All this in spite of his former statements and the position he outlined in the meeting held in Paris in February. So now mother and son will shortly be trafficked to a concrete tank in a zoo in the Spanish Canary Islands with a poor animal (and human) welfare history and characterized by unwise husbandry decisions, lack of transparency, and the death of four young orcas in the past five years.

Had the Minister kept his word and supported his own nation’s law to ban cetacean captivity for entertainment and breeding, Wikie and Keijo would have had a different future – a much brighter future. Now they will never know what they came so close to having.

Mother and son will shortly be trafficked to a concrete tank in a zoo in the Spanish Canary Islands.
The time, expense, and amount of work it takes to create a coastal sanctuary for whales is not for the faint-hearted. And we would not have been ready to receive Wikie and Keijo immediately. But we are getting there and we think that it was well worth the government waiting for – for the sake of these two individuals who have been through so much. Nothing worth doing is easy and quick, but the result is life changing. The marine parks and zoos know all too well that the first cetacean sanctuary will sound a death-knell for their cruel industry. And they have fought tooth-and-nail for years to prevent this new future for captive cetaceans from coming to fruition. They fought hard to deny Wikie and Keijo the chance for a better future in sanctuary and refused to even engage in discussion with us. And so, they get to further ruin the lives of two more intelligent, sensitive beings who should be in the ocean living as orcas, not as circus clowns.

But the captivity industry should be on notice that we who are engaged in creating this seismic shift in our relationship to cetaceans will not give up. Just as there are already sanctuaries for elephants, great apes, big cats and other animals, we will create cetacean sanctuaries and children will finally learn why these creatures can only thrive in the ocean. In the longer future, there will be little need for sanctuaries because authentic sanctuaries do not allow breeding and therefore do not perpetuate captivity. Wild animals like dolphins and whales will live where they are supposed to live: in the wild and in control of their own lives.

We are so grateful to everyone who, in so many ways, supported our efforts to bring Wikie and Keijo to sanctuary. Please know that we will continue our efforts to rescue captive whales from the impoverishment of concrete tanks and bring them to a well-deserved life under human care in a natural ocean setting.

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The post On Losing Wikie and Keijo appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

In the early 1980s, when Kenya the African elephant was four years old, she was transferred from a zoo in Germany to the Mendoza Zoo in Argentina. For the next 40 years, she lived alone in a dusty, barren enclosure, her only companion being a painting of an elephant on the surrounding cement wall.

Argentina began closing its zoos in 2016, and Kenya was the last surviving elephant in the country. The zoo, now renamed Mendoza Ecoparque, agreed to send her to the Global Sanctuary for Elephants expansive natural habitat sanctuary in Brazil (Elephant Sanctuary Brazil.)

When she arrived at the sanctuary, her health was, by any standards, severely compromised. As founder and director of the sanctuary Scott Blais described it:

“All four of her feet had severely overgrown nails, pads, and cuticles, and she had osteomyelitis (diagnosed through radiographs), which can be fatal in elephants (and in humans is usually treated with amputation). She was also coated with thick layers of dead skin, which had accumulated over years due to lack of a proper bath or anything to rub against to exfoliate.”

Although she was responding well to her treatments, Kenya became ill at the end of 2025, had trouble breathing, and a few days later, on December 13th, she died. A full necropsy is being conducted, but preliminary reports, shared with a large animal vet, point to tuberculosis that was very progressed, with granular infiltrates throughout both lungs as well as alveolar collapse. These were chronic issues that she must have been living with for considerable time before coming to the sanctuary.

Elephant Sanctuary Brazil is a 2,800-acre natural property in Brazil, currently home to five elephants rescued from zoos and circuses in South America. They have room to roam, are fed and cared for by expert veterinarians, and can regain their mental and physical health after years of neglect and abuse. With the exception of Guillermina, who is 27, all are older animals, and all over 58 years old.  None of them arrive in good health. But they get to live out their lives in a natural environment that, along with the expert care they receive, plays a large part in the healing process.

From this:

Kenya at the Mendoza Zoo

. . . to this:

Kenya at the Elephant Sanctuary Brazil

And watch her taking a refreshing mud bath at the sanctuary:

Sanctuary as hospice

Part of the role of any sanctuary is to provide hospice care to older animals who have spent most or all of their lives in captivity. Another elephant, Pupy, who had suffered from morbid obesity at the Buenos Aires Zoo before being transferred to the Global Sanctuary for Elephants in Brazil in April 2025, also passed away recently. Her preliminary necropsy, too, revealed a seriously immunocompromised body.

We mourn these deaths, but we understand that their time at a sanctuary, long or short, is a blessing to be treasured, one that helps make up for whatever went before.

But in the wake of Kenya’s death, the anti-sanctuary machine has rolled into action, exploiting her death as “evidence” to promote false claims that the sanctuary is incapable of caring for its residents and, as Scott Blais wrote to me in an email, is killing them. He added:

“Suggesting that the sanctuary causes the deaths of elephants who arrived in compromised health after decades in zoos is as absurd as blaming an elderly care facility for a loved one passing in their 80s, after they were sent there for end-of-life care.”

Nonetheless, a complaint has been filed against the sanctuary, and Scott notes that one of the groups reportedly involved in filing the complaint is the Association of Zoos and Aquariums of Brazil (AZAB), a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), a trade organization for zoos and aquariums. The industry’s false narratives have led to the temporary suspension of the sanctuary’s license to accept new residents until the matter is resolved.

A campaign to sow doubt and mistrust

Developments like these are calculated to sow doubt among those who support wild animal sanctuaries. And those of us who are establishing these sanctuaries are being subjected to increasingly vociferous and aggressive tactics by the corporations that own the parks, the trade associations, the scientists whose livelihoods are supported by the industry, and other groups that are opposed to ethical societal change.

Part of the role of any sanctuary is to provide hospice care to older animals who have spent most or all of their lives in captivity.Here at the Whale Sanctuary Project, we, too, are subject to similar tactics by the anti-sanctuary machine. Most recently, upon learning that the French government intended to work with the Whale Sanctuary Project to bring the two surviving orcas at Marineland Antibes to sanctuary in Nova Scotia, the European Association for Aquatic Mammals (a pro-captivity organization) released a statement claiming that animal protection organizations are involved in “misinformation, emotional manipulation and coercive lobbying,” calling them “amateur, self‑proclaimed experts.”

In another example, scientists who are considered to be allies of the captivity industry went far beyond the standard peer-review process in trying to block publication of a fully peer-reviewed scientific paper that documents how, even in fully accredited facilities, serious welfare challenges persist for captive cetaceans, especially for orcas and belugas. Other opponents of the growing movement to retire whales and dolphins to sanctuary have resorted to spreading rumors and fake stories on social media. (I personally have encountered the ludicrous claim that, as president of the Whale Sanctuary Project, I am getting so wealthy from my work that I have two – count them! – apartments in Paris.)

Stay the Course

While efforts like these to discredit the sanctuary movement are certainly destructive to the cause, they also indicate that pro-captivity advocates are becoming increasingly desperate. Public opinion is less and less supportive of the exploitation of whales, dolphins, elephants, great apes and other wild animals. The industry is seeing the proverbial “writing on the wall,” and its recourse is increasingly to go low and to go negative.

As a new ethic of respect and compassion takes hold, the Global Sanctuary for Elephants is creating and promoting a model of how to care for elephants who are rescued from life in a small and impoverished enclosure of a zoo. Please visit their website and their social media, learn about their work, and support their cause.

And while we navigate this opposition, we must remember that it means we are, in the long run, winning.  And we are in good company. We have seen the same aggressive tactics with regards to slavery, civil rights, women’s suffrage, gay rights…and so on. There is always resistance to such change. But we will stay the course because the only priority is the health, well-being and dignity of our fellow animals.

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The post The Last Stand of the Anti-Sanctuary Machine appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

You have probably already read the French government’s groundbreaking decision for Wikie and Keijo to come to the sanctuary in Nova Scotia in 2026, subject to our raising the necessary funds to complete the sanctuary by the end of summer.

We tell much of their life story – both were born in the small concrete tank at Marineland Antibes where they are still languishing – in their bio here.

Wikie has seen her entire family destroyed as she clings to her life with Keijo.But my work as a neuroscientist at the Smithsonian Institution and at Emory University, where I studied the brains and fossilized remains of hundreds of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), gave me an invaluable understanding of their remarkable evolutionary history: as land animals who returned to the ocean; whose intelligence and brain capacity evolved in ways that both parallel and exceed our own; and as individuals, whose lives are as meaningful to them as ours are to us.

Wikie (born in June, 2001) and Keijo (born in November, 2013) are mother and son. Orca mothers and sons tend to bond closely, and we can only hope these strong ties have fortified them throughout their ordeal. Their story, like all other captive orcas, is one of families being ripped apart, illness, and premature death. And to recognize how much their lives have been ruined by their captivity and the abnormal circumstances they face, we need to understand what their lives would have been like if they had lived undisturbed in the ocean.

Their forebears walked on land

Cetacean ancestors evolved from land-dwelling animals over 50 million years ago. Orcas are, in fact, the largest species of dolphin, growing to 25 feet long and weighing 4-6 tons. After a long pregnancy of 18 months, mothers give birth to an infant who will take more than 15 years to mature.

Males and females can live well into their 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and older. They live in strongly bonded family groups called pods. Every pod has its own cultural traditions (dialects, eating habits, etc.) passed on through the generations by learning. Relatives and friends help raise the youngsters, share food, and assist each other when in trouble.

Their brains are over-sized and more convoluted – meaning that they have more surface area and more neocortex relative to the rest of their brain – than we humans have.

Their communication system is so complex that we have yet to decipher it.

They grieve the death of loved ones and live by a code that prohibits them from ever harming a human being in the wild.

The life they might have lived

If Wikie had been born in the ocean, she would have grown up in a close family group, being cared for by relatives and learning their culture, just as we do. As an adult, she would have chosen a time to become a mother and raise her children to become parents, in turn, and to continue the lineage.

Wikie’s two sons, Keijo and Moana, would likewise have been born into this natural community and, as male orcas often do, might have stayed close to their mothers their whole lives, riding the waves together, meeting hundreds of other species, and exploring many landscapes in their travels. They would have all had a sense of identity that provided the emotional foundation of a good life – a life that would have been shaped by their own choices.

But that was not the life that Wikie was fated to live. She would be born in a concrete tank, and the plan was for her to die in that tank.

