The biology class that I am in talked about “The Cove” earlier this semester after reading a scholarly article* about genetic analysis of whale meat sole in Japan. In 1982 an indefinite moratorium was placed on commercial whale hunting. There are exceptions to the moratorium, such as hunting by indigenous people and hunting whales for research. The study we read analyzed whale meat, sold under the umbrella term “kujira”, that was found in grocery stores. While many of the samples of kujira were matched to whales that if they were being hunted now would be illegal, some of the meat was actually identified as dolphin meat. This is where “The Cove” came into discussion, as we shall see in class today. While the Japanese people happily eat whale meat as part of their culture, eating dolphin meat is unthinkable, like how Americans would not want to eat dog meat. I’m a little nervous about watching the film because the trailer that we watched in my biology class was disturbing enough, but I think the issue it addresses is important.

*Baker C.S., S.R. Palumbi. (1994). Which whales are hunted? A molecular genetic approach to monitoring whales. Science 265: 1538-1539.