercury in the pilot whale meat bought in Taiji were 9.6 ppm and 5.9 ppm, respectively. Given that Japan's standards are 0.4 ppm and 0.3 ppm, respectively, these are extremely high levels," Endo said.

The standards are based on what is known as the provisional tolerable weekly intake of mercury. Prior to 2003, the international standard was 3.3 micrograms per kg of body weight per week. Based on these numbers, the government established provisional levels of total mercury in fish and shellfish at 0.4 ppm and methyl mercury at 0.3 ppm.

But taking into account the possible effects on pregnant women and children, the World Health Organization revised the 3.3 figure downward to 1.6 micrograms per kg of body weight per week in 2003. Japan, however, adopted a standard of 2.0 micrograms per kg of body weight per week, saying that as a fish-eating culture it is only natural its standard be slightly higher.

The tests on the 50 residents as well as the whale and dolphin meat findings have been made available to Wakayama Prefecture, which is now carrying out further tests. But although Taiji is now the center of international attention, Endo's studies on whale and dolphin meat showed that it was Okinawa, not Taiji, where the highest levels of mercury were found.

"In 2001, meat from a false killer whale that was being sold in Nago had 81 ppm of total mercury (mercury plus methyl mercury) present," Endo said.

Asked why the government doesn't do more to warn consumers of the possible dangers of eating whale and dolphin meat, such as putting warning labels on all meat sold, Endo says it's likely that officials simply don't see a problem.

"The official attitude is probably along the lines of because so few people eat dolphin and whale meat, and since they tend to be mostly older, it's not that big of an issue," he said.

The Japan Times
(C) All rights reserved

The Cove' director risks arrest to come to Tokyo

By YURI KAGEYAMA

TOKYO (AP) - The director of an award-winning documentary about Japan's
dolphin slaughter said Friday that he plans to attend the screening of
"The Cove" at the Tokyo film festival even though he could be arrested.
Japanese police say American director Louie Psihoyos and other members
of his crew violated trespassing laws when they documented the hunt in
the seaside town of Taiji, where 2,000 dolphins are killed every year,
mostly to be sold as meat.
The film shows fishermen on small boats banging on poles to frighten the
dolphins into a cove, where they are then killed with spears. The cove
is closed off by barbed wire, and the film crew had to film much of the
footage covertly.
The film has won more than a dozen awards and led to an outpouring of
outrage at the hunt. Initially, it wasn't part of the program for the
Tokyo International Film Festival, which opens Oct. 17, but was added
partly because of pressure from abroad.
Psihoyos said he wasn't concerned about getting arrested if it was for
the right cause, saying he sees covert filming as a form of civil
disobedience. He also says he disagrees with how Japanese authorities
were defining trespassing, because the cove is in a national park.
"You can't trespass in almost any other national park in the world
that's made for people," Psihoyos, 52, told The Associated Press by
telephone from Helsinki. "I don't think I was trespassing in a legal
sense."
Festival chief Tom Yoda told reporters this week that he would hold the
film's producers accountable for any possible problems at the screening.
He refused to elaborate.
Psihoyos shrugged off such worries. He said his film has $5 million in
insurance to handle lawsuits.
Despite the controversy, Psihoyos, a National Geographic photographer,
said he was excited about the film being shown in Japan.
"To me, it's like a dream" he said. "It's going to be a win for the
dolphins. It's going to be a win for the Japanese people. And it's going
to be a win for the environment."
Psihoyos said he hopes "The Cove" warns Taiji residents and other
Japanese about the dangers of eating dolphin meat, which he says has
been found to be loaded with toxic mercury.
The Japanese government acknowledges dolphin meat is contaminated with
mercury, but denies it's dangerous unless consumed in huge quantities.
Most Japanese have never eaten dolphin meat, but it is consumed as a
delicacy in some areas.
The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji starts in September.
But things appear to have changed after "The Cove," even before its
Tokyo premiere.
Earlier this week, 70 dolphins from this year's first catch were set
free.
"I was elated. I am cautiously optimistic it's the start of good things
for the Japanese people," Psihoyos said.

Tokyo film festival decides to show 'The Cove'

TOKYO (AP) - The Tokyo International Film Festival will show "The Cove,"
a documentary that depicts the slaughter of dolphins in Japan. But the
decision was so last-minute the movie didn't make it into the official
press package.

Tom Yoda, chairman of the annual festival, which opens Oct. 17, refused
Wednesday to discuss how the decision came about, citing festival policy
on screening decisions.

But he acknowledged there had been views against showing the film, as
well as nervousness about "an unexpected controversy."

Details of the film's showing have not been not decided, and it is not
among the 15 films chosen for the competition part of the festival, Yoda
said.

It was clear the festival took its time to come to a decision. A brief
description of "The Cove" was printed on a separate piece of paper as an
"additional screening," and was not part of the 42-page booklet handed
out to the press Wednesday.

"The Cove," which has won more than a dozen awards, documents the
killing of dolphins in the seaside town of Taiji, which sells some of
the captured dolphins to aquariums but kills the rest to be sold as
meat.

Fishermen on small boats bang on poles to frighten the dolphins into a
cove, then kill them with spears as the water quickly turns a deep red
with blood.

"The Cove," directed by National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos,
premiered in the U.S. earlier this year. But it had not yet been
scheduled to be shown in Japan.

There had been some speculation the Tokyo festival, which receives
Japanese government funding, had been under pressure not to show the
film.

Yoda denied that, and said the festival committee had reached its own
independent decision.

"We considered the freedom of expression," Yoda said. "And there was
interest in the work from all over the world."

About 2,000 dolphins a year are killed in Taiji.

But in a sign that "The Cove" may have created change, the fishermen did
not kill a single dolphin from their catch of about 100 on Sept. 9.
Although they kept some to sell to aquariums, they set 70 dolphins free
Sunday.

The fishermen have not said they will stick to sparing all dolphins.

They also denied caving in to international pressure. But neither do
they want the negative attention "The Cove" has brought to what they
have in the past defended as tradition.

