The Cove won the ‘best documentary’ category at the 82nd Academy Awards held at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre yesterday Sunday, March 7th. The film exposes the secret slaughter of tens of thousands of dolphins in Japan every year and the public health threat posed to people from eating the meat, which is heavily contaminated with mercury and other toxins at levels that hugely exceed health safety limits.
The Cove also reveals that dolphins spared slaughter are sold to aquaria and ‘swim with dolphins’ programmes around the world.
Campaign Whale is the sole UK member of the Save Japan’s Dolphins coalition campaign featured in the film. We are working directly with former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry in Japan to end the dolphin slaughter. Ric trained dolphins for the 1960s TV series ‘Flipper’ that was also made into a film in 1996. Campaign Whale Director Andy Ottaway also worked with captive dolphins and is convinced that it is cruel to keep these intelligent social animals in captivity. Andy also led a nationwide campaign that saw the closure of all UK dolphinaria in the early 1990’s.
Campaign Director Andy Ottaway said ‘This award is thrilling because the Oscars are the most watched TV programme in Japan. Now 130 million Japanese, as well as a further billion people worldwide, will be made aware of the secret dolphin slaughter taking place in Japan and will hopefully want to stop it.’
Please help the dolphins by donating to or joining Campaign Whale today!