Luc Besson Will Distribute The Cove Movie in France

MEDIA ALERT ** MEDIA ALERT ** MEDIA ALERT


May 22, 2009

For Immediate Release
Luc Besson Will Distribute The Cove Movie in France

SAVE JAPAN DOLPHINS COALITION
Earth Island Institute * Animal Welfare Institute *
In Defense of Animals * Ocean Care of Switzerland *
Campaign Whale of the UK * Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan

Contacts:
Richard O’Barry, Director
Save Japan Dolphins Coalition
(786) 973-8618
ricobarry@bellsouth.net

David Phillips, Director
Earth Island Institute
(415) 788-3666 x145
davep@earthisland.org

Mark J. Palmer
Earth Island Institute
(415) 788-3666 x139
(530) 758-6022
mpalmer@cal.net

Award-winning Documentary Will Open In July in the US

Japan’s Annual Dolphin Slaughter to Begin September 1st

French Producer/Director Luc Besson, one of Europe’s most honored filmmakers, has agreed to distribute The Cove movie in France.

The Cove, which has won honors at many film festivals, including the Audience Award at January’s Sundance Film Festival, chronicles the efforts of Richard O’Barry and the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition to stop the brutal annual slaughter of thousands of dolphins in Japan. The Cove also won the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival and the Newport Beach Film Festival.

The Cove is being released in the US in July by Roadside Attractions, a subsidiary of Lionsgate. Internationally, The Works, based in London, is handling distribution, recently screening The Cove in Cannes. As a result of the two screening in Cannes, The Cove was picked up for distribution in Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Luxembourg, Italy, New Zealand, Taiwan, Switzerland, Holland and Scandinavia.

“The dolphin slaughter is scheduled to begin again on September 1st,” notes Richard O’Barry, Director of Save Japan Dolphins. “The world-wide exposure of the dolphin slaughter through The Cove movie is going to put a spot-light on this secret environmental disaster. It can’t happen too soon.”

The Cove was directed by Louie Psihoyos and the Ocean Preservation Society.

“We believe The Cove will be a game-changer,” stated David Phillips, Director of Earth Island Institute’s International Marine Mammal Project, a members of the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition. “Japan’s flaunting of international agreements and international norms must end — the killing of dolphins and whales is no longer accepted by civilized society.”

The Save Japan Dolphins Coalition consists of Earth Island Institute, Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan, Ocean Care, In Defense of Animals, Campaign Whale, and the Animal Welfare Institute.

For further information on the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition, go to:

http://www.SaveJapanDolphins.org

Read the Sundance Blog:

http://www.SaveJapanDolphins.org/blog.html

For further information on “The Cove,” go to:

http://www.thecovemovie.com






Mark J. Palmer
Associate Director
International Marine Mammal Project
Director, Wildlife Alive
Earth Island Institute
***************************
NOTE MY NEW CONTACT INFORMATION AFTER APRIL 15, 2009:
David Brower Center
2150 Allston Way, Suite 460
Berkeley, CA 94704
Mark P’s direct line: 510-859-9139
(530) 758-6022 (Davis Office)
IMMP fax: 510-859-9093


http://www.earthisland.org/immp
http://www.DolphinSafe.org
http://www.SaveJapanDolphins.org

Read my Blog on the Sundance Film Festival and the world premiere of "The Cove", a documentary about our work to save dolphins:

http://www.savejapandolphins.org/blog.html

IWC Update: Japan Ends Negotiations on Whaling

by Mark J. Palmer
Associate Director
International Marine Mammal Project
Earth Island Institute &
Save Japan Dolphins Coalition


It appears that Japan has blown up negotiations over their whaling and that the “Hogarth Deal” is at an end. But we still need the new Obama Administration to stand up for whales and work with Japan to end its whale and dolphin killing.


Background: Secret Dirty Deals:

Almost two years ago, Bush appointee William Hogarth, head of the US National Marine Fisheries Service and voted in as Chairman of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), began secret talks with the Japan Fisheries Agency to “solve” the “impasse” at the IWC between whaling and anti-whaling nations.

