This is becoming unbearable. The death of Osiris, who was transported to Shedd from Marineland Canada, follows those of Peekachu and Rain. A fourth whale, Jelly Bean, who was sent to Oceanogràfic Valencia in Spain, has also died.

It was well known among animal welfare organizations that the health of these whales was seriously compromised. Shedd admits this in their blog post, saying that Osiris was “a whale of clinical concern.”

Tonight, we can only mourn this latest passing. There will be more. None of these whales should have been shipped anywhere until they had been examined by competent, independent veterinarians, who could have determined what was in the whales’ best interests.

And now we are seeing the consequences of this so-called “rescue” – a reckless operation to allow these animals to be further exploited for their entertainment value and for breeding.

It is a slow-motion unfolding tragedy.

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The post A Third Beluga Whale from Marineland Canada Has Died at Shedd Aquarium appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

While these transfers are portrayed by the captivity industry as benevolent outreaches serving purposes of rescue, conservation and education, a closer look reveals that the cetacean (whale and dolphin) captivity industry in the United States has much to gain from importing these whales. (Two are now slated to go to Oceanogràfic, an aquarium in Valencia, Spain.)

They will be allowed to breed more whales

The Memorandum of Understanding that SeaWorld, the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and the Georgia Aquarium have signed with NOAA (the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) is conspicuously missing any agreement by the facilities not to breed these whales. By contrast, in 2019, when Marineland Canada exported five beluga whales to the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, breeding was not permitted.

Photo of a beluga whale being fed at Marineland Canada. Photo by Dreamstime.

And even though Canadian law expressly forbids the use of whales and dolphins for entertainment or breeding, the Canadian government required no such agreement before signing off on the export of the whales.

As Animal Justice, Canada’s premier animal law advocacy organization, explains the situation:

“When Canada passed groundbreaking laws in 2019 banning whale captivity and breeding, the promise was that this would be the last generation of whales to experience the misery of captivity. Instead, we’re simply exporting the suffering abroad and allowing it to continue.”

Marineland was threatening to kill them

Why, then, did both governments quietly give a green light to these beluga whales being used for breeding? The answer, most likely, is that without this agreement the captivity industry would be a lot less interested in importing them.

“We’re simply exporting the suffering abroad and allowing it to continue.”
The Canadian government had found itself in an awkward situation with Marineland Canada threatening publicly to kill any belugas that it could not otherwise get rid of. Marineland was claiming to be in a financial crisis and unable to care for the whales any longer. But the approximately 1,000-acre property they have put up for sale is considered to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Marineland has also repeatedly refused to consider the sanctuary option and to at least care for the whales until the Whale Sanctuary Project can finish construction of the sanctuary in Nova Scotia.

And so, the deal was done. And the industry has successfully spun the narrative that this is simply an “emergency rescue” rather than also an opportunity to restock its American facilities.

Will the whales be better off in their new tanks?

Considering that Marineland was threatening to kill them, the whales will certainly be better off in that they are, at least, still alive! But that’s a pretty low bar: removal from one concrete tank to another, one form of enforced captivity to another.

Photo of captive beluga whale at Marineland Canada by Sasha Rink/World Animal Protection.

For these whales and for any others – whether taken captive in the wild or born in a tank, never to know anything beyond its concrete walls – it can only ever be, at best, just a better prison.

As Animal Justice sums up this whole miserable episode: “It’s not a rescue, it’s government-enabled whale trafficking.”

The bottom line: It’s whale trafficking

What do we mean by “trafficking”?

The United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children defines trafficking as:

(a) […] the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

And the U.S. Department of Justice, which focuses on human trafficking, notes that trafficking victims are “lured or forced into situations where they are made to work under deplorable conditions with little or no pay” and that “traffickers can be pimps, gang members, diplomats, business owners, labor brokers, and farm, factory, and company owners.”

Just as persons of a different gender, race, age etc. can be victims of trafficking – bought, sold, used and abused for pleasure and profit – so can those of a different species.

Whales and dolphins are no less intelligent and emotionally sensitive than we humans. They live in closely bonded families, just like us. They care for their young and grieve their lost ones, just as we do. To take them from their families and sell them, loan them, trade them, enslave them, breed more of them, and exploit them for profit is a crime against nature, just as it is when committed against the young and innocent of our own kind.

We call it what it is: trafficking. And it is time to bring this whole sorry episode in our history to an end.

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The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute has announced that this year’s recipient of its prestigious Drake Award will be Dr. Lori Marino, founder and president of the Whale Sanctuary Project.

We’re delighted to learn this. And you may understandably be asking: “But what does the search for extraterrestrial intelligence have to do with whales and dolphins and the Whale Sanctuary Project?”

The answer, in fact, is: “Quite a lot.”

The SETI Institute is best known for the huge arrays of telescopes that watch for signs and signals of intelligent life beyond Earth. Less well-known is that its work involves a lot more than just scanning the cosmos. It requires a basic understanding of the different forms of intelligence that life might take on other worlds. And since the intelligence of whales and dolphins parallels that of us humans in many ways, understanding their highly complex brains and intelligence is a great way to start.

That’s why, to help answer the question of how to look for signs of intelligent life beyond Planet Earth, astronomers at the SETI Institute turn to scientists who study intelligence in our fellow animals.

A neuroscientist and psychologist by training, Dr. Marino is a leader in the field of intelligence in nonhuman animals. In 2001, at the New York Aquarium, she and a colleague demonstrated that bottlenose dolphins showed evidence of self-awareness, which is considered one of the hallmarks of complex intelligence.

She also showed that having an oversized brain is not unique to us humans and our primate cousins. Dolphins have them, too.

But while these findings led many of her colleagues to want to pursue further research on captive dolphins, it led Dr. Marino to the opposite conclusion: that no self-aware being belongs in a concrete tank. Nor, indeed, except for their own wellbeing, in any form of captivity.

And it was this understanding that would lead her, 15 years later, to the founding of the Whale Sanctuary Project and our efforts today to complete the sanctuary we’re establishing in Nova Scotia.

You can browse through some of Dr. Marino’s research into the intelligence of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) on the Whale Sanctuary website here.

One thing that has drawn scientists at SETI to her work is that although, over tens of millions of years, cetaceans and humans have evolved along very different tracks, our two species share much in common in terms of our psychology. They call this convergent evolution. And if it happens in animals who are so distantly related on our own planet, one might reasonably hypothesize that life forms on other worlds might develop similar forms of intelligence, too.

What, then, might the evolution of intelligence on Earth tell us about how life and intelligence might evolve on other planets? And what does this kind of research tell us about how we should relate to the other animals right here on our own planet?

Prior to her work with whales and dolphins, Dr. Marino also worked at NASA in the Space Life Sciences program. And in bestowing this year’s Drake Award on her, the SETI Institute recognizes the importance of advancing our understanding of intelligence on Earth and applying that knowledge to foster meaningful scientific, ethical, and social change. Only once we have accomplished this on our own planet will we be in a position to relate meaningfully and ethically to whatever forms of life we might encounter on other worlds.

Below is a copy of the SETI Institutes announcement of this year’s Drake Award.

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Here is the full text of the Order in Council, which you can also view here:

October 21, 2025

The Governor in Council on the report and recommendation of the Minister of Natural Resources dated October 10, 2025, and pursuant to clause 16(1)(a) of Chapter 114 of the Revised Statutes of Nova Scotia, 1989, the Crown Lands Act, is pleased to approve the Minister of Natural Resources:

(a) issuing a lease to The Whale Sanctuary Project, an extra-provincial corporation incorporated in the United States with an office in Sherbrooke, Guysborough County, or its successors, trustees or permitted assigns, for submerged and terrestrial Crown lands containing approximately 83.32 hectares (205.89 acres), as shown outlined in bold line on the plan marked Schedule “A” attached to and forming part of the Report and Recommendation, for the purpose of operating and maintaining a seaside sanctuary, including all related infrastructure, for a term of 20 years, with an option to renew for a further 20-year term; and

(b)  executing such documents as may be necessary to achieve the purposes of this Order.

The government’s Order in Council means that the Whale Sanctuary Project now has a clear path to begin construction and to raise the capital funds to complete the sanctuary and welcome the first whales.