Ric O'Barry, the star of "The Cove," and the dolphin-trainer for the
1960s "Flipper" TV show, visited Taiji earlier this month to deliver his
message that the dolphins must not be killed. He welcomed the decision
to return the dolphins to sea.

Most Japanese have never eaten dolphin meat, but it is a delicacy in
some regions.
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20090916/D9AO9FB82.html

Important Taiji Update

Update September 11, 2009 Brought to you by Oceanic Preservation Society

Important Taiji Update

You may have been following what's been going on in Taiji.

Ric O'Barry was there last week, and the fishermen didn't start the dolphin drives. Then Ric O'Barry left on Wednesday, and they started rounding up dolphins and pilot whales.

We're very pleased to say that for this week, the dolphin slaughter has been suspended. Fishermen in Taiji will be selling the dolphins captured in this week's round up to aquariums and releasing the rest. However, pilot whales that were also captured will be killed for their meat. You can read the full press release here, and Ric O' Barry's update here. Photograph copyright by Mark J. Palmer
It's a mixed success, but the important thing is that the outcry following The Cove (i.e. your support) is having a real impact in Taiji. So let's keep the pressure on them!

Keep writing letters, keep telling your friends about the movie-- it's more important now than ever. We can stop this as long as we keep fighting.

Please send a message to the Japanese Embassy, asking to stop the dolphin drive hunt and prohibit the sale of mercury-contaminate d dolphin meat:

Embassy of Japan in Washington D.C.
Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki
2520 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.
Washington D.C. 20008-2869
Tel: (202) 238-6700
Fax: 202-328-2187

Hours: M-F 9:00-12:30 and 2:00-5:30

E-mail the Japanese Ambassador in D.C.: jicc@embjapan.org

You can also write to other Japanese Embassies and Consulates around the world.

Dolphins and Mercury

Thankfully, Japanese press continues to report on Taiji and The Cove.

But we've noticed that they don't talk about mercury enough.

The following quote from a Taiji resident was in an AFP news story today:

"I can never understand those Westerners' argument. They eat cattle, pigs and chicken. We eat dolphins and whales. That's it."

While many of us are concerned about the dolphin drives as an animal rights matter, the bigger problem is a public health issue. The dolphin meat being distributed throughout Japan contains toxic levels of mercury.

Help us get the mercury message out by including this when you talk about the film or write letters to officials.

Thank You!
A BIG thank you to everyone that has donated to OPS! Your contributions, big and small, have helped us get this far.

But remember, the fight isn't over.

Haven't donated yet, but would like to?

Visit our secure online donation site here.

THANK YOU!

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Act/Mutilated Sharks - Fin Soup's Main Ingredient

KINSHIP CIRCLE PRIMARY / PERMISSION TO CROSSPOST
9/11/09: Mutilated Sharks - Fin Soup's Main Ingredient

Finning is the process of cutting off the fins of a shark and discarding the
body at sea. Photo - "Shark Finning," added by Chanica at
http://wdydwyd.ning.com/xn/detail/u_39n264op8kemu

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EVERYONE MAY SEND COMMENTS TO:
U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
Public Information Office, 508 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510-6125
Public Information Office: 202-224-5115
Full Committee Office: Majority: 202-224-0411 / Minority: 202-224-1251
Senator Jay Rockefeller, Chairman:
http://rockefeller.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Ranking Member:
http://hutchison.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Under Secretary of NOAA
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
1401 Constitution Avenue, NW, Room 5128 / Washington, DC 20230
ph: 202-482-3436; email: jane.lubchenco@noaa.gov

U.S. CITIZENS ONLY, ALSO SEND COMMENTS TO:
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To identify your federal legislators and find contact info, try:
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* Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121

MEMBERS, Senate Committee On Commerce, Science & Transportation
If YOUR elected legislators sit on this committee, please write them:
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Easily modify letter. Copy/paste it into an email or print letter to fax or mail.
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Honorable Senators, Representative, and Dr. Lubchenco:

I understand the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 (H.R. 81) has been referred
to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation after its
passage in the House on March 3, 2009. I hope this bill moves quickly so
that a ban on the amputation of shark fins is enforced.

Until fishermen stop severing fins and dumping mutilated sharks at sea, many
species -- including hammerheads and makos -- remain vulnerable to
extinction. Please support the Shark Conservation Act (H.R. 81), which
mandates that sharks be landed with their fins naturally intact.

H.R. 81 amends the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act and
the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to close a
loophole that let boats transfer illegally acquired fins as long as sharks
weren’t butchered aboard the same boat.

An estimated 73 million sharks are killed annually. In most cases, their
fins alone are sold for shark fin soup, an Asian delicacy. Though "finning"
was outlawed in all U.S. waters in 2000, negligent fishing practices
continue to hinder enforcement.

Finning is just plain cruel. Fishermen haul living sharks on to decks, slice
off their fins, and toss them back to bleed to death or become defenseless
prey at sea. It is time to end this crime against nature and promote
conservation worldwide. Please do everything possible to ensure that the
Shark Conservation Act passes into law.

Thank you,

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION / REFERENCE LINKS
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Shark Conservation Act of 2009 (Passed in House; Referred to Senate Committee)
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c111:3: ./temp/~c111LwBq b3::
Shark Conservation Act of 2009
http://www.hsus.org/legislation_laws/federal_legislation/wildlife/ shark_conservati on_act_of.html
Tell Congress: Ban Shark Finning
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/190900047?z00m=19382402
Stop Shark Finning
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/618227620?z00m=19788991

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Numbers of dolphins killed in Japan -Calendar Year 2007

Japan Progress Report On Small Cetacean Research (Calendar Year
2007)

http://www.jfa.maff.go.jp/j/whale/w_document/pdf/h19_progress_report.pdf


Please check the link below for more information.
http://www.all-creatures.org/ha/saveWhaleDolphinE.html

Horrific slaughter of Japanese dolphins

Every year, over 20,000 smaller whales, dolphins and porpoises are cruelly slaughtered in Japanese waters. The meat is sold for human consumption, even though it is tainted with toxic industrial pollutants such as mercury, DDTs and PCBs, all known to be hazardous to human health. Those that have witnessed these hunts first hand, or watched our secretly filmed footage, will never forget the appalling brutality and suffering inflicted upon these beautiful, intelligent creatures.

