Dolphin Intelligence

I’ve always thought dolphins where interesting creatures. However I have to admit that my only experience with dolphins is what I’ve seen at Sea World as a kid and what little I’ve seen on TV. After watching The Cove in class I’m embarrassed that I’ve never really payed much attention to these creatures. It’s hard to believe whats happening to dolphins over on the shores of Taiji Japan. Even though I never really payed a lot of attention to dolphins I would never have thought anyone would have any reason to slaughter so many of them.

In the documentary Richard O’Berry mentions how one of the dolphins he trained for the 1964 show Flipper displayed extremely human traits and intelligence like recognizing herself on TV. I have heard before that Dolphin’s are one the most intelligent animals on the planet next to humans. So I decided to look around a little for information on dolphin intelligence.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2003/jul/03/research.science

The article above talks about how dolphins learn behaviors from their parents, learn from observing their surroundings, problem solve, have the ability to predict possible future outcomes, and display unique personalities. Most specifically the article talks about a dolphin named Kelly. Trainers at the Institute of Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi decided to train some dolphins to pick up trash that might fall into their tanks in exchange for fish snacks. The dolphins where trained to hold onto any pieces of trash that fall into the tank and give it to a trainer as soon as they see one. Interestingly enough Kelly started to rig the system in her favor. You see what she would do was instead of giving the trainer the whole piece of trash she finds. She will hide the trash at the bottom at the tank and tear it apart into separate pieces to give to the trainers individually. She’s figured out that the size of the trash dosent matter and she can get more treats out of the deal.

Written by Matthew Trammell

The Cove

The documentary the cove is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to watch. It is one of those documentaries that shows that ignorance is bliss, how none of us knew that this was going on, and I for one have had my eyes opened. So many things that were happening in this documentary were wrong on so many different levels. Each one more terrifying and heart wrenching then the next. This documentary changed a lot of things in m mind, part of what I feel towards the Japanese has changed, though I’ve kept in mind that this is not all of Japan and most of it’s residents are not aware that thousands of dolphins are slaughtered every September. Also my opinion on places like Sea World has changed greatly, and I’m glad I never frequented visits because I would no longer we able to enjoy them. This film was educational on so many levels, I feel that if you can stomach it, everyone should be required to watch it. One of the most terrifying concepts in the film was the fact that they people, in appaemts to justifying killing all of the dolphins for meat, was to give it to the schools for lunch. The documentary had already explained the face that dolphins have extremely high levels of mercury in them, which makes the idea of feeding it to children, where they are forced to eat all of it everyday truly terrifying.

The Cove

After watching the Cove, I still was curious about some of the more recent facts about the dolphin and whale slaughterings. I found my way to the Oceanic Preservation Society FAQ page. On this website, there are different questions that are categorized in the most frequently asked questions of today. One of the questions is, “What is going on now with the dolphins in Taiji?”. In short, the slaughter still is going on today. If interested, you may follow one of the bases, Ceta-Base. OPS is currently working on preservation in another area besides the cove, but the film is still showed for educational purposes.

Upon clicking more links, I stumbled upon the Ceta-Base homepage. Here, data is compiled from the past and current dive hunt fishing practices. The data is laid out in yearly format. Since September 1st, 407 dolphins were driven to shore. 156 dolphins were killed, 221 were released, and 28 were live-capture. On the website, there is a table of all the different species that are captured, killed, and released.

There is also a link that leads to a timeline of the Taiji killing of the dolphins. It shows each dolphins status after if was captured by the people in Taiji.

(TAJI TIMELINE:http://www.ceta-base.com/taiji-timeline.html)

This link contains many pictures and most of the information that is on the Ceta-Base website in PDF form.

Click to access trackingtaiji-thehunt-2012.pdf

Dolphin killings

This documentary The Cove, was not what i thought it would be. I didn’t really know about it before but i really enjoyed it. I have seen a famous photograph of a child in japan that had birth defects and the photograph was very interesting because it told a story that i haven’t heard. Dolphins being slaughtered in japan? The news of this has never reached me. By watching the cove, i now understand how bad the slaughtering is and how we need to act fast.

The United Sates is one of the strongest nations in the world, i feel it is our job to help stop this in Japan. Even though it isn’t our country and we cant really tell them to stop, the fastest way to get the word around it social mediation. When the government went under in Egypt, the words were spreading around the globe all because of facebook and twitter.

The cove really opened my mind to all of whats going on now in Japan with the slaughtering. I want to help and get more people to become aware of whats going on before all of the dolphins are killed!

The Cove

Personally I don’t feel much for Dolphins, I don’t really like or dislike them. As a kid I never wanted to swim with dolphins or had any desire to go to sea world. After watching The Cove I’ll defiantly never be going to sea world or any park like it.

At first I figured as long as the Dolphin bodies are being eaten or at least put to some kind of use then maybe the killings would be somewhat justified. Chickens are killed inhumanely everyday for the purpose of eating, I know Dolphins are a lot smarter than chickens, but this kind of animal abuse and killing seems to happen all over the world. When I discovered the Dolphin meat was not only toxic, but also mislabeled and sold to the public then I was pretty annoyed. Not only are they killed, but also their meat isn’t even worth killing them over, it a loose loose situation.