We are grateful to the Nova Scotia government and the Minister of Natural Resources. This is a great day for the Whale Sanctuary and for the whales. We look forward to pressing ahead in every way to establish the Whale Sanctuary.

Over the coming days we will update you on the three primary aspects of our work going forward:

• The whales who are prospects for coming to the Nova Scotia sanctuary;
• Recent progress at the sanctuary and how you can support the capital costs of construction; health and behavior evaluations and medical care of the whales at their present locations; transportation and introduction to their new home; and their continuing care at the sanctuary;
• How the growing collaboration among non-profit organizations, marine parks and aquariums, and governments at all levels is paving the way for a global effort to bring an end to the captivity of whales and dolphins and to retire them to sanctuary.

Thank you for your support of the Whale Sanctuary Project. Your donation, large or small, is the key to completing this work and welcoming the first whales. Please contribute what you can and encourage others to do the same.

Together we can do this.

The post Government Clears Path Forward for Nova Scotia Sanctuary appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Dr. Goodall’s discovery in 1960 that chimpanzees make and use tools rocked the scientific world and redefined the relationship between humans and animals.

On learning of her evidence that we humans are not the only creatures capable of making and using tools, the preeminent paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey famously remarked: “Now we must redefine ‘tool,’ redefine ‘man,’ or accept chimpanzees as humans.”

In 1977, she established the Jane Goodall Institute to advance her work around the world for generations to come. Throughout the 1970s she made known her opposition to capturing wild chimpanzees for display in zoos or for medical research. And in the years that followed, she made the same case for scores of other megafauna.

“She was able to get to know chimpanzees because she approached them with the respect they deserved,” says Dr. Lori Marino, President of the Whale Sanctuary Project. “She had an innate understanding of how she needed to relate to them, which was that she was in their home. She followed their lead, and she let them tell her when they were ready to take the next step. And that’s what they responded to.”

She followed their lead, and she let them tell her when they were ready to take the next step.Much is being said about Dr. Goodall’s extraordinary life and work. But we must take special note here of her recent work for whales and dolphins. She consistently spoke out against the confinement of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) in marine parks and aquariums, emphasizing the psychological and physical harm caused by captivity.

A year after passage in Canada of Bill S-203, The Ending the Captivity of Whale and Dolphins Act, she lent her name to a second bill, The Jane Goodall Act, to strengthen the provisions of S-203 and expand protections to elephants, great apes and other wild animals in captivity.

In January 2023, she issued a video message urging the Flemish Minister for Animal Welfare to end dolphin captivity and breeding at Boudewijn Seapark.

A year later, in February 2024, as the plight of the mother-and-son orcas Wikie and Keijo became known to the public, she wrote to the French Minister of Ecology recommending that they be retired to the sanctuary we are establishing in Nova Scotia: “A sanctuary environment will provide them with their first-ever opportunity to live out their lives in a stimulating environment where they have the space they need to swim and dive, and, most importantly, to begin to have a level of autonomy and choice in how they spend their days. I recommend that the Ministry do all possible to ensure that these orcas can be moved to the cetacean sanctuary in Nova Scotia.”

While she was clear-eyed about the harm that we humans are inflicting on our fellow animals, Dr. Goodall always believed that young people today can be a force for change – just as she was at their age. In 1991, in Tanzania, she launched Roots and Shoots, an organization that began with 12 students and has grown to become a global movement to empower youth to use their voices and ideas to address issues that matter most to them in their own communities.

In honoring her work, we can perhaps best simply echo the words of her colleagues at the Jane Goodall Institute in saying that “She blazed the trail … the rest is up to us.”

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Chief Tamara Young states, “Every living species is important to the Mi’kmaq. Respecting and caring for them are part of our traditional understandings and long-held cultural beliefs … If we can have a role in helping to move whales out of captivity into a more natural and freer environment, then we will certainly do that.”

The release adds, “(T)he Assembly support these animals living out the rest of their lives in a natural ocean environment on the unceded and traditional territory of the Mi’kmaq.”

The Whale Sanctuary Project has been participating in consultation with the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia since we first arrived in Nova Scotia. “We see tremendous parallels between Mi’kmaw values and knowledge systems and the mission of the Whale Sanctuary Project,” says our CEO, Charles Vinick. “We look forward to working with the Council of Chiefs going forward and incorporating Mi’kmaw teachings and knowledge in our programs throughout Nova Scotia.”

Here is the Assembly’s full statement, followed by a plain text version:

Doors Open for Discussions About Establishing a MOU on the Whale Sanctuary Project

For several years a group of dedicated individuals have been working toward establishing the Whale Sanctuary Project (WSP) – the first seaside sanctuary for marine mammals in North America – to be located in Wine Harbour, Nova Scotia.

Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn ¹ was first notified about the WSP’s lease request through the Terms of Reference for a Mi’kmaq-Nova Scotia–Canada Consultation Process in October 2021. Since that time, discussions have been ongoing with the Nova Scotia government and the team at the WSP about this important project.

Since its inception, the WSP has been working to bring whales and dolphins currently held in captivity to a seaside sanctuary they are looking to create in the waters off Nova Scotia.

“Every living species is important to the Mi’kmaq.  Respecting and caring for them are part of our traditional understandings and long-held cultural beliefs.  Opening discussions to work alongside the WSP is something that we are all very intrigued by,” said Chief Tamara Young, Co-Lead of Environment, Energy and Mines with the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs (Assembly).

The marine mammal market does not align with Mi’kmaw principals and the Assembly support these animals living out the rest of their lives in a natural ocean environment on the unceded and traditional territory of the Mi’kmaq.

“If we can have a role in helping to move whales out of captivity into a more natural and freer environment, then we will certainly do that,” continued Chief Young. “We understand that WSP has a lot more work to make the sanctuary happen, but the issue was too important for the Mi’kmaq not to be involved with and to express our support for.  These marine animals are not just resources, they are spiritual beings with a purpose and must be respected”.

It is hoped in the coming weeks, discussions will continue so that an official Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) can be established between the WSP and the Assembly.

“We share similar values with WSP when it comes to protecting these marine animals, such as respect, reciprocity, sharing and stewardship. WSP has made strong commitments to incorporate and amplify Mi’kmaw values and knowledge systems throughout its operations and we appreciate that. We look forward to seeing where these discussions go and to help bring an end to the exploitation of whales living in captivity and finding ways to protect them in our shared oceans”, said Chief Young.

¹ Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn is an initiative that represents the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia in discussions with the Province of Nova Scotia and the Government of Canada regarding the implementation of their rights and treaties. It operates under the direction of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs and focuses on rights implementation and protection of Mi’kmaq interests. The initiative was developed by the Mi’kmaq for the Mi’kmaq, emphasizing self-determination and community involvement in decision-making processes.

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At a special hearing in the city of Niagara Falls on February 18th, we learned that Marineland Canada is transitioning to new ownership, that any potential sale of the park has not yet been completed, and, according to a lawyer who represents Marineland, that the company needs a loan “to maintain the property and the mammals.”

The “mammals” needing to be “maintained” do not, however, include the “marine animals”, among whom are a large number of beluga whales confined to small tanks. The reason they are not included, the lawyer explained, is because the financing that Marineland has secured “requires the owner to remove the marine animals from the property EXPEDITIOUSLY.”

Marineland remains something of a black box. We know that at least 18 beluga whales, one dolphin, and the sole remaining orca Kiska have died since 2019. Thirty-one whales are still alive, but we don’t know the state of health of any of them. (A Canadian Press reporter and photographer who last visited the park in 2023 were banned from entering the property after their report was published.)

At the hearing, the chairman of Niagara Falls Committee of Adjustment kept emphasizing that the sole purpose of the hearing was to consider the minor legal question of whether Marineland could temporarily divide its property into separate parcels in order to secure the loan.

But since the committee could not prevent the public from voicing their concerns, several representatives of animal protection organizations rose to make the case that Marineland should simply not be allowed to remove any whales, dolphins and other marine mammals “expeditiously.”

And however much the chairman kept claiming that the hearing had nothing to do with the welfare of the whales, it was beyond obvious that “removing the marine animals from the property expeditiously” had everything to do with the welfare of the whales, especially considering that it is widely believed that the owners of a Chinese aquarium are positioning themselves to purchase the Marineland belugas.

