Oceanic Defense Attends The Cove Premiere

Los Angeles - August 01, 2009 - Last night we had the opportunity to attend the premiere of The Cove directed by Louie Psihoyos. The documentary takes place in a tiny bay in Taiji Japan. This cove hides a bloody secret Japan and its fishermen do not want you to see.

Without giving too much away the movie starts out by introducing us to Ric O'Barry. Ric is a crusader for dolphins worldwide, you may know him as the very first dolphin trainer for the hit television show "Flipper". For 10 years Ric helped to build an industry that for the last 35 he has been trying to tear down - the confinement of marine animals worldwide.

People from all walks of life come together in the film; including two Canadian free diving champions to expose the heinous act that takes place in this tiny cove away from the public eye from September to March every year where 23,000 dolphins are slaughtered to provide mercury laced meat to Japanese citizen often mislabeled as some other kind of meat. The Japanese government and the fisherman that murder this brilliant creatures and poisoning their own people and they know nothing about it.

The movie then goes on to illustrate unknown levels of corruption throughout the IWC (International Whaling Commission) whereby Japan buys delegates from poor Caribbean countries with promises of financial support in exchange for voting with Japan in their opposition to current IWC rules on commercial whaling. (look for an upcoming story from OD)


The evening was capped off by a question and answer period by Captain Paul Watson from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. During his address he outlined the fact that if we do not act now and protect not only the whales and the dolphins but ALL creatures within our ocean we will soon be an extinct species ourselves. He took questions from the audience and spent a good portion of time afterward graciously chatting with audience members clambering to meet an true eco hero.

Our thoughts on the movie; if you care about our environment and what we are doing to it, you must see this movie. Although scenes are sometimes hard to watch it is these same scenes that gives us the strength and the drive to actually do something about it. This movement starts with you. You right there, reading this. It's time to act. It's time to become your own eco hero.

To learn more about The Cove visit their website: http://www.thecovemovie.com/
To learn more about Sea Shepherd visit their website: http://www.seashepherd.org
To learn more about Oceanic Defense visit our website:
http://www.oceanicdefense.org
http://www.facebook.com/OceanicDefense