gnomon
Well-Known Member
A documentary about dolphins being slaughtered in a cove off the Japanese town of Taijii. Here we see Japanese fisherman driving dozens of dolphins into an inlet for them to be selected for show purposes. Up to $150,000 per dolphin. Then, after the selection, those remaining are driven into a cove. Whereupon they are slaughtered.
The documentary proposes that these dolphins slaughtered have their meat sold to local fisheries. While dolphin meat is not actually a marketed food item the meat is marketed as other cetacean meat such as tuna. Meat which is highly toxic due to mercury. The film also addresses the concept that dolphin meat might be a traditional Japanese source of food in which Japanese citizens of major cities reject such a notion.
It's a disturbing documentary. The trainer of the dolphins which portrayed Flipper in the old television classic plays heavily in this film. I remember hearing about him when I was a child as he was arrested for trying to free dolphins from any captivity. The only thing I did not like about the film was it's dishonest portrayal of mercury in one of its special features. They made no distinction between methyl mercury and ethyl mercury in the special features and the highly debatable role of mercury in the rise of autistic diagnosis in the primarily Western world. Despite that the body of the film itself shows a lack of regard for life and even for those of us who knowingly consume animal flesh there is no excuse for the slaughter of dolphins of which there is a very weak market for such meat.
It has actually raised an awareness in my own food consumption.
There are already plenty of threads on this forum regarding the consumption of any animal flesh and I do not wish this to ignite such a debate on this forum. However, this film is a must see in regards to the way in which a species of animal that is not desired for any such human consumption is slaughtered. Also, the question of the means in which the nation of Japan conducts whaling and it's overall fishing institutions. I would like to compare the notion of wholesale slaughter of dolphins by such an entity as a town in Japan as compared to the notion that tribal groups adhere to cultural whale hunting. The former is just a mass means of murder in my opinion while the latter partakes in not only a traditional means of survival but also a means in which those cultures could only survive. In other words, there is no argument I know of to support the wholesale slaughter of dolphins. I cannot think of an argument to even justify hunting dolphins to place them into a facility such as Sea World.
It's a disturbing film.
The documentary proposes that these dolphins slaughtered have their meat sold to local fisheries. While dolphin meat is not actually a marketed food item the meat is marketed as other cetacean meat such as tuna. Meat which is highly toxic due to mercury. The film also addresses the concept that dolphin meat might be a traditional Japanese source of food in which Japanese citizens of major cities reject such a notion.
It's a disturbing documentary. The trainer of the dolphins which portrayed Flipper in the old television classic plays heavily in this film. I remember hearing about him when I was a child as he was arrested for trying to free dolphins from any captivity. The only thing I did not like about the film was it's dishonest portrayal of mercury in one of its special features. They made no distinction between methyl mercury and ethyl mercury in the special features and the highly debatable role of mercury in the rise of autistic diagnosis in the primarily Western world. Despite that the body of the film itself shows a lack of regard for life and even for those of us who knowingly consume animal flesh there is no excuse for the slaughter of dolphins of which there is a very weak market for such meat.
It has actually raised an awareness in my own food consumption.
There are already plenty of threads on this forum regarding the consumption of any animal flesh and I do not wish this to ignite such a debate on this forum. However, this film is a must see in regards to the way in which a species of animal that is not desired for any such human consumption is slaughtered. Also, the question of the means in which the nation of Japan conducts whaling and it's overall fishing institutions. I would like to compare the notion of wholesale slaughter of dolphins by such an entity as a town in Japan as compared to the notion that tribal groups adhere to cultural whale hunting. The former is just a mass means of murder in my opinion while the latter partakes in not only a traditional means of survival but also a means in which those cultures could only survive. In other words, there is no argument I know of to support the wholesale slaughter of dolphins. I cannot think of an argument to even justify hunting dolphins to place them into a facility such as Sea World.
It's a disturbing film.