The Cove Page #3

When you're in the water,

the dolphins can see

right through you.

They can see your heart beating.

They can see your bones.

They can see if you're pregnant.

They get a lot of information

with their sound.

The dolphin is captured

and put in a concrete tank

surrounded by a stadium

full of screaming people.

At the National Aquarium in Baltimore,

when it first opened,

dolphins were dying left and right.

They couldn't keep dolphins alive,

and they finally figured out

it's because the filtration system

was making a lot of noise.

It's the stress that kills them.

So they're very sensitive to sound.

That's their primary sense,

and that's their downfall in Taiji.

There's 12 of them.

This is a classic drive,

what you're watching here.

There are migratory routes

that dolphins have been using

for thousands of years,

and they just wait

till the dolphins come by.

The boats then put these

long poles in the water

which have a flange on the bottom,

and they just bang on these poles

with hammers,

and they create a wall of sound

which frightens the dolphins.

There were several hundred dolphins

being driven ashore.

I'd never seen so many

dolphins before,

and they were all

running for their lives,

running from this wall of sound.

I think I can actually

hear the banging,

but I hear it all the time.

I hear it in my sleep.

That sound never goes away

once you hear it.

By the time they get to the lagoon,

they're totally freaked out,

stressed out to the max.

They seal it, then they go home.

The next morning,

all of these dolphin trainers

will be lined up

selecting the ones that they want

for the dolphinariums.

They're looking for bottlenose

dolphin, primarily.

They're looking for Flipper,

and so they collect young females,

just like we did for the Flipper show.

And they're flown to different

parts of the world.

I could have my own dolphin facility

somewhere in the Caribbean

and be making 2 or 3

million dollars a year

like these guys, if I wanted to.

But I walked away from that.

The thing that turned me around

was the death of Flipper, of Cathy.

She was really depressed.

I could feel it.

I could see it.

And she committed suicide in my arms.

That's a very strong word, suicide.

But you have to understand

dolphins and other whales

are not automatic air breathers,

like we are.

Every breath they take

is a conscious effort.

And so they can end their life

whenever life becomes too unbearable

by not taking the next breath.

And it's in that context

I use the word suicide.

She did that.

She swam into my arms

and looked me right in the eye

and... took a breath...

and didn't take another one.

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