Her mother, Sharkane, and her father, Kim 2, were captured at different times in Icelandic waters and held for a short time at a small facility in Iceland before being sold to Marineland Antibes. Some of the other whales among the two captured pods were also sold to Marineland. Others were sold to entertainment parks in Japan, the United States and Spain. The close family bonds were shattered.

In 1993, Sharkane would give birth to Shouka, in 1999 to Inouk, and in 2001 to Wikie. In 2002, Wikie’s sister Shouka would be shipped to Six Flags in Ohio and then to Six Flags California, where she would live for 10 years before being transferred to Sea World San Diego, where she is still alive.

Freya, who came from Kim 2’s group and was mated with him, would give birth, during her 12 years at Marineland, to four stillborn calves and to one survivor: Valentin.

Kim 2 would die of pneumonia in 2005 at the young age of 24. Valentin would survive another 10 years. He was Wikie’s half-brother and is generally assumed to have been the father of Wikie’s second son, Keijo, who was born in 2013.

Two years later, in October 2015, Valentin’s life would end horribly when violent storms swept through Southern France, flooding the marine mammal tanks and leaving the whales nowhere to go for protection. Photos showed all five orcas swimming around in muddy waters. The following week, Valentin died, apparently from twisted intestines.

Left to right: Inouk, Keijo, Wikie, Moana, Valentin, Freya.

In 2011, Wikie gave birth to a son, Moana, sired through artificial insemination by Ulises, who lives at SeaWorld San Diego. It was the first artificial insemination of a whale in Europe.

Moana died in 2023, aged 12, from acute bacterial sepsis. And more tragedy was to come. Early the following year, Wikie’s brother Inouk perished from subacute fibrinous enteritis peritonitis, leaving Wikie and Keijo as the sole survivors of their family at Marineland.

Wikie has seen her entire family destroyed as she clings to her life with Keijo. But since the bond between mother and son is exceptionally strong, perhaps his presence is a comfort as this tragic pair pass their empty days together – lone survivors of a destroyed family.

Giving them a better future

The story of Wikie and Keijo and their family is typical of captive whales around the world.  The specific details may differ, but the outcome is always the same: families torn apart, loss of choice, and premature illness and death.

But with the French government’s decision that Wikie and Keijo should come to the sanctuary in Nova Scotia, this sad story may have a different ending. Wikie and Keijo now have a chance to experience life in ocean waters, exploring the sea grasses and chasing the birds. It is their one remaining chance for a life that can begin to make up for the suffering they’ve endured.

We shouldn’t need sanctuaries at all, but, for those like this mother and son who have spent their lives in concrete tanks, sanctuaries are the best way we can tell them that we are sorry and that we are working to give every captive whale a new and better future.

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The post Who Are the Mother-and-Son Orcas Wikie and Keijo? appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Katina was born in Icelandic waters about 48 years ago and wrenched from her family In October 1978 when she was approximately two years old. She was shipped to Marineland Canada, and then to various SeaWorld theme parks, for a total of 14 transfers ending up at Sea World Orlando in 1984, where she performed for the rest of her life before dying on December 21st, 2025, at age 50.

In the ocean, mothers and daughters spend a lifetime together. At SeaWorld, Katina would give birth to seven calves, most of whom would be taken away from her.

In 1985, she delivered her first calf, Kalina, who was taken from her at age 5 and shipped to another SeaWorld theme park, then transferred back to Orlando two years later, and then transferred yet again. Kalina was only 25 when she died in 2010.

Shortly after she had given birth to Kalina, Katina was impregnated again, and in 1988 she gave birth to a second daughter, Katerina. Mother and daughter had two and a half years together before the youngster was flown to Sea World Ohio in 1991, and from there, three years later, to Sea World San Antonio where, at the very young age of 10, she died of bacterial pneumonia, the most common cause of death in captive cetaceans.

In 1993, Katina gave birth to a son, Taku, whose father was Tilikum. Thirteen years later, when he reached sexual maturity, Taku impregnated his mother, resulting in an inbred calf, Nalani. In the wild, incest among orcas is unheard of. It is as aberrant as it is among us humans, and a behavior that is emblematic of the highly artificial and abnormal conditions imposed on captive orcas.

In 2018, Katina sustained a severe injury to the base of her dorsal fin. The wound was a deep gash that left part of her already-collapsed dorsal fin misshapen, leaving her open to opportunistic infections. The injury was either caused by an aggressive interaction with another orca or by landing on a sharp or hard part of the tank. We will never know.

What we do know, however, is that the captive environment contributed to her injury. In the ocean, orcas can certainly behave aggressively toward each other, but it is minimized because the whales can just disperse as far as they need to in order to dissipate tension. Being confined in a concrete tank, by comparison, leaves little if any opportunity for the orcas to space themselves in order to lessen hostilities. And there are no hard ledges and metal gates in the ocean; only in captivity.

Katina was highly intelligent and sweet-natured. As an orca who had lived in the ocean with her own family, even if only for her first two years, she had learned enough to be able to nurture not only her calves, but also, whenever she was given the opportunity, the other orcas with whom she shared the tank. With her expansive personality, had she not been captured from the wild, she would likely have become the matriarch of her oceangoing pod. Instead, she became effectively the matriarch of the unnatural pod of orcas with whom she lived at SeaWorld Orlando.

Katina was considered a “successful” captive orca by SeaWorld because she spent so many years performing spectacular tricks for audiences. She was used in this way almost every day of her life.

But there was nothing “successful” about Katina and her forced confinement. She was a slave who managed to cope under extreme circumstances – a fact that we should never forget. And rather than allowing her abuse to be glorified, we should use her life as a beacon for action to bring an end to the suffering of whales and dolphins in captivity.

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The post Katina – The Unnatural Life of a Captive Matriarch appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Kshamenk was captured in the Bahía de Samborombón and taken to the amusement park Mundo Marino in 1992, where he was confined in the smallest orca tank in the world.

For a few years he shared the tank with another orca, Belén. But when Belén died in 2000, Kshamenk was left with just a bottlenose dolphin for company. And it remained that way until his death. He spent much of his time lying on the bottom of a tank that was barely deeper than the length of his body. When he was at the surface, he circled endlessly with nowhere to go and nothing to do.

The ways in which he was exploited went beyond simply being forced to perform. Staff members from SeaWorld were dispatched to Mundo Marino to forcibly collect his sperm so they could breed yet more captive whales. They took what they needed and left him to languish. He had a son, Makani, who survives at Seaworld San Diego, and a daughter, Kamea, who died this year at SeaWorld San Antonio.

There may be no other orca in the world who symbolized the brazen greed of the marine mammal captivity industry the way Kshamenk did. His suffering was palpable and now it has ended – but without even the grace of having a chance to regain a part of what was taken from him: His autonomy. His dignity. His life.

Just as after the deaths of Kiska, Tilikum, Tokitae and so many more, we grieve our inability to help him in time. But his death spurs us onward in the knowledge that the days of forcing these intelligent beings to do our bidding are now numbered.

Rest in peace.

The post On the Passing of Orca Kshamenk appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

By Lori Marino

One afternoon in 1861, 11-year-old Sally Putnam wrote of an incident she witnessed in Boston in her diary:

“I went again to the Aquarial Gardens and there we saw the whale being driven by a girl. She was in a boat and the whale was fastened to the boat by a pair of rains [sic], and a collar, which was fastened ‘round his neck. The men had to chase him before they could put on the collar.”

What Sally had witnessed that day was one of the first beluga whales to be captured and put on display in the United States by entertainer and businessman Phineas T. Barnum. The whales came from the St. Lawrence Seaway in Canada, and while most of them did not survive more than a few days, this didn’t bother Barnum. Whales were so plentiful that he only needed to keep a good enough supply penned up in the river to be able to load more onto a train bound to Boston or New York as needed.

Beluga whales have large, complex brains and sophisticated communication capabilities. In the ocean, they live in strongly bonded social groups of mothers, offspring, relatives and friends. In summer they can congregate by the thousands to socialize, mate, give birth, nurse their calves and educate them, including passing down migration routes and communication skills from each generation to the next.

Barnum’s beluga business didn’t last long. In July, 1865, a fire at his American Museum in New York brought the entire five-story exhibit hall of curiosities and animals, including two newly arrived whales, crashing to the ground. Henry Bergh, founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), called out Barnum for his treatment of his captive creatures. And by the turn of the century, many aquariums were closing.

Henry Bergh, founder of the ASPCA, called out Barnum for his treatment of his captive creatures. And by the turn of the century, many aquariums were closing.
In the late 1950s and 60s, however, the captive dolphin and whale industry began to revive. A new generation of marine zoos and circuses, including SeaWorld, Marineland Canada and the Vancouver Aquarium, found ways to capture whales and dolphins and keep them on display. Today, around the world, close to 3,600 cetaceans are being held captive, mostly in concrete tanks, for entertainment. Whatever the incremental improvements in their welfare, the question remains: Can it ever be possible for captive whales and dolphins to thrive in concrete pools?

In a new peer-reviewed paper in the journal PeerJ, six animal welfare scientists and experts, including myself, bring together what we know from all the available peer-reviewed literature to reach three conclusions.

First, the amount of space in any concrete pool is woefully inadequate to provide for the physical and mental needs of wild animals that, in the ocean, can travel hundreds of kilometres every day. Second, the environment at any theme park or aquarium is impoverished and highly predictable, leading to extreme boredom and chronic stress. And third, orcas and other captive cetaceans exhibit stereotypies, swimming in circles and banging their heads and bodies on the sides of the pools, along with other activities that indicate distress, like chewing on concrete surfaces. They also suffer from opportunistic infections and short lifespans.

The best captive facilities provide good food, veterinary care and clean water. And owners point out that the animals don’t have to suffer from predators, pollution, ship strikes and fishing nets. But while the modern captivity industry has had enough time to demonstrate that they can provide a significantly better environment for these megafauna than PT Barnum’s attempts, they have still failed.

Increasingly, public opinion is calling for an end to this outdated form of entertainment, and governments are responding. In 2019, Canada banned the capture, breeding and public display of these animals. Marineland Canada has closed its doors and is looking to sell its property. But in accordance with the law, the government has denied Marineland permits to export the whales to a theme park in China that has one of the most dismal animal-welfare records.

For decades, zoos and circuses have been working with sanctuaries to give a better life to captive elephants, great apes, big cats and other land animals. The time has come for animal-protection organizations, marine parks, aquariums and governments to work together to retire whales and dolphins to sanctuaries and other more enriching environments where they can truly thrive.

Lori Marino is the president and founder of the Whale Sanctuary Project. She teaches about captive wild animal welfare at New York University.