Save Japan Dolphins Coalition

Campaign Whale is the sole UK representative of the 'Save Japan Dolphins Coalition', which
is fighting to end the slaughter of dolphins and porpoises in Japan. Within our ranks is Ric O’Barry, former trainer of ‘Flipper’ the dolphin (a hugely popular sixties TV series and later Hollywood film). In reality, Flipper was not one, but five animals that all died during the run of the show – a sad reality for these intelligent animals when held in captivity. Ric O’Barry is now working with us, determined to stop the slaughter in Taiji and other Japanese coastal villages, as well as highlight the shocking link between the dolphin hunts and the captive industry for dolphins around the world.

Watch out for ‘The Cove’

Now at last the appalling truth of Japan’s secret dolphin slaughter may be coming to a cinema near you. The slaughter of dolphins has been captured by hidden cameras in a feature length drama-documentary called ‘The Cove’ that has received standing ovations at the Sundance and other film festivals this year.

A trailer of the film can be viewed (and also the code to embed onto a website is) at: http://www.thecovemovie.com/


The film is currently being shown in cinemas across the USA and will be released in the UK and the rest of the world in October. The film focuses on Taiji, a Japanese coastal town where around 2,300 dolphins are speared to death every year for their meat. Each dead dolphin sells for about US $600, but those few captured alive are worth as much as US $200,000 when sold to aquariums and dolphin ‘swim’ parks around the world.

The dolphin slaughter in Taiji takes place between September and March in a heavily-guarded coastal inlet. Taiji has become the epicentre of our campaign, and an undercover team secretly filmed the hunts using cameras disguised as rocks, to expose an ongoing tragedy that is covered up by the local authorities and the Japanese government. What they filmed was truly horrific. After driving the dolphins into the cove by hammering on metal poles, the fishermen repeatedly stab the helpless animals until the water turns blood red. Some of the dolphins, traumatised by witnessing the horrific slaughter of their pod members, are captured alive to be sold to aquaria and ‘swim with dolphins’ programmes around the world. The Japanese government tell the fishermen that dolphins are “pests” that eat too many fish, but the real reason for fishery declines is human over-fishing, climate change and pollution.
A deadly diet

‘The Cove’ also focuses on a major element of our campaign within Japan: to expose the serious health threat posed to the people that eat the dolphin and porpoise meat, many unwittingly as it is often deliberately mislabeled as whale meat. Sadly, dolphins and porpoises carry a massive level of toxic contaminants, such as mercury and PCBs, that build up in their bodies through the food chain. Taiji Town Councillors that bravely warned of the threat of mercury poisoning from eating dolphin meat have now been ostracised in a community they have lived in all their lives, but at least the publicity has forced local schools to stop serving dolphin meat in school lunches. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Japan that problem, hopefully soon to be exposed as a national scandal, continues.

Campaign Whale

Campaign Whale is a well-respected campaigning organisation and the only UK based member of the 'Save Japan Dolphins' coalition. We are working hard stop this cruel slaughter and we will never compromise over the killing of these beautiful, intelligent creatures.

Further details about 'The Cove' and 'Campaign Whale' are available at:
http://www.campaign-whale.org/


Thank you ever so much,

Kind regards

Anna-Lisa Nagel
Campaign Whale

CALDERON DOLPHINS ABUSE-SHOCKING TRUTH ABOUT DENMARK

Interview with the makers of the documentary film ''THE COVE''

Interview with the makers of the documentary film ''THE COVE'', about the dolphin slaughter in TAIJI, Japan (read the film review as well)




MoJo Interview: The Cove's Louie Psihoyos and Ric O'Barry
By Kiera Butler
There's something fishy about the coastal town of Taiji, Japan: Statues and murals of dolphins line the streets, yet every year, the town's fishermen kill thousands of dolphins and sell their meat. That’s a whole lot of dead dolphins—you' d think some enterprising activist journalist would have blown Taiji's cover long ago. They tried, but no one could penetrate the heavily guarded cove where the killing takes place. Until now. When photographer Louie Psihoyos heard about Taiji, he teamed up with marine mammal activist (and former Flipper TV dolphin trainer) Ric O'Barry. Together, the two launched a high-tech espionage mission to infiltrate the cove and expose the slaughter. We spoke with O'Barry and Psihoyos about making The Cove, assembling an Ocean's Eleven-style team, and why a little paranoia can be a good thing.

Mother Jones: Louie, you're a photographer by training. How did you get involved with making a documentary?

Louie Psihoyos: Jim Clark—the guy who financed the movie—he and I have been dive buddies for years. He's a serial entrepreneur— he started Netscape. We'd been diving around the world and watching the degradation of the oceans. During a trip to the Galápagos in October 2005, Jim said, We should do something about this. So he had the idea of starting the Oceanic Preservation Society. Two months later I met Ric at a marine mammals conference. He was banned from talking. I called him, and he started telling me about the dolphin slaughter in Taiji. He said, "I'm going next week. Want to come?" I took a three-day crash course on how to make a film. And I went to Taiji.

MJ: What were your first impressions of Taiji?

LP: It was like walking into a Stephen King novel. Everywhere you go there are statues of whales and dolphins. There are signs that say, "We love dolphins." But in the center of town is this horror show. Right between the whaling museum and City Hall. It's in a national park! If you were to write this as a novel, people would say it was too over the top. My journalistic instincts turned on. I thought, this is a great story. But here's the problem: All the dirty business happens in this secret cove, but you can't see it. People have been coming for decades to try to document it. At that point, I realized I was no longer just a journalist covering a story. By trying to get into the cove, I was becoming an activist.

MJ: Louie, in the film, you say you were feeling like you had gone halfway around the world to end up in a car with this paranoid guy (meaning O’Barry). Ric, how did you convince Louie that you weren't just some wacko?