This sort of thing happens with milk in the US too, I feel like every country has some kind of product they like to pass off as healthy.  I watched a video last year about Bovine somatotropin, and injection used on dairy cows to increase milk production. When cows are given this drug there’s a 79% increase in a very painful utter infection, regardless these cows are still milked, the infection puss mixing with the milk. Because of these infections the cows are pumped full of antibiotics. Cow milk with a lot of antibiotics leads to people with too many antibiotics, which increases cancer risks. The injection is banned in Canada, the European Union, Japan and Australia yet most places in America still sell it. Milk is also pretty much the only beverage served in elementary/middle schools. Companies aren’t required to tell its consumers that their cows were given the drug so trying to avoid milk products with it is annoyingly difficult. Thankfully some companies have been standing up against rDGH.

I’ve also heard that the Japanese fish market is very wasteful. I found that “4.860 Tt of fish wastes are generated annually in Japan”. I feel that if Japan found a smarter way to sell and preserve their fish they wouldn’t have to sell the people dolphin meat?

I think we should all sign the petition to save Japans dolphins:  http://www.takepart.com/thecove It was the link given at the end of The  Cove video.

The poison within

While watching The Cover the one detail that really struck me was the explanation as to why there’s so much mercury in Dolphin meat. I had known eating a lot of fish could lead to mercury poisoning, but I had never really looked into it because I don’t eat fish and so I didn’t worry about it.

The first thing I found interesting about the mercury in fish was that the mercury in fish is higher than it used to be because of mankind’s impact. It is quite troublesome to think that it would be so simple to taint the wildlife we intend to eat. The idea that the level of mercury in the fish meat also varies by the level in the food chain that type of fish is also piqued my interest. The whole idea of it makes the idea of eating fish even less appealing. Dolphins being on the same level of the food chain as us just means that they’re even more dangerous to eat.

The maximum allowed amount of mercury in sea food is 1 parts-per million. This amount is used to make sure that people who like to eat fish can remain healthy. It was incredibly shocking that the dolphin meat had 2000 ppm. To think that people would be so unaware of just how dangerous eating the dolphin meat was. Not only that but they were shipping it out under false pretenses so people were unknowingly eating dolphin meat thinking it was something else. It’s hard to know if the men slaughtering the dolphins knew about all of this or not. That’s not something that was covered in the movie. They only really went over the mercury in the fish with the guy testing it and then with the two government people who were against giving it to the children. Mercury poisoning is a very scary thing especially because it seems like something that can happen very easily if someone isn’t well informed about how much fish they should eat.

August 2012 Peace Protest

After watching “The Cove” in class I was chocked about what was happening in Japan. I could not believe all the things that were happening in that one little area and dolphins being killed because the people wanted to make a profit.

I went looking around the Internet to see what has been done or going on about this problem. There was a lot of save the dolphin’s site and programs that want to help them, but then I found an article from newjerseynewsroom.com titled “Protest of Japan’s annual dolphin hunt set for NYC on Friday” published on Tuesday, 28 August 2012.

The article goes in to a brief summary of what goes on in that area of Japan were dolphins are slaughtered by the thousands or trapped and sold into captivity. Then it goes on to a peaceful protest on that following Friday, August 31, 2012 at the Consulate General of Japan in New York City.  The protest wanted to attempt to raise awareness to Japan’s killing and capture season of dolphins and to start a national discussion toward ending it.

Then it goes in to about Ric O’Barry, who was once a dolphin trainer but now a renowned activist.  He was the leading role in “The Cove.” He also founded  “Save Japan Dolphins,” which was a part of the Friday’s protest in New York.

From there the article goes in to the protest. Alan Howard, who is an administrator with “Save Misty the Dolphin,” headed the Friday peaceful protest. His organization had notified the Japanese Consulate and the Japan Society of New York City about the event and invited them, so that they can send representatives to speak with demonstrators. The protester had signs, posters and banners, flyers, postcards business cards with brief info on what is happening to the dolphins in Japan.

The protest in 2012, had nearly 90 cities around the world participating in it.

After reading the article I feel there is some hope for the dolphins but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.  It is still a problem.

The Cove

The Cove is documentary analyzing the dolphin hunting industry in Japan.  It showed not only the cruel practices of killing them but as well as its consequences for the natural ecosystem and the human species.

The film discusses the how the entertainment industry recruits thousands of dolphin for shows and how it has build a multibillion industry, which is hard to control. Those extremely intelligent animals are not meant to be kept in captivity. They communicate through sound and thus they are extremely sensitive to it. With so many people screaming, being loud and excited to see them, they get stressed and thus are constantly medicated. Knowing these facts the public should be aware of it and try to change the industry, however it so profitable and people are so selfish that nothing is being done.

