Environmental consciousness and cruel reality exist in varying degrees all over the planet.  With this in mind, the main hall of the National Theater was the chosen venue to show The Cove, to an audience comprised primarily of public school students who identified with the film’s story line and related to the experts’ opinions urging people to protect animals and conserve the environment.

Osvaldo Vázquez and Marcela Vargas of Chacón were in charge of interacting with the students. Osvaldo, a prominent researcher and conservationist, works with marine mammals in the Dominican Republic and around the world. He also acts as an environmental consultant for businesses. Marcela Vargas, native of Costa Rica, is the program manager of the World Society for the Protection of Animals as well as the coordinator of many global campaigns to protect dolphins and whales.

Following the screening of the documentary, the floor was opened to questions giving the students a chance to express their enthusiasm and show how they were impacted by the plight of the dolphins in the film. “This film makes us feel helpless and calls our attention to something that does not go on in the Dominican Republic but that happens in many places around the world. We must be conscious of this because what is happening in Japan affects the species in our own country because we too have whales, dolphins and manatees. Any one of these animals can face a concrete problem,” said Osvaldo Vázquez.

Costa Rica is a country that has greatly identified with animal and environmental protection and could serve as an example on an international level with its Anti-Cruelty to Animals campaigns. Marcela Vargas began her speech to the students explaining that “there are five fundamental freedoms for animals: freedom from hunger and thirst, from discomfort and pain, from fear and anxiety and freedom to be who they are naturally and to behave as such.”

“It is good to ask oneself these questions when faced with the reality of mistreatment or when one simply wants to know more about the reality of animals. Our organization defends this as a base upon which to work and promote changes on an international level.”

Marcela Vargas invigorated the students when he told them the hall they were in radiated with good energy and that the younger generation should take the reins and carry out this task.

They all agreed that in the new vision of the world, the well being of animals was very important and that the killing must stop. The idea being transmitted was to create the largest animal protection and well-being organization in the world.

The Cove begins in Taiji, Japan where Ric O’Barry a former dolphin trainer has come to straighten things out after a long search for redemption. In 1960, O’Barry captured and trained dolphins, including the five dolphins that played the role of Flipper on the popular TV-series of the same name. But his close relationship with these dolphins eventually led him to a radical change of attitude. O’Barry came to understand that these creatures are deeply sensitive, extraordinarily intelligent and self-aware and so well adapted to life in the open ocean that they should not be kept in captivity.

However, in a remote and resplendent cove along the coasts of Taiji, surrounded by barbed wire and signs reading “Do Not Enter,” lies a dark reality. It is here, under the cover of night, that fishermen from Taiji take part in a secret hunt, driven by a multi-million dollar industry dealing with the training of dolphins and a clandestine market for dolphin meat contaminated with mercury. The nature of what goes on in this place is so horrifying and the consequences are so dangerous for human health that those involved here in the cove do whatever it takes to avoid being seen and discovered.

This mix of provocative, investigative journalism, eco-adventure and amazing photography earned The Cove the People’s Award at Sundance, Hot Docs, Sydney and  Seattle 2009.