Feb. 29, 2012 at 2:49am with 4 notes
decaying-organic-matterthe covedolphinscorruptionslaveryseaworlddisney

decaying-organic-matter replied to your post: This doc has opened my eyes to a new level of corruption.

What is it called and what is it about?

The Cove. It’s a doc about the killing of dolphins on an island in Taiji, Japan. Apparently, most of the sea-quariums in the world get their dolphins from this place. A live dolphins is usually sold for about $150,000 but a dead one can get you about $600. What could you do with a dead dolphin you ask? Well, you can eat it but you probably wouldn’t want to because the high mercury levels. But Japan had thought of that too. They examined the higher priced whale meat and found out that they were actually just selling dolphin meat. The dolphins have high mercury levels due to factories dumping their waste into the ocean. The high mercury levels have been known to cause this. Some people found out what they were doing so as a PR stunt, Japan actually started giving away the mercury filled dolphin meat to schools as part of a mandatory lunch. Yeah, in Japan it’s mandatory to finish every last bite of your food during school lunch. It’s been estimated that they’ve killed 23,000 dolphins and porpoises a year. If you’re thinking that whaling is illegal, you’d be right but apparently they’re not counting dolphins as whales. I realized that I’m rambling but I’m still kind of shook up. 

Basically from what I can see is that it comes down to greed in corruption. I could say that I’m angry at Japan but they’re being forced to earn a wage in one of the only ways they know how. Sea-quariums keep paying for dolphins and the grocers keep paying for dolphin meat, so it’s a never ending cycle. Japan is trying to get whaling legal and they’re doing so by paying off poorer countries (mostly poor African countries). It comes down to money, that’s all. The sick thing is that because of the level of intelligence that dolphins possess, I can’t help but to compare them to slaves being taken from Africa and being forced into captivity. With the exception, that these slaves are being eaten by children. 

I hope this middle of the morning rant was in the very least informative. Whenever I wake up, I’ll write a better summary on this. 

  1. decaying-organic-matter said: Have you ever seen Sharkwater? It’s one of my favourite films. I think it would fall under a similar category of what your describing. It’s about shark finning anyway, if you haven’t seen it I recommend it. I’ll definitely be watching this one thanks
  2. therikeone posted this