Sting, Ric O'Barry Team Up In Fight Against Dolphin Slaughter

TOKYO — Sting wants to help save dolphins still being brutally slaughtered in Japan, but says the best way is by starting a debate, not by forcing foreign opinion.

The British music star met backstage at a Tokyo concert hall Wednesday with Ric O'Barry, the star of the "The Cove," the Academy Award-winning documentary that depicts the dolphin hunt in the town of Taiji in southwestern Japan.

The two have been friends since the Sundance Film Festival two years ago, where "The Cove" had its first major showing.

The film, directed by Louie Psihoyos, shows dolphins driven into a cove and stabbed by fishermen on small boats, turning the water red with blood, as the dolphins writhe in agony.

"I was blown away by the movie," Sting told The Associated Press before his concert. "We should not be eating dolphins."

Sting, in Asia for his "Symphonicity" tour, said he's sympathetic to the save-the-dolphins view in "The Cove" but that the best approach is "through dialogue," noting that many Japanese are also outraged by dolphin killing.

O'Barry said Sting and his wife were among the first people to express support for "The Cove." The former Police frontman has spoken out on environmental and humanitarian issues around the world.

He told O'Barry to stay optimistic, assuring him that word was getting out about overfishing and depletion of the oceans.

"We only evolve as a species when we are in a crisis," Sting said. "We don't want an empty sea."

O'Barry, 71, the former dolphin trainer for the 1960s TV show "Flipper," said he has posted new footage on his website of the dolphin slaughter in Taiji, taken this week by one of his colleagues.

Fishermen in the village say they are trying to find more humane ways to kill dolphins, but the new footage shows dolphins taken into shallow water and flapping in apparent pain. They are then stabbed by fishermen and continue to suffer for a few more minutes.

O'Barry said he plans to go to Taiji later this week and meet with the town's mayor to show him the footage.

The Japanese government allows about 20,000 dolphins to be caught each year and defends the hunts as traditional, but most Japanese have never eaten dolphin meat.

___

Online:

"The Cove": http://www.thecovemovie.com/

Ric O'Barry's blog: http://www.savejapandolphins.org/

O'Barry's "Blood Dolphins" on the Discovery Channel:

http://animal.discovery.com/tv/blood-dolphins/episode-guide.html

Comments

[Vivienne Ortega]

02:26 AM on 02/26/2011

"The Japanese government allows about 20,000 dolphins to be caught each year and defends the hunts as traditional". Traditions are human constructs, and often they are not necessary for survival and in this case, not ethical. This means that when traditions are in conflict with the welfare and intrinsic value of non-human species, and global human condemnation, they need to change. Using the bizarre excuse of "tradition" further condemns them for their guilt. The Japanese will go to great lengths to put their fingers up at Westerners who object to their atrocities. Their national pride and autonomy will ensure the massacres will continue, until they can stop peacefully without losing their "honour" and "face". Well done to "The Cove" and to Ric O'Barry and Sting. We are not the only intelligent and sentient species on the planet, and dolphins are no more food than humans.

[Alex Shalan]

10:32 AM on 02/05/2011

This should really get more coverage. I praise documentaries like 'The Cove' that are bringing a new light to this cruelty. Not only is the mass killing of dolphins inhumane, it's inhumane that in Japan they are disguising 'whale meat' when it's actually mercury-high dolphin meat. It's a real problem of deceit.

[caroline gray]

08:06 PM on 02/01/2011

Lets hope this gets things going in way of public interest :]

[Erik SutterKaye]

08:38 PM on 01/25/2011

"The Japanese government allows about 20,000 dolphins to be caught each year and defends the hunts as traditional, but most Japanese have never eaten dolphin meat."
No, that's not true. I live in Japan. According to "The Cove", most Japanese HAVE eaten dolphin meat, but are not aware of it. I can walk into any grocery store and buy a slab of "kujira nikku"-- whale meat. According to Barry in "The Cove," dolphin meat-- "iruka nikku"-- is mislabeled as whale meat legally, and sold in restaurant-pubs as well as grocery stores. I suspect it is also added to other processed foods unlabeled. If 20,000 dolphins are killed a year, its entering into the market somewhere. Surely, the cats and dogs of the Japanese are eating iruka nikku.

[Mieko Mori]

04:33 PM on 02/10/2011

There are more than 127 million people in the country and 9 out of 10 Japanese people don't even eat whale meat on a regular basis. I regularly hang out on Japanese sites and talk to Japanese friends and relatives. From what I've heard, whaling companies have massive amounts of stock in their freezers due to the increasingly shrinking market. Whale meat was a major staple during post-war Japan but the market has been shrinking since the 60's, when western modernization really started to take hold. I doubt that most of the population failed to notice that whale/dolphin meat were being slipped into their food by thousands of suppliers (which is what it would take to distribute the meat to most of populace).

[b525]

08:17 PM on 01/21/2011

Most of this dolphin meat/blubber is contaminated with mecury and other toxic/endocrine disrupting chemicals which accumulates in the blubber of dolphins as they age.

The pollutants accumulate in dolphin blubber because they eat thousands of fish over the course of their lives which are contaminated with various pollutants. All these chemicals are stored in the dolphins blubber and do not generally get eliminated from their bodies.

By the time dolphins and whales reach middle age they are literally toxic waste sites loaded with coastal marine pollutants, these pollutants slowly sicken the dolphins and also the humans who eat dolphin/whale meat.

[Hugatreetoday]

10:29 AM on 01/21/2011

Love you Ric!

[European1919]

08:26 AM on 01/21/2011

So just some unctuous words.
No money to support Ric in his work.
Or some SERIOUS publicity.

So where is the teaming up apart from in the HP headline?

[KarlaElisa]

01:05 PM on 01/19/2011

There is no 'one way' to engage in this battle. Start a debate, great. Cost them money/losses, fine.
Greet them with the violence they use on the dolphins, works for me. Write letters, sing songs, protest, march, use civil disobedience, destruction of property, threats....I don't care. Use it all.

Whatever it takes.

[Mieko Mori]

04:56 PM on 02/10/2011

It really sounds like you're itching for some kind of war.