The post Time to End Keeping Whales and Dolphins in Captivity appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Marineland Antibes in France has closed and leaves several bottlenose dolphins and two orcas languishing in crumbling tanks.

Marineland Canada has gone out of business as well and has no plans for what to do with 30 beluga whales (plus other animals) at their facility except to threaten to kill them all.

The Dolphin Company’s recent filing for bankruptcy may necessitate the re-homing of 295 bottlenose dolphins from their 25 facilities across seven countries.

The responsibility for the predicament that cetaceans find themselves in lies solely with the captivity industry itself.And now there is the challenge of where captive dolphins and whales should spend the rest of their lives if and when they are retired from entertainment parks and zoos. Sanctuaries are the obvious answer, but the sanctuary movement is still in its early days and cannot provide for the 3,600 cetaceans held in captivity around the world.

The captivity industry and its followers want to pin this problem on those of us who are against keeping cetaceans in concrete tanks. They want to control the narrative by claiming that it is the fault of the “animal advocates” that there is no place for retired cetaceans to go. They argue that advocates are putting the lives of dolphins and whales at risk by working to get them out of concrete tanks.

But let’s get the narrative straight. The responsibility for the predicament that cetaceans find themselves in lies solely with the captivity industry itself. They alone captured and bred these animals into confined impoverished settings for entertainment. They alone profited from this. They alone want to maintain the status quo. And they alone are still exploiting these animals for their own gain.

Animal welfare advocates, governments, the general public, and the media should reject the narrative that they are to blame for the current problems facing captive dolphins and whales. These problems were caused by an original wrongdoing whose only solution now is for us all to work together to set it right.

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Photo of Hvaldimir by marinemind.org

Hvaldimir was wearing a leather harness when he first approached a fishing boat in April 2019. The harness had a camera mount and the words “Equipment St. Petersburg” on the buckle. It seemed likely that the whale was a military conscript from the Russian navy who had somehow gone AWOL.

When one of the fishermen got into the water, the 14-foot, 2,700-pound whale allowed him to remove the harness and then followed another boat to the fishing and tourism town of Hammerfest.

He quickly made a new life for himself along the Norwegian coast.Most captive whales are born in captivity and have never learned how to survive in the ocean. But Hvaldimir was different. He had clearly been born and raised by his family in the ocean. And once free of his captors, he quickly made a new life for himself along the Norwegian coast, often dropping in on harbors, sometimes taking off for days or weeks by himself. And while there were some people who wanted to relocate him further north to where there are many more ocean-going belugas, or to net off a fjord and keep him in it, scientists and other whale experts advised simply leaving him be. He had, after all, made it clear how he wanted to lead his life, and he was quite capable of feeding himself.

But on September 2nd, we learned that Hvaldimir had been found dead in Norway’s Risavika Bay, near the historic town of Stavanger.

The police have stated that the preliminary results from the veterinary institute indicate a 35 cm long stick was found in Hvaldimir’s mouth. He had no food in his stomach, and his internal organs were degraded.

We are awaiting the full report from the veterinary institute. We are aware that extensive samples have been taken and sent for further analysis and we anticipate that the laboratory and histopathology results will help identify all the factors that contributed to his death.

During his life, Hvaldimir touched the hearts of thousands of people around the world who recognized the dignity and courage of someone who made his own choices in life and lived every minute to the fullest.

Rest in peace.

For a full recounting of the story of Hvaldimir, see the feature article “The Whale Who Went AWOL” by journalist Ferris Jabr in the New York Times Magazine on February 12th, 2024.

The post Hvaldimir – Beloved Whale Is Found Dead appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Last week, the world lost a visionary advocate for the animals. Steven M. Wise, the founder of the Nonhuman Rights Project, was a groundbreaking legal scholar whose historic cases on behalf of captive chimpanzees and elephants have changed the face of legal advocacy.

Steve’s work gained worldwide attention in 2013 when he filed a series of first-ever lawsuits on behalf of nonhuman animals (in this case captive chimpanzees), arguing that as cognitively complex, autonomous beings, they should be recognized as “legal persons” with the fundamental right to bodily liberty.

Thanks to Steve’s work, courts are now having to grapple with the fact that these highly intelligent and emotionally sensitive animals can no longer be treated simply as pieces of property that exist for the benefit of humans.

In 2018, when New York State’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, denied Steve’s case on behalf of two chimpanzees, Tommy and Kiko, one of the judges Judge Eugene M. Fahey nonetheless wrote in his opinion:

“Does an intelligent nonhuman animal who thinks and plans and appreciates life as human beings do have the right to the protection of the law against arbitrary cruelties and enforced detentions visited on him or her? This is not merely a definitional question, but a deep dilemma of ethics and policy that demands our attention.

“To treat a chimpanzee as if he or she had no right to liberty protected by habeas corpus is to regard the chimpanzee as entirely lacking independent worth, as a mere resource for human use, a thing the value of which consists exclusively in its usefulness to others. Instead, we should consider whether a chimpanzee is an individual with inherent value who has the right to be treated with respect.”

Steve often said that he would likely not live long enough to see the day when the legal wall that separates us humans from all other animals would finally crumble. But he lived long enough and worked hard enough to see the first major cracks appearing in that wall. His work has demonstrated that the time has arrived for courts to recognize that certain animals must be recognized as having legal rights appropriate to their species, like the right to bodily liberty and bodily integrity.

He enjoyed remarking that “all my clients are innocent.”Steve won significant legal precedents that are the foundation of the future work of the Nonhuman Rights Project and all legal advocacy for animals. He had the moral courage to stand up for real-world legal rights for animals and argue for them in courts of law all over the United States and in the face of heavy opposition from industries that depend on the exploitation of animals. He was a brilliant writer and committed teacher who helped develop the field of animal law globally.

Before founding the Whale Sanctuary Project, I had the pleasure and privilege of working with Steve to provide the scientific basis for the first suits he filed on behalf of four chimpanzees. And on a personal level, I will remember him for his warmth, his unassuming wit (he enjoyed remarking that “all my clients are innocent”) and, perhaps most of all, for his commitment.

All of us who have known him and loved him will miss him dearly. But his work will continue, here at home and around the world.

The post Remembering Steven M. Wise appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Three days ago, we heard that Naya’s calf had died at the Moskvarium, and now it is being reported that J-60, too, has passed away. It is a truly sad moment. And as our thoughts go out to the two mothers as they mourn the loss of their calves, it is worth reflecting, too, on the striking contrast between grief in the wild and grief in captivity – and on how the difference between a natural free-ranging life and one spent in captivity once again becomes apparent. 

Newborn J-60 with his mother. Photo above and in the post title by Center for Whale Research.

In the ocean, J-46 will be receiving the support and assistance of a close-knit family group to help her through this difficult time. I am reminded of another mother, Tahlequah (J-35), who gave birth to a daughter named Tali in July 2018. Shortly after she was born, Tali passed away, and for the next two weeks, the world watched, transfixed, as Tahlequah, in what could only be interpreted as a display of profound grief and loss, carried the lifeless body of her daughter along the shoreline of Puget Sound on her rostrum. Her family followed along, and when, from time to time, the body slipped away from her, she or other family members would dive below the surface to retrieve it.

Photo of Naya and her calf by Moskvarium.

At the Moskvarium, by contrast, Naya is left to cope with her calf’s death all alone. There are no other orcas in the tank with her, no one to ease her pain, and nothing to relieve the stark suffering of the loss that has befallen her.

At no time is the cruel difference between solitary captivity and a natural life more salient than when tragedy strikes and the need for comfort is at its peak.

It is a fact of life that, whether in captivity or in the ocean, infant mortality among whales is high. And yes, it is appropriate to ask why it is just as high in captivity – an ostensibly “safe” environment – as it is in the wild. But right now, in the immediate aftermath of these two losses, we should perhaps simply pause to reflect on how we would feel if, as a grieving parent, we found ourselves either all alone in a barren concrete tank or, instead, had the succor of a large family to help us cope with life’s inevitable hardships.

The post The Passing of Two Orca Calves Prompts a Moment for Reflection appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

On June 23rd, the aquarium announced that Nord, a 16-year-old male orca, who was captured in 2013, had died of an acute peptic ulcer.

Photo of Nord by Oxana Federova

Only five months earlier, on January 8th, it posted that Narnia, a 17-year-old female orca taken from the ocean several years ago had died of an acute volvulus (the abnormal twisting of a portion of the gastrointestinal tract).

Naya, a 12-year-old female, is now the one remaining orca at the aquarium.

These latest two deaths are part of a worldwide pattern of illness and death that characterizes the lives of captive orcas – whether wild-caught or captive-born – in concrete tanks. In the wild, male orcas live to an average age of 30 (maximum 50-60 years) and females live to an average age of 46 (maximum 80-90). Most captive orcas do not live beyond their early 20s.

Following the passing of Nord, the Moskvarium admitted publicly that it is impossible to close the gap between what orcas need to thrive and what life in a tank is like for them.
It is impossible to close the gap between what orcas need to thrive and what life in a tank is like for them

“Despite the high level of competence of the center’s experts … it is extremely difficult to approximate the artificial conditions for keeping large marine mammals to natural,” it wrote in a statement. The facility has called for a “complete ban on catching marine mammals for educational and cultural purposes.”

The Moskvarium notes that its Center for Oceanography and Marine Biology took part in the development of a law that comes into effect in Russia in September 2024 and provides for a complete ban on “the capture of marine mammals for cultural and educational purposes.”

Photo of Narnia by Moskvarium

The decision to end catching orcas and other marine mammals for entertainment is certainly laudable but it does not ban the breeding of these animals in captivity. Science tells us that captive-born orcas have just as poor, if not poorer, well-being in the tanks as those who were born in the ocean.

The aquarium also notes that in 2019, its experts participated in the rescue and return to the ocean of the 97 orcas and beluga whales who were being held at the infamous “whale jail” near Vladivostok after being captured for sale to entertainment parks in China. (The Whale Sanctuary Project also worked with the Russian government and with Russian animal protection groups. See our posts on Whale Aid Russia.)

The question now is what will happen to Naya, the remaining orca at the Moskvarium who is being kept under conditions that, for a highly social and intelligent mammal, are inhumane. The stress of being the sole individual in a highly artificial environment after experiencing the deaths of two other orcas could lead to her demise, too.

Just as the Miami Seaquarium is now working with the nonprofit Friends of Toki toward transferring its lone orca Tokitae to a sanctuary environment, the Whale Sanctuary Project and our colleagues in the wildlife sanctuary community stand ready to work with the Moskvarium toward determining what are the next best steps for Naya to ensure that she has the highest possible quality of life so that she doesn’t follow the same path as Narnia and Nord.

