週刊金曜日: Coveと日本の水銀汚染記事
Questions from the Film “The Cove”
We Asked Director Louie Psihoyos
By Youji Tsunabuchi
Shukan Kinyobi
Dec 11, 2009
日本語版がここにあります。
From October 17-25 at the Tokyo International Film Festival, one documentary seemed to be getting all the public attention. Titled “The Cove”, it was about the dolphin hunting in Taiji-cho, Wakayama. Many people said that it was an “anti-dolphin hunt” movie. But what did the director really want to address through the making of this film? We asked the director himself.
“The Cove”, directed by Louie Psihoyos, is a film about the dolphin hunting in Taiji-cho, Wakayama. The following briefly summarizes the movie theme.
Some mysterious Americans came to Taiji-cho and drove around wearing masks in order to hide their identities. The reason that they were doing this was to document the killings of the dolphins and report back to the world.
The person who played guide for the Americans was Richard O’Barry. O’Barry was the dolphin trainer in “Flipper”, the popular TV show in Japan. There were 5 dolphins that played the character, Flipper, over the duration of the show, and they were separated soon after the show ended. One day in a shallow pool where one of them was caged, one died right before O’Barry’s eyes. It seems that this dolphin had committed suicide because of exhaustion due to the terrible living environment in the pool and simply made a conscious choice to stop breathing.
Since then, O’Barry has dedicated himself to rescuing dolphins. He gave up working as a dolphin trainer, from which he had received a very good salary. He has since been striving to educate people around the world to save dolphins for almost 40 years. He then accepted the main role in this documentary film to tell the world about dolphin hunting in Taiji.
In order to secretly film the dolphin killing in Taiji, O’Barry along with director, Psihoyos, started to put a team together. The bay area surrounding the killing cove outside of Taiji was covered with barbed wire, and entry was prohibited. If anyone did try to enter the area, the local fishermen would practically ‘risk their own lives’ to prevent any trespassing.
The film crew therefore hired free-diving specialists, called upon Hollywood special effects designers to provide undercover recording equipment, and rented a huge cargo container to deliver their equipment to Japan.
They inspected the site, drew up plans and strategies, and finally succeeded in their filming efforts. The documentary uncovered the savage dolphin hunting in Taiji. The small cove became bloodstained, and the fishermen continued using harpoons to stab and beat the dolphins they caught.
“I want to help the fishermen”
The footage was taken over 7 trips to Japan between 2005 and 2007. There were two questions that surfaced with regards to the movie. First, “why shouldn’t dolphin hunting be permitted?” and second, “is it true that dolphin meat contains high concentrations of mercury?” The film content suggested that eating too much dolphin meat could lead to something like Minamata disease due to its high mercury content.
Moreover, the most challenging question to Director Psihoyos was in regard to one of his replies to inquiries about the contents of the film after the screening at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
“If the movie is allowed to show in Japan, I will donate all of the proceeds to OPS (Oceanic Preservation Society) to all the Taiji-cho fishermen. This may be very little in comparison to what they usually make, but I hope to take this opportunity to help them start better jobs.”
This may seem hypocritical, but if he did honestly mean what he said, it could be a great thing. According to Psihoyos, the dolphin drives were actually a metaphor to characterize the larger nature conservation problem, that people have been over-fishing all around the world. And, this metaphor had been fully reflected in one human life by Richard O’Barry.
“Ric (Richard O’Barry) was a dolphin trainer, who achieved fame and wealth or as we call it ‘the American dream.’ But he gave it all up. For about 10 years he had built up his career but spent the last 40 years trying to bring it down. For me, I think this should be the best symbol of our culture. We are damaging the environment by over-exploiting energy resources and living lives of over-consumption. We have to leave that lifestyle behind and make changes, like Ric did.”
Why donate money to the people of Taiji?
“I thought about how to approach people of importance to protect the oceans and the dolphins, which prompted me to decide to make this documentary. At that time, though I understood what Ric had described about the place and his complaint, we decided to visit Taiji-cho ourselves because I wanted to find out the reasons and stories behind why people in Taiji were persisting in these dolphin drives. In the beginning, we planned to have the script present both Ric’s side of the story and the fishermen’s side of the story to compare them. However, the people in Taiji refused to provide us with their half.