Ric O’Barry: [Laughs.] Well I never did!

LP: First of all, the cops were behind us. The paranoia was well founded.

RO: If you're a Westerner and you're in Taiji and you're not paranoid, you're not paying attention. It really is dangerous there. The police aren't our enemy. Neither are the fishermen, though they are very angry, and there's always a chance one of them will get drunk and do something stupid. But the real danger is the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia. They're always lurking around. Some of the fishermen are connected. The Yakuza is very involved in the fishing and whaling industry, so they know what’s going on. They normally don't bother with Westerners, but this is a special situation. So being on high alert all the time is the safe thing to do.

MJ: The Yakuza didn't really make it into the movie. Why not?

LP: They were following us around for a bit. After a while we had identified the cars, determined who was in which car. The Yakuza really stood out in that community. Slicked-back hair, wraparound glasses; they looked like they came out of central casting. A Japanese version of The Sopranos. But the police were the ones that were following us around 24-7. We had five hotel rooms; the police had five hotel rooms. We would go out; they would go out. Even in the middle of the night, they'd follow us. They would stay four or five blocks behind. We would set up decoys to throw them off. We had a car that was rented by a Japanese assistant, in his name. We'd park it outside of town; we'd go around a corner and all hop out of the van and hide behind it. The police would follow this other car, and we'd just take them on a wild goose chase for a few hours outside of town while some members of our team were at the cove.

MJ: But in the movie, you never have a real run-in with the police.

LP: But we did have run-ins. They were really curious about what we were doing late at night. After a few weeks of that the chief of police asked us what we were doing. I said, "We're looking for a place to live." He said, "What are you here for?" I said, "That's kind of a rude question to ask of a foreigner. Why do you want to know?" He said, "I need to get some sleep." The 24-hour surveillance was really cramping his style. We got run out of the prefecture once. The chief of police said, "You have to go right now or I'm going to arrest you." He was obviously under a lot of pressure to find out what we were doing there. He couldn’t figure it out. Two months later I was back again.

MJ: They couldn't figure out why you were there? They must have known it had something to do with the dolphin slaughter.

LP: A lot of times, our high-tech cameras, hidden in rocks, were rolling while we were back at the hotel. So they couldn't figure it out. We tried never to be seen at the cove.

MJ: What was the hardest part of the whole operation?

LP: Just getting it all together was the hardest part. There were so many moving parts. It was like an Ocean's Eleven team. We had 60 cases of high-tech surveillance gear that we had to get through customs, and a lot of this stuff wasn't off the shelf; we actually had to make it. And we had to bring all these people together. The joke of the movie was that we're all professionals, just not at this. We had a world champion free diver who could go down to 300 feet, and now she's setting up microphones and underwater cameras for us. Implementing it was hard, too. A lot of it was done in the middle of the night: You're awake, you're afraid, you've been up for days getting all this gear together, and now it's go time. You know the cops are out there. If the cops had searched our car that probably would have been enough to put us in jail for several months. We had runners whose only job was to get the footage off the camera, back it up, then get it out of the country. We didn't want to be caught with more than one day's footage. It's a lot of stress. I stopped drinking for fourteen months. It would have been too easy to have a glass of wine at the hotel every night. But I wanted to be completely aware of what was going on.

MJ: Were there scenes that got edited that you wish had stayed in?

LP: There was one scene I fought for so hard: We had this rock camera in front of a campfire scene. These fishermen were sitting around on the beach and talking about how you used to be able to kill the large whales, just like the dolphins. These guys are responsible for killing blue whales, which still haven't recovered from the '70s. Now they’re about to do the same thing with dolphins. Another great scene that didn’t make the cut: One of those same fishermen said, "I was trying to watch TV last night but I couldn't hear it. I turned up the sound all the way. My wife and son said, 'Why do you even bother watching TV? You can't hear it anyway.'" We're thinking, he has mercury poisoning.

MJ: What do you think are the chances that once this film is released in Japan, dolphin slaughter will end?

RO: I think that's going to happen. If the film does well, that kind of external pressure will be hard for the Japanese government to deal with.

MJ: Have you had any reaction from the Japanese government to the film?

LP: Last year I was going down to Santiago, Chile. Sitting next to me on the plane was the head of the Japanese fisheries. I showed him a preview of the movie. So he had the information, but a year has gone by and he hasn't done anything about it. So it seems like he is complicit.

MJ: The fishermen at the cove say that killing dolphins is the Japanese way of life, something they've been doing for generations. Is there any cultural or economic legitimacy to that claim?

RO: How can it be the culture if the Japanese people don't even know about it? We interviewed a hundred people on the streets of Kyoto. They simply don't know. The reason they don't know is that there's a media blackout on all whale and dolphin stories. But for a moment, let's assume they're right and I'm wrong, that it is their culture. It doesn't mean it's okay.

LP: And it's not just an animal rights issue. These animals are so toxic that it becomes a health issue. Their mercury levels are through the roof. Some of the meat tested had 5,000 times more mercury than is allowed by Japanese law. One of the great ironies of this movie is that dolphins are one of the only animals that will come to the aid of human beings. What's going to save the dolphins is that humans have made them toxic. That's the one thing that's going to save them from being eaten.

Read the Mother Jones review of The Cove here.

http://www.motherjones.com/interview/2009/08/cove-dolphin-japan



"The Cove" (http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/01/19/the-cove-sundance-film-exposes-japanese-dolphin-slaughter-in-grisly-footage/ ) shows the cruelty, ignorance and stupidity that guides the behavior of nations and people all around the globe as we march "eyes wide shut" into the abyss of extinction.



From: Taffy Lee Williams
To: tlwilliams@optonline.net

Taffy Lee Williams
New York Whale and Dolphin Action League
PO Box 273
Yonkers, NY 10707 USA
www.ny4whales.org

914-793-9186 / 407-404-2046 cell
Because when we save whales, we save ourselves.

“The Cove” Special Screening with Captain Paul Watson

The Landmark Theater –Hollywood, California

7:30 P.M. Friday, July 31st, 2009





Captain Paul Watson along with Actors Ben Stiller and Isobel Lucas will present a special screening of “The Cove” on Friday evening at the Landmark Theater in Hollywood.



