Star of movie about dolphin killing detained at Tokyo airport

In this Nov. 2, 2010, file photo, Ric O'Barry, a leading global dolphin activist whose efforts to save dolphins is documented in the Oscar-winning film "The Cove," holds "Stop" and "Keep out except persons concerned" signs as he arrives at Taiji Community Center in Taiji, western Japan. (AP)

The star of the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove," about a dolphin-killing village in Japan, was detained Tuesday by immigration authorities at Tokyo's Narita international airport.

Ric O'Barry, the former dolphin trainer for the "Flipper" TV series, said immigration officials told him he couldn't enter Japan on a tourist visa because he wasn't a tourist, according to his lawyer, Takashi Takano.

Takano said officials accused O'Barry of having close ties with the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd, which O'Barry denies.

Immigration officials said it is their policy not to comment on individual cases.

Takano said he appealed the detention, and that the Japanese government will decide whether to allow O'Barry into the country or deport him. The timing of the decision wasn't clear.

"The Cove," which won the 2009 Academy Award for best documentary, shows dolphins being herded into a cove in the fishing village of Taiji and then bludgeoned to death.

"The Japanese government is cracking down on those who oppose their war on dolphins," O'Barry said in a statement sent by email to The Associated Press through his son, Lincoln O'Barry.

Officials in Taiji, a small village in central Japan, and fishermen have defended the hunt as traditional, saying that eating dolphin meat is no different than eating beef or chicken.

Most Japanese have never eaten dolphin meat, and many say they are horrified by the dolphin killing and have joined the campaign against the Taiji hunt. Animal welfare activists say the dolphin hunt is driven mostly by the lucrative sale of live dolphins to aquariums, with the income from meat sales a smaller extra.

O'Barry has been stopped and questioned at Japanese immigration before, and has been temporarily taken into custody by local police on suspicion of not having proper travel documents. But this is the first time he has been detained in this way.

He has the support of high-profile celebrities, including Sting, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy and former Guns N' Roses drummer Matt Sorum.