Dolphin lover in Japan deportation fight
Print Edition
JAPAN has ordered the deportation of Ric O’Barry, the star of the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove,” about a Japanese village that hunts dolphins. But he has refused to leave, insisting he came as a tourist to look at dolphins.
O’Barry, the former dolphin trainer for the “Flipper” TV series, was detained upon arrival on Monday at Tokyo’s Narita international airport.
Japanese authorities yesterday decided to turn down his appeal to enter the country. Immigration officials accuse O’Barry of lying during questioning and of having ties to anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd, both of which he denies.
O’Barry heads the Dolphin Project, which aims to protect dolphins worldwide. He regularly visits Taiji, the fishing village portrayed in “The Cove,” which won the 2009 Academy Award for best documentary. In the film, dolphins are herded into a cove and speared to death, turning the water red. “I’m incarcerated, on trumped up charges,” O’Barry said in an e-mail from his son, Lincoln O’Barry. “In a world where so much that is wild and free has already been lost to us, we must leave these beautiful dolphins free to swim as they will and must.”
Ric O’Barry has been questioned by Japanese immigration before, but this is the first time he has been detained and barred from entry.
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