Another issue that movie discusses, is the hunting of dolphins in Taiji, Japan. Every hunting season, around September, thousands of dolphins are attracted to the cove, to be sold to the entertainment industry or to be killed for its meat. The practices of the fishermen are not only uncontrollably decreasing the dolphin population but as well cruel.

Another aspect of the Japanese hunting industry is that they sell prohibited dolphin meat as whale meat, which extremely popular and pricy in the Japanese culture. Dolphin meat was prohibited because of its high levels of mercury, which is an extremely toxic substance for the human body. Furthermore the government in order to accustom its citizens to it, it has introduced dolphin meat at obligatory lunches at schools.

This movie shoes exactly how the high profit industries are influencing our lives as well as ruining the ecosystem caring only about the profits. Not only the inhuman practices are being widely accepted, they are also trying to make it legal which I find shocking and revolting.

What the World May Become: The Cove

I have bad news, but I won’t reveal it until I’ve put down a few of my thoughts:

Until having watched this entire documentary, I did not realize that I had seen a tidbit of it at the near end on animal planet (or the discovery channel), when the governments are having their conference about Japan hunting the whales and dolphins. What struck a chord with me, although I did not finish the documentary, was the statement given by one of the men (I think it was from one of the African men a part of the country Japan bribed).

Japan didn’t want to be pushed around by westerners.

This is a statement that has bothering me in my spiritual/psychological quest of inner peace. (As lame that sounds, I’m serious.)
At what point should we, as our nation or others, become involved in other countries business? Let’s say that we let Japan do whatever the fuck they want: kill all of the whales and dolphins, destroy coral reefs and chop down all of the trees from their forests. Do we try to stop them, warning them that their rapid consumption will soon leave them with nothing? Or do we give up and them obliterate everything, and, as a consequence, having nothing left to feed the growing world population? The latter would be a cruel option, considering that it would be unfair if Japan was left to kill itself by its own carelessness. But would it, like a sacrifice, be the eye-opener the human population needs and finally understand that we are taking too much and not giving enough back?
Here is an interesting event that is going to happen at the rate of destruction and over-fishing the human species will deal with soon: “Suddenly Jellyfish”

This is, I believe, Japan, dealing with a rising problem: Jellyfish. Their sudden multiplication has been blamed on global warming, a die-off of natural predators (sea turtles, manta rays, other fish probably). Some of the jellyfish, like the one pictured above, have been multiplying because fishermen were cutting them in half in an attempt to destroy them, but the simple animals survive and double because of this method (another instance of human ignorance ruining the environment).

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120405-blooming-jellyfish-problems
Now, more about The Cove. This is the bad news part, but I’m probably only revealing it now because I’m tired and the cynic inside of me isn’t in a good mood.
Dolphins creep me out.
You can blame Cracked.com for that and their articles about dangerous animals. Dolphins were #1 due to their almost too human natures. Not only being playful, but also being dolphin pup murderers and gang-bangers. This was pushed aside as a joke until hearing about a documentary being available on Animal Planet or Discovery Channel. Unfortunately I hadn’t seen it, so I don’t know the name. Here’s another article:

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/bizarre/news-bottle-nosed-dolphins-only-animal-kills-fun
Pet peeve: I hate it how it’s written in the title or anywhere else: “Humans are the only ones who (insert claim here)” and then people are surprised when animals have behaviors similar to ours. It would make since that we share similar behavioral patterns since humans are animals, regardless of intelligence.

To end it off, I’m going to awkwardly say that my favorite fact I learned from the movie was about the mercury poisoning. I thought the number difference was astounding, and it’s sad to see that Japan is repeating its own mistakes (The Minimata Disease) because of greed.

Are Dolphins even that profitable?

The Cove

The Cove was a heartbreaking documentary and it really opened my eyes to how intelligent dolphins really are (the dolphin watching Flipper with her trainer) and how poorly suited they are for captivity.

One thing I was curious about that the movie didn’t delve into further was a ballpark number of how many dolphins are slaughtered in Taiji annually and how the slaughter of dolphins affects the population near Japan as a whole, or if it threatens any species to endangered/extinct status. It appears they catch several species of dolphins, since the film mentioned how bottlenoses are singled out for being iconic, but I wanted to know how the slaughter was affecting the wild population and the environment (since it mentioned how Taiji sees it as “pest control” also). I wanted to know how often the drives were and an average number of dolphins killed per drive, as well as how many different species are captured.

I do question why the team working to monitor the cove couldn’t use a boat to sit offshore and spy/record rather than using a land-based approach.

The fact that dolphins sold for food contain deadly amounts of mercury was new to me as well. I’ve known that large fish like tuna are dangerous to eat very often for humans, and it makes me wonder if/how mercury poisoning affects dolphins as well, since they are such intelligent and complex animals.

Overall, while the movie was hard to watch at points and make me sad, I’m very glad it was made, as I had never heard of dolphin drives before and the movie also went into detail about the dangers we humans pose to dolphins. I hope in the future more can be done to stop this to not only protect the dolphins but also the people of Taiji and other Japanese people who may consume dolphin or wale meat.