Title photo of orca Nord by Moskvarium.

The post After Second Death This Year, Russian Aquarium Renounces Use of Captured Orcas appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

The news is devastating to all of us who have been working toward the time when she could be retired to sanctuary.

I first met Kiska in 2016 as part of my research for a report on Marineland for the non-profit organization Zoocheck, Inc. As I watched her swim in endless circles in her barren concrete environment, I imagined what it would be like for her and the other whales at Marineland if they could be retired to a coastal sanctuary.

At that time, we were just beginning the search along both coasts of North America for the best possible location for such a sanctuary. So, in my mind’s eye, I could see Kiska in the open water of a sanctuary, swimming and diving, chasing the birds, and exploring the plants and creatures in the kind of rich environment she had known as an infant.

Life in the ocean had come to an end for Kiska when she was captured from the North Atlantic in 1979 at around age three and taken to an aquarium in Iceland. From there, she was sold to Marineland, where she was housed briefly with Keiko, the future star of the “Free Willy” movies, before he was resold to an entertainment park in Mexico. Keiko would later be rescued, rehabilitated and returned to the ocean by Charles Vinick (now our executive director) and Jeff Foster (now our Animal Transfer & Rehab Coordinator) off the coast of Iceland.

The birth and death of her children

Over the years at Marineland, Kiska would give birth to five children and see all of them perish. What would this have meant to her as a mother? As a neuroscientist who has examined the brains and the psychology of orcas and other cetaceans for 35 years, I can say that orcas are very similar to humans in terms of the deep bonds they have with their families. They are intelligent, emotional beings who suffer grief and loss just as we do.

For Kiska, however, things would only get worse. Despite being a member of a highly social species, she was forced to spend the last twelve years of her life in complete isolation without the company of a single member of her own kind.

Drone video footage showing the orca Kiska at Marineland Canada on February 25th, 2023. She died on March 10th. Credit: Instagram: @curtis.pixels.

Provincial regulations require that a necropsy be performed on Kiska, and we strongly urge that the report be made public. But in the end, we know that no words can explain away a lifetime of pain and misery as experienced by a deeply intelligent, social, family-centered being who had the terrible misfortune to become known as the loneliest whale in the world.

They are intelligent, emotional beings who suffer grief and loss just as we do.What we already know is that her health had been in decline for at least several weeks and that an animal’s immune system is damaged by chronic stress – the kind of stress that comes from living in isolation for an extended time in an artificial, impoverished environment. We also know that orcas who live in the open ocean can live to be 80 or 90 years old, while, in captivity, they often don’t survive beyond their twenties. So, we can say that while a pathogen was likely the agent of her death, the cause was captivity itself.

The future for whales and dolphins in captivity

Parliament has already legislated the end of keeping whales and dolphins in captivity. But there are still approximately 35 beluga whales still being held at Marineland. (The company has not disclosed the exact number.) Last year, five were transferred to the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. Two of them did not survive more than a few months.

In a recent radio interview, the mayor of Niagara Falls, Canada disclosed that Marineland is up for sale and that he is committed to the welfare of the animals – marine mammals and a large number of land animals – as his chief priority related to any transfer of ownership. That means relocating the remaining whales and dolphins as quickly as possible to facilities that can provide them with a better life.

The loss of Kiska will only intensify the urgency of our team to help Marineland relocate the approximately 35 belugas and five dolphins who remain there. And we look to every available means to transfer as many as possible to sanctuaries as we press ahead to complete the work that’s required to obtain the necessary permits to begin construction of the sanctuary in Port Hilford Bay, Nova Scotia.

To complete this work and to ensure the transfer of whales to sanctuary will involve the combined efforts of government and nonprofit organizations, along with benefactors and regular donors, and a cooperative relationship with Marineland itself.

Kiska will no longer be part of that future. But her tragic death can still have meaning if we rally together to create a better future for all of the whales who continue to endure life in concrete tanks.

The post How Kiska’s Death Can Be Given Meaning appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

The news is devastating to all of us who have been working toward the time when she could be retired to sanctuary.

Captured in 1979 at around age three from the North Atlantic Ocean, Kiska gave birth, as a young adult, to five children. All of them died young. One of them didn’t even survive long enough to be named. Orcas feel deep, complex emotions, and the bond between mother and child is so profound that it is hard to imagine the grief and trauma that Kiska would have suffered in each of her bereavements. For the last 12 years, she was forced to live without the company of a single other member of her own species.

The news is devastating to all of us who have been working toward the time when she could be retired to sanctuary.Over the coming days, as we grapple with this awful loss, we will stay in touch with you. My friend, our Executive Director, Charles Vinick, emphasizes that the loss of Kiska will only intensify the urgency of our team to help Marineland relocate the approximately 34 belugas and five dolphins who remain there. And we look to every available means to transfer as many as possible to sanctuaries.

Meanwhile, we can only ask that Marineland be fully transparent about the circumstances surrounding Kiska’s passing. But in the end, we know that no words can explain away a lifetime of pain and misery as experienced by a deeply intelligent, social, family-centered being who had the terrible misfortune to become known as the loneliest whale in the world.

Yours in sorrow,

Lori Marino, President
The Whale Sanctuary Project.

NOTE: You can read Kiska’s bio here.

The post Kiska the Orca Has Died at Marineland appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

By Lori Marino

I met Don Baur in 2015 when I was putting on a workshop with my friend and colleague Naomi Rose at a conference of the Society for Marine Mammalogy in San Francisco. The workshop was about what it might take to create a sanctuary where whales from marine entertainment parks might be retired. We had asked Don to give a short talk about the legal aspects of this.

Don knew more about the issues we might face than anyone else. Just for starters, he’d served as legal counsel to the Keiko Project (which was managed by Charles Vinick, now our Executive Director). Keiko had been the orca in the movie “Free Willy” and Don had helped all through his journey from a small concrete tank in Mexico City to his return to the ocean off the coast of Iceland.

He kept saying, “You have to do this.”When Don and I sat down together after the workshop, I told him I was seriously thinking about how we could create a sanctuary. He couldn’t have been more encouraging. He kept saying, “You have to do this.” He was totally engaged. And all through that first early period, when we were starting to put the organization together, Don helped guide what we needed to do to bring the concept into reality.

At our early board meetings, when we were just feeling our way, Don was like a barometer of whether you were suggesting something crazy or, or not. He was just a steady influence by his knowledge and his temperament. It made you feel comfortable. Then he introduced me to Charles Vinick, whom he’d worked with on many projects from marine mammals to conservation to renewable energy. And soon after Charles joined the board of the Whale Sanctuary Project, Don pressed him to consider taking on the executive directorship.

“That’s what led me to changing direction from the things I was doing at the time to take this on full-time,” Charles says.

Soon after that, we began what would be a two-year effort to find the best possible location for a sanctuary. We were looking at sites all over the Pacific Northwest in the U.S. and British Columbia and then in Nova Scotia. And when we talked them through with Don, he would always cut directly to the issues we would face in any site we were considering. In the U.S. he knew all the challenges we would face in marine mammal protection and in locations where it would be challenging to get the permits we’d need. And even though he wasn’t an expert in Canadian law, he could extrapolate from his knowledge to provide us with helpful guidance as we narrowed that search to Port Hilford Bay.

He would always cut directly to the issues we would face in any site we were considering. Charles and Don were on the phone to each other almost every week. “In many organizations I’ve been involved in,” Charles says, “the general counsel is mostly a legal advisor. In Don’s case, he was always far more engaged in every aspect of the organization, not only its legal responsibilities or requirements. So, he becomes like a board member who doesn’t necessarily vote but is an advisor on every element of the work.”

When he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, he never let it interfere with his work. He was even on the phone with Charles the Sunday before he passed away. “He had been advising us on things related to our Whale Aid work with Tokitae (“Lolita”) at the Miami Seaquarium. And he was still fully engaged on that day, taking notes and discussing how he could help. It is very difficult to come to grips with his absence and so very sad that he is not still with us.”

Don’s bio is stunning in its breadth and depth. He was a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Perkins Coie. He had served as General Counsel of the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission and as an attorney advisor in the Office of the Solicitor for the U.S. Department of the Interior advising the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. And he worked in dozens of related fields ranging from renewable energy to Native American law issues.

Don taught federal wildlife law at the Golden Gate School of Law. He was also on the summer faculty of the Vermont Law School, where he taught ocean and coastal law. Delcianna Winders, the director of the school’s Animal Law and Policy Institute, writes: “Don spent hundreds – most likely thousands – of hours doing pro bono work to help whales, sea otters, and other animals, and oceans, parks, and other environmental interests … He championed the creation of our animal law and policy program.”

After she heard that Don had just passed away, one of his former students wrote to me saying: “Don touched so many lives and I am grateful to have been among them. [He was] the most reliable, genuine, inspiring, supportive, caring, selfless person I have ever known. His legacy will live on through the work of so many who he elevated and mentored.”

It’s difficult to see how any other one person can fill the void that’s left in Don’s absence. “It will take multiple people from multiple places,” Charles says. “But it won’t be a single phone call like ‘Hey Don, what do you think?’ That was how I worked with him for decades.”

Don was not only our lawyer, general counsel, advisor and friend, he was also a mentor to so many young people who are now attorneys in the fields related to the Whale Sanctuary Project. These are people who will carry his legal legacy forward. We can only hope that they will adopt a small part of his compassion, grace and selflessness.

The post Remembering Don Baur – Legal Counsel and Close Friend appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Lori’s special guest was Dr. David Celiberti, Executive Director of the Association for Science in Autism Treatment.

In this post, along with the full video of the webinar, Dr. Marino offers some background to DAT:

Over the past 40 years, dolphin assisted “therapy” has become a major branch of Swim-with-Dolphins programs, which are, in turn, a lucrative component of the overall whale and dolphin entertainment industry.

Many people describe their in-water encounter with a dolphin, whether captive or free ranging, as one of the most exhilarating and transformative experiences they’ve ever had. Some report feeling a sense of euphoria and intimate kinship with the dolphins; others assert that dolphins are aliens or angels with special healing powers. But none of these feelings have anything to do with real therapy.

In 1971, educational anthropologist Betsy Smith let her mentally disabled brother wade into the water with two adolescent dolphins. She noted that the dolphins treated him tenderly, and believing that they understood his situation, she established therapy programs at two facilities in Florida that she offered, free of charge, for many years. But she later concluded that these programs were ineffective as therapies and were exploitative of both the dolphins and the human patients. In 2003 she publicly denounced them, calling them “cynical and deceptive.”