The first speaker to address the committee about the marine mammals was Dr. Lori Marino, president of the Whale Sanctuary Project (WSP), who laid out the urgency of finding new homes for all 31 whales, including transferring as many as possible to the sanctuary that the WSP is establishing in Nova Scotia. Here is the text of her remarks:

Melissa Matlow, campaign director for the Canadian chapter of World Animal Protection, spoke to the fact that attitudes toward the exploitation of cetaceans has changed greatly in recent years. “We are very willing partners to help with an emergency solution for the animals,” she added, “and would be happy to meet with Marineland and other important stakeholders … to transfer these animals to sanctuaries.”

Ms. Matlow also submitted this letter for the record:

And retired Senator Wilfred Moore, who, in 2016, introduced the Ending the Captivity of Whales & Dolphins Act to Parliament, reminded the committee that a key element of the law is “to provide for the best interests of the cetaceans’ welfare.”

Hon. Moore, who is also a board member of our Canadian charitable entity, reminded the committee members that their responsibility for taking the welfare of the whales into consideration “is not something that can be lightly dismissed.”

He pointed out that the law provides for the committee to act in the best interests of the cetaceans, which does not mean simply moving them from one facility to another.

The law provides for the committee to act in the best interests of the cetaceans.
“I don’t think we should let a money-driven requirement be used as an excuse to move these smart, intelligent roaming social communicative creatures out of one tank into another,” he said. “This is a federal law. It’s the will and the intent of the Parliament of Canada. It can’t be dismissed lightly.”

The committee responded to this by asking the lawyer representing Marineland for his opinion – not exactly an objective one! – on whether the committee could impose conditions on its approval of his client’s request.

The bottom line was that the committee had clearly already decided to approve the division of the property. And that’s exactly what it did.

According to the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act, these animals can only be sent to another facility for their own welfare or for research purposes. In 2021, Marineland was granted a permit to export five whales to the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut for “research” purposes. Three of the five died – two within a few months of being transferred.

Even though it is technically within the law for Marineland to export whales to a theme park under the “research” provision, once the whales have left Canada, there’s nothing to stop a theme park from doing whatever it wants. And any maneuver of this kind is fundamentally contrary to the spirit of the law.

Right now, the Whale Sanctuary Project is talking with people in government, with other NGOs, and with people in the media about how these whales could be considered a national priority. This would ensure that the Department of Fisheries & Oceans does not summarily issue a permit for Marineland to export them.

A decision of this kind would put a hold on transferring the whales anywhere until:

a) the whales can be examined by a team of independent veterinarians who can assess their health and determine what kind of care they need and who among them can be safely transferred;

b) the Whale Sanctuary Project has completed raising the funds needed to finish construction at the sanctuary site in Nova Scotia;

c) options have been fully explored for the whales who cannot be transferred to the sanctuary.

Over the 64 years since 1961, when Marineland first put whales and dolphins on show, these animals have entertained millions of people and made many millions of dollars in profits. It is beyond time to acknowledge that we owe those who are still alive a humane retirement.

The very notion of a city planning committee in Niagara Falls voting to deprioritize their welfare speaks to concerns about the way we treat our fellow animals in today’s world.

It’s time for zoos and aquariums, marine entertainment parks, animal welfare organizations, government agencies and Marineland all to work together to address the crisis facing the animals there.

The post Marineland Canada Seeks to Remove Whales “Expeditiously” appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

For a helpful parallel, we asked Scott Blais, the founder of Elephant Sanctuary Brazil, what it was like for Guillermina, an elephant who had been born in a concrete pit at a zoo and had lived there for 24 years – all alone most of that time – before being rescued and brought to their sanctuary.

Elephants are the largest of all land animals. And in the wild, a family of elephants walks tens of miles every day. (In the ocean, a pod of whales can travel a hundred miles a day.) Built to walk many miles, but with nowhere to go, Guillermina had simply paced around her cell in small circles. Round and round; over and over.

You might think, then, that she’d be thrilled to run into the fields and forests of an elephant sanctuary. But at first, Scott told us, Guillermina didn’t want to go anywhere. She just wanted to walk in small circles, just like she’d done for years in the concrete pit at the zoo where she’d been born 24 years earlier.

Scott wasn’t surprised by Guillermina’s behavior. After all, she’d never even witnessed the sun rising or setting on the horizon. She knew nothing of the expanse of the world beyond. Her whole universe was that concrete pit.

How had she survived psychologically in a world for which nature had not equipped her? In the face of solitary confinement, year after year, Scott speculates that she might have come to imagine one of the rocks in the wall as her imaginary friend. We humans are known to do things like that when we’re held in solitary for long periods. Had she constructed a kind of alternate reality – a reality that had helped her survive in that cell? And when she was taken out of the pit, might she even have worried at first about losing the only world she’d known?

“Everything was new to her,” Scott says. “The sand, the grass, the mud, the space, the views, the other elephants. So, at first, she just did circles, as she’d always done in her cell. And then figure eights. And then bigger circles. And then two-acre circles. And then ten-acre circles. And finally, she doesn’t do circles anymore.”

A dynamic world of tides and waves with sand and sea grass and creatures crawling around whom they’ve never even imagined, let alone lived with.Just like an elephant in a pit, whales do circles, too, in a concrete tank. For a whale who was born in a tank, what will it be like at first, arriving in an ocean environment? No longer the still, silent world of a barren pool; instead, the dynamic world of tides and waves and wind. And with sand and sea grass and creatures crawling around whom they’ve never even imagined, let alone lived with. It could be scary, at first, just as the forest was to Guillermina at her sanctuary.

That’s why, when whales come to the sanctuary, we won’t just be dropping them into the huge 100-acre world of Port Hilford Bay. Instead, they’ll spend time, as long as they need to, in the secure and comfortable space of a bay pen until they are ready to head out into the much larger space of the full sanctuary.

The bay pen we’re designing and engineering is the first of its kind. Situated within the bounds of the mile-long perimeter net, it will be the size of a football field, much larger than the concrete pool the whales will have lived in for so long. It will be a contained space from which, as soon as they’re ready, they will be able to come and go as they please. And there will be people – the only other animals they’ve ever known – who are close by at all times.

Scott says that with each day that passes, he and his team can see the veil lifting and a glimpse of Guillermina’s true personality shining through. “To see her explore the sanctuary with all it has to offer,” he says, “knowing this is the beginning of the rest of her life, is truly magnificent.

We can all look forward to watching a similar transformation for each of the whales who comes to the sanctuary we’re establishing for them in Nova Scotia.

Photos of Guillermina by Global Sanctuary for Elephants

The post How to Welcome a Whale to Sanctuary appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Well-being of the animals is the primary concern

The report opens with a clear statement of the government’s overriding purpose:

“The law of November 30, 2021, aimed at combating animal mistreatment and strengthening the bond between animals and humans provides, with regard to cetaceans, for an end to shows and a ban on their reproduction in captivity.

And in its general principles, it states:

“Animal welfare being the main reason why the legislator voted to close captive cetacean presentation centers to the public, the guarantee of this welfare must be a cardinal criterion in the choice of destination for Marineland’s cetaceans.”

The well-being of the animals is the reason for this law and their well-being should therefore be the primary consideration in any provisions made for their future:

“The main factor in well-being is the maintenance of social bonds between individuals in the same pod. This is essential for Keijo, Wikie’s son, who needs to be kept with his mother, even more so after the disappearance of the group’s two other orcas.” (Those two other orcas were Wikie’s brother Inouk and her first son Moana, both of whom died in the last year.)

Therefore, in the transfer of whales or dolphins to a new situation:

“It is essential to maintain the social structure of the group and, as far as possible, the relationship with the caretakers, at least temporarily, as these are social animals with a superior psyche, having developed very close relationships with their caretakers.”

The report adds that the well-being of the whales and dolphins should not depend on subjective opinions, but on “scientific monitoring based on protocols validated by a committee of wild and captive cetacean specialists, covering the fields of animal welfare, veterinary health, zootechnics and ethology.”

The Inspectorate concludes that for Wikie and Keijo, the mother-and-son orcas at Marineland Antibes in the South of France, the Whale Sanctuary Project offers “the most credible innovative solution among the sanctuary projects.”

Over and over again in the report, the Inspectorate emphasizes that the well-being of the whales and dolphins is the primary consideration in its recommendations to the Minister for Ecological Transition, who will make the governmental decision as to where these cetaceans should go.

