Video Worksheet: The Cove

Is Marine land as happy a place for the dolphins as it is the visitors? 

Worksheet: The Cove

1. Rich O’Barry is the main defender of dolphins in this documentary.

3. Rich O’Barry became involved in saving the dolphins after many years of training and doing shows with dolphins. His main dolphin named Cathy became depressed and committed suicide.  Through working with dolphins he knew how intelligent dolphins and came to realize that captivity is no place for them.  After years of helping to build up the commercial dolphin industry he feels responsible for helping show the world the truth about the horrors of the cove where dolphins like Cathy are captured.

5. Dolphins are part of the cetacean mammalian order.

7. Small Islands in the Caribbean are being bribed by Japan to support whaling in exchange for financial support.

9. When the dolphins are trapped in the cove representatives from aquariums and other organizations that use animals for amusement come and pick which dolphins they want. They usually want young females as they are popular with crowds.

11. The goal of the documentary is to raise awareness and reveal to the world the horrors that are happening in the cove of Taiji. The creators of the documentary hope that people who learn about these atrocities will speak up and help stop the killing of dolphins.

13. Bio magnification occurs when small fish have mercury within them from pollutants and then mass quantities of these small fish are consumed by larger fish.  This makes the mercury intake for large fish very high. The higher up in the food change the more the mercury intake.  Small fish have small quantities of mercury in them but dolphins who feed off thousands of small fish have very high mercury levels.

15. The fisherman think about the offer and the refuse because they have been told by the government that the reason for the killing the dolphins for meat is pest control. The fishermen have been told that dolphins and whales harm the Japanese fish supply making them pests.

17. A special effects team hides cameras in rocks.

19. When the deputy of Fisheries claims that the dolphins are killed instantly and humanely a crew member shows him a video. The video shows dolphins being stabbed by spears and frantically swimming around gushing blood and other ways that dolphins are slaughtered that illustrate the lack of humanity in the act.

21. A dolphin that is captured and wounded swims over nets trying to reach them but is badly wounded and does not make it to them.  The divers are deeply disturbed by seeing a creature they love so much understand that they are there to help; but not being able to help it.

The Dolphins we All Adore

The Costly Price For Show Case Dolphins

23. Going to marine land supports the fishermen who make around $ 150 000 for a show case dolphin. If these fishermen didn’t make such a large profit they would not being killing as many dolphins as the industry would be much smaller. When fishermen are selling dolphin meat they only make $600 per dolphin. Therefore the prospect of selling a dolphin for commercial reasons makes this market much bigger and draw people to the job.