The idea, nonetheless, had caught on, and the concept of Dolphin Assisted Therapy (DAT) was soon being promoted for profit at facilities around the world claiming to treat conditions of all kinds, in particular depression, motor disorders and, most notoriously, autism.

The use of dolphins in Dolphin Assisted Therapy and other Swim-with-Dolphins programs is contrary to our vision of a world in which cetaceans are no longer subject to any form of exploitation.Several peer-reviewed scientific papers have shown that there is no evidence that DAT has any therapeutic impact. Yet, it continues to be marketed to desperate parents and people seeking relief for the conditions that impact them. Families continue to visit these facilities and to accomplish little that they could not have gained from a change of scenery, from the close personal attention they receive from the people at these facilities, or from interacting with a puppy.

In our webinar, Dr. Celiberti, a practicing clinical psychologist with a focus on autism spectrum disorders, explained how parents of children with autism are presented with a dizzying array of pseudoscientific practices, DAT among them, all claiming to be therapeutic. Parents are often unable to distinguish real evidence-based therapies from quack practices, and the ensuing lack of results can be devastating for the parent and the child in need.

While not always promising a cure, DAT facilities clearly market themselves as offering real therapy as opposed to simply recreation. And even those who are skeptical of DAT’s scientific validity often just shrug and say “What’s the harm?” if a child who typically knows little enjoyment and accomplishment in life can find a few minutes of joy in riding or hugging a dolphin, even if the enjoyment fades away after returning home.

But there is real harm in that vulnerable patients and parents are led to believe in something for which there is absolutely no evidence: DAT’s therapeutic effectiveness. At best, there might be short-term gains attributable to the feel-good effects of being in a novel environment, along with the placebo boost of having positive expectations. But any apparent improvement in children with autism, people with depression and other medical conditions is as much an illusion as the ‘smile’ of the dolphin. And the harm can include severe injury to a child placed in the water with a wild animal who is being coerced to let that child touch and ride on her with food. Several young children have been severely injured by captive dolphins. One was almost drowned by two dolphins in a tank in Mexico.

Equally sad are the lives of the dolphins themselves. They spend their lives under tremendous stress as they struggle to adapt to an environment that, physically, socially and psychologically, is drastically different from the wild. (Even if born in a tank, they are not domesticated and are not adapted to a life in captivity.) The results are devastating: Chronic stress leads to infectious diseases, abnormal behaviors, and hyper-aggression. Most of these dolphins are medicated with anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs in order to control them.

For this reason alone, the use of dolphins in any kind of Swim-with-Dolphins program is contrary to our vision of a world in which all cetaceans are treated with respect and are no longer subject to exploitation.

During the webinar, we showed clips from a DAT session with a young child with autism, in which you can see how both child and dolphin are being coerced to participate despite the protestations of the child and the fact that the dolphin is “managed” by a trainer – neither having much interest in the other. At one point the child is made to put her hand inside the open mouth of the dolphin – a recipe for disaster that should never be promoted in a professional setting.

Dolphin Assisted Therapy is a classic example of the intersection between the exploitation of children and the abuse of dolphins. I urge anyone who is seeking help for a person with autism to visit the Association for Science in Autism Treatment for further guidance on authentic therapies.

And for our peer-reviewed papers and other information on Dolphin Assisted Therapy, go to the Deeper Dive section of the Whale Sanctuary Project website.

The post Dolphin Assisted Therapy, Autism and Pseudoscience appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

The year was 2001, and I was working with another scientist, Diana Reiss, at the New York Aquarium to see if bottlenose dolphins could recognize themselves in a mirror. The ability to recognize that the face in the mirror is “me” has long been considered a key measure of self-awareness.

When we use a mirror to put on make-up or brush our hair, we are demonstrating that we have a sense of self. Twenty years ago, only great apes and human children age two and older were known to understand that the reflection they see in a mirror is themselves.

But when, at the New York Aquarium, my colleague and I placed a large mirror in one of the tanks, the two captive dolphins there, Presley and Tab, were fascinated by what they saw. And they made it quite clear that they understood that the dolphin each of them looking at was himself.

Presley examines himself in the mirror. 

We spent over a year employing tightly controlled experimental methods and analyses to ensure that Presley and Tab were indeed doing what they looked like they were doing. And they were.
(For details about how the study worked, read our peer-reviewed paper.)

Researcher Lou Herman at the Kewalo Basin lab. Photo by Walter Sullivan.

Once our paper was published, Presley and Tab shot to international fame as the first cetaceans to demonstrate the ability to recognize themselves in a mirror. And they and our study garnered attention from the international media, late-night talk show hosts and cartoonists at major newspapers.

But now I was beginning to see the two dolphins as much more than just research subjects. Presley and Tab were self-aware individuals who had large, complex brains. And they were living in a tiny barren tank in Coney Island, New York. And while the starkness of the tank had been a benefit to our ability to control all of the conditions of the mirror experiment – there were no distractions – it was now revealing to me the dismal existence of these dolphins, endlessly swimming in circles within run-down concrete walls.

And then, not long after the study, these two profoundly intelligent and sensitive beings would meet untimely deaths from diseases related to stress and immune-system dysfunction. Presley succumbed to fungal encephalitis at age 19, Tab to gastroenteritis at 21. Both diseases are related to stress and immune-system dysfunction.

What I learned most from the study was that dolphins and whales do not belong in concrete tanks.I now understood the real significance of our mirror study: Presley and Tab were not just research subjects; they were victims. I felt ashamed that their “reward” for what they had shown us was just more exploitation, suffering, and the loss of their lives.

I soon learned about other cetacean “research superstars” who had died in the tanks. They included all of the dolphins in the famed experiments by Louis Herman at the Kewalo Basin lab in Hawaii. Phoenix, Akeakamai, Hiapo and Elele had died prematurely: two from cancer, one from enteritis and toxemia, and one from unknown causes. None of them lived past the age of 27.

Natua, another bottlenose dolphin at the Dolphin Research Center in Florida, had provided definitive evidence that dolphins reflect upon what is on their minds (called metacognition). He died at age 18 of hepatitis and cirrhosis.

And NOC, the beluga whale who mimicked human speech, had died of aspergillus encephalitis at the young age of 24 at a U.S. Navy facility in California.

Dolphins captured from blood-stained waters in Taiji, Japan. Photo by Oceanic Preservation Society.

I also learned about the monstrous Taiji drives and the role of the marine park industry in supporting the slaughter of up to thousands of cetaceans every year. And for me to continue doing research in a marine park or aquarium setting would amount to a tacit endorsement of the abuse. I could not live with that.

Instead, I would use my scientific training to protect and advocate for these psychologically complex beings. This led to participating in the films Blackfish and Long Gone Wild as the tide of public opinion began to move in the direction of bringing an end to treating whales and dolphins as a product for entertainment.

But it was also clear that without an alternative to these facilities, there would be no path to ending the confinement of cetaceans in marine parks. And all of this has led to the work of the Whale Sanctuary Project to retire captive whales and dolphins to sanctuaries.

Today, the need for sanctuaries is greater than ever. This year alone has seen numerous more deaths and reports of abuse and neglect in captive whales at home and abroad. And as the reports pile up, one after another, the need for sanctuaries grows ever more urgent.

The sanctuary we are creating in Nova Scotia is designed to be the first of many – a model that can be replicated all over the world. I believe that this is the least we can do as an act of reparation toward these intelligent and emotional beings. Together we can give them back as much as possible of what has been taken from them by our own species.

The post The Landmark Study that Led Me to Reject Research on Captive Whales and Dolphins appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Drone footage of Kiska shown here with permission.

These kinds of repetitive, abnormal behaviors are called stereotypies, and they are common across a wide range of species, including humans, in situations that lack physical or social stimulation, choice and variety. A classic example of an animal in an impoverished environment is the rat in the laboratory, singly housed in a small plastic cage with only some food pellets and a water bottle. We know from decades of well-controlled studies that rats, fish, dogs, mice, monkeys, birds and even invertebrates tend to exhibit stereotypies when confined to impoverished environments.

Early in my work as a neuroscientist I learned that stereotypies are evidence of severe chronic stress, psychological disturbance, and dysregulation in the circuits within the brain that control these kinds of behaviors. Last week, my co-authors and I published a peer-reviewed paper in Reviews in the Neurosciences, in which we outlined the brain mechanisms underlying stereotypies in captive cetaceans and elephants and provided evidence that their brains are affected by living in zoos and marine parks.

There are many parts of the brain that become disturbed in impoverished environments, resulting in stereotypies. It appears that stereotypies involve several structures and circuits.  Traditionally, the basal ganglia has been implicated, but more recent research suggests it may be more complex than that. As we continue to learn about the specifics, it is clear that that the occurrence of stereotypies is a result of dysregulation in the brain.

We can empathize with how Kiska is feeling because we know how we would feel in similar circumstances.While different species can react in different ways to impoverished environments, there are also fundamental similarities due to evolutionary continuity across species. All vertebrates possess basal ganglia (invertebrates have similar structures) and they respond to impoverishment and stress in similar ways. So, whether it is a dolphin swimming in circles, an orca grating her teeth repeatedly on the tank surfaces, elephants in amusement parks swaying back and forth, mice in lab cages running in circles, or human patients in mental health care endlessly rocking from side to side, they all indicate the same thing because we all share the same basic brain mechanisms involved in responding to stressful situations.

That is what makes Kiska’s behavior so painful to watch. We can empathize with how she is feeling because we know how we would feel under similar circumstances. And that is why, she deserves to recover in an environment that provides as much as possible of what she is missing. When elephants go from zoos to sanctuaries, their stereotypies tend to lessen or even disappear altogether. And their entire demeanor changes as they engage with their new and more stimulating environment. We expect Kiska will also blossom if she is allowed to go to sanctuary.

The post Of Mice and Orcas appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

• In March of this year, 17-year-old orca Skyla died “suddenly” at Loro Parque zoo in the Canary Islands;
• In July, a newborn beluga passed away at Georgia Aquarium;
• In that same month a second orca at Loro Parque, two-year-old Ula, died after a period of “ill health”;
• In early August, Mystic Aquarium announced the death of a juvenile male beluga who had been transferred from Marineland Canada;
• This past week, Amaya, a six-year-old orca at SeaWorld San Diego died “unexpectedly”;
• And on the heels of the first beluga death, Mystic Aquarium has just announced that another of the very young belugas from Marineland is “seriously ill”.