Seeking a Collaborative Relationship with Marineland

Earlier this year, we were advised that Marineland had told the government that it would follow the government’s recommendations, whatever they might be.

“The guarantee of this welfare must be a cardinal criterion in the choice of destination for Marineland’s cetaceans.”

But it was also public knowledge that Marineland was making plans to send Wikie and Keijo to Kobe Suma SeaWorld, an entertainment park in Japan, where many think they would likely be separated from each other and used for breeding.

This clearly goes against the entire purpose and spirit of the law. And animal protection groups in France were outraged. Their anger is supported by public opinion, and they are challenging any plan that will compromise the well-being of the whales.

The Inspectorate’s #1 recommendation to the Minister is to “Ensure full cooperation with Marineland in the transfer project.” And the Whale Sanctuary team fully endorses this principle.

Right now, we remain on schedule to be able to welcome Wikie and Keijo to the sanctuary in Nova Scotia in the summer of 2025. And we are ready to engage in a cooperative relationship with Marineland Antibes in providing for the well-being of Wikie and Keijo at every phase of their retirement to sanctuary.

We have also made it clear that meeting this deadline is contingent on having raised the funds needed to complete the construction of the sanctuary and to provide for the whales’ long-term care. 

Your donation is greatly appreciated and is critical to our being able to inform the government that we can welcome Wikie and Keijo to the sanctuary according to their schedule.

Thank you.

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The French government’s General Inspectorate of the Environment & Sustainable Development has just released its formal recommendations regarding whales and dolphins who are in captivity at theme parks and aquariums in France.

There are two orcas – Wikie and Keijo – at Marineland Antibes, and 23 bottlenose dolphins at Marineland and another marine park. The Whale Sanctuary Project has proposed to the French government that Wikie and Keijo be brought to the sanctuary we are establishing in Nova Scotia.

In its 52-page report to the Department of Ecological Biodiversity, the Inspectorate states with respect to the Whale Sanctuary Project:

“The solidity of the team and the dossier [they filed], the fact that the project was initiated several years ago, well before the sole question of the future of the orcas at Marineland in Antibes, the medium and long-term projection, make it the most credible innovative solution among the sanctuary projects.”

Here’s some background:

France decrees no more whale and dolphin shows

In November 2021, the French government issued a law that will bring an end to keeping whales and dolphins in captivity except at refuges and sanctuaries or for scientific research purposes.

Accordingly, entertainment parks and aquariums must make suitable arrangements for their whales and dolphins by the end of 2026.

Wikie and Keijo – the two surviving orcas at Marineland Antibes

A year ago, in September 2023, there was a family of four orcas living at Marineland Antibes. They were Wikie, her brother Inouk, and her two sons Moana and Keijo.

In October 2023, 12-year-old Moana died of acute bacterial septicemia. And in March 2024, 25-year-old Inouk died of peritonitis, leaving only Wikie and her second son Keijo. (In the ocean, male orcas can live into their sixties or longer.)

Early this year, we learned that to comply with the law, Marineland was planning to send Wikie and Keijo to the Kobe Suma Sea World park in Japan. However, at Kobe Suma, they would be in an even smaller concrete tank than they have at Marineland. And even though all that this mother and son have now is each other, they could well be separated and used for breeding.

When this plan became known, animal protection groups in France were outraged. They protested to the government, saying that such a move would violate the entire purpose and spirit of the law.

The Whale Sanctuary in Nova Scotia as an option

Meanwhile, we at the Whale Sanctuary Project had begun discussions with the General Inspectorate about the possibility of Wikie and Keijo being retired to the sanctuary we’re establishing in Nova Scotia.

Other organizations then also proposed creating sanctuaries for the whales. And so, in April 2024, to review all possible options, the Secretary of State for the Sea and Biodiversity issued a public “Call for Expressions of Interest for a sanctuary project that could accommodate the two orca specimens currently housed at the Marineland of Antibes.”

The Expression of Interest we submitted was a 92-page plan detailing every aspect of what would be involved in retiring Wikie and Keijo to a sanctuary and caring for them for the rest of their lives.

Having now reviewed all the plans that were submitted, the Inspectorate has published a comprehensive report to the Department of Ecological Biodiversity. Their report concludes:

“Concerning orcas, [the Inspectorate] considers that only the Nova Scotia sanctuary project, supported by the Whale Sanctuary Project, meets the criteria of the [government’s Call for Expressions of Interest] in terms of technical quality, feasibility on time and financial sustainability, even if the project is experimental in nature and carries an inherent share of risk.”

While this is the Inspectorate’s recommendation, the final decision will be made by the Department of Ecological Biodiversity, under the responsibility of the new Minister of Ecological Transition and Energy, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who has just been appointed by the new prime minister of France, Michel Barnier, following the recent national elections.

The “share of risk” that is noted in the Inspectorate’s recommendation relates in part to the fact that we have yet to raise the remaining capital funds to complete construction. With the decision in the hands of the French ministry, we cannot guarantee that Wikie and Keijo will be retired to the sanctuary in Nova Scotia.

But we can, and must, continue to forge ahead on all fronts. As the only sanctuary option available to these individuals, we can demonstrate to the French government that the sanctuary will be able to receive Wikie and Keijo. With the necessary funding, we will be able to complete sanctuary construction in time.

The bay pen and other sanctuary facilities

A central feature of the sanctuary facilities will be the bay pen, where every whale who comes to the sanctuary will live for a period of acclimatization to their new, natural environment.

The bay pen is considerably larger than any concrete tank at any entertainment park in the world. It will also be engineered and fully equipped to handle all aspects of veterinary and routine care for the whales.

We’ll be exploring the bay pen more in future posts.

Raising the funds to complete the sanctuary is now a primary objective

Inclusive of major donor commitments, we are about halfway to having all the funds needed to complete the first phase of the sanctuary and welcome the first whales – be they Wikie and Keijo or other whales in urgent need of retirement.

Your donation, large or small, monthly or one-time, works with others as we press ahead toward completing the sanctuary and welcoming the first whales.

And if you’re in a position to join with others who are making an “angel donation” toward the capital costs of construction, please contact us directly.

The full report in French by the General Inspectorate of the Environment & Sustainable Development Department can be viewed here. An English translation by Deepl can be viewed here.

The post For Wikie & Keijo, Whale Sanctuary Project Is “Most Credible Innovative Solution” appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

The costs of establishing the sanctuary generally fall into two categories: the capital costs of building the sanctuary facilities and the operating costs of the day-to-day work of our staff to manage all aspects of developing the sanctuary and advocating broadly for cetacean sanctuaries.

For the capital costs, we are seeking significant donations from major donors as well as from all donors who want to support construction of the state-of-the-art bay pen, perimeter net, the land-based facilities and infrastructure, etc. From one major donor we have $5 million pledged for when we complete the remaining requirements for permitting. From another, we are receiving $1 million toward construction of the bay pen.

And we are seeking $10 million more to cover these capital costs.

Operating costs also fall into two categories: First, our operating costs during site selection and development which began with the search for the most suitable sanctuary location and then included a three-year series of environmental studies in and around the bay, along with the many other requirements for permitting, and established an operations & visitors center in the small nearby town of Sherbrooke. Once the first whales arrive at the sanctuary, operating costs will be focused primarily on their care.

We are now seeking funds for both the capital expenditures for construction of the sanctuary and the operations to get the job done.

In the above video, Charles Vinick, executive director of the Whale Sanctuary Project, outlines the costs involved in creating the sanctuary and providing for the whales over time.

Currently our funds are being channeled into three major efforts:

* Work by site professionals and civil engineers to determine precisely how the land-based portion of the site needs to be prepared for the building foundations, parking areas and foot paths, as well as where best to locate our land-based infrastructure, including potable water, septic systems, and power.

Your donation is the key to completing the sanctuary.
* The design and engineering of the large bay pen that will be the initial home for all whales coming to the sanctuary. The bay pen will serve as an essential physical and psychological introduction to what will ultimately be an ocean environment that’s orders of magnitude larger than any space these animals have ever encountered. It is a key element in our accelerated plan to welcome Wikie and Keijo, along with other whales whom we may be able to bring to the sanctuary before the perimeter net is fully installed and permanent sanctuary facilities for all staff functions are completed.

