The Cove Page #3

in the International

Whaling Convention

that allows a nation

to take whales for science,

and Japan has decided

that that's its loophole.

Currently, Japan

has research programs

that involve killing minke whales,

fin whales, sei whales,

and humpback whales.

Every scientific catch, to me,

is a dark spot on the record

of this commission.

They're talking about

the 1,000 whales in the Antarctic.

They're not talking about

the 23,000 over here

being slaughtered.

The IWC has presided

over one of the greatest

environmental

catastrophes of all time.

The reality is the International

Whaling Commission

does have a mandate

to look at issues

affecting dolphins,

but the Japanese are

trying to legitimize a practice

that just about every country

in the world has said no to.

Governments are really great

at getting together

and holding meetings

and conferences

and glad-handing each other,

but they never ever seem

to accomplish anything.

It's as Margaret Mead once said...

never ever depend

upon governments or institutions

to solve any major problem.

All social change comes

from the passion of individuals.

If saving cetacean

species from extinction

relies upon the International

Whaling Commission,

then there is no hope.

During the Greek era,

it was punishable by death

to harm a dolphin.

They were protected,

and they were protected

because there's a lot

of stories throughout history

of dolphins saving the lives of humans.

There's some real magic there

when you're on a wave together.

There's this other species

that you can't consciously

communicate with,

and you're both experiencing a thing

that's purely for joy

beyond the level of survival.

I went surfing

on the east coast of Australia.

About half an hour

into the session,

I was sitting

with this friend of mine,

and he goes, "Wait,"

and on the surface of the next wave

was a tiger shark.

Its fins were down,

and it was in the zone.

This thing was literally

and I look down, and right there...

it's like in a glass case in a wall...

this dolphin comes out of right field

and T-bones this shark

and pushes it directly

away from me and my buddy.

In that moment...

That's the most obvious demonstration

of the connection in my life.

A few years ago,

a friend of mine told me

about what was going on in Japan.

wiped out every year,

and it's not even acknowledged.

Nobody has actually seen

what takes place back there,

and so the way to stop it

is to expose it.

They've already told us that...

"Don't take pictures."

The sign says "Don't take pictures."

And so the way to stop it

is keep exposing this to the world.

Eventually,

the Japanese government will say

"Look, this is not working.

It's a PR nightmare."

No! No photograph.

I brought the BBC,

The London Times,

Time Magazine,

and everybody

goes away empty-handed.

No photos, okay?

They're afraid of cameras.

One morning I didn't

have my camera,

and a couple guys from the boat,

they took a baby dolphin up

and cut its throat.

It was already dead,

but they held it up and cut its throat,

and they were just

trying to get me angry,

and I almost hit this guy.

He got right in my face.

We called him Private Space.

That's the only two words

he knows in English...

private space.

Private!

And he got right in my face,

and he's screaming

at me with a camera.

He wanted me to hit him.

I mean, he just egged me on,

and I almost... man,

I almost decked this guy

and knocked him off that rock.

That's what they want you to do...

hit them or do something

to get you out of here.

The only way they can

get us out of here

is get us arrested and get it on video.

I spend most of my time

trying to keep from getting arrested

on bogus charges.

They spend most of their time

trying to arrest us

on bogus charges

and get us out of the game.

In 2003, I sent a crew to Taiji.

Their objective was to

just get evidence to film

and see what's going on there.

They got into the water

and cut the nets

and released some

pilot whales and dolphins

and were immediately

arrested for that.

Come on!

That actually worked out

to show that we were determined

to protect the lives

of these animals,

but of course it made it

very difficult to return.

In 2007, when I wanted

to do something

to expose the issue,

I was shocked

that I was the only surfer

in my surfing community

that knew about this,

so Hayden Panettiere, Isabel Lucas,

we all connected,

and we made the decision,

okay, we're going to paddle out.

No one's

going to be aggressive.

And they got really fired up.

We had to pull the pin.

There was nothing we could do,

nothing more we could do

in that scenario.

You see, this is like

a cat and mouse game.

Those particular activists,

they were arrested right here

in this very spot.

Now they can never come back.

They're out of the game.

My heart went out to them.

I watched Flipper as a child.

I grew to love the oceans

partly because of Flipper.

We are going to stop this.

We're going to stop this.

And here's the guy that started it all.

He's trying to rectify

this huge problem,

but he can't find

anybody to help him.

If we could just get in there,

we can stop this.

The first guy I called was

my buddy Charles Hambleton.

He's a adrenaline junkie.

He's been sail master on

The Pirates of the Caribbean.

He's traveled all over the world

on photo assignments.

He's the guy that has a heart of gold

and nerves of steel.

He'll do anything.

I remember distinctly a phone call

saying I needed to be in Japan.

We stepped off the train in Taiji,

and we were immediately

met by Ric O'Barry,

along with the police.

I'm not entirely sure

Louis knew what he was

getting himself into.

On our initial trip to Japan,

we had a formal meeting

in the town mayor's office

with the fishing union

and with all the proper authorities.

We spent seven hours

trying to negotiate an arrangement

where we would try to be

respectful of their side.

That was the point to me,

is get both sides.

And we started to realize

that they were hiding something.

You have to get permission

to get a permit

to get permission to do...

and nobody wants to do

anything without permission.

After two days of negotiations,

they said, "We're not

going to let you do it,"

and they put a map on the table

and pointed with these

red X's on the map.

and said, "Don't go here,

don't go here,

don't go here, don't go here."

And then Charles said...

"Could we just hang on

to that for reference,

just so we know where

we're not supposed to be?"

That kind of thing.

And that became sort of our template

of where we had to go.

The secret cove is a natural fortress.

It's surrounded on three sides

by steep cliffs.

There are several tunnels

that you need to get

through to get there.

High fences surrounded

by razor ribbon.

I've traveled all over the world

throughout my entire life,

and the coastline is majestic.

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