I saw the Cove, the movie about the dolphin fishing in Japan. Japanese version is below this English version. 日本語版は下記。
I appreciate the points made in the movie that
1) the way to fish the dolphin by these fishing people is cruel,
2) the mercury poisoning of the dolphin meat may exceed the safe level,
3) not only in Japan but also anywhere in the world the places like Seaworld where dolphin shows take place, dolphins are not happy and can die due to the stress and must be released to the wild,
4) many dolphins for these entertainment facilities around the world come from Japan and
5) others which already known to public but may not be known to some people, like the way Japanese pro-whaling side uses the developing countries to gain vote in return of giving the money to these lands( of course some may argue if this is true).
But we need always to see this movie as biased as possible from the view of the anti-whaling side.
Mr. Ric O'barry in the movie says the whaling is not a culture in Japan because many people donot know about the dolphin fishing.
But it is not true.
The whaling in Japan is well known and the first sign of whaling is found even 8,000 years ago and has been continuously done by people such as indigenous people in Northern Islands of Japan. This is not different from Inuit people in the U.S. (about which even a word is not mentioned in the Cove, btw.). So why the people questioned in the movie did not know about the dolphin? It is simply because people did not know just about the 'dolphin' whilst surely having known about 'whaling' in Japan.
Did you know Rolls Royce is actually the biggest supplier for the air plane engines not just a high end market car maker, or Saab is the military company not just a car company which was spun off therefrom? Even some people did not know some part of the activity, this does not necessarily mean the whole activity does not exist.
It is arguable how to define the 'culture'. Apart from the moral issue the way to kill them or scientific arguments where they are dangerous to eat or at the risk of extinction, to my eye the whaling in Japan is a culture as it is traceable to an ancient time.
Fishing, and also anything about eating animals, is cruel if you see when the animals are killed. The other movie beside the Cove is the Food Inc. (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1286537/ ) If you see this movie or any streaming in Youtube, you can see how animals are treated and killed when processed to be foods.
I am against the notion that the whaling should stop because they are intellectual and cute. This movie gives me more or less such an impression, unfortunately which makes this movie less convincing. For me all animals are intellectual and cute. But I also like eating them. If I am walking in the forest/jungle somewhere, I may be also eaten by predators( after killed somewhat in a cruel way, I suppose.) . This is the world we are living.
Mercury poisoning in the larger fishes are well known before this movie. I support anti-whaling if these type of argument is established. If it is dangerous to eat the whale and dolphin, it should be stopped.
Also when these dolphins are endangered, the dolphin fishing must be banned. In this movie I have no recollection if there was any comment that these dolphins are close to the extinction.
The government/company is cheeky everywhere. This movie is about Japan so the Japanese government is shown cheeky controlling votes in IWC by giving favor to some countries. But could you name any government which has never done this kind of act? The government and company all around the world hide things, you can not give examples less, such as MK Ultra projects(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKULTRA ) or , esp. companies hire mafias to control some activity not favourable to them.
The clips from the IWC meeting where staff from the Japanese side or pro-whaling countries take a nap are artificially edited so that it gives a bad impression on the movie audience. But this is very common way to make an interesting documentary movie. Mr. Michael Moore(
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0601619/ ) is being sued many times by some people he used in his movies as those people think their interviews or so are altered/edited to make a wrong impression/opinion. So this is not new but just a thing to mention.
Overall, I liked the Cove, the movie. If any wrongdoing happening anywhere in the world including Japan, I appreciate the effort to disclose it to the world and have it judged by the public. But the audience must be educated/trained to see these documentaries critically and form their own opinions. For this movie, it is important to see this film as the one made by a group of people biased for anti-whaling.
And, why not the pro whaling group in Japan, Norway, Inuit etc. making a documentary movie from their point of view?? Or no guts?
The gist in Japanese:
Coveを見ました。
日本のいるか狩りやいるかを世界の水族館に売っていること、いるか狩りの様子は始めて知りました。いるか・くじらの水銀汚染の問題、途上国への援助と引き換えに、それらの国から捕鯨賛成票を得るというIWCでの日本の票獲得の裏側など既に知られていることですが、知らなかった人にはよい情報でしょう。
映画の中で、日本人の多くが知らない捕鯨がなぜ文化なのかとの意見が述べられますが、それは全くの間違いです。日本では8000年前つまり縄文時代から捕鯨（いるか狩り）の形跡が見られて、長い間北海道のアイヌの人々などによって行われてきました。なにを文化とするかの議論は残りますが、捕鯨は明らかに日本の文化です。それが水銀汚染で食べるべきでないとか、ある種の鯨・いるかが絶滅の恐れがあるのでとるべきでないとの議論は別です。映画のなかで捕鯨賛成であるイヌイットのことやノルウェーのことはまったく言及されてないのも気になります。
いるか狩の様子が隠しカメラによって撮影されます。確かに痛々しいシーンです。しかし、痛々しくない屠殺場はあるのでしょうか？Food Inc.という映画やyoutubeで流されたりしてますが、動物の屠殺場は残酷なものです。
IWCの票集めにしても、ずるくない、常に正しいことをしてきた政府・会社はあるのでしょうか？政府や会社は騙したり、酷いことをしてきています。
水銀汚染にているか・鯨を食べないほうが良いという議論は賛成です。それほどまでに汚染されているのなら食べないほうがいいのでしょう。これは捕鯨賛成派は、そうでないことを証明する義務があります。
また、映画の中でとられていたいるかは絶滅の危機にあるのかどうか、このことへも言及がないように思います。私には、映画作成側は、残念ながら、いるかは可愛くて知能が高いから捕らないほうがいいとしか聞こえません。これではまったく説得力がありません。私は全ての動物がいろいろな程度において可愛く知的だと思います。しかし、それらを食べることも好きです。ジャングルを歩いていて私自身が捕食者に無残にころされ食べられる可能性だってあるわけです。これが私達の生きている世界だということは忘れてはなりません。
この映画は面白いです。知らなかったことを教えてくれます。世界のどこかで不正が行われているのであれば、それが日本でも、それを世界に知らしめ、世界の人間の判断を仰ぐ努力は素晴らしいと思います。
ただ見る側はそれが、今回の映画であれば、捕鯨反対派が作った事実をとらえながら見なければなりません。この映画に登場する捕鯨推進にかかる人々の印象は、捕鯨反対派が編集しているのでみな悪者に見えるかもしれません。しかし、実際はそうでないかもしれないことを考えねばなりません。
日本についてのドキュメンタリーで面白かったのはNuclear ginzaです。
これから期待したいことは、日本、ノルウェーやイヌイットの人々など捕鯨推進派がこれに対抗するドキュメンタリーをつくったらどうかと思います。捕鯨推進派の皆様、いかがでしょうか？
