DOLPHINS SOLD INTO SLAVERY, DOCUMENTED IN "THE COVE"
The environmental history of the world is full of stories about the wholesale slaughter of certain animals, sometimes leading to accidental genocide. Nearly extinct species can be brought back from time to time, but generally the news is shameful.

One of the most urgent examples of such slaughter these days is the subject of  "The Cove," now playing at the Loft Cinema, reporting on the seasonal dolphin kill at Kaiji, Japan. As we speak, right this minute, territorial fishermen in "The Cove" are in the process of harvesting 25,000 dolphin, said to be a typical season's take.

This is the same loveable critter as Flipper, that bottle-nosed whale whose aquatic antics charmed millions of kids in the 1960s. Rick O'Barry was the show business animal trainer who taught a series of dolphins to play the Flipper role.

"For 10 years I worked to build up the industry, and I've spent the last 35 years trying to tear it down," O'Barry says in this tragic documentary.

The former animal trainer definitely has a Frankenstein complex, feeling like he created a monster in the image of Flipper. Sea aquariums all over the world feature dolphin shows for tourists.

"A well-trained dolphin in the right place can be worth a million dollars a year," O'Barry tells the camera, going on to recount tales of at least two dolphin rights activists who were murdered for being such ardent protesters.

The beautiful little city of Taiji is full of graceful dolphin tour boats. Taiji is on  one of the traditional dolphin migration routes, capitalizing on its location and the popularity of these undersea mammals noted for their human-like intelligence.

Dolphin have traveled these unmarked waterways for thousands of years, and the local fishermen have made their living off the plentiful sea animals. While Flipper has been idealized for nearly 50 years, dolphin have been a menu mainstay around Taiji much longer.

That is the conflict.

In today's over-heated sensitivity to issues of political correctness, an emotional argument can be made that Taiji fishermen are selling dolphins into slavery. The freedom-loving mammals are captured and held prisoner in a secret cove near Taiji, then sold one by one to aquarium buyers from all over the world, who will keep these dolphins working in Flipper shows for the rest of their lives.

The dolphin who aren't purchased (which is most of them) are promptly slaughtered in the shallow-water pens and sent to market. After the slavery issue comes the toxicity issue.

Because the dolphin are like large fish, they absorb high levels of mercury from the sea. The meat of dolphin, it is said, is extremely toxic. The Japanese of Taiji dispute this and eat dolphin fillet as they have done for centuries.

Most of  the dolphin crop is sold on the international fish market. How closely the toxicity of  Taiji's dolphin is monitored is a big question in "The Cove," although O'Barry as writer and director is mostly concerned with the annual dolphin slaughter itself.

His drive is to save all the dolphin, just as in the 1960s there was a successful drive to save the really big whales. Now the aging  boomer activists are looking for some animal rights agitators of the current generation to step up and continue the fight to keep whales safe.

Watching "The Cove" will inspire exactly those same caring people to get involved stopping this senseless massacre of dolphin being murdered half-way around the world right this very minute.

As O'Barry says near the end of "The Cove," "You're either an activist or an inactivist."

Which will it be?