* The diplomatic efforts to negotiate bringing the whales to the sanctuary. These include ongoing meetings with French government officials, NGOs, veterinarians and other organizations and stakeholders. Our team is also laying the groundwork for the months of work that will be necessary for an onsite team at Marineland Antibes, beginning with comprehensive health and behavior analyses by independent veterinarians, along with medical treatment and other rehabilitation, and then preparation and rehearsals for their journey to Nova Scotia.

Looking ahead to the time when the sanctuary has welcomed its first whales and has completed the perimeter net and permanent facilities, operating funds will provide for the care of the whales who will live there.

Every stage of preparing the sanctuary to be ready to welcome the first whales according to our accelerated plan has a cost attached to it. This means that we need to have raised the necessary funds before we can begin each stage of the necessary work.

We cannot take the next steps without you.

Your donation, large or small, and whether as a monthly sustaining donor or as a one-time contributor, is the key to bringing this project to fruition.

Thank you for being part of the Whale Sanctuary Project.

The post What It Takes and How You Can Help appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Last year, 2023, the Whale Sanctuary Project, National Aquarium, and Sea Life Trust delivered accreditation guidelines for cetacean sanctuaries to the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS), which was looking to publish what would be the first ever set of best practices for cetacean (whale and dolphin) sanctuaries.

Standards for sanctuaries that care for land animals – including elephants, great apes and big cats – have already been in place for many years. And now, with public opinion pressing for an end to keeping whales and dolphins in captivity for the purposes of entertainment, it is clear that the world is in the early days of coastal sanctuaries being established for their retirement.

Here at the Whale Sanctuary Project, and with so many whales and dolphins in captivity around the world, we have always approached the establishing of the sanctuary in Nova Scotia from the viewpoint of it being a potential blueprint for many more to come.

So, for the past few years, the Whale Sanctuary Project has worked with two other organizations that participated in formulating new guidelines for the GFAS: the National Aquarium, located in Baltimore, which is creating a sanctuary in the Caribbean for its six dolphins; and Sea Life Trust, which had completed Phase One of a sanctuary on the coast of Iceland for two beluga whales from an entertainment park in China that had been purchased by Merlin Entertainments.

The end product of this pioneering collaboration was a set of standards that were adopted and published by the GFAS. They require that to be awarded GFAS accreditation, an organization must meet rigorous and peer-reviewed animal care standards that are confirmed by a site visit. And they must adhere to ethical and operational principles so that the general public, along with donors and grantors, can recognize them as true sanctuaries.

A sanctuary is, by definition, a place where the wellbeing of the residents is always the priority. And so, while the guidelines are quite detailed, we identified four fundamental tenets for accreditation. They are based on four simple and basic questions regarding any facility that advertises itself as 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.

This year, we have been in contact with several groups and organizations that are seeking to create cetacean sanctuaries. And, together with the National Aquarium and Sea Life Trust, we look forward to sharing knowledge and experience toward establishing authentic sanctuaries with the common goal of bringing an end altogether to the exploitation of whales and dolphins.

Next: What It Takes and How You Can Help

The post A Global Movement Is Born appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Fourth in a series of posts about our work in the first quarter of 2024. 

For 10 years, at a shopping center at the foot of the world’s sixth-tallest skyscraper in the heart of Seoul, a beluga whale named Bella has been living in a small pool where thousands of people walk by each day.

But recent laws in South Korea prohibit the importing of whales and dolphins and the building of new aquariums for the display of whales and dolphins. And as public opinion favors bringing an end to keeping cetaceans in captivity, the owners of the mall have indicated their interest in retiring Bella to a sanctuary. The Whale Sanctuary Project is in discussion with them about the possibility of Bella coming to the sanctuary in Nova Scotia.

Bella is just one of hundreds of beluga whales in aquariums and entertainment facilities around the world. Another theme park that may be coming close to bringing an end to keeping whales and dolphins on display is Marineland Canada (no relation to Marineland Antibes). The company recently announced that its extended property is preparing for “redevelopment under new ownership.”

No word yet on who the new owners might be and what plans they or the current management may have for the 34 beluga whales and five dolphins, along with scores of other animals, at Marineland. But in a radio interview in 2023, the mayor of Niagara, where Marineland is located, said that if the facility were to close, his priority would be the welfare of the animals. “It’s run its course and it’s time to change direction,” Mayor Diodati told CBC Hamilton. “I’d like to see them move right away from animals.”

Marineland Canada has announced that its extended property is preparing for “redevelopment under new ownership.”Four years ago, shortly after the Whale Sanctuary Project announced its plan to establish a coastal whale sanctuary in Nova Scotia, we began discussions with Marineland Canada about the possibility of retiring some of the whales there. Later in the year, however, when the Niagara police charged Marineland with cruelty to animals, the company broke off discussions.

In 2019, Canada passed Senate Bill S-203, the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act, which bans the further breeding or importation of cetaceans for the purposes of entertainment. In 2021, Marineland transferred five beluga whales to Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut three of whom have since died of what were likely long-term health and welfare issues.

In early 2024, observers at Marineland said they could count 34 belugas. What will happen to them and to the many other animals when Marineland Canada comes under new ownership will be a major priority for animal protection organizations in Canada.

“We remain hopeful and open to conversations with Marineland Canada or whoever the new owners are,” says Charles Vinick, executive director of the Whale Sanctuary Project. “We will be looking to work in a collaborative fashion for as many of those beluga whales as we can.” With 100 acres of sanctuary space, the waters can be partitioned to accommodate both orcas and belugas, and we can be as responsive as possible to whales in need.

There are, of course, many more whales and dolphins in crisis at theme parks around the world than there are sanctuaries to house them. That is why, as a key component of our mission, the Whale Sanctuary Project is working to build strong relationships with other NGOs that want to establish sanctuaries for cetaceans.

Next: A Global Movement Is Born

The post The Urgent Need of Beluga Whales around the World appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Since selecting Port Hilford Bay as the location for the sanctuary in 2020, we have conducted extensive qualitative and quantitative studies to ensure the site represents a suitable long-term habitat for whale residents.

Here is an overview of that work. It has included, but is not limited to:

• Acoustic studies of the marine environment;
• Water quality and water temperature analyses throughout all seasons;
• Impacts assessments during two hurricanes;
• Seasonal wave, tides and current measurements;
• Hydrodynamic modeling of the sanctuary waters, including with LIDAR, a remote sensing method used to examine the surface of the Earth;
• Migratory bird analyses;
• Flora and fauna review;
• Eel grass productivity and location analyses;
• Sediment sampling and analyses on land and in the marine environment.

In the video above, Charles Vinick, Executive Director, gives an overview of the additional environmental work and land management plan.

Water Quality

Studies conducted from 2020-2023 indicate that the water column above the seafloor is clean throughout the bay. Most recently, as part of our final round of environmental testing (ESA III), water samples were collected at select locations immediately above the seafloor and by a private diving contractor. Because of the historic gold mining that took place at the site in the 19th and early-20th centuries, these samples were analyzed by an independent laboratory for total metals concentrations relative to the Canadian Council on Ministers of the Environment’s Guidelines for the Protection of Marine Aquatic Life. Metals concentrations very slightly exceeded the limit (by 0.001μg/L) in only one of the 21 samples tested. Independent environmental consultants hired to obtain and interpret the data reported that these mercury concentrations were unlikely to be related to the former gold mining activity that took place at the site. Rigorous water testing will continue in perpetuity to ensure the environment remains clean and safe for the animals.

Sanctuary Lands Onshore

Samples taken by independent environmental consultants found that the area on land around an old stamp mill has levels of heavy metals for which the standard mitigation procedure, as recommended throughout Nova Scotia, will be to cap any area that may be used for team activities, buildings, parking, etc. with a layer of soil, gravel or paving.

Submerged Soils in the Seabed

Laboratory analyses found similar levels of heavy metals sequestered in the soils underwater (not in the water column in which the whales will swim). Preliminary discussions indicate that – given the metals are and have been sequestered for over a century – leaving the environment undisturbed will likely be the best approach.

Invertebrates

Independent environmental consultants conducted toxicological studies for heavy metals concentrations in clams, mussels and rock crabs in the sanctuary area. There were no clams found in any parts of Port Hilford Bay where whales could contact them. Mussels tested acceptable for human consumption. Rock crabs tested with arsenic levels slightly above Nova Scotia guidelines for human consumption.