“Cinema is a powerful weapon. I simply wanted to start a debate by showing the film and offering close-up coverage of the dolphin hunting problems – such as the fact that dolphin meat is polluted with mercury and unsafe for human consumption.
“On the other hand, I also wanted to help the fishermen in Taiji. My feeling was that the fishermen in fact do not wish to see the dolphins suffering. I have a son who was also a fisherman, but he could not continue fishing any longer. The reason he gave it up was because of concerns that the big fish at the top of the food chain may contain excessive levels of mercury. Like my son, the fishermen in Taiji will have to find other work eventually. That was why I wanted to help them.”
Still, there was one part of this question that remained unanswered. Why would Psihoyos offer help to the people of Taiji, whom he had not yet met and who also rejected his requests. What were the reasons?
“One day, right in front of me, I saw two children who were run over by a truck and killed. I knew they were in danger, but somehow I could not bring myself to warn them in time. I have regretted ever since not being able to yell “Watch out!” Now, through the production of this movie, I wanted to use this chance to raise my voice about mercury pollution. I regard this as necessary for the wellbeing of myself, my son and others.”
This movie is not about stopping traditional whaling. Psihoyos said that the film is about not eating dolphin meat with high levels of mercury. You could also say the same about other kinds of fish at the top of the ocean food chain, such as tuna, marlin, etc. The amount of mercury that large fish carry accumulates after eating others lower in the food chain.
“In the beginning the movie was about animal conservation, but the more we researched, the more we realized what the main issue was. The key problem should be the mercury.”
Mercury pollution continues
According to Sakae Hemmi, Elsa Nature Conservancy, a similar group in Japan, has also been striving to raise the same issue. In February 2004, they purchased some bottle-nose dolphin meat from Futo (Shizuoka Prefecture) and had it examined for mercury pollution at the Hokkaido Medical University. The results showed that the dolphin meat contained 19.2ppm of mercury. The Ministry of Health and Welfare stated that 0.4ppm should be the safe guideline level, and yet the Futo sample was 48 times higher than the allowed mercury concentration. They also tested many other types of fish meat and all of the results came back above the safety limits.
The Health Ministry had advised especially pregnant women not to consume more than 80 grams of bottle-nose dolphin meat within 2 consecutive months (approximately 10 grams per week). http://www.mhlw.go.jp/topics/ bukyoku/iyaku/syoku-anzen/suigin/051102-1.html
Although the guidance above was announced in June 2006, Elsa Nature Conservancy later met and tried to apply pressure to the Health Ministry to publicize the information more widely. To Ms. Hemmi it seemed that the Ministry merely posted this announcement on their website to curb more damaging rumors. “If the government continues to allow the sale of dolphin meat, the packaging should carry warning labels, or even better, the sale of dolphin meat should be banned,” said Ms. Hemmi.
There is one more related topic. It is with regard to the Minamata disease studies conducted at Kumamoto University’s Research Department. Minamata disease symptoms have been generally thought to only affect peripheral nerves, but the university has presented findings that in fact the brain is impacted first. In other words, mercury causes abnormalities in the peripheral nerves that work for the brain. Even 30 years after the initial pollution is gone, its symptoms still persist in the brain. Once contaminated, it is difficult for the brain to recover its normal function. http://www.aileenarchive.or.jp/minamata_jp/documents/ 060425ekino.html.
If you view “The Cove” as an anti-dolphin drive movie, you may overlook the truly important message that the movie is trying to convey. This film has publicized a critical issue and won numerous awards as the documentary film of the year in other countries. Ironically we should ask ourselves why this movie is not being shown in Japan.
Youji Tsunabuchi
(Author of “Anata Jishin no Stori wo Kaku”
Louie Psihoyos – started out as a free-diver at 17 years of age and has become an internationally recognized photographer. He met Mr. Jim Clark (the founder of Silicon Graphic Inc.), and together they founded the Oceanic Preservation Society, a non-profit organization for the conservation of marine biology and resources. He has won many documentary filmmaking awards overseas for “The Cove”.
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