Ben Stiller and Isobel Lucas will introduce the film and Captain Paul Watson will follow with a Q & A session.




The Canadian Press recently described “The Cove” as “a disturbing look inside the lucrative world of dolphin hunts.”




The origin of this controversy began in October 2003 when a Sea Shepherd team traveled to Taiji, Japan and documented the horrific slaughter of dolphins in a little cove near the town of Taiji. The pictures made the front pages of newspapers around the world and the video images were aired on international networks and on CNN.



The Drudge Report flippantly accused Sea Shepherd of faking the images at the time saying that the blood staining the waters of the bay was faked. Some people found it hard to believe that such a massacre could take place in the 21st Century. But the blood was very real and in November 2009, Sea Shepherd crewmembers Alex Cornelissen of the Netherlands and Allison Lanceof the USA were arrested in Japan after releasing some 15 dolphins and pilot whales before the animals could be slaughtered.




The act of mercy by the two Sea Shepherd crew resulted in Sea Shepherd being banned from Japan. It became a criminal offense in Taiji to even wear a Sea Shepherd Tee-shirt.




Alex and Allison spent 28 days in jail before being allowed to see an attorney. They were released after paying an $8,000 fine. Sea Shepherd paid the fine, satisfied that $533 per dolphin saved was well worth the expense.




With Sea Shepherd forced out of the area by the Japanese police, and the dolphin killing thugs, Ric O’Berry arrived to become the persistent thorn in their side.




Ric’s strategy was to goad them, humiliate them, expose them and badger them without giving them any legal reason to arrest him. From 2004 until the present Ric has made it his business to expose the brutal sadistic slaughter of the Taiji fishermen




Ric has dedicated his life to defending dolphins. Ironically he started out capturing and training dolphins and is famous for being the trainer of the most famous dolphin(s) in history – Flipper!





Sea Shepherd did strike again in 2007 when Simon Houtman and Deborah Bassett of Sea Shepherd allied with Dave Rastovich of Surfers for Cetaceans brought celebrities Isobel Lucas and Hayden Pantierre and other surfers to Taiji to paddle out to confront the dolphin killers.




All of these activities set the foundation for the arrival of filmmaker Louie Psihoyos who armed with a war chest of bucks supplied by Jim Clark organized a brilliant strategical assault on the fishing town of Taiji with a team of modern media ninjas armed with the most powerful weapons in the word – cameras.





MSNBC describes it this way:




What makes "The Cove" so powerful is that it's not just an ecological horror show - it's a real-life thriller that's as suspenseful as anything cooked up by Hollywood The perpetrators of the dolphin capture do everything possible to keep onlookers away, so director Louis Psihoyos and his team are forced to go rogue, submerging underwater microphones in the middle of the night, hiding hi-def cameras inside fake rocks created by Industrial Light and Magic, and risking their lives to show the world what's happening in this isolated cove.



The result is some of the most exciting filmmaking you'll see this year - "The Cove" could very well change not only the face of nature documentaries but also laws, policy and attitudes toward the life and death of dolphins.....



This year, Japan has been hit by a double media whammy with Animal Planet’s Whale Wars exposing illegal whaling activities in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and now “The Cove” and it’s exposure of the Taiji dolphin slaughter.




The Japanese fishermen are perhaps the most ruthless killers of marine life on the planet and they are notoriously both merciless and stubborn. Documentaries like “The Cove” and television programs like Whale Wars are important media tactics in our efforts to expose these atrocities and to stop the killing.




Louis and his team working with Ric O’Berry have produced a masterpiece of intrigue, both highly entertaining and educational as a story. Captain Paul Watson is proud to have been included as a primary spokesperson for the dolphins in the film.




This is a film highly recommended by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, one of the most brilliantly directed documentaries on marine life ever produced. It does not go overboard with the blood and gore, just enough to illustrate the horror of the slaughter that takes the lives of some 23,000 dolphins each year but not enough to desensitize or to sicken the viewer. The science is covered and the skills of master clandestine film-makers revealed as they make complete fools of the Taiji fishermen by capturing the killing and the conversations by the fishermen without their knowledge.




Captain Paul Watson is very much looking forward to helping to present this incredible film on Friday evening in Hollywood.

Stop the Dolphin Slaughter in Taiji, Japan!Petition to Sign!

Target:WAZA Executive Director, Gerald Dick
Sponsored by: http://www.savejapandolphins.org/
The World Association for Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) is the world's largest network of zoos and aquariums around the world. Some members of the international aquarium and zoo industry are strongly connected to the Japanese dolphin slaughter, in that they pay top dollar for dolphins deemed suitable for commercial exploitation in dolphin shows and captive dolphin swim programs. In Taiji, live bottlenose dolphins have been sold for as much as $154,000. The dolphin massacres in Japan will continue for as long as members of the international dolphin display industry reward the fishermen with thousands of dollars for animals that are deemed suitable for commercial exploitation in captivity.

Send WAZA a letter urging them to enforce their Code of Ethics and expel the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA) from their organization. Furthermore, WAZA must expel all other facilities that have purchased dolphins from the dolphin drive hunts.The World Association for Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) is the world's largest network of zoos and aquariums around the world. Some members of the international aquarium and zoo industry are strongly connected to the Japanese dolphin slaughter, in that they pay top dollar for dolphins deemed suitable for commercial exploitation in dolphin shows and captive dolphin swim programs. In Taiji, live bottlenose dolphins have been sold for as much as $154,000. The dolphin massacres in Japan will continue for as long as members of the international dolphin display industry reward the fishermen with thousands of dollars for animals that are deemed suitable for commercial exploitation in captivity.

Send WAZA a letter urging them to enforce their Code of Ethics and expel the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA) from their organization. Furthermore, WAZA must expel all other facilities that have purchased dolphins from the dolphin drive hunts.Dear Mr. Dick,

I recently attended a screening of the film The Cove and have learned about the brutal dolphin slaughter taking place in Taiji, Japan. By purchasing dolphins captured during this brutal practice, the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA) is violating WAZA code of ethics and therefore must be expelled.