The orcas will be provided a satiating and nutritionally supportive well-rounded diet, similar to the diet which they have been accustomed to eating at land-based captive facilities. Any consumption of live marine creatures within the sanctuary will most likely be limited to novel experimentation (as captive whales have no experience with live crustaceans or other live potential prey), making chronic long-term exposure unlikely.

Veterinary and toxicology expert opinion, as well as an exhaustive, in-depth scientific literature review, revealed the following:

• No published evidence of arsenic tissue toxicity in cetaceans;
• No diseases in cetaceans commonly associated with arsenic toxicity in humans and other mammals;
• Different species metabolize heavy metals in different ways and arsenic levels above those safe for human consumption may not be relevant to consumption by cetaceans;
• Satiated whales are unlikely to ingest crabs on a regular basis if at all;
• Cetaceans may have effective mechanisms to mitigate potential negative health impacts of arsenic toxicity. These mechanisms appear to include highly efficient metabolic and excretion pathways, which may be adaptations to the naturally elevated levels of heavy metals in the deep ocean and marine food chain (the primary route of exposure, to which both wild and captive cetaceans are exposed);
• One study found that ninety percent of the arsenic typically found in rock crabs is arsenobetaine, a nontoxic form found ubiquitously in the ocean.

Water Temperature

We measured water temperature directly using temperature loggers located at various locations throughout the sanctuary site’s waters and at different depths starting in March 2020 and continuing through August 2022, with a few interruptions due to the need to replace equipment.

Average daily temperatures ranged from:

• spring 2020 (17 March to 21 May) -0.2 to 5.2°C
• summer 2020 (24 July to 22 October) 4.6 to 19.8°C
• winter 2020 (23 October 2020 to 15 April 2021) -0.3 to 13.4°C
• spring 2021 (15 April to 16 July) 1.8 to 17.1°C
• summer 2021 (16 July to 26 October 2021) 6.6 to 21.6°C
• winter 2021 (26 October 2021 to 27 March 2022) 0.1 to 13.7°C
• summer 2022 (16 June 2022 to 11 August 2022) 6.8 to 11.2°C

The Shellfish Water Classification Program of Environment and Climate Change Canada monitored the area from 1993 to 2012, including summer surface water temperature at various sites around the bay. These data showed a range from 6.5 to 23°C. The Centre for Marine Applied Research monitored the area from 2018 to 2020, including water temperature at varying depths in the bay. These data showed a range of -2.3 to 20.3°C.

Note: In cases where whales come to the sanctuary from warmer environments (e.g. the orcas Wikie and Keijo from Marineland Antibes), temperature ranges in Nova Scotia extend lower than the range to which they may be accustomed. However, we are confident that the whales will adjust well to the water temperature of their new home for several reasons, including:

• Our team’s experience relocating Keiko – the orca from the film Free Willy – serves as a clear precedent. Keiko moved from the warmth of a tank in Mexico to the temperate weather of Oregon to the frigid waters of Iceland. He acclimated to the waters of Iceland and thrived in that environment;
• Although Wikie and Keijo were born in captivity, they are of Icelandic descent; their bodies evolved a phenotype able to withstand and thrive in cooler water temperatures;
• As part of our conditioning plan for whales like Wikie and Keijo, we will acclimate them to cooler water temperatures before transporting them;
• We will further acclimate them to the Nova Scotia environment by bringing them to sanctuary during summer months, when the water is warmest, so that they have time to adjust to the decreasing temperatures of fall and winter.

Ice Conditions

The location, amount and thickness of ice was assessed using information from the Canadian Ice Service, satellite images, regular site visits, and the marine forecast. Ice forms in the waters of the sanctuary site infrequently and, in recent years, only in small amounts by the shoreline. Furthermore, no pack ice was observed and the only ice found was slob ice (slushy sea ice) near the shore.

Photograph from standardized area (45.07843° -61.82626°) looking toward the mouth of the Bay/Barachois Island on 2020-02-17 showing small ice chunks along the western shore of the bay during the period of greatest ice cover.

Underwater Acoustics

We assessed the baseline underwater noise levels in the sanctuary site waters and the surrounding area to determine whether there are any sound levels that could interfere with echolocation and communication or otherwise cause any form of stress or discomfort for the sanctuary’s whale residents.

Broadband noise levels had an overall median of 92.57 dB re 1 µPa (range 89.03-146.77 dB re 1 µPa), with the ambient noise level at 89.78 dB re 1 µPa. Boats were present 13.6% of the time with a median of 97.42 dB re 1 µPa.

Orcas hear best between 4 and 100 kHz. For comparison, humans hear best between 32 Hz and 16 kHz. Noise levels were therefore weighted according to the hearing abilities of mid-frequency cetaceans (including orcas) to determine the broadband noise levels as they would be perceived by the sanctuary residents (overall median 86.24 dB re 1 µPa; ambient 85.85 dB re 1 µPa; boats present 87.04 dB re 1 µPa).

Temporary threshold shift (i.e., temporary hearing impairment) in mid-frequency cetaceans like orcas is thought to occur at 178 dB re 1 µPa, and permanent threshold shift at 198 dB re 1 µPa. Behavioral reactions can occur at lower levels, with 120 dB re 1 µPa being a common criterion for testing.

In sanctuary waters, underwater noise was typically within the 100 Hz to 1 kHz frequency range, at which orcas are less sensitive, occasionally extending to the lower (<100 kHz) and higher (>1 kHz) frequencies, which could be caused by environmental conditions such as wind/waves and rain. The amplitude of weighted broadband noise levels ranged from 85.72 to 132.17 dB re 1 µPa. Broadband weighted broadband noise levels exceeded 120 dB re 1µPa 0.03% of the time (total of 6 minutes out of 350 hours).

The above data indicate that the sanctuary waters present an excellent acoustic environment for orcas and would provide Wikie and Keijo the opportunity to explore their natural home through echolocation with little interference.

Hydrodynamic Model & Topography

A hydrodynamic model integrates information about a specific water body to create a dynamic picture of water velocity and direction throughout the water column. It is important to have this information to understand the environmental conditions that the whales will experience, to provide physical oceanography data for sanctuary design and net placement, and to calculate water transfer rates to understand how storm debris and whale waste will move in the marine environment.

The results of a hydrodynamic model created by the Whale Sanctuary Project indicate:

• The sanctuary area is well flushed and will maintain a clean environment for the whales;
• There is a maximum water depth between 16-18 meters (52-60 feet);
• Land-based topography protects the sanctuary site from southeasterly storms.

Bathymetry with 2m contours calculated from multibeam survey (sanctuary perimeter net outlined in red).

Wave, Storm and Coastal Protection

Although the sanctuary site is on an ocean coastline, it is well protected from hurricanes and other high-magnitude storms. With storms that travel in a northwesterly direction (including most of the historic hurricanes that have reached the area), Barachois Island acts as a strong buffer against high winds and waves. Similarly, the high topography of the land area to the northeast of the site protects the sanctuary’s water space from the heaviest weather traveling from the northeast.

Data and evidence gathered before, during and after two recent hurricanes (Hurricane Teddy in September 2020 and Hurricane Fiona in September 2022) support these conclusions. During periods of heaviest storm activity, wave height was consistently lower in the sanctuary’s waters than in the open ocean.

In our experience relocating Keiko to Iceland, Keiko actively enjoyed experiencing the Icelandic storm weather, which was significantly rougher than the weather patterns along the Nova Scotian coast.

While some debris reaches the bay during and after storms, the bay pen and perimeter net are designed and constructed with materials (like 30–36-inch HDPE pipe) that can withstand such debris.

Marine & Land Ecosystems

Additional multi-year surveys of the site and its surrounding region’s flora and fauna further indicate that this is an optimal environment for a marine sanctuary with no endangered plants or animals who would be impacted in the vicinity.

Dive surveys have found a richness of over 63 marine species, including 25 plants and algae, 29 invertebrates and 3 fishes. An overwintering bird survey identified 22 species.

Of note is the abundance of eelgrass in the sanctuary site’s waters. Eelgrass is a common bioindicator of ecological health demonstrating that the sanctuary constitutes a vibrant ecosystem with clean waters.

