As "The Cove" took home the Oscar for Best Documentary Sunday night, awareness is building on the issue of dolphin drive hunting in Japan. The directors made quite a statement on stage by unraveling a large “Text Dolphin to 44144” poster during their acceptance to increase support for their cause.

The film explores the slaughter of thousands of dolphins and porpoises in Taiji, Japan every year, and how their meat, containing toxic levels of mercury, is being sold as food in Japan and other parts of Asia, often labeled as whale meat. Serving marine mammal meat in American restaurants is both costly and illegal, but that hasn't stopped eateries from trying.

One Santa Monica, CA restaurant, The Hump, is in the hot seat thanks to the team that created "The Cove." After hearing rumors that the popular restaurant was serving whale sushi, Louie Psihoyos, Ric O’Barry, and Fisher Stevens, armed with hidden video cameras and tiny microphones, orchestrated a Hollywood-meets-Greenpeace-style covert operation to reveal if the highly regarded sushi destination was in fact serving whale. DNA testing on samples confirmed that the meat was whale. The restaurant is now under serious investigation.

In their acceptance speech, the directors said “Once you become sensitized to these animals you want to save them”.

Well, with an Oscar under their belt and media-grabbing operations like the one that took down The Hump, it looks like they are off to a great start.

What can you do?

If you want to make a difference in the cause against dolphin drive hunting, you can start by organizing an awareness campaign and/or host a movie screening of the documentary itself.