Furthermore, WAZA should expel all other facilities that have purchased dolphins from dolphin drive hunts.

Thank you.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/3/stop-the-dolphin-slaughter

Ian Campbell Calls for Boycott of Japanese Bid for the 2016 Olympics

eIan Campbell Calls for Boycott of Japanese Bid for the 2016 Olympics

Sea Shepherd Advisor Calls Japanese Dolphin Slaughter a “Travesty”
Former Australian Senator and Environment Minister Ian Campbell is calling for a boycott of Tokyo's bid for the 2016 Olympics, in protest at Japan's alleged annual slaughter of 23,000 dolphins.

Ian Campbell is now an advisor to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.



From the Melbourne Age

Boycott Japan Olympics bid: ex-minister

July 15, 2009 - Former federal environment minister Ian Campbell wants a boycott of Tokyo's bid for the 2016 Olympics, in protest at Japan's alleged annual slaughter of 23,000 dolphins.

Allowing Japan to host the Summer Games only 300 nautical miles from Taiji, the Japanese port where the killings occur, would be a "travesty", Mr Campbell says.

"Japan is trying to pitch its bid for the 2016 Summer Games as a `Green Olympics' whilst just across the bay one of the greatest acts of environmental vandalism on our planet paints the waters red," he said in a statement on Wednesday.

The dolphin killing allegedly occurs every September off Taiji on Japan's south coast.

Mr Campbell was environment minister from 2004 to 2007 in the Howard government and joined the International Advisory Board for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in January 2008.

An anti-whaling activist, he rejected Japan's claims their whaling efforts were scientific, calling them `sick' and `absurd' in a 2005 ABC interview.

The Sea Shepherd Society says the Taiji dolphin killings have been filmed by the Oceanic Preservation Society for a documentary called The Cove, to be released in Australia on August 20.

Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Chicago have also entered bids to host the 2016 Olympics. A decision will be made at the International Olympic Committee's meeting in Copenhagen on October 2 this year.



The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society first exposed the horrific slaughter of the dolphins in 2003 when our photographs and videos of the massacre appeared on the front pages of newspapers and on the evening news of media around the world. That was the same year that Allison Lance and Alex Cornelissen were jailed for three weeks for saving the lives of 15 dolphins and pilot whales by cutting the nets at Taiji Bay.

Since then the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been working with Surfers for Cetaceans and the Oceanic Preservation Society to end the slaughter of 23,000 dolphins by Japanese fishermen every year.

Japanese dolphin killing in shock new film.

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,27574,25638029-2761,00.html
Perth Now
Japanese dolphin killing in shock new film
PRESSURE will mount on Broome to dump its Japanese sister city, Taiji, after the Australian premiere of the new documentary The Cove.
American Louie Psihoyos's film reveals undercover footage from the Japanese port of the systematic annual capture and slaughter of thousands of dolphins for sale and consumption.
"It's like an Auschwitz for dolphins," said Psihoyos, in Australia for the documentary's Sydney Film Festival premiere.
"A lot of people who work in this industry feel it's going to put the nail in the coffin of the dolphin hunting industry," said the photographer for National Geographic and director of the Oceanic Preservation Society.
"There's no way it can keep going on, not just because of the inhumanity to animals but because of the inhumanity to man. People don't realise these dolphins they're eating are toxic."
Psihoyos's environmental film is also a thriller, as his team, bankrolled in part by Jim Clark, the American billionaire husband of Australian model Kirsty Hinze, infiltrates a guarded cove next to the whaling town, south of Osaka.
They are intimidated, followed and harassed by townsfolk trying to protect their livelihood.
The team's undercover footage, captured largely by cameras under fake rocks designed by a Hollywood special effects house, is unforgettable. It shows the herding and butchering of hundreds of dolphins in a secluded cove, turning the water red with blood.
Some of the netted dolphins will be sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars to aquariums, but most will be sold as dolphin meat or as a substitute for whale meat.
"The Taiji government and the Japanese government have done an excellent job so far of keeping quiet what goes on in that secret cove," Psihoyos said.
"Now the secret's out, and the question is what does the rest of humanity do."
The documentary has already had one win. Its revelation that dolphin meat is dangerously toxic with mercury, among other things, has resulted in dolphin meat being taken off the school menus in the Taiji area.
The director hopes the screenings at the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane film festivals will build awareness in Australia, and result in Broome pressuring its "twisted sister city".
"Once it's revealed to Broome, to the people of Broome, what happens in their sister city, they've got to be shocked," Psihoyos said.
"Broome is an eco-destination - they celebrate dolphins and whales there, and here you have the equivalent of that celebration of dolphins happening in Taiji, but it's also this unimaginable killing field."
Psihoyos doubts the film will be commercially released in Japan, and he is considering raising money to have it subtitled in Japanese and put on YouTube.