Biodiversity at the sanctuary site (Port Hilford Bay, Nova Scotia)

Next: The Urgent Need of Beluga Whales

The post Site Geography & Environment Analyses appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Given the urgency of the situation facing Wikie and Keijo, earlier this year we adopted an accelerated approach to complete the sanctuary on a timeline that will enable them to be brought to the sanctuary in mid-2025. The plan involves expedited construction of a large bay pen in advance of the completion of the full sanctuary.

On April 30th, we submitted to the French government our extensive “Expression of Interest”, detailing the mission and history of the Whale Sanctuary Project; the location of the sanctuary site, including the results of environmental studies required by regulatory agencies; infrastructure and facilities; a complete operational plan for every stage of transferring the whales to the sanctuary; financial plan; and regulatory and government engagement.

While the French government continues their assessment of the best future for Wikie and Keijo, we are pressing ahead with our plan to be able to welcome whales as soon as possible. Regardless of the outcome of the government’s decision, everything in this plan can be applied to any orcas or beluga whales coming to the sanctuary from anywhere in the world.

In the video above, Charles Vinick, Executive Director of the Whale Sanctuary Project, describes how the team is constructing a bay pen to accommodate whales being retired from entertainment parks.

The bay pen: The key element in this plan is a large bay pen that will be installed within the 100-acre water space of the sanctuary as the initial home for the orcas while the full one-mile perimeter net that surrounds the 100 acres is completed. Once the perimeter net is complete and the orcas have acclimated to their new environment, they will be released into the wider sanctuary space.

The design for the bay pen. (Note: The area of the bay pen will be more than four times the space they have at Marineland Antibes.)

The bay pen is a net-sided structure, 400 feet by 150 feet, that will consist of two octagonal enclosures joined together to form a figure eight, with a medical lift in the center. This configuration allows for the partitioning of portions of the overall pen when needed, such as during the initial introduction to the space. But other than when the medical lift is in use, the gates on either side of it will remain open so that Wikie and Keijo can freely roam the entire pen area.

The area of the bay pen will be more than four times the space they have at Marineland Antibes. Current specs for the net are that it will be made of 8-inch stretch mesh net, fabricated of Dyneema, an extremely strong, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene. It will be held in place vertically in the water by high-density polyethylene (HDPE) flotation pipes expressed on the surface with an integrated walkway on top of the pipes and heavy chain at the base of the net, where the net contacts the sea floor.

An additional horizontal lead line woven into the lower portion of the net will serve to keep the net taut through changes in daily tides.

In the diagrams below, you can see the approximate size of the bay pen as compared to the total area of space that Wikie and Keijo have at Marineland Antibes. And the 100 acres of overall sanctuary space will be more than 260 times the space they have there.

The size of the bay pen (the black disk) compared to the space that Wikie and Keijo have at Marineland Antibes (the gray disk).

The 100-acre sanctuary space compared to the 0.85-acre space they have at Marineland Antibes.

The middle sections of the bay pen contain platform areas, including a slide-out, for the daily care of the whales and the medical lift. The platforms also include storage space for equipment, food, overnight staff bunk space, and toilet facilities. There are also two isolation pools for medical care. The integrated walkway around the perimeter of the bay pen provides staff with access to the orcas from all sides and provides for multiple feeding stations.

Regarding the permanent land-based facilities, we are currently assessing whether we can complete them all on the schedule for the whales or whether temporary facilities may be needed.

With this plan, Wikie and Keijo can have a new home at the sanctuary in 2025 while the perimeter net enclosing the full 100 acres of sanctuary waters and all infrastructure are being completed.

And once Wikie and Keijo have moved out of the bay pen into the full sanctuary area, the bay pen will be used to welcome other whales to give them time as needed to adapt to their new home, along with regularly scheduled husbandry and medical care as needed for any of them.

Next: Site Geography and Environmental Analyses.

The post The Accelerated Plan and Bay Pen appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

In the late summer of 2023, just as we were completing three years of required environmental studies at the Whale Sanctuary site in Nova Scotia, we heard about the plight of a family of orcas at the entertainment park Marineland Antibes in the south of France.

At that time there were four of them, all members of one family, and all born at Marineland Antibes: Wikie, Keijo and Moana (Wikie’s two sons), and Inouk (Wikie’s brother, and Keijo and Moana’s uncle).

Since then, Moana and Inouk have died.

Because of the deep concern that’s being voiced by animal protection groups in France and indeed around the world, we have been in discussions with the French government with a view to working collaboratively with the government and with Marineland Antibes to bring Wikie and Keijo to the sanctuary we’re establishing in Nova Scotia.

This unprecedented, ground-breaking project needs your urgent support. Your donation, large or small, will help ensure that whales like Wikie and Keijo can have a new life in an ocean environment.

The whales and their story

Wikie was born tail-first in 2001 – the cetacean equivalent of a human baby having a breech birth. Her parents had been captured in Icelandic waters and brought to Marineland Antibes. She spent the first 18 months of her life in a tank separate from her mother, Sharkane, who was very disturbed and unable to give her the care she needed. (In the ocean, young orcas always have their mother, aunts and other close family members close by to support them and are never left on their own.) Without that support and upbringing, Wikie was likely left emotionally damaged.

Inouk was born in February 1999 and was Wikie’s brother. Over the years, he ground his teeth to the pulp biting the edges of the tanks. He suffered from gum ulcers, frequent throat infections, yeast infections on his tongue, and acid reflux. In March 2024, we learned that Inouk had died from subacute fibrinous enteritis and peritonitis and from ingesting a metallic foreign body.

Moana was born in 2011 and was Wikie’s first son. He never met his father, Ulises, who had been captured off the coast of Iceland, taken to an aquarium in Iceland and from there to two zoos in Spain before being sent to SeaWorld San Diego in California. Wikie had been artificially inseminated by Ulises to give birth to Moana. But because of her emotionally scarred state, she was unable to bond with her newborn. Last October we learned that Moana had died of acute bacterial septicemia.

Keijo: Meanwhile, and all too soon after the birth of Moana, Wikie had found herself pregnant once again. In the wild, orcas space out their pregnancies over many years to give themselves a chance to properly raise their children. Worse yet, Wikie had been made pregnant by her half-brother Valentin. In November 2013, she gave birth to Keijo. And again, she had difficulty bonding with the newborn. But she has since become a very attentive mother.

There were other members of the family: Wikie’s older sister Shouka had been shipped to Six Flags Worlds of Adventure in Cleveland, Ohio, then to  Six Flags Marine World in California, and from there to SeaWorld San Diego, where she is living today.

And Valentin, who was Keijo’s father, died from twisted intestines one week after a violent storm hit Marineland Antibes and severe flooding in the park reportedly contaminated the water of the whale tanks. Two other members of the family were stillborn.

The future for mother and son

Wikie and Keijo remain at Marineland Antibes, and their situation is clearly precarious.

Meanwhile, following a decree from the French government that keeping whales captive for entertainment must end by 2026, Marineland Antibes has been in discussion with an aquarium in Japan about sending Wikie and Keijo to an aquarium there, where they may be separated and used for breeding.

Orcas in the wild live in strong, vibrant extended families. That is why we call Wikie and Keijo “a family in distress.”

And it is why we have proposed to the French government and to Marineland Antibes that, rather than this mother and son being sent to Japan, we should all work together to retire them to the sanctuary in Nova Scotia.

Note: At the time of posting this and having submitted our “Expression of Interest” to the French government, we are awaiting word from the government on what it considers to be the best option for Wikie and Keijo. Marineland Antibes has indicated that it will follow the government’s recommendation. We, in turn, are committed to offering our assistance and expertise as appropriate if the government favors a different solution.

Meanwhile, there are, of course, many more whales in urgent need of retirement to sanctuary, including 36 at Marineland Canada and two in South Korea. We have held discussions with the owners of these facilities, and our current plan will be adjusted to suit whichever whales become available.

Next post: The plan to have the sanctuary ready to accept whales in 2025.

Hero image of Inouk, Keijo, Wikie, Moana, Valentine and Freya via InherentlyWild.co.uk.

The post Hope for a Family in Distress appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

We heard, this morning, that Inouk, one of the three surviving orcas at Marineland Antibes, has passed away. Our hearts and our thoughts go out to his sister Wikie and to his nephew Keijo. They are a family that has already suffered greatly in captivity, and today they can only be in ever-deeper distress.