A beluga whale swims past tourists at Mystic Aquarium. (Photo by Pako Dominguez via Alamy)

In each of these cases, the marine parks and zoos who hold these individuals claim to be surprised and dumbfounded at the losses. SeaWorld said of the death of Amaya in an email to McClatchy News: “Her death was sudden and unexpected.” And, of the death of Skyla, Loro Parque said she was “in perfect condition until yesterday.”

Cetacean health and well-being is seriously compromised in marine parks.But these deaths are no mystery. There is substantial scientific literature on the welfare of captive wild species from birds to mammals. The clinical profiles of different species in zoos and marine parks correlate with their adaptive traits – characteristics that have made them successful as they evolved. The larger the gap between the evolutionarily adaptive characteristics of a species and the captive environment, the lower the welfare. For instance, animal welfare scientists Ros Clubb and Georgia Mason found that carnivores with naturally large home ranges tend to have poorer welfare in zoos than those with small home ranges. These and other findings make it clear why cetacean health and well-being is so seriously compromised in marine parks.

Beluga whale at Mystic Aquarium. Photo by Carol A. Highsmith, Library of Congress.

The evolutionary history of a species shapes its modern nature – those characteristics that need to be expressed in order for members of that species to flourish. Most cetacean species kept in aquariums evolved over tens of millions of years in an ocean environment that affords opportunities for wide-ranging travel, social complexity, and the psychological stimulation of hunting, escaping dangers, and exploring. In the absence of any of these inputs, chronic stress leads to psychological and physical disorders well-documented in the scientific literature for other species. As an example, monkeys confined to impoverished, unstimulating and small environments show more behavioral abnormalities than those in a natural or enriched environment. The parallels with captive cetaceans and free-ranging cetaceans are apparent.

Animal welfare science has a clear message that is being ignored by marine parks and zoos: Square pegs do not fit into round holes.

So, when the entertainment parks claim to be flummoxed over the deaths of young whales, they simply need to pull down the nearest marine mammal biology textbook from the shelf to find out why these deaths are no mystery.

The post Why Captive Cetaceans Have Been Dying appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

A couple of years ago, my friend Lauren sent me a photo from her vacation abroad. It was of herself and her family riding an elephant at a place that billed itself as an animal sanctuary.

A few months later, when she asked me whether she’d be able to visit the whale sanctuary at Port Hilford, I felt the need to explain that the place she’d visited on vacation is not, in fact, an authentic sanctuary. Just for starters, the elephant who was giving rides would have suffered a long period of rigorous, painful training before she would obey commands and submit to tourists sitting in a carriage on her back.

Lauren told me she’d been having doubts herself about the experience. So we talked some more, and I told her the four basic questions I always ask about any facility that calls itself a sanctuary:

• Does it engage in performances, demonstrations or displays?
• Are visitors allowed access to the animals for commercial purposes like rides, petting pools and up-close photos with the animals?
• Does it allow breeding?
• And overall, does it have any priorities other than the well-being of the animals?

If the answer to any of those questions is “Yes,” then it’s not an authentic sanctuary.

Photo by Global Sanctuary for Elephants

A sanctuary is by definition a place where the wellbeing of the residents is always the priority.

There are hundreds of first-class sanctuaries all over the world: for elephants, big cats, bears, great apes, dogs and cats, koalas, parrots, and other animals of all kinds. And while visitors can usually take a tour, there are no rides and no close-up experiences, and everyone stays at a respectful distance from the residents.

These top-of-the-line land-based sanctuaries are an inspiration to all of us who are creating seaside sanctuaries for whales, dolphins and other marine mammals. And our bottom line will always be the wellbeing of the animals who live there.

Right now, we’re witnessing a fundamental change in public opinion regarding how people relate to whales and dolphins.

Whale sanctuaries are just in their formative years. And so, as we design this sanctuary for captive whales in Port Hilford, Nova Scotia, we intend for it to set the gold standard for what can then be, in years to come, many more such sanctuaries all over the world.

The post What Is an Authentic Sanctuary? appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Beluga whale at the Shedd Aquarium – Alamy

In response to the infant’s death, Chief Animal Operations Officer Peggy Sloan stated: “Our team gave Naya’s calf the absolute best chance to thrive.” And while it’s doubtless true that the aquarium did its best, thriving is an unrealistic expectation for any beluga who is born in a concrete tank.

While the low birthweight that comes with twinning may be the basis for this infant’s demise, we should note that the Shedd Aquarium and many other captive facilities are associated with a shockingly high beluga infant mortality rate.

Last year, Shedd announced the successful birth of another infant beluga, this one to Mauyak, a beluga who had been captured in Canada’s Hudson Bay in 1982. The baby survives to this day. But Mauyak had given birth four times previously and only one of those four survives: her six-year-old daughter Kimalu. Of the three others, one was stillborn, one died the same day he was born, and another succumbed to illness at Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut at age nine.

The high mortality rate is not limited to infants and juveniles. The Shedd Aquarium has had 10 beluga deaths in the past 30 years – one death every three years on average. And this history is typical for belugas forced to live in concrete tanks.

There is a fundamental mismatch between life in concrete tanks and the evolutionary make-up of belugas.
At the Georgia Aquarium, six belugas have died in the past 15 years; none lived beyond the age of 26 despite the fact that the natural lifespan for belugas is 50 to 60 years. A female named Maris lost two calves in the span of three years and then died suddenly in 2015 at the age of 21. The cause of her death was never disclosed.

While disease, injury and death are part of life in the ocean as well, it is revealing that they are so common in facilities claiming to offer the best of human care. Something doesn’t add up. And that “something” is the fact that there is a fundamental mismatch between life in concrete tanks and the evolutionary make-up of belugas. Like orcas and other cetaceans, belugas are highly intelligent, wide-ranging, socially complex, cultural beings, whose species-specific needs simply cannot be met in tanks.

Efforts to facilitate thriving in infant or adult beluga whales living in tanks are inherently doomed to failure. They need space to travel and depth to dive, the opportunity to live in a rich supportive social network of friends and family, the ability to explore a dynamic environment filled with interesting objects and other animals, and the ability to make their own choices on a daily basis. None of these fundamental aspects of well-being exist at marine entertainment parks and aquariums.

The only ethical response to this kind of suffering and loss is to call a halt to the breeding. Canada took this important step in 2019 when it passed Senate Bill S-203. This legislation bans the display of dolphins and whales for entertainment and, importantly, makes it illegal to continue to breed them. Banning breeding is not only the compassionate response to the continued mortality, but also the first step toward a more progressive relationship between humans and beluga whales.

Instead of continuing to try to save “depleted collections” of belugas in captivity, it’s time for marine parks and aquariums to join the growing movement to retire these animals to permanent sanctuaries. In a seaside sanctuary they can be cared for while enjoying aspects of a natural life they are denied in the tanks. While not equivalent to a natural free-ranging life, a sanctuary provides much more of what belugas need in order to thrive: substantially more space, a more interesting and varied environment, and the opportunity to exercise their autonomy and spend their days doing whatever they want and associating with whomever they want.

Nature is sending a clear message to those who continue to try to make the concrete tanks work at the expense of the well-being and lives of belugas and other cetaceans. And the only informed response is Back to Nature.

The post Another Infant Beluga Dies at Shedd Aquarium appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Although we’ve known for a long time that belugas are very gregarious and often congregate in crowds that number into the hundreds, a new study shows they have an even more complex social life than we had imagined. And it’s one that’s more similar to human social relationships than we’ve seen among other cetaceans (whales and dolphins).

They have an even more complex social life than we imagined. Photo ©Ellen Cuylaerts.

Despite not looking anything like us and living in a fully aquatic environment, belugas actually share a number of interesting characteristics with humans. They have big brains that are much larger than expected for their body weight; they have a complex communication system; they develop over a very prolonged juvenile (childhood) period; they have their own cultural traditions; and they experience menopause (older females stop reproducing themselves in order to participate in the care of their grandchildren).

In most highly social cetacean species that have been studied – e.g., sperm whales, orcas and pilot whales – cultural practices are passed along from generation to generation primarily through the matriline, i.e., among genetically related females. Therefore, groups tend to be composed of closely related females with the mother-calf dyad central to the group.

But in this new study, led by marine mammal scientist Greg O’Corry-Crowe at Florida Atlantic University, the researchers found that beluga whale groupings are not always based on genetic affiliation. Beluga whales form much more fluid kinds of aggregations, with individuals coming and going among other pods and families and then coming back together over space and time.

In other words, beluga whales have friends.Perhaps most notably, the researchers found that belugas have long-term relationships with other beluga whales who are not family members. In other words, they have friends.

The scientists examined beluga whale groups from ten locations across the globe, including the waters of Russia, Norway, Canada, Alaska and the Arctic, using a combination of observational methods and molecular genetic techniques to uncover the details of how beluga whales associate with each other.

“Unlike killer and pilot whales, and like some human societies, beluga whales don’t solely or even primarily interact and associate with close kin,” O’Correy-Crowe told Salon in a recent interview. “Across a wide variety of habitats and among both migratory and resident populations, they form communities of individuals of all ages and both sexes that regularly number in the hundreds and possibly the thousands.”

Like us humans, belugas don’t spend all of their time with their parents or siblings. Instead, they like to “hang out” with friends of all ages and sexes.

These discoveries have compelling implications for how and why groups form in mammals. Current theories about mammalian social evolution are based largely on what scientists believed to be the central importance of the matriline and the importance of staying with your genetic kin (known as inclusive fitness). But the new study turns these ideas on their head. The observations suggest that beluga whale groups may form for purposes of cooperation and collaboration across individuals who are not necessarily relatives, leading to conditions that may drive cultural innovation (again, as in human societies).

So, while belugas are known for their intelligence, communication skills, curiosity and social networking, field studies of what belugas do in their natural environment are revealing far more complexity than we previously thought.

And it’s worth bearing in mind that studies like these, conducted over thousands of miles of the ocean, are giving us the kinds of amazing insights that can never be gleaned from whales in captivity.

The post Are Beluga Whales Social Butterflies? appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

These big beautiful brains underlie their exquisite intelligence, complex communication abilities, and highly curious nature.

Beluga brains are indeed large. They weigh about 4.5 pounds (compared to the 2.75-pound human brain) and are more than twice the size you would expect for a mammal of their body weight. That means that like humans, they have a lot of brain power left over after you account for body maintenance. And that means a lot of brain tissue devoted to all the “heady” capacities like problem solving, emotions and communication.

Beluga brains have several features that we know are related to complex intelligence in all mammals. Their neocortex – the part of the brain involved in analytical thinking, self-awareness, reasoning, perception and communication – has even more folds (known as convolutions) than the human brain, meaning that the surface area is greater.