WAYNE PACELLE:DRIVING DOLPHINS TO DESPAIR

Driving Dolphins to Despair

The HSUS and our international affiliate, Humane Society International, engineered the European Parliament’s May 5 vote to ban the trade in seal fur, and it’s a serious blow against Canada’s annual seal hunt. But half a world away from Newfoundland’s blood-stained ice, another sickening slaughter of marine wildlife plays out along the coastline of Japan.
© savejapandolphins.orgFishermen corral and slaughter dolphins annually in Taiji.
Each year at the picture postcard village of Taiji in southwestern Honshu, large pods of dolphins are driven from the ocean by a line of power boats. They are “herded” into a tiny cove and trapped in shallow waters. As the terrified animals thrash in fear and frenzy, hunters tear into them with blades. Some die slowly owing to injuries and loss of blood. Some drown. Others are literally butchered to death after being dragged ashore for processing.
Not all of the animals are killed, however. Hunts are attended by trainers from aquariums, marine-themed amusement parks, and swim-with-dolphin attractions who pay up to $200,000 for “show quality” females.
With the annual massacre of up to 2,300 coastal dolphins—as well as some 1,000 great whales killed in the southern and northern Pacific oceans and up to 18,000 Dall’s porpoises slaughtered in Japan's offshore waters—Japan is responsible for the world’s biggest massacre of cetaceans. Thousands of magnificent oceanic animals transformed into cellophane-wrapped packages of prime cuts on supermarket shelves, or ground up for pet food and fertilizer.
Campaigning by HSI and other animal welfare and conservation groups has made the world well aware that Japan’s continuing insistence on killing whales for “scientific research” is a thinly veiled charade for a commercial operation that is heavily subsidized by the government.
Not so well documented is their annual high seas slaughter of Dall’s porpoises.
Smaller than their dolphin cousins, the porpoises are easily caught with hand-thrown harpoons as they ride the bow-wave of the hunting boats. They are then gaffed, hauled aboard, and left to die of blood loss or shock. Japan’s hunt occurs in direct defiance of a request by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to cut their take in half because it is unsustainable.
The Taiji hunt has wiped out the regional population of striped dolphins and a similar fate may await other coastal dolphin species. But what really appalls animal welfare advocates, many conservationists, and even a growing number of scientists is its sheer cruelty.
Dolphins are gregarious, social, highly intelligent animals who often maintain lifelong bonds with fellow pod-mates. My colleague, HSI senior scientist and marine mammal biologist Naomi Rose, Ph.D., says dolphins suffer terrible trauma during the hunt. “These animals are thinking and self-aware,” she says. “The fear, pain, and suffering they feel when the killing begins are profound. They know exactly what is happening.”
For the few spared an agonizing death, the trauma lasts a lifetime—and a reprieve as a captive entertainer only postpones the inevitable. As co-author of the recently published fourth edition of “The Case Against Marine Mammals in Captivity,” Dr. Rose points out that dolphins—who can live 40 to 50 years in the wild—rarely live for long after capture in the drive fisheries.
At IWC meetings, The HSUS has long campaigned against Japan’s cetacean killing, and we have worked in Japan, mostly with supermarket chains, to end the demand for the meat. We have also worked with our allies in Congress urging the passage of Sen. Frank Lautenberg's resolution calling on Japan to end these drive fisheries of dolphins and other cetaceans. Just over a year ago at our annual Genesis Awards event, I was delighted to present the young actress Hayden Panettiere with the Wyler Award for confronting the dolphin killers at the Taiji hunt in 2007. She followed Sir Paul McCartney, our 2006 top Genesis honoree, who joined The HSUS on the ice to protest the Canadian seal hunt. Also last year at Genesis, The HSUS presented journalist Boyd Harnell with the 2008 Brigitte Bardot International Print award for his three-part series in The Japan Times on the continuing dolphin slaughter.
Next year, I won’t be surprised if coverage of the Taiji carnage isn’t up for a third Genesis. A documentary called "The Cove," clandestinely filmed underwater and from the headlands above the inlet where the dolphins are slaughtered, will open in July at movie theaters nationwide. "The Cove" won an audience choice award in January at the Sundance Film Festival, and it deserves the widest possible audience here and in Japan.
Canada’s seal hunt has rightly drawn the world’s ire. Japan’s unconscionable killing of whales, porpoises and dolphins deserves the same condemnation, and now.

ANOTHER DOLPHIN DEATH AT VANCOUVER AQAURIUM

Dolphin dies after only 4 years at Aquariumbringing death toll at Vancouver Aquarium to 35 dolphins!http://www.vancouversun.com/Travel/Dolphin+dies+Vancouver+Aquarium/1617784/story.html
Dolphin dies at Vancouver Aquarium

One of the Vancouver Aquarium's pacificwhite-sided dolphins, Laverne, has died. She'sshown here working with trainer Leonora Marquez.

Photograph by: ian lindsay, Vancouver Sun
VANCOUVER - Laverne, a Pacific white-sideddolphin who entertained crowds for years at theVancouver Aquarium, died Wednesday evening, according to Aquarium staff.
Laverne was about 31 years old, the oldestPacific white-sided dolphin in an aquarium in North America.
A necrocopsy ­ an animal version of autopsy ­revealed she suffered from intestinal torsion, ora twisting of the bowel. It releases bacteria andtoxins into the abdomen, and causes seriousinfections. She also suffered from skin infections and arthritis.
Intestinal torsion is often seen in large-breed dogs.
"Intestinal torsions are unpredictable,unpreventable, and, in most species, untreatableonce the intestine has been severely compromised," Dr. Marty Haulena, staff veterinarian at theVancouver Aquarium, said in a news release.
"Laverne received the best possible medical care,ensuring that her last few days of her life were as comfortable as possible."
Pacific white-sided dolphins are so named becauseof the white colouration on their sides andunderneath, according to the Vancouver Aquarium'swebsite. Adult females can weigh 85-145 kg, and reach lengths of 1.7-2.4 m.
They're usually found in the temperate waters ofthe northern Pacific Ocean from Japan to NorthAmerica, and from the coast of Alaska down to Baja, Mexico.
NOTE; New email address ---> bchorush@gmail.com