To the consternation of environmental and animal welfare organizations, the Hogarth Deal was predicated on allowing Japan to legally kill whales in their home waters in the north Pacific (so-called Cultural Coastal Whaling), a long-term goal of Japan’s Fisheries Agency, in exchange for supposedly reducing Japan’s killing of whales under scientific permit in the Antarctic. Allowing Japan Coastal Whaling would mean an end to the 20-year international moratorium on commercial whaling. Furthermore, the Hogarth Deal did not do anything about other nations’ illegal whaling -- Iceland and Norway commercially kill whales in defiance of the moratorium, and South Korea expressed interest in resuming commercial whaling and getting their own deal with the IWC, as likely would some other nations. And Japan’s Fisheries Agency already issues annual permits to kill 23,000 dolphins in Japan’s waters.

As Ric O’Barry has often reminded us, size doesn’t matter -- killing dolphins IS coastal whaling!

This deal was totally unacceptable, but our groups were not in the room with the secret negotiators.


Rome Intersessional:

The “Hogarth Deal” was finally made public during an intersessional meeting of the IWC in March in Rome. But the deal had zero specificity. It stated that Japan would conduct coastal commercial whaling, but provided no numbers of whales that they would slaughter. Furthermore, there were no numbers at all on how many whales Japan would continue to slaughter in the Southern Ocean. Instead, two options were offered, one that stated scientific whaling would be reduced by an unspecified number in the Southern Ocean, and another that such scientific whaling would be phased out entirely. But Japan’s Fisheries Minister, before the Rome meeting even got started, came out stating that Japan would never end scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean. Reportedly, the IWC Small Working Group of nations doing the actual closed-door negotiations met right after the Rome meeting and could not reach any new decisions for more specificity.


Hogarth Deal Explodes in Secret:

Rumor is that just a few weeks ago, the Small Working Group of the IWC convened once again in San Francisco to finalize the Hogarth Deal, due to be made public on May 18th and voted into effect during the June 22-26 IWC meeting in Madeira, Portugal.

At the meeting, Japan, to participant’s amazement, brought out their list of numbers of whales they expected to kill under the Hogarth Deal. The other nations were astonished at the Japan Fisheries Agency’s audacity in the shear bloodshed they were contemplating. The Hogarth Deal could not be agreed to by anyone. (We are still chasing down details of Japan’s proposal in this secret meeting. Reportedly, Japan proposed to kill the same number of whales in the Southern Ocean as they had killed last season — no reduction at all!)

A few weeks ago, the European Union agreed to vote as a bloc at the IWC, pushing for an end to scientific whaling and maintaining the moratorium on commercial whaling. Japan, in retaliation, just completed a meeting of its (well paid) client countries, and announced they too would vote as a bloc at the IWC meeting. A total of 32 nations, some (Iceland and Norway) that are whaling now and many others that are paid millions of yen by the government of Japan to support its position at the IWC.

Voting in blocs will preclude the consensus to sell-out the whales sought by Chairman Hogarth for the past two years.


Japan’s Strategy:

It is very clear what Japan’s strategy is now.. Of course, they never intended to work out any compromise that would curtail their whaling efforts. Japan is intent on expanding its whaling, purely for ideological reasons. (Whale meat in Japan is not selling, and the entire “industry” is now completely subsidized by Japanese taxpayers.)

The Japan Fisheries Agency waited until the last minute to deliberately end the negotiations in secret. This will allow the Japanese Fisheries Agency, surrounded by their well-bribed client nations, to cry “poor me” at the upcoming public meeting of the IWC in Madeira in June, claiming rich countries are to blame for not supporting Japan and conducting cultural and racial discrimination against Japan.

Once again, the Bush Administration’s secret negotiations with other nations have completely and utterly back-fired, resulting in far more damage to the US than if we had been totally straight in the first place.

However, this is not the final end of the “Hogarth Deal.” William Hogarth, a Bush appointee, is still head of the US delegation, is still Chairman of the IWC, and still wants a deal — likely any deal at this point. Like Dr. Frankenstein, you can be sure negotiators are feverishly trying to revive the “Hogarth Deal” so it can be ready to pass in June regardless of how many whales are sacrificed.


