The Dolphin Smile
The high-pitched scream of the trainer’s whistle silences the restless crowd as the over zealous speaker steps onto the main stage. With pudgy fingers, he taps the microphone, prompting an echoing stream feedback. The show commences. Children giggle with excitement as droplets from the dolphins’ passing wakes swell over the tank’s edge and spray over the bleachers. Their faces press up against the glass tank, fervent to see those infamous glass eyes gazing from behind that spurious dolphin smile.
The multibillion-dollar industry of dolphinariums was born from the 1960’s Flipper TV film series. Richard O’Barry, lead dolphin trainer for the Flipper TV film series, laments, “It created this desire to swim with them and kiss them and hold them and hug them and love them to death.” “It’s all about exploitation” (The Cove).
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Today, Richard O’Barry is the leading activist against the dolphin slaughter. “The thing that turned me around was the death of Flipper. She was really depressed. I could feel it. I could see it. And she committed suicide in my arms.” Suicide. Unlike humans, dolphins aren’t automatic air-breathers. “Every breath they take is a conscious effort. And so they can end their life whenever life becomes too unbearable.” Flipper did that. “She swam into my arms and looked me right in the eye and... took a breath... and didn't take another one” (The Cove). Richard O’Barry spent a decade building the captive dolphin industry up from nothing, and he’s spent the last 35 years trying to tear it down.
Today, dolphinariums provide an important cornerstone for tourism-based economies. The dolphin trade has established an international demand for domestic dolphins to be used in commercialized or private parks. Taiji, Japan has practically cornered the market on providing the world with young, attractive dolphins. Although Taiji is regarded as the birthplace of Japanese whaling, whales are no longer the targets in the waters around Taiji.
Sound is Flipper’s kryptonite. She, like bats, use echolocation to seek out potential meals, predators, or escape routes. Miles of Open Ocean and soft sand beds primarily absorb the piercing clicks and whistles, so this sixth sense has evolved to be incredibly sensitive to the slightest refraction of sound. Glass and concrete are no substitute for a her natural habitat. The complete spectrum of sound waves are refracted—and sometimes even amplified—off a glass or concrete wall.
Sound is Flipper’s kryptonite. She, like bats, use echolocation to seek out potential meals, predators, or escape routes. Miles of Open Ocean and soft sand beds primarily absorb the piercing clicks and whistles, so this sixth sense has evolved to be incredibly sensitive to the slightest refraction of sound. Glass and concrete are no substitute for a her natural habitat. The complete spectrum of sound waves are refracted—and sometimes even amplified—off a glass or concrete wall.
“At the National Aquarium in Baltimore, when it first opened, dolphins were dying left and right. They couldn't keep dolphins alive, and they finally figured out it's because the filtration system was making a lot of noise. It’s the stress that kills them. If you go to any one of these [Dolphinariums’ fish houses], you'll see bottles of Maalox and Tagamet. And they're used because dolphins get ulcers, because they're all stressed out” (The Cove). Flipper, no doubt, had swallowed her fair share.
“You have to see them in the wild to understand why captivity doesn’t work. In the wild, they’re traveling 40 miles a day. [Flipper could’ve] been surfing in one area in the morning, and the next hour, [she] could be 25 miles away feeding or socializing,” but no. “Dolphins are acoustic creatures. That is their primary sense. The best sonar that man has is a toy compared to the dolphins' sonar.” “They’re very sensitive to sound. That’s their primary sense, and that’s their downfall in Taiji” (The Cove).
Richard O’Barry has observed the hunt for years and has analyzed the process down to a system: There are migratory routes that the dolphins have been using for thousands of years. The fishermen just wait for the dolphins to come by. When a pod is targeted, they insert long poles with flanges on bottoms into the water, and they just bang on the poles with hammers to create a wall of sound, more impenetrable than any net to poor Flipper. “I think I can actually hear the banging, …I hear it all the time. I hear it in my sleep. That sound never goes away once you hear it.” They use this wall of sound to drive the dolphins from the shoreline into the secluded inlet, known to the followers of Richard O'Barry as ‘The Cove.’ The entrance to the bay is sealed and the fishermen go home.