Japan Ends Negotiations on Whaling

Re-posted from IWC Blog
http://savejapandolphins.blogspot.com/2009/05/iwc-update-japan-ends-negotiations-on.html
by Mark J. Palmer
Associate DirectorInternational Marine Mammal ProjectEarth Island Institute &Save Japan Dolphins Coalition
It appears that Japan has blown up negotiations over their whaling and that the “Hogarth Deal” is at an end. But we still need the new Obama Administration to stand up for whales and work with Japan to end its whale and dolphin killing.Background: Secret Dirty Deals:Almost two years ago, Bush appointee William Hogarth, head of the US National Marine Fisheries Service and voted in as Chairman of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), began secret talks with the Japan Fisheries Agency to “solve” the “impasse” at the IWC between whaling and anti-whaling nations.To the consternation of environmental and animal welfare organizations, the Hogarth Deal was predicated on allowing Japan to legally kill whales in their home waters in the north Pacific (so-called Cultural Coastal Whaling), a long-term goal of Japan’s Fisheries Agency, in exchange for supposedly reducing Japan’s killing of whales under scientific permit in the Antarctic. Allowing Japan Coastal Whaling would mean an end to the 20-year international moratorium on commercial whaling. Furthermore, the Hogarth Deal did not do anything about other nations’ illegal whaling -- Iceland and Norway commercially kill whales in defiance of the moratorium, and South Korea expressed interest in resuming commercial whaling and getting their own deal with the IWC, as likely would some other nations. And Japan’s Fisheries Agency already issues annual permits to kill 23,000 dolphins in Japan’s waters.As Ric O’Barry has often reminded us, size doesn’t matter -- killing dolphins IS coastal whaling!This deal was totally unacceptable, but our groups were not in the room with the secret negotiators.Rome Intersessional:The “Hogarth Deal” was finally made public during an intersessional meeting of the IWC in March in Rome. But the deal had zero specificity. It stated that Japan would conduct coastal commercial whaling, but provided no numbers of whales that they would slaughter. Furthermore, there were no numbers at all on how many whales Japan would continue to slaughter in the Southern Ocean. Instead, two options were offered, one that stated scientific whaling would be reduced by an unspecified number in the Southern Ocean, and another that such scientific whaling would be phased out entirely. But Japan’s Fisheries Minister, before the Rome meeting even got started, came out stating that Japan would never end scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean. Reportedly, the IWC Small Working Group of nations doing the actual closed-door negotiations met right after the Rome meeting and could not reach any new decisions for more specificity.Hogarth Deal Explodes in Secret:Rumor is that just a few weeks ago, the Small Working Group of the IWC convened once again in San Francisco to finalize the Hogarth Deal, due to be made public on May 18th and voted into effect during the June 22-26 IWC meeting in Madeira, Portugal.At the meeting, Japan, to participant’s amazement, brought out their list of numbers of whales they expected to kill under the Hogarth Deal. The other nations were astonished at the Japan Fisheries Agency’s audacity in the shear bloodshed they were contemplating. The Hogarth Deal could not be agreed to by anyone. (We are still chasing down details of Japan’s proposal in this secret meeting. Reportedly, Japan proposed to kill the same number of whales in the Southern Ocean as they had killed last season — no reduction at all!)A few weeks ago, the European Union agreed to vote as a bloc at the IWC, pushing for an end to scientific whaling and maintaining the moratorium on commercial whaling. Japan, in retaliation, just completed a meeting of its (well paid) client countries, and announced they too would vote as a bloc at the IWC meeting. A total of 32 nations, some (Iceland and Norway) that are whaling now and many others that are paid millions of yen by the government of Japan to support its position at the IWC.Voting in blocs will preclude the consensus to sell-out the whales sought by Chairman Hogarth for the past two years.Japan’s Strategy:It is very clear what Japan’s strategy is now.. Of course, they never intended to work out any compromise that would curtail their whaling efforts. Japan is intent on expanding its whaling, purely for ideological reasons. (Whale meat in Japan is not selling, and the entire “industry” is now completely subsidized by Japanese taxpayers.)The Japan Fisheries Agency waited until the last minute to deliberately end the negotiations in secret. This will allow the Japanese Fisheries Agency, surrounded by their well-bribed client nations, to cry “poor me” at the upcoming public meeting of the IWC in Madeira in June, claiming rich countries are to blame for not supporting Japan and conducting cultural and racial discrimination against Japan.Once again, the Bush Administration’s secret negotiations with other nations have completely and utterly back-fired, resulting in far more damage to the US than if we had been totally straight in the first place.However, this is not the final end of the “Hogarth Deal.” William Hogarth, a Bush appointee, is still head of the US delegation, is still Chairman of the IWC, and still wants a deal — likely any deal at this point. Like Dr. Frankenstein, you can be sure negotiators are feverishly trying to revive the “Hogarth Deal” so it can be ready to pass in June regardless of how many whales are sacrificed.What You Can Do:There is still time to contact President Barack Obama and urge him to stop the US IWC delegation from selling out the whales and dolphins, thanking him for the recent CEQ policy statement in support of the moratorium, but also urging him to replace the Bush appointees on the US IWC delegation and take leadership to convince Japan to stop killing whales and dolphins. Go to:http://www.savejapandolphins.org/obama.phpPlease consider a generous donation to the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition, to help us get the word out, world-wide and especially in Japan, about the whale and dolphin killing sponsored by the Japan Fisheries Agency:http://www.savejapandolphins.org/donate.phpEarth Island, in conjunction with environmental and animal welfare organizations active on whale and dolphin issues, produced a special edition of ECO for the Rome meeting. You can read it at:http://www.earthisland.org/immpThe Madeira meeting of the IWC will be an important show-down for this whaling issue. Please get your comments into the President as soon as you can.At the same time, expect the new documentary The Cove, about Earth Island’s and the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition’s efforts to halt the slaughter of thousands of dolphins authorized by the Japanese Fisheries Agency, to hit theaters in July and August. We believe this documentary will be a game-changer for Japan on dolphins and whales.Thank you for your efforts for whales and dolphins!Mark J. PalmerAssociate DirectorInternational Marine Mammal ProjectDirector, Wildlife AliveEarth Island Institute***************************NOTE MY NEW CONTACT INFORMATION AFTER APRIL 15, 2009:David Brower Center2150 Allston Way, Suite 460Berkeley, CA 94704Mark P’s direct line: 510-859-9139(530) 758-6022 (Davis Office)IMMP fax: 510-859-9093<mpalmer@cal.net>http://www.earthisland.org/immphttp://www.dolphinsafe.org/http://www.savejapandolphins.org/Read my Blog on the Sundance Film Festival and the world premiere of "The Cove", a documentary about our work to save dolphins:http://www.savejapandolphins.org/blog.html

A Documentary About The Slaughter of Dolphins In Japan

The Cove Movie a documentary about the slaughter of dolphins in Japan


http://thecovemovie .com/small- movie-trailer/

More information about the movie at:
http://thecovemovie .com/