What You Can Do:

There is still time to contact President Barack Obama and urge him to stop the US IWC delegation from selling out the whales and dolphins, thanking him for the recent CEQ policy statement in support of the moratorium, but also urging him to replace the Bush appointees on the US IWC delegation and take leadership to convince Japan to stop killing whales and dolphins. Go to:

http://www.savejapandolphins.org/obama.php

Please consider a generous donation to the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition, to help us get the word out, world-wide and especially in Japan, about the whale and dolphin killing sponsored by the Japan Fisheries Agency:

http://www.savejapandolphins.org/donate.php

Earth Island, in conjunction with environmental and animal welfare organizations active on whale and dolphin issues, produced a special edition of ECO for the Rome meeting. You can read it at:

http://www.earthisland.org/immp



The Madeira meeting of the IWC will be an important show-down for this whaling issue. Please get your comments into the President as soon as you can.

At the same time, expect the new documentary The Cove, about Earth Island’s and the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition’s efforts to halt the slaughter of thousands of dolphins authorized by the Japanese Fisheries Agency, to hit theaters in July and August. We believe this documentary will be a game-changer for Japan on dolphins and whales.

Thank you for your efforts for whales and dolphins!



Mark J. Palmer
Associate Director
International Marine Mammal Project
Director, Wildlife Alive
Earth Island Institute
***************************
NOTE MY NEW CONTACT INFORMATION AFTER APRIL 15, 2009:
David Brower Center
2150 Allston Way, Suite 460
Berkeley, CA 94704
Mark P’s direct line: 510-859-9139
(530) 758-6022 (Davis Office)
IMMP fax: 510-859-9093
<mpalmer@cal.net>

http://www.earthisland.org/immp
http://www.DolphinSafe.org
http://www.SaveJapanDolphins.org

Read my Blog on the Sundance Film Festival and the world premiere of "The Cove", a documentary about our work to save dolphins:

http://www.savejapandolphins.org/blog.html

The Cove at Hot Docs 2009 Festival

The Cove will be playing at the Hot Docs 2009 Festival, which runs from April 30th to May 10, 2009 in Toronto, ON.

Sean Farnel says, "Already the Audience Award-winning film at Sundance 2009, The Cove is a potent, unforgettable work, and sure to be one the year's most acclaimed documentaries."

Full details at:

http://schedule.hotdocs.ca/index.php/2009/film/cove

The Cove: Action, Adventure, and the Race to Save Japan’s Dolphins

Ric O'Barry and "The Cove" were written in an article on "The Women's International Perspective" website. You can discover why the author feels it's one of the best documentaries she's seen.

Full article at:

http://thewip.net/contributors/2009/04/the_cove_action_adventure_and.html

Dolphins in Kyoto?

by Richard O'Barry

Japan already has 50 aquariums and zoos that exhibit dolphins, and another one, The Kyoto Aquarium, is being planned for Midori no Yakata (Green Palace) in Umekouji Park, Kyoto City.

Each one of the already existing captive dolphin facilities echo the same propaganda: "The public display of dolphins promotes environmental conservation and teaches respect for nature." Sounds reasonable to some, but where is the evidence to substantiate the claim?

50 Japanese dolphinariums translate into hundreds of millions of visitors who have visited these facilities in the last 50 years. According to theory, these visitors have all been "educated" and are now going to help save the dolphins. Now consider this: More than 20,000 dolphins are slaughtered in the most brutal way imaginable every year in Japan. Not a single one of the visitors of these existing dolphin facilities is doing anything to stop massacre. Neither are any of dolphin trainers, veterinarians, scientists and businessmen who run the 50 facilities.

So what exactly is the point of building a new captive dolphin facility in Kyoto?

As we know, the killing of dolphins is kept secret from the public by the government of Japan with elaborate censorship of the media and local and state enforcement officers keeping people from filming the slaughter. Furthermore, as Save Japan Dolphins Coalition has documented, the captures of wild dolphins for the captivity industry helps subsidize the slaughter, as far more money is paid to the dolphin killers for live “show quality” dolphins than for dead dolphins for their meat. A dolphin is ripped from its family and friends, which are left behind to be brutally killed, as it is shipped off to an aquarium. Obviously, Japan’s aquarium industry will never voluntarily tell this dolphin horror story to the public!

