Cove

How does one expose the secret systematic slaughter of 23,000 dolphins?

The battle to stop the dolphin slaughter made infamous by last year's Oscar-winning documentary, “ The Cove ,” has taken another turn. On Dec. 16, Sea Shepherd volunteer Erwin Vermeulen, a member of the Cove Guardians project to monitor and document the capture of dolphins in Taiji, Japan, was arrested by Japanese police and charged with assault. Vermeulen was arrested by Wakayama Prefecture police after attempting to film the transfer of a dolphin into holding pens at the Dolphin Resort Hotel, one destination for dolphins rounded up in Taiji.

Documentary "The Cove" Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens After an unprecedented sweep through the guild awards for directing, producing, writing and editing, plus a host of critics' prizes, it was little surprise when "The Cove" was named best documentary feature. The film is an unapologetically activist look at the issue of dolphin fishing in Japan. Made with a structure that has been likened to a heist film, "The Cove" follows animal activist Richard O'Barry -- who once trained dolphins for the television show "Flipper" -- alongside a team of filmmakers as they attempt to document dolphin slaughter in the Japanese fishing village of Taiji.

The home for sale in Malibu has stunning views of the ocean, more than 2,300 square feet of living space, a broad deck, two bedrooms and two baths. The price: $2.275 million. That would not seem unusual, given the location. But there's just one more thing: It's a mobile home. The housing market is miserable in California, but especially harsh when it comes to mobile homes, which saw a 33% drop in sales and 47% plunge in prices over the last five years, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

Two weeks after winning Oscars, "Up" and "The Cove" received additional honors Saturday at the 24th annual Genesis Awards, which honor media depictions of animal protection issues. "The Cove," which chronicles the slaughter of dolphins by fisherman from a Japanese village, was named outstanding documentary film. "Up," the animated adventure from Pixar that involves the fight to protect a rare bird, shared the feature film award with "Hotel for Dogs," a comedy with Lisa Kudrow and Don Cheadle that was applauded for "celebrating the special bond between children and dogs."

"The Cove" is a powerful and effective piece of advocacy filmmaking, but it's difficult to watch it without thinking of subtitles like "The Place Where Evil Dwells" or "The Little Town With the Really Big Secret." Which is no accident. "The Cove's" story of a quiet village in Japan that specializes in clandestine dolphin slaughter is quite consciously structured as a thriller by director Louie Psihoyos who won an audience award for it at Sundance.

The Tokyo International Film Festival will show "The Cove," a documentary that depicts the slaughter of dolphins in Japan. But the decision was so last-minute the movie didn't make it into the official press package. Tom Yoda, chairman of the annual festival, which opens Oct. 17, refused Wednesday to discuss how the decision came about, citing festival policy on screening decisions. But he acknowledged there had been views against showing the film. "The Cove," which opened in the United States this summer but has not yet been scheduled for release in Japan, documents the killing of dolphins in the seaside town of Taiji, which sells some of the captured dolphins to aquariums but kills the rest to be sold as meat.

A group of scuba shop operators plan to ask the U. S. Navy to remove a fence that blocks land access to a popular Port Hueneme diving cove despite a diver's death there last week. They maintain that the cove off La Janelle Park at the south end of Silver Strand Beach is actually one of the safer and more scenic diving spots along the Southern California coast and that it should be open to the public, particularly for scuba diving instruction.

Not everything is bigger in Texas. The new Aquatica water park at SeaWorld San Antonio will be one-third the size and cost half as much as the innovative Aquatica water park at SeaWorld Orlando . PHOTOS: Aquatica water park at SeaWorld San Antonio Debuting May 19, the Aquatica park in Texas will feature 18 water slides on 20 acres at a cost of more than $24 million. That's considerably smaller than Florida's $50-million-plus Aquatica which debuted in 2008 with 36 slides on 60 acres as the new high-water mark for water parks.

I came to Barbados for the flying fish sandwiches. Not that this small island at the easternmost edge of the Caribbean doesn't offer other attractions. Like perfect weather. And beaches that come in two flavors -- Caribbean, which has a sea that is turquoise and tranquil, and into which the sun sets spectacularly every evening, and Atlantic, where the coastline is rocky and the sand is the color and consistency of cake flour. Then there are the Barbadians themselves, people who are the very definition of friendly locals.

