It began on Nov. 30, 2005, as a full-page, award-winning Japan Times feature by Boyd Harnell, headlined "Secret dolphin slaughter defies protests."
Now, after sparking widespread outrage over the annual slaughter of some 2,500 dolphins in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture (and more than 20,000 in Japan as a whole), a graphic film made there in secret has been selected as one of 16 finalists — from 879 submissions — in the Documentaries Competition at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.
Titled "The Cove," the full-length film directed by former National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos and featuring former "Flipper" trainer Ric O'Barry of the Save Japan Dolphins coalition, will have its premiere at the festival before entering worldwide distribution.
In addition to showing &8121; via camoflaged high-tech cameras and underwater microphones &8121; the savage, government-sanctioned killing of dolphins herded into a small cove, the film highlights the dangers of eating the mammals' meat, reported to contain mercury content up to 37 times higher than the official Japanese food-safety level.
The film festival will be held from Jan. 15 to 25 in Park City, Utah.