Three Japanese environmental groups -- Elsa Nature Conservancy (a member of the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition), The Institute of Biodiversity and The Japan Environmental Exchange -- are working hard trying to educate the Japanese public in an effort to stop the annual dolphin slaughter. They are also warning the public about the dangers of consuming dolphin meat. Japanese scientists report that the dolphin meat contains higher levels of mercury than the fish which killed hundreds of citizens in Minamata 50 years ago. None of the Japanese aquariums and zoos that exhibit dolphins are doing anything to educate their visitors about these urgent issues.

Having captured and trained dolphins in the past, I know where the promoters on the proposed Kyoto-project are coming from: I used to come from the same place. In consequence, I know that the Kyoto Aquarium will never be able to tell the public the truth about the violent and deadly dolphin captures that take place in Japan. If they did, the paying public would be outraged. In other words: They wouldn't buy a ticket.

Kyoto is held in high regard as a place one visits to see magnificent sacred temples and as a place that respects nature. A captive dolphin facility is a contradiction to Kyoto's efforts to promote the city as environmentally friendly. By saying NO to the proposed Kyoto Aquarium and the captive dolphin industry, Kyoto would be sending a powerful positive message to the rest of the world about Kyoto’s respect for nature.

Public opinion on this subject is shifting dramatically as people learn more of the facts. Many dolphinariums have closed, and many new projects have been abandoned under the weight of public protest. Laws have been enacted in some jurisdictions banning the capture of dolphins in territorial waters.

We sincerely hope the decision makers in Kyoto will soon realize that displaying captive dolphins in Kyoto has no value. Keeping Kyoto "dolphin friendly" has more international public relations value than having a captive dolphin program.

The proposed captive dolphinarium in Kyoto is just one of the places the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition is working to stop or shut down. We have made some progress on this front, but many places around the world continue to push building these aquariums and “swim-with-dolphins” tourist attractions. We will keep you informed on this website about our campaigns to stop or close down these dolphin prisons.

Thanks for your continuing support to stop the killing of Japan’s dolphins and to protect dolphins everywhere.

The Latest NEWS from Save Japan Dolphins Coalition

By Mark J. Palmer, Associate Director,
International Marine Mammal Project, Earth Island Institute, and the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition

Still Time to E-mail President Obama to Save Whales, March 2, 2009

There is still time to contact President Barack Obama to stop the Bush Administration holdovers, who are running the US International Whaling Commission (IWC) delegation, from selling out the whales and dolphins in a rotten deal with the Japanese Fisheries Agency.

The IWC meets in Rome to discuss the deal March 9-11. Environmental organizations, including the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition, have been meeting with representatives of the Obama Administration and members of Congress. Several members of Congress have in turn joined the chorus, urging President Obama to stop the negotiating and return US policy at the IWC to one of protecting whales, not allowing Japan to legally slaughter them.

You can help!

Contact President Obama

Donate now!

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The Latest NEWS from Save Japan Dolphins Coalition

By Mark J. Palmer, Associate Director,
International Marine Mammal Project, Earth Island Institute, and the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition

More Praise for “The Cove”, February 5, 2009

After a rousing reception at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award (determined by votes by Sundance audiences), the film “The Cove”, featuring the work of Ric O’Barry and the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition, is continuing to get lots of attention.

Laurie David and Kelly Meyer (David produced the Al Gore documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”) on the HuffingtonPost say:

Laurie David and Kelly Meyer
Posted February 2, 2009 | 02:48 PM (EST)
The Cove: Truthful Filmmaking at Its Best

Last night a few friends gathered to watch The Cove, the audience award-winning film from Sundance everyone is buzzing about. Not since An Inconvenient Truth has a room been silenced into such abject shock coupled with an intense desire to act. The Cove accomplishes exactly what great documentaries are supposed to -- it moves you, engages you, thrills you, enrages you.