Belugas may have even more processing elements in their neocortex than we do.This expansive elaboration of the neocortex suggests that belugas may have even more processing elements in their neocortex than we do.  We’ve only just begun to understand what that means in terms of the sophisticated ways they may be processing information compared to how humans do this.

One way we know dolphins and whales process information differently from humans is that the part of their neocortex that first processes sound is right next to (adjacent to) the part of their neocortex that first processes vision. This is very different from the way human brains are organized: our sound and visual inputs have to go through a lot of brain “territory” before they come together. Scientists think the cortical adjacency, as it is called, in dolphin and whale brains may facilitate echolocation, in which sound and visual imagery are interchangeable.

All this brain power makes belugas naturally curious about their environment and unfit for the sterile unchanging conditions of a concrete tank. And those big brains allow belugas to have learned cultural traditions which they pass on from one generation to the next. That means they keep a lot of knowledge stored in their memories. Just like us, they need to explore, probe, play with, learn about, and be challenged by both their living and physical environment.

And that is what we will be providing for our sanctuary residents: a chance to finally exercise those big beautiful beluga brains.

The post Big and Beautiful: the Beluga Brain appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

I wish you, your family and your friends health and well-being in what are trying times for everyone.

It’s hard to believe that only three weeks ago, Charles, our executive director, and I were in Nova Scotia to announce that we had selected Port Hilford as the best site to create a seaside sanctuary for whales being retired from entertainment parks.

Now, like all of you, we find ourselves in a somewhat different world as a consequence of the coronavirus. But I’m glad to say that most of our work is continuing unabated.

In the days immediately following our announcement, the team was able to collect water quality samples to compare to the historic records of the Port Hilford waters. And just last week Dr. Amanda Babin, our environmental analyst, deployed temperature loggers throughout the bay. In the days ahead we will be expanding this work to include sea floor mapping, deploying current meters and more.

One of our main challenges, however, is that none of us from the United States can travel to Nova Scotia to meet with key people at the regulatory agencies that will be responsible for granting the necessary permit for the creation of the sanctuary. And an interesting wrinkle is that this will be the first permit of its kind that anyone has ever applied for. So, there’s much discussion to be had between the Whale Sanctuary Project and the various government departments as we work our way together through this unique process.

Of course, when it comes to travel and in-person meetings, our situation is no different from anyone else’s. But we have plenty of work to press ahead with regardless. And most of all, we’re very grateful for the fact that we had a chance to visit our friends and colleagues in Sherbrooke and Port Hilford just days before the new restrictions were being put in place.

There are more updates on the website and on our Facebook and Instagram pages. And thank you, as always for being part of the Whale Sanctuary Project.

Stay safe, be well, and all the best.

Dr. Lori Marino
President, the Whale Sanctuary Project.

The post A Message from Our President re. COVID-19 appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Despite efforts by the rescue team that had been convened by NOAA, Scarlet passed away in September. Her demise came on the heels of the world watching as a young orca mother, Tahlequah (J-35), carried her dead infant for 17 days before finally letting go.

We tend to think of extinction in terms of populations and species, but the experience of participating in an effort to rescue a single individual who was part of an ongoing extinction event led me to realize that it is a very personal experience for the individuals undergoing it. Extinction is getting sick and struggling to live and watching everyone you love going through the same agony. This is where extinction lives: in the heart and soul of each individual animal.

All of this happened during a grim year where the population of orcas in that region declined to just 74 individuals– a 35-yr low. In an ominous statement, Ken Balcomb, director of the Center for Whale Research, has since said he will stop counting when their numbers fall to 70.

Photos of Scoter show his deteriorating condition over two years.

And now more bad news: Two more of  the Southern Residents are starving and in failing health. Photos of 42-year old Princess Angeline (J-17) show she has “peanut head” – a loss of fat around the neck and a sign of severe starvation. And the young male Scoter (K-25), who lost his mother in 2017, is failing to feed himself.

Indeed, both whales are in such bad condition that Ken Balcomb says he is confident that “we are going to lose them by summer.” And the fact that Princess Angeline is the matriarch of her family group makes her troubles even more alarming.

“Every member of their society will become aware that their turn will come.”

Shortly after I read the news of Princess Angeline and Scoter, an email from a colleague raised the emotional stakes for me. He wrote that because of orcas’ close family bonds, their complex intelligence and their advanced level of self and situational awareness, “every member of their society will become aware that their turn will come, that they will suffer, as they’ve witnessed with families and friends.” In other words, these orcas may be aware that they are in an extinction event. They may not know the textbook definition of mass extinction or about the science of genetic diversity. But they may know nevertheless that something is happening to all of them and that, at some point, there will be none of them.

There is no way to tell them that we are trying to help: that a task force created by Washington State Governor Jay Inslee has recommended a number of actions that must be taken urgently and immediately. We don’t even know whether these suggestions will be fully implemented, nor whether they will be effective or simply too little too late. Regardless, the Whale Sanctuary Project will be ready to help in whatever way we can, just as we did last summer on behalf of Scarlet. But commercial and political interests may trump the needs of the Southern Residents. And in the end, we can only watch as the state and federal governments, and all of us in the public, decide to let, one by one, the Southern Residents disappear.

Perhaps the urgency of the situation is best articulated by 11-year-old student and marine mammal advocate London Fletcher, who writes: “It’s time to wake up and smell the extinction.”

The post Extinction – What if They Know? appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

And we’ve known that the neocortex of a whale or dolphin brain has more folds than ours. All those folds mean that the surface area is greater and therefore may have more units to process information.

But recently, when we used a special imaging technique to study the brain of a dolphin (who had died naturally), we were astonished by what we learned.

Above: Beluga brain (left) and human brain. A beluga brain is just under twice the size of a human one and has more folds in its neocortex (surface area), indicating that the part of their brain that’s involved in problem solving and thinking is highly elaborated.

While we humans and most other animals have a single pathway from the inner ear up to the first “stopover” for auditory information coming into the brain, it turns out that dolphins have two! (And orcas, although we commonly refer to them as whales, are the largest species of dolphin.)

This could mean that they process echolocation echoes in one region of the brain and whistles and other sounds in another. But we’re still trying to understand how these two kinds of sound information come together.

Another research team has found that the part of the brain in orcas that’s involved in problem-solving and social- and self-awareness is proportionally larger than in humans. This could suggest they have a more complex sense of self than we do – so they may experience life both as an individual and as a member of their pod. And this kind of mental life might require a lot more processing of information than is the case with humans.

So, are we humans the most intelligent species on the planet? Clearly, evolution has found a way to create more than one kind of complex intelligence.

This post is excerpted from our Fall Newsletter. We send the complete newsletter to everyone who’s donated in the last year, so if you’d like to receive a copy, please make your donation now. Your gift, large or small, will be worth twice as much since our lead sponsor, Munchkin, Inc, is matching all donations this year up to a total of $300,000.  

The post The World’s Most Intelligent Species? appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

I, too, hope that Mauyak gives birth successfully. But while free-ranging beluga whales can live for 50 to 60 years, captive belugas routinely die before the age of 30.

Mauyak (right) and Kimalu at the Shedd Aquarium. By Chicago Tribune

Mauyak was captured in 1982 in Canada’s Hudson Bay when she was just two years old. And while marine display parks like to refer to their captive whales as “our family,” Mauyak has not seen her own family since she was taken. Instead, since she has been shuffled around from one aquarium to another: first to Point Defiance Zoo, then to Shedd Aquarium, then to Mystic Aquarium, and finally back to Shedd in 2009.

Of the four calves to whom she has given birth, just one, her six-year-old daughter Kimalu, survives. Of the three others, one was stillborn, one died the same day he was born, and another died at Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut at the age of nine. This history is typical for belugas who are born in concrete tanks. The Shedd Aquarium has had nine beluga deaths in the past 29 years; about one death every three years. This is the depressing reality behind the captive beluga industry anywhere you go.

The Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta

At the Georgia Aquarium, six belugas have died since the facility opened just 13 years ago. None of them lived beyond age 26. One of them, a female named Maris, lost two calves in the span of three years and then died in 2015 at age 21, five months after the death of her second calf. The cause of her death has never been explained.

In Canada the situation is no better. At the Vancouver Aquarium, five young belugas have died in the past eight years, including a mother and daughter, Aurora and Qila, who died nine days apart and for whom cause of death has never been determined. Their lives were marked by suffering. Aurora lost three calves before she was 29 and her daughter Qila also lost one.

Most notorious among North American marine display parks, Marineland Canada currently holds about 58 belugas (it’s hard to be precise since births and deaths are so frequent) with at least 36 beluga deaths to their name since the early 1990s.

Belugas being unloaded from Russia at China’s Huangzhou Polar Ocean Park. (Xinhua/Wang Dingchang

The record abroad, particularly in China, is not well documented but probably much worse.

So, while we all hope that Mauyak’s calf is born healthy and lives beyond infancy, we must face the sober truth that belugas and concrete tanks do not mix. Moreover, captive belugas often exhibit abnormal behavior, like stereotypies (repetitive behaviors with no clear purpose) and other signs of chronic stress.

Yet the captive entertainment industry continues to confine these whales to tanks and force them to breed under unnatural circumstances leading to death, suffering and loss. No wonder the Shedd Aquarium, Georgia Aquarium and SeaWorld were part of an attempt in 2013 to gain a permit from NOAA to import 18 beluga whales caught in Russia’s Sea of Okhotsk.

Belugas are no more suited to living in aquariums than orcas are.This was the first application for a permit to import recently caught wild marine mammals in more than 20 years – an effort that went against the decision the marine mammal captivity industry in the U.S. had made in the wake of public anger when news footage was shown of similar captures in U.S. waters.

This application was denied, in part because NOAA determined that many of the 18 belugas were only about a year old and still nursing at the time these facilities wanted to set them on the long journey from a crowded holding pen in Russia to be distributed among the U.S. aquariums. (The aquariums may still attempt to overturn the NOAA permit denial in the future and we should be ever-vigilant and prepared for this possibility.)

Captive belugas are sending a clear and powerful message to their captors with their poor welfare, short lives and high numbers of deaths. They cannot thrive, let alone survive for very long, in concrete tanks. So, while the public may understandably, be more focused on orcas and their plight in and out of captivity, we should be ever mindful of the continued suffering of captive belugas, who are no more suited to living in aquariums than orcas are.

