The Cove

Richard O'Barry:
If you aren't an activist you're an inactivist

Richard O'Barry:
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, looked me right in the eye, and took a breath... and didn't take another one.

Mandy-Rae Cruikshank:
When you're out swimming in the ocean and you have whales and dolphins come by you, it is one of the most incredible experiences ever. It's so humbling that this wild creature would come up and be so interested in you. It's... It's unbelievable, really.

John Potter:
As a scientist, I'm trained to recognize intelligence through objective measures... tool use, cognitive processes, and so on. As a human being, when I see a dolphin looking at me and his eyes tracking me and I lock eyes with that animal, there's a human response that makes it undeniable that I'm connecting with an intelligent being.

John Potter:
It sometimes amazes me that the only language which has been extensively taught to dolphins is a version of American Sign Language, which, of course, you use your hands, so you have all these wonderful signals, and people use their hands to give messages to dolphins. And this somehow kind of misses the point because dolphins don't have hands, so this is inherently a very one-way process. And it's this anthropomorphic, "We have something to teach them or control them," and perhaps we ought to be looking at what they can give to us.

Hardy Jones:
Every cetacean known to man is endangered just by going anywhere near Japan.