Richard O’Barry has observed the hunt for years and has analyzed the process down to a system: There are migratory routes that the dolphins have been using for thousands of years. The fishermen just wait for the dolphins to come by. When a pod is targeted, they insert long poles with flanges on bottoms into the water, and they just bang on the poles with hammers to create a wall of sound, more impenetrable than any net to poor Flipper. “I think I can actually hear the banging, …I hear it all the time. I hear it in my sleep. That sound never goes away once you hear it.” They use this wall of sound to drive the dolphins from the shoreline into the secluded inlet, known to the followers of Richard O'Barry as ‘The Cove.’ The entrance to the bay is sealed and the fishermen go home.
The next morning, marine biologists and dolphin trainers wade out among the nets and select the ideal Flippers (usually young females). Taiji is the largest supplier of dolphins to marine parks and swim-with-dolphin programs around the world. Each Flipper sells for up to $150,000 (The Cove). The others are sold as well, in small plastic packages and tin cans next to the tuna in the grocery aisle.
“In Taiji, you can go to the Whale Museum and watch the dolphin show and eat a dolphin at the same time. They sell dolphin and whale meat right in the dolphinarium” (The Cove)--dinner and a show. In previous years, a majority of this meat made its way into the Japanese government’s free school lunch programs.
“In Taiji, you can go to the Whale Museum and watch the dolphin show and eat a dolphin at the same time. They sell dolphin and whale meat right in the dolphinarium” (The Cove)--dinner and a show. In previous years, a majority of this meat made its way into the Japanese government’s free school lunch programs.
In fact, in the 1950s, select regions of Japan were struck with “Minamata disease,” a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. It spread like an epidemic among children and infants. Interestingly, dolphin meat contains toxic levels of mercury twenty times higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends (The Cove). Connect the dots. In 2010, the National Institute for Minamata Disease tested 1,137 residents of our old friend Taiji and found human mercury levels ten times the national average. The consumption of mercury in the quantities that exist in dolphin meat can impair immune response and cause neurological damage leading to loss of coordination, vision, and hearing and can produce mental retardation, especially among youths (Associated Press in Taiji).
“In all of these captures, we helped create the largest slaughter of dolphins on the planet” (The Cove). 23,000 dolphins are killed for meat every year. The luckier 3,000 are flown overseas and will spend the rest of their lives living in a 40x40x40m cubical (Dolphin Killing Statistics). It is this captive dolphin industry that financially supports the Taiji dolphin slaughter. By default, so has anyone and everyone that has paid to enter a dolphinarium.
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Despite all of these infringements, the greatest betrayal of all is the dolphin smile. “When you just walk into this place and the music is playing, the dolphin is jumping and smiling, it's hard to see the problem. But a dolphin's smile is nature's greatest deception” (The Cove). Thousands of Flippers in captivity wear those smiles as they complete yet another loop around their watery prisons and will bear that same, haunted smile to greet dozens of more boisterous crowds. Others, that were not so lucky, left that smile behind in the bloody waters of ‘The Cove.’
Works Cited
Associated Press in Taiji. "Dolphin Meat Causing Dangerous Mercury Levels in Japanese Diners." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 09 May
2010. Web. 15 Nov. 2012.
"Dolphin Killing Statistics." Dolphin Killings in Taiji, Japan. Blogger.com, 1 Mar. 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2012.
The Cove. Dir. Louie Psihoyos. By Mark Monroe. Perf. Richard O'Barry. Ocean Preservation Society (OPS), 2009. Documentary.
"The Cove Script." The Cove Script - Dialogue Transcript. Script-O-Rama, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2012.
2010. Web. 15 Nov. 2012.
"Dolphin Killing Statistics." Dolphin Killings in Taiji, Japan. Blogger.com, 1 Mar. 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2012.
The Cove. Dir. Louie Psihoyos. By Mark Monroe. Perf. Richard O'Barry. Ocean Preservation Society (OPS), 2009. Documentary.
"The Cove Script." The Cove Script - Dialogue Transcript. Script-O-Rama, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2012.