The Cove

I do want to say that we

try to do the story legally.

Sh*t.

I thought of all the possibilities

of what could happen,

and it kept me up at night.

The story that Ric

showed me at the beginning

was just the tip of the iceberg.

Here it is... the town of Taiji.

The little town

with a really big secret.

It's funny driving into Taiji.

It's kind of like The Twilight Zone.

It's so bizarre

because if you didn't know

what's going on over here,

you would think this is a town

that loved dolphins and whales.

On our left here is the infamous

Taiji Whale Museum.

And I really, really

hate this place.

When we first got to Japan,

Ric O'Barry was incredibly frustrated.

He said, "Oh, you have

to wear a mask.

Otherwise, they'll know

that we're here."

And I thought, okay, all right.

There's the police.

I've got to hunch over

and change my shape

so they think

I'm just some old Japanese guy.

I thought, you know, what am I doing?

I went halfway across the world

to end up in this car,

locked up with this paranoid guy.

Somebody's behind me.

I don't know who that is.

Yep. He's coming. He's coming.

Is he really?

Yeah. I've been doing this too long.

The mayor of this town

actually gave me the key to the city.

I was welcome then.

Today they'd kill me if they could.

And I'm not exaggerating.

If these fishermen could

catch me and kill me,

they would.

About three years ago,

my friend Jim Clark and I

started this organization...

The Oceanic Preservation Society, OPS.

We've been diving for over 35 years,

and you could go back to the same

dive spot year after year

and literally see

the degradation of the oceans

before your very eyes.

There's major extinctions

going on right now in our lifetime.

Jim had the idea

to try to do something

about it, to stop this,

so I began documenting

reefs around the world.

I went to a marine mammal conference

down in San Diego.

There was 2,000 of the world's

top marine mammal scientists,

and Ric O'Barry was supposed

to be the keynote speaker,

and at the last minute,

the sponsor of the program

pulled him from the ticket.

I thought, oh God, that's interesting.

Well, who's the sponsor?

They said, "Sea World."

A lot of marine mammal

scientists get their money

from Hub Research Institute,

which is the nonprofit arm of Sea World.

They don't like me.

They don't like my message

about captivity,

and they took me off the list.

They wouldn't let me

talk about this dolphin slaughter in Taiji.

I said, "Dolphin slaughter?

What's... What's that about?"

He says, "Well, I'm going next week.

You want to come?"

Now we're approaching the area

that's most important.

That's a dolphin's

worst nightmare right there.

Hundreds of thousands

of dolphins have died there.

You'll see the signs...

"Keep Out," "Danger."

There are fishermen walking

around these hills with knives.

This is a national park.

The fishermen told me.

They said, "If the world finds out

what goes on here,

we'll be shut down."

Can you imagine that?

They actually told us that.

We knew to get in there

and film exactly what happens.

We need to know the truth.

When we got back to the hotel...

It's a big spa hotel,

people going by in robes,

and there's these three

undercover cops talking to Ric.

No.

No.

- No.

- No?

No.

In the background,

you could see these dolphin boats

going by in the window,

and it was just... it was so surreal.

I couldn't... I wanted to laugh,

and I wanted to scream

at the same time.

No. No.

Right. I know.

Yeah.

I don't enter. No, no.

Thank you so much, and...

You're welcome.

- See you again.

- Okay. Bye-bye.

I never planned

on being an activist.

One thing leads to another,

and now if there's

a dolphin in trouble

anywhere in the world,

my phone will ring.

Ric is world famous

for his work with dolphins.

The first time I connected

with him in recent years

was on a trip down to Nicaragua.

There were two dolphins

in a swimming pool filled

with their own excrement.

Ric somehow enlisted

the military forces of Nicaragua.

The dolphins were

put on a helicopter,

and then out to sea we go,

and the dolphins are released.

We're going to capture these dolphins

out of the wild

and bring them into captivity.

There are people

who will set them free.

In March of this year,

O'Barry was arrested

three times in Florida

for trying to free some captive dolphins.

On Earth Day, he was

arrested for the same thing

on the Island of Bimini.

How many times

have you been arrested?

This year?

Swimmer, you're within

a government-authorized test area.

You are holding up

a government project.

Do you understand?

God damn it.

A dolphin in the right spot

can make a million dollars a year.

There's a lot of money in it.

If you get in their way...

and I get in their way...

it can be very, very dangerous.

Jane Tipson, she was murdered.

She's the second colleague

I've worked with that was murdered.

The other one was Jenny May.

We were trying to stop

the traffic in Russian dolphins,

and it involved a hunger strike.

About the tenth day, I passed out,

and I went to a hospital there,

so Jenny became a target,

and they followed her

down the beach

and strangled her with her own belt.

These dolphins are symbolic

of a new day for the environment.

It's all about respect now,

not exploitation.

I feel somewhat responsible

because it was the Flipper TV series

that created this

multi-billion-dollar industry.

It created this desire

to swim with them and kiss them

and hold them and hug them

and love them to death,

and it created all these captures.

There were five female dolphins

who collectively played

the part of Flipper.

I captured the five dolphins myself.

The entire crew turns to

with battle station teamwork.

When the porpoise is sighted,

not a moment can be lost.

The men handle this creature

with infinite care.

She seems to sense

that she has come home,

that no harm will come to her now.

She is safe.

When I started training dolphins,

there was no manual.

I would get the script,

and it says "Flipper goes over

to the dock "and picks up the gun

and then swims down left to right."

I had to actually translate that

into action somehow.

Thanks, Flipper.

Yeah. Thanks, Flipper.

The thing that really struck me

was that they're smarter

than we think they are.

The house that you see

on the Flipper set

where the family lives

was actually my house.

I lived there all year round

for seven years.

And right in front of the house

there was a lake, salt water lake,

and that's where Flipper was

at the end of the dock.

When Flipper came on television

at Friday night at 7:30,

I would take my television

set from the house

and go down the end of the dock

with a long extension cord,

and Cathy would watch

herself on television,

and she could tell the difference

between herself and Suzy,

who was another Flipper

dolphin that was used.

I knew then they were self-aware,

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