Marine Animal Welfare: The Cove & Dolphinaria

The Cove and animals acquired for dolphinaria.

Below a two part video commentary on the inaccurate statements made by Richard O'Barry and others regarding the Japanese drive fishery and captive cetaceans in aquaria outside Asia and the Middle-East.

The Cove is the 2009 award winning documentary exposing the annual drive fisheries hunt of dolphins and whales in the whaling village of Taiji, Wakayama, Japan.

Drive fisheries are not historically new and a number of countries aside from Japan also hunt (or have hunted) animals by this method such as the Solomon Islands, the Faroe Islands and Peru. The drive fishery at Taiji is to believed to have been in existence for more than 350 years. The Cove was actually not the first to document this controversial hunt which has been highlighted over the years by magazines such as the National Geographic and in television series by the late Jacques-Yves Cousteau in the mid-1970's. Many have rightly been very concerned regarding this hunting methods and questioned both its operation on moral, ethical and animal welfare grounds.

However, one aspect of the film that has also proved to be controversial is that in recent years a small percentage of animals from this fishery have not been killed but selected for live display in public aquaria and marine parks. In 2007 (the year The Cove was made) official figures show that 13,170 dolphins and whales were hunted and killed in Japan. Of that number 1,239 were hunted in by the drive fishery method and 90 (7.3%) removed alive for aquaria. A break down of figures for other years can be found HERE.

Unfortunately, the makers of the film have taken the position that suggested that this supply of animals to aquaria and parks was the prime purpose of the hunt and that if it ceased so would the hunt itself. This is not surprising as one of the main protagonists in The Cove is animal-rights activist Ric O'Barry who is stridently opposed to dolphins being held in the care of humans in zoological parks.

Moreover, the film suggests that animals from the hunt are being transport globally to countries such as the USA and that persons visiting these parks are in fact support the killing of dolphins and whales in Japan which is basically untrue. In fact, it should be noted that most of the popular cetaceans held in both the USA (and mainland Europe) are sustained via captive breeding and therefore these populations have no need to acquired animals via live capture operations from the wild. Animals from hunts such as Taiji are generally supplied to aquaria in Asia and the Middle-East and it is has recently been alleged that 15 dolphins from a Japanese drive fishery have also been imported into Turkey in 2010.

Further to this a number zoological organisations involved in the captive care of marine animals such as American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) The European Association for Aquatic Mammals (EAAM), The International Marine Animal Trainers Association (IMATA) and parks such as Sea World have made clear statements against drive fishery hunts and consider them inhumane.

Only one drive-fishery animal is held in the USA as of 2011. It is a false-killer whale originally imported by the US Navy's Marine Mammal Program from Ocean Park, Hong Kong in 1987; it was transferred to the Hawaiian Institute of Marine Biology in 2000. An attempt to import false killer whales to a US marine park acquired from a drive fishery in 1993 was blocked by the National Marine Fisheries Service as they considered such operations inhumane which has effectively banned further imports of animals into the USA from drive fisheries.

Activists elsewhere have also cited that Sea World in California has been granted an import permit for a captive pilot whale from a Japanese aquarium to join its current group of pilot whales. It should be pointed out that this animal is a lone stranded animal that was rescued in 2003 and is deemed unsuitable for release. It should be noted that this animal was not acquired by deliberate capture nor from a drive fishery.

The two facts anyone who watches The Cove should remember are:

	The Cove and animals acquired for dolphinaria. Below a two part video commentary on the inaccurate statements made by Richard O'Barry and others regarding the Japanese drive fishery and captive cetaceans in aquaria outside Asia and the Middle-East. The Cove is the 2009 award winning documentary exposing the annual drive fisheries hunt of dolphins and whales in the whaling village of Taiji, Wakayama, Japan. Drive fisheries are not historically new and a number of countries aside from Japan also hunt (or have hunted) animals by this method such as the Solomon Islands, the Faroe Islands and Peru. The drive fishery at Taiji is to believed to have been in existence for more than 350 years. The Cove was actually not the first to document this controversial hunt which has been highlighted over the years by magazines such as the National Geographic and in television series by the late Jacques-Yves Cousteau in the mid-1970's. Many have rightly been very concerned regarding this hunting methods and questioned both its operation on moral, ethical and animal welfare grounds. However, one aspect of the film that has also proved to be controversial is that in recent years a small percentage of animals from this fishery have not been killed but selected for live display in public aquaria and marine parks. In 2007 (the year The Cove was made) official figures show that 13,170 dolphins and whales were hunted and killed in Japan. Of that number 1,239 were hunted in by the drive fishery method and 90 (7.3%) removed alive for aquaria. A break down of figures for other years can be found HERE. Unfortunately, the makers of the film have taken the position that suggested that this supply of animals to aquaria and parks was the prime purpose of the hunt and that if it ceased so would the hunt itself. This is not surprising as one of the main protagonists in The Cove is animal-rights activist Ric O'Barry who is stridently opposed to dolphins being held in the care of humans in zoological parks. Moreover, the film suggests that animals from the hunt are being transport globally to countries such as the USA and that persons visiting these parks are in fact support the killing of dolphins and whales in Japan which is basically untrue. In fact, it should be noted that most of the popular cetaceans held in both the USA (and mainland Europe) are sustained via captive breeding and therefore these populations have no need to acquired animals via live capture operations from the wild. Animals from hunts such as Taiji are generally supplied to aquaria in Asia and the Middle-East and it is has recently been alleged that 15 dolphins from a Japanese drive fishery have also been imported into Turkey in 2010. Further to this a number zoological organisations involved in the captive care of marine animals such as American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) The European Association for Aquatic Mammals (EAAM), The International Marine Animal Trainers Association (IMATA) and parks such as Sea World have made clear statements against drive fishery hunts and consider them inhumane. Only one drive-fishery animal is held in the USA as of 2011. It is a false-killer whale originally imported by the US Navy's Marine Mammal Program from Ocean Park, Hong Kong in 1987; it was transferred to the Hawaiian Institute of Marine Biology in 2000. An attempt to import false killer whales to a US marine park acquired from a drive fishery in 1993 was blocked by the National Marine Fisheries Service as they considered such operations inhumane which has effectively banned further imports of animals into the USA from drive fisheries. Activists elsewhere have also cited that Sea World in California has been granted an import permit for a captive pilot whale from a Japanese aquarium to join its current group of pilot whales. It should be pointed out that this animal is a lone stranded animal that was rescued in 2003 and is deemed unsuitable for release. It should be noted that this animal was not acquired by deliberate capture nor from a drive fishery. The two facts anyone who watches The Cove should remember are: (a) that the drive-fishery in Japan prime motive is 'pest control' and food as the animals are perceived to be in competition with fisherman and that the hunt has been undertaken for hundreds of years and animals for zoos and aquaria are a recent development and the numbers taken are small and if this stopped sadly the hunt would still continue; (b) that no animals have been imported into the mainland Europe since 1980 and in the US since 1989 from any drive-fishery; the majority of animals displayed in these locations have come from captive breeding programs. Below a two part commentary on the inaccurate statements made by film makers of The Cove and others regarding this Japanese drive fishery and captive cetaceans in aquaria outside Asia and the Middle-East. NB: An interesting opinion video on the effect of The Cove on the Japanese public can be found HERE.

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