Star of dolphin-killing film ordered deported

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 decided on Friday to turn down his appeal to enter the country, according to his son, Lincoln O'Barry. His son and lawyer said immigration officials accuse O'Barry of lying during questioning and of having ties to anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd, both of which O'Barry denies.

Immigration officials said they cannot comment on individual cases.

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 get herded into a cove and speared to death, turning the waters red with blood.

"I'm incarcerated, on trumped up charges," O'Barry said in an e-mail from his son. "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."

O'Barry has refused the deportation order and was transported to another detention facility, his son said.

Officials and fishermen in Taiji have defended the hunt as traditional, saying that eating dolphin meat is no different from eating beef or chicken.