A new $15-million coastal campground will open Friday at Crystal Cove State Park in Orange County , but don't get your hopes up for a stay over the Fourth of July. Sites quickly sold out for the inaugural weekend of the year-round campground. Consolation prize: You can tour the site for free Thursday. The Moro Campground, while not directly on the beach, offers 60 hilltop campsites facing the ocean. Some, with electrical hookups, go for $65 a night; others, for tents and soft-sided trailers, are $50 a night.

Crystal Cove State Park's 2,400 acres of hilly chaparral north of Laguna Beach have been closed since late December, when intense storms flooded canyons and triggered landslides that took sharp bites out of the trails leading to panoramic lookouts and primitive campgrounds. But the "No Entry" signs and yellow caution tape blocking trail heads have not stopped hordes of trespassers from roaming the park's 17 miles of backcountry trails on foot and on mountain bikes, making any attempt to respond to emergencies treacherous for park rangers.

Authorities are investigating reports that eight to 10 people came ashore at Crystal Cove State Park in a small boat, then shed their life jackets and some clothes before scattering. Border patrol officials said the group was aboard a panga boat, a type of open-hulled Mexican fishing boat frequently used in coastal smuggling. They arrived at the beach south of Newport Beach on Tuesday at about 7 a.m. A visitor at Moro Beach, one of the beaches at Crystal Cove, called police to report the incident.

TV director Michael Caffey has listed an island off Santa Catalina Island for sale at $875,000. White Rock Island, also known as Bird Rock, sits on the north side of Catalina about 1,500 feet off the mainland side of Isthmus Cove. The popular dive site is home to a variety of birds and has been used as a location for film shoots. The 1.3-acre island has been privately owned since the 1920s. Plans for the site have included a casino and a yacht club, but none ever came to fruition.

Things are a little crazy out here on the water to begin with, and then the water polo team shows up, dragging along a floating goal. Hey, McHale, I think I found your navy. McCovey Cove is insane this World Series, full of kids-at-Christmas smiles and all manner of flotsam and personal watercraft. Mostly kayaks, but surfers too. Swim teams, water polo players, dogs, beer bongs, reefer. Lots of reefer. At one point, I think the idiots on one raft exhausted their stash and had resorted to smoking the rope.

Tested : I like this deal because you score a free night on just a one-night stay; most hotels have a two- or three-night minimum with these offers. In an online check, I found a garden room available for two nights starting Nov. 15 at the $235 pre-tax rate — a price that drops to $117.50 per night with the free night. The first-floor room that I found opens out to the garden and includes a king-sized bed, log-burning fireplace and use of bathrobes. The inn is within walking distance of the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and high bluffs overlooking the Pacific.

In a scathing report, a former chief executive of the California public employee pension fund was accused of pressuring subordinates to invest billions of dollars of pension money with politically connected firms. A 17-month investigation also found that Federico Buenrostro Jr. ? along with former pension fund board members Charles Valdes and Kurato Shimada ? strong-armed a benefits firm to pay more than $4 million in fees to consultant Alfred J.R. Villalobos, who later hired Buenrostro.

AFTER spending almost 20 years as head of visual merchandising and store design for Quiksilver, Steve Jones can say without much exaggeration that the surf is his life. The Laguna Beach apartment where he lives during the week is classic coastal modern, a bright white cube with punches of sunny color. A wall of plate glass bathes the home in summer sunlight to a concert of rustling sea breezes and crashing waves.

The star of "The Cove," an Oscar-winning documentary about a Japanese dolphin hunt, is back in Japan to protest the slaughter but had to cancel his trip to the village at the center of the controversy because of threats from an ultranationalist group. Instead, Ric O'Barry, the former dolphin-trainer for the 1960s "Flipper" TV show, played host to a reception Wednesday for some 100 animal-lovers at a Tokyo hotel. On Thursday, he will take a petition signed by 1.7 million people from 155 nations demanding the end of the dolphin hunt to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, escorted by police security.

Paradise Cove may finally be living up to its name, at least when it comes to the water. Over the years the Malibu beach had become known as much for its poor water quality as for being featured in the 1970s television series "The Rockford Files." This year, however, the gains made in the health of Paradise Cove mark one of the pieces of good news in the Beach Report Card released Wednesday by the Santa Monica nonprofit group Heal the Bay, which analyzes monitoring data at 326 beaches in California and assigns them A through F grades.