Let’s remember the words (yes, words) of a beluga named NOC, who was kidnapped from his family in 1977. NOC mimicked human speech during his 22 years of confinement in a concrete tank by the National Marine Mammal Foundation. Among his first words heard by a diver cleaning his tank were the most telling of all: “Out, out, out!”

We hope that Mauyak’s baby will have a different fate than NOC’s and live her life in a seaside sanctuary where she will know better what it is like to be a beluga.

The post When Captive Belugas Give Birth appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Scarlet was one of the endangered Southern Resident orcas in Puget Sound, a population that has been ravaged, first by captures by marine entertainment parks in the 1960s and 70s, and now from toxic waters, acoustic pollution and lack of food.

Only a few weeks ago, when Scarlet was already fighting for her life, the world had a front row seat to another orca’s suffering, Tahlequah, a mother who carried her dead baby (who lived only 30 minutes) for 17 days in what was described as a “tour of grief.” All this took place from July through September. And now there are only 74 Southern Residents left.

All of us who were involved with Scarlet – NOAA, local organizations, wildlife veterinarians (including from the captivity industry), the Lummi Nation, and the Whale Sanctuary Project – were faced with an unprecedented situation:

What do you do about a little whale who is sick and rapidly getting worse? Do you “let nature take its course”? What does that even mean in a world where we ourselves have created the conditions for extinction? Do you pick her up and treat her even though this could traumatize her family? Can you mitigate any such trauma by waiting until she becomes separated from her family? And what would constitute her being separated? How many miles between her and them and for how long?

We should never forget that it is these personal struggles that make up the extinction process.

And while we all spent days discussing these issues, she slipped through our fingers.

In the wake of this emotionally grueling situation I’ve been struck by a statement made by Ken Balcomb, director of the Center for Whale Research, who has studied the Southern Residents more than anyone. When asked for his comments on Scarlet’s demise, Ken said: “This is what extinction looks like.”

And with that statement he brought reality into clear perspective. Extinction is a term we hear all the time nowadays, as in “We’re in a Sixth Mass Extinction” and the latest news on how this species or that is going extinct. But extinction is not some abstract textbook concept at the level of species and populations; it is a loss of individuals like Scarlet and like Tahlequah’s infant. It is personal. It’s about loss and suffering on the part of families and social groups. It’s about a mother carrying her dead child for 17 days. It’s about a little whale who tried to live despite all the odds.

It is these personal struggles that make up the extinction process, and we should never forget this when we are trying to decide what to do.

Extinction is not a cold calculus about the numbers of breeding females and the degree of genetic diversity. Extinction is blood, guts and last breaths of individuals who wanted to live and who lost that fight, one by one by one, until, like Scarlet, they are all gone.

The post This Is What Extinction Looks Like appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

This week a new scientific paper was published in PLoS One by Rachel Morrison and Diana Reiss showing that two captive-born juvenile bottlenose dolphins, Bayley and Foster, living at the National Aquarium, can recognize themselves in a mirror.

The ability to recognize oneself in a mirror is an indicator of self-awareness – that is, a sense of an autobiographical “I”, as in “That’s me in the mirror.” This level of self-awareness is the basis for the ability to reflect upon and think about oneself and one’s circumstances in a subjective manner. It is a very advanced cognitive capacity that, beyond dolphins, has only been observed in great apes, elephants, magpies and humans over two and a half years old.

In 2001, Diana and I co-authored the first peer-reviewed paper to demonstrate mirror self-recognition in dolphins. And today, I’m gratified to see our seminal finding replicated and published in a peer-reviewed journal. The new findings confirm and extend those original conclusions, and we now know more about how this capacity unfolds in dolphins developmentally.

Our earlier paper showed that two captive-born bottlenose dolphins – Presley, age 13, and Tab, age 17, living at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island – independently demonstrated mirror self-recognition, providing the first evidence for this capacity in a non-primate species. Tab and Presley shot to fame in the press and became members of a club of cetacean “research superstars” who had been shown to exhibit other cognitive abilities like language comprehension and metacognition.

The suffering and death of these two dolphins led to my decision to no longer participate in research on captive animals.Back in 2001, as I began to let our own findings sink into my consciousness, I began to realize the deeper significance of what Diana and I had just shown: namely that two self-aware beings had been spending their entire lives swimming in circles in a small dingy barren tank in Brooklyn. A few years later, Presley and Tab were transferred to other captive facilities, where they would meet untimely deaths from diseases related to stress, immune system dysfunction, and infection. Presley succumbed to fungal encephalitis at age 19 and Tab to gastroenteritis at 21.

The suffering and death of these two dolphins with whom I had worked so closely led to my decision to no longer participate in research on captive animals. I knew that there would be a personal cost to this since our findings had raised so many burning questions that more research would be able to explore. But finding self-recognition and all the other results from captive research only made it glaringly obvious that these animals do not belong in tanks.

Bayley (left) and Foster – Courtesy National Aquarium.

Now, 17 years later, I’m pleased to see that our original scientific findings have been confirmed. But I’m even more delighted to know that Bayley and Foster, the two subjects of this research, will not meet the same fate as Presley and Tab. As members of a group of dolphins at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, they are being prepared for a remarkable new life. The National Aquarium, under the direction of its very progressive CEO, John Racanelli, is creating a permanent seaside sanctuary where all the aquarium’s dolphins will be able to flourish in an environment that’s as close as possible to life in the wild.

The significance of the present work by Morrison and Reiss to our scientific knowledge cannot be over-stated. But its relevance as an example of our ethical evolution is even more important. That’s because it demonstrates that scientific findings have ethical implications.

What I learned from our research back in 2001 led me to what is now the work of the Whale Sanctuary Project, so that other cetaceans – specifically captive orcas and belugas – can be provided with a life that complements their psychology.

It is time for all of us to move beyond the confines of the concrete “dolphin lab” and into a realm that reflects our own findings about who these beings are.

The post Dolphin Mirror Self-Recognition: the Science and the Ethics appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

This year, 2017, was our first full year as the Whale Sanctuary Project, and thanks to you it has exceeded our expectations.

Three areas of success stand out: Site selection, fund raising, and the growing movement to bring an end to keeping whales and dolphins in concrete tanks.

Fund Raising

Our work overall is made possible by our primary sponsor, Munchkin Inc., makers of fine products for babies and children, which made a $300,000 donation to the Whale Sanctuary Project this year.

Steven Dunn, the CEO, asked that the $300k be in the form of a challenge grant to meet expenses for the year. And your donations for the year have now topped $300,000, thus matching Munchkin’s generous grant.

Congratulations, and many thanks to all of you who have contributed. You made it happen. And your year-end Holiday donation will be much appreciated.

Site Selection

When we started looking for the best place for a seaside sanctuary, there were literally thousands of possible bays, coves and inlets on the Pacific and Atlantic northern coasts. So, we began with a satellite imagery search, with help from volunteers and interns, scanning Google Earth maps with overlays providing valuable information about water depth, tidal flows and temperatures.

By mid-year, we’d narrowed the field to about 20 locations that merited visiting – most of them in the Johnstone Strait of British Columbia, in the Salish Sea off the coast of Washington State, and on the coast of Nova Scotia.

And now, at year’s end, we have just a handful of sites of interest.

This coming year, we begin the work of narrowing the field to one site and starting to create the sanctuary itself. The first step will be to deploy experts with equipment to conduct detailed environmental analyses of these top candidate sites.

A Growing Movement

In 2010, I joined a horrified world as Tilikum fatally attacked trainer Dawn Brancheau during a show at SeaWorld Orlando. I was heartbroken and angry. But many of us who had been studying whales in captivity knew that attacks like this one were not uncommon and were sure to happen again. These deeply intelligent, social and emotional animals cannot cope with confinement in concrete tanks.
A growing movement to bring an end to keeping whales and dolphins in concrete tanks.

And while there were already sanctuaries for elephants, tigers, primates and other animals formerly in zoos and circuses, there were none yet for dolphins and whales.

This year, a growing movement has been taking shape, here at home and around the world, to bring an end, once and for all, to keeping whales and dolphins in concrete tanks for the amusement of people who don’t understand the cost to these magnificent animals – and indeed to the people who care for them.

With your help, the Whale Sanctuary Project is on course to complete a model sanctuary where whales who are retired from display facilities will have a life that gives back as much as possible of what has been taken from them. A life where they can thrive.

Thank you for being part of this movement and for all your help and support. Together, we will create a better world for whales and set a more compassionate example for our children.

Lori Marino
President, the Whale Sanctuary Project.

The post 2017: A New Beginning for Captive Whales appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Right now, the site selection team is poring over satellite maps of Washington State and British Columbia on the West Coast, and Maine, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia on the East Coast. If you look at any map of these coastlines, you’ll see that there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of coves and inlets and bays, any one of which might be the perfect location for a sanctuary.

The geographical and engineering analysis is led by team member Michael Parks, who engineered the building, installation and operation of a sea pen for the orca Keiko prior to his return to the wild in 1998.

Things we have to consider

Good satellite maps don’t just show you the surface of the water; they give you lots of critical information like depth, tidal flows and temperature. We need to know things like:

• Whether the water is deep enough for the new residents to be able to dive comfortably. Killer whales in the wild routinely dive to depths of more than 300 feet. The sanctuary doesn’t need to be that deep, but certainly a lot more than the 35 feet or less that they have at a marine park.
• Winter water temperature. While the residents will be cold-water animals, we need to be sure the water won’t ice over (which would prevent the residents from coming to the surface to breathe).
• What kind of tidal flow there is. It needs to be strong enough to keep the water healthy, but not so strong during a storm that it could break the nets that separate the sanctuary from the open ocean.
• Proximity to human civilization. We need to be reasonably close to human habitation so we’re not having to put in roads and power and other infrastructure from far away. And there needs to be an airport nearby to fly in new arrivals.

And beyond the mapping side of things, there are other considerations like the need to meet all relevant local and governmental rules and regulations.

So we begin with desktop research using a computer platform called Smart Sheets (a kind of souped-up version of Excel), where our marine engineering and data analysis experts gather data from Google Earth and Geographic Information Systems to compile and analyze maps of the hundreds of possible locations.

They’re aiming to have all of the data inputted and weighted for importance by the end of the year, so they can produce a short list of three to five sites. Then, early in 2017, we’ll start the on-the-ground stage of things: visiting each site, putting boats on the water (and maybe planes in the air), doing environmental tests, and meeting with local people and governments to ensure they’re on board and enthusiastic about the project.

Only then are we ready to choose the “winning” site … and to start building the sanctuary itself.

UPDATE: More details on choosing the right place for a sanctuary are in the post Location, Location, Location.

The post Choosing a Location appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.