THE COVE.

Last night I saw the premiere of a film called


Let me be succinct. It's the kind of film that, when the credits roll, you ask yourself:

"What the hell am I doing with my life? How can anything be more important than this?"

Then, 30 seconds later—still livid, but more lucid—you think about the many paradoxes of our time. This is one of them.

THE COVE is a story about a few things: A man named Ric O'Barry, a highly corrupt Japanese Government, and the tragedy of the annual slaughter of 23,000 dolphins in a small town in Japan.

Now, let me elaborate:

Ric is a fascinating character. A world-renowned dolphin trainer-turned activist. He trained dolphins for the television show "Flipper" in the 60s. That show turned dolphins into world-wide spectacles of adoration and interest.

Speaking of his pet dolphin Cathy--the star of the TV show--Ric tells this story:

How did your ideas about captivity turn around?
Cathy died in my arms, of suicide. It was just before Earth Day, 1970. The next day, I found myself in a Bimini jail, trying to free a dolphin for the first time. I completely lost it.

How do you know it was suicide?
You have to understand, dolphins are not automatic air breathers like we are. Every breath for them is a conscious effort. She looked me right in the eye, took a breath, held it — and she didn’t take another one. She just sank to the bottom of the water. That had a profound effect on me.

From that moment on, Ric has spent his life freeing dolphins from captivity.

What might start out as "oh, the poor dolphins" quickly turns into a case of very real, very frightening relevance for everyone on the planet.

THE COVE shows—quite successfully—that dolphins are very much like you and me. They have a self-awareness and intelligence that reflects and in some cases exceeds our own. The film goes specifically into their communication skills and their incredible sonar capability, which makes our most advanced technology look like a Cracker-Jack toy.

And that when a baby dolphin is killed in front of its mother, its mother cries out in agony.

Here's the general facts, then you just need to see the film.

--Dolphins (and whales, and all oceanic mammals) are incredibly intelligent. On some moral level, it's wrong to kill them or keep them captive. They're not "just fish."

--Dolphins are sold for up to 150K a piece to places like Sea World, Aquariums, etc. This is what makes the industry to kill them profitable.

--Why? Because no one eats dolphin meat. It isn't a part of the Japanese culture to do so, and what's infinitely worse:

--Dolphin meat is LACED with mercury. Whereas the maximum lawful allowance for mercury in fish meat is 4 parts per million, dolphin meat has been measured at 22,000 parts per million.

Now, whether we have sympathy for captive dolphins or not, we cannot deny that it is genocide to permit people to consume any such type of food. And the Japanese government has dolphin meat re-labeled as other types of meat so that people think they're buying one thing and actually getting another---and the other happens to be something that will cause their newborn children to have massive birth defects, including blindness, deafness, severe brain damage and so on.

A few years ago, the government in Japan tried to make dolphin meat a mandatory part of every lunch at every school in the country.

--Why? Because they're running out of other fish--because, as they say, the dolphins are eating all the fish! So, kill the pests (dolphins) and eat them in the meantime.

And we haven't even started with the IWC and how Japan buys off entire countries' votes so that they can continue to whale and slaughter dolphins.

I am done. There is so much shit that goes on in this world, and I know we all have moments where we want to throw our hands up and say "forget it--it's useless." From corporate corruption to world hunger, and everything in between.

But I think that we all need to keep each other in check. And Japan needs to be put in check. Selling dolphins to Sea World is one thing--slaughtering thousands needlessly and feeding their poisoned meat to children is another.

This is one of SO many issues--and paradoxical ones--because my son at Sea World is the happiest child on the planet.

So, do we stop going to Sea World? To the Monterey Aquarium? To Zoos? Are all people who work at these places and claim to love animals complete hypocrites? During the Q and A with the filmmakers afterwords, I posed a similar question. You can't imagine the reaction of the audience. I was the enemy.

Well, I don't feel that way. I believe those places and people do genuine good. I believe with all of my heart that God wants us to experience Nature. Zoos and Aquariums make it possible for millions of people to experience something they never otherwise would be able to. And that is good.

But their programs are not perfect, and we need to be continually improving on how we treat other species on this planet—especially the ones who save our lives when a shark is out to eat us.

Here's the coolest thing I've seen in a while.

wes.