The Cove is its own quirky hybrid -- part action film, part heist, part environmental justice battle cry, with a very real modern day hero, Ric O'Barry. Remember the beloved 1960s television show Flipper? Well O’Barry was the trainer of that dolphin. He came up with the techniques and the idea of capturing dolphins and taming them. As a result, along with a hit TV series, an entire captive dolphin industry was born. Maybe your kids recently visited a "swimming with dolphins" exhibit on their last spring break. Ours did.

Anyway O’Barry has spent the last three decades trying to undo the damage he believes he set into motion. A more heartbreaking protagonist doesn't exist.

O’Barry and his team risk their lives to take us deep inside the dolphin trade in Japan, exposing a practice so disturbing that no judge or jury with a conscience would allow it.

Now we have to face the truth. This film is going to make headlines and it's going to lead to major reforms because that is what powerful, truthful filmmaking does at its best. Audiences will demand action. The truth is a bitter pill to swallow but the dolphins' fate, and ours too, hang in the balance.

www.thecovemovie.com


www.savejapandolphins.org

Joel Reynolds is an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) who has worked for many years on environmental and marine mammal issues. He recently saw “The Cove” and had this to say on NRDC’s website:

Fighting for the Lives of Marine Mammals in “The Cove”
By Joel Reynolds
Director of NRDC's Urban Program, the Marine Mammal Protection and So. California Ecosystem projects, Santa Monica, CA
Posted February 2, 2009 in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places

Every once in a while there is a movie so good it's astonishing, and this morning I saw one. It's called The Cove, and it has just been screened at the Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim and standing ovations. The film, directed by Louie Psihoyos and produced by the Oceanic Preservation Society, chronicles former dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry's heroic campaign to stop the killing of 2,000 dolphins every year in the Japanese coastal village of Taiji. In the 1960s, O'Barry trained the animals that collectively became known as Flipper to TV viewers - an experience that he has spent decades trying to undo because of the role the television show played in creating the captive dolphin industry in the United States and around the world. He came to believe that dolphins should never be captive, and he has tirelessly campaigned to end the inhumane treatment of these undeniably intelligent, self-aware creatures.

The Cove is a riveting tale, told with skill, substance, and relentless drama. The place that gives rise to the film's name is a secretive cove in Taiji, Japan, and the film tells the story not only of what goes on in this hidden place but the lengths that O'Barry and his team had to go to expose it. The Cove is promoted as "an intelligent/action/adventure/Ocean's Eleven-like horror film wrapped around a tale of redemption and ultimate revenge - oh, and it's a documentary." It justly deserves, and was recently awarded, the Audience Award at Sundance.

This could have been, but is not, a punishing series of images of relentless cruelty. Instead, it places the Japanese fishery in a cultural, historical, and political context, tying it, for example, to the captive dolphin industry and to the failure of the International Whaling Commission, the only international forum devoted exclusively to the regulation of whaling but which, inexplicably, excludes any jurisdiction over, and therefore protection for, dolphins, porpoises, and other small whales. Claiming that the dolphins are "pests," depleting the world's fish stocks, the small group of fishermen who make their living in the cove do everything they can to prevent the outside world from learning what they're up to. Nothing seems to matter, including the health of their own children. Because dolphin meat is toxic, containing levels of mercury that vastly exceed safe levels, the fishermen have no where to go with the dolphin meat they produce but to serve it to children in mandatory school lunch programs or to market it to Japanese consumers as falsely labeled whale meat.

An international coalition has been working to stop the fishery that is the focus of The Cove and to protect the thousands of dolphins that are driven to their death there each year. SaveJapanDolphins.org has information on steps we all can take, including sending letters to the Japanese Embassy and to President Obama. This movie is a remarkable achievement, and everyone should see it. I hope they'll get the chance.

Our thanks to Laurie, Kelly, Joel and the many other enthusiastic viewers!

We will post information on distribution of “The Cove” when it becomes available. Negotiations between “The Cove’s” filmmakers and studios for distribution rights are ongoing. It is intended that “The Cove” be seen in movie theaters around the world, including a Japanese-language version.

YOU CAN HELP!!

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The Save Japan Dolphins Coalition includes In Defense of Animals, Ocean Care of Switzerland, Earth Island Institute, Campaign Whale of the UK, Animal Welfare Institute, and Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan.