In 2005 Hardy Jones took home the second FFC Filmmaker of the Year Award. 

Hardy has been making films for thirty years but began his media career in radio at WNOE in New Orleans. He has also worked for United Press International, The Peruvian Times, and CBS News. 

In 1980 Hardy filmed the brutal slaughter of hundreds of dolphins at Iki Island in Japan. The footage, broadcast around the world led to a shutdown of the dolphin fishery at Iki. Up to two thousand dolphins per year were thus saved from a savage death. 

Hardy has returned to Japan on many occasions since, not only to oppose the killing of dolphins, but also to raise the alarm about the extreme levels of mercury and other contaminants in dolphin and whale meat and in fish being consumed by the Japanese people. He works in Japan both through the media and in local venues including schools.

Hardy’s film “If Dolphins Could Talk” contributed to the decision by American canning companies to refuse tuna caught in association with dolphins. When the programme was broadcast in the United States a ‘freecall’ number was inserted into commercial breaks. This led to thousands of telegrams being sent to the chairman of Starkist Tuna who then announced that his company would no longer accept tuna caught in a manner, which harmed dolphins. Other corporations followed. Tens of thousands of dolphins were spared death and maiming.

Since 1978 Hardy has made more than 70 films, all of them related to conservation issues with locations ranging from the Florida Everglades to French Polynesia; from the Sea of Cortez to the fjords of Norway. Subjects include coral reefs, coastal habitat destruction, overfishing, harmful fish techniques, and ocean pollution. 

To support and find out more about Hardy’s work go to: http://www.bluevoice.org/

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