Inouk was born at Marineland Antibes in February 1999. His mother, Sharkane, and his father, Kim 2, had been captured in Icelandic waters. Both of his parents died when he was four years old. His older sister, Shouka, was transferred to SeaWorld in the United States. In 2015, his cousin Valentin died after polluted water from a storm flowed into his tank. And last year, his nephew Moana (Wikie’s first son) also died.

Shockingly, it is less than a day since we posted a brief update here on the website about the possibility of bringing Inouk, Wikie and Keijo to the sanctuary in Nova Scotia.

Photo of Inouk courtesy of @noemieg_photo.

We have known all along that Inouk suffered from some possibly serious health concerns. Most noticeably, he had ground his teeth to the pulp biting the edges of the tanks. Experts explained that this made his mouth painful and caused gum ulcers, frequent throat infections, yeast infections on his tongue, and acid reflux. His dorsal fin showed traces of bites and was weak on the right side.

While it is hard to know exactly what Wikie and Keijo will be experiencing in the wake of their loss, we do know that the bonds among a family of orcas are especially strong. In 2018, the world watched, transfixed, as 20-year-old Tahlequah, a member of the “J” family pod of the Southern Residents, carried her dead calf for 17 days across a thousand miles of the Pacific Northwest coast. It was an unprecedented display of mourning on the part of a grief-stricken mother accompanied by her extended family.

Such a ritual of mourning will not be possible for Wikie and Keijo. Inouk will likely have already been removed from the small tank in which he spent the entire 25 years of his life.

An unprecedented display of mourning on the part of a grief-stricken mother accompanied by her extended family.The three orcas were the three surviving members of their family at Marineland Antibes, and together they would have been the last orcas to be on display there. That’s because in 2020, the French Minister of Ecology, Barbara Pompili, announced her decision to bring an end, over the next 10 years, to keeping whales in concrete tanks at entertainment parks.

In response to the ruling, Marineland Antibes had been planning to send the three orcas to an aquarium in Japan. And in response to the company’s plan, there has been an outcry amongst the French public and other NGOs.

As a result, the French government has stepped in to consider alternatives to sending the whales to Japan. And over the last two months, the Whale Sanctuary Project has been in continuing discussions with the French Ministry of Ecology and Biodiversity as they assess the Nova Scotia sanctuary as a preferred option for the welfare of these orcas.

The death of Inouk comes just two days before the three orcas were due to be put on display for the spring season of performances. Marineland Antibes has announced that “the resumption of orca shows has been postponed.”

Most urgently now, looking forward, will Wikie and her son Keijo be given the chance for a new life in a natural ocean environment? It is surely the least that we can do for them.

We greatly appreciate the heads-up from One Voice and their sources this morning, later confirmed by the AFP and in a brief press statement from Marineland Antibes.

The post The Passing of Inouk appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Photo of Hvaldimir with his harness by Jorgen Ree Wiig, Sea Surveillance Service

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 back to the harbor of the nearby fishing and tourism town of Hammerfest.

Soon named Hvaldimir – a conflation of the Norwegian word for whale and the Russian name Vladimir – the beluga quickly attracted the attention of scientists and government officials trying to figure out what was best for him, along with tourists from far and wide who wanted to be photographed with him.

Over the four years since then, many plans have been proposed for Hvaldimir’s future. They include relocating him further north to where there are many more ocean-going belugas; creating a sanctuary for him by netting off a fjord in Norway; and simply leaving him be.

“Caught in a tangle of conflicting human emotions, some noble, others misguided, nearly all distorted by inadequate understanding.”Much has also been written about him, but perhaps the most insightful article to date comes from the pen of Ferris Jabr, author of the forthcoming book Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life. His article was published in The New York Times Magazine on January 15th, 2024.

Jabr notes that Hvaldimir finds himself increasingly “at the center of a dispute over his welfare … caught in a tangle of conflicting human emotions, some noble, others misguided, nearly all distorted by inadequate understanding.”

Whether captured from the wild or raised in captivity, he writes, captive whales are subject to “a heavy physical and psychological toll.” They are “in-between creatures: born to whales but raised by humans, not quite domesticated but no longer wild, suspended somewhere in the middle of instinct and compliance.” And while, or perhaps because, we view them with such awe, we also feel the need both to dominate them and to be recognized, even loved, by them. Not surprisingly, the end result is rarely, if ever, good for the whales.

Sign asking people not to touch Hvaldimir, nor swim with him, nor throw objects into the water, nor approach him by boat. Photo by DiFronzo via-creative-commons.

The same is also the case for many other kinds of animals. Caught up in our conflicted emotions toward these megafauna, we humans tend to project onto them our own desires for how we wish they would relate to us. But as Henry Beston famously wrote a hundred years ago: “In a world older and more complete than ours … they are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other Nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time.”

Although he was a captive whale, Hvaldimir differs from most other captive cetaceans in that he is accustomed to being in the ocean. Most captive whales were born in captivity and have never learned how to survive in the ocean. And Jabr notes that in recent years, scientists, conservationists and a few of the most progressive marine entertainment parks and aquariums have been working to establish sanctuaries to which the animals can be retired.

One problem they face, he writes, is that an ideal cetacean sanctuary “should be sheltered but still part of the ocean; it should be large, remote and untrafficked, yet still small and accessible enough to staff and manage. In other words, exactly the kind of place that humans like to keep for themselves.”

This is, of course, why it took the Whale Sanctuary Project three years of searching before we were able to select Port Hilford Bay, Nova Scotia, as our choice of location. And we were most fortunate in that when the community of nearby Sherbrooke heard about our work, they reached out to suggest that their region might be exactly what we were looking for. We have been met with a heartfelt welcome there.

Authentic sanctuaries remain the best option for captive whales and dolphins, as has already proven to be the case for land-based megafauna. And we look to a time when cetaceans are no longer being captured from the ocean, nor bred in captivity, and when those now in captivity can be retired to sanctuaries where they can live their lives in an environment that’s as close as possible to a life in the open ocean.

Meanwhile, Hvaldimir’s future remains unclear. Other than for a few months when he strayed too far south, he has been able to feed and look after himself. And the best option for him may well be to leave him alone as long as that continues to be the case and without getting into any other kind of trouble.

Jabr writes that “we have often expressed our passion for such creatures by trying to possess them: by fitting them with collars, roping them into circuses and placing them behind glass … Yet the closer we have pulled such animals toward us, the more difficult it has become to deny the torment that our proximity inflicts.

“Perhaps the purest act of love,” he concludes, “is to leave them alone in the first place.”

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The post The Whale Who Defected appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

This marks a major milestone toward the time when we will welcome the first whales.

Also in this year’s Holiday Newsletter:

• More Progress at the Sanctuary Site: Completing the two-year environmental studies required for permitting;
• An End to Captivity? Canadian Parliament opens the door to legal status for captive whales;
• Whale Aid Programs: A better life for 56-year-old Tokitae (“Lolita”);
• Lessons for Life: Educators inspiring compassionate future citizens.

You can also access the newsletter at https://express.adobe.com/page/OilmbXnIGhwLc/ (And this newsletter is best viewed on your computer.)

Your donations toward the day-to-day operational costs of Whale Sanctuary Project make all of this work possible. Your support covers everything from staff costs to travel to other operational costs including the required environmental surveys and studies.

There is much work to be done in the year ahead. And the plight of whales in tanks at entertainment parks and aquariums only makes for greater urgency.

This Holiday season, please donate what you can. Your Holiday donation, large or small, one-time or monthly, makes an enormous difference.

And please contact us if you can consider making a special contribution toward the capital costs of the sanctuary.

Thank you for caring about the whales. Together, we can give them a new life that makes up, as much as possible, for what went before.

The post Winter Newsletter 2022/3 – A New Life for Captive Whales appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Senator Wilfred Moore

It’s interesting to note that the progress of this highly progressive legislation has been largely synchronous with the development of the Whale Sanctuary Project, the idea for which was first explored at around the same time as the launching of the first of these laws.

Legislative efforts began in December 2015, when Canadian Senator Wilfred Moore introduced the Ending the Captivity of Whales & Dolphins Act, listed as Senate Bill S-203. This ground-breaking work would take almost four years to come to fruition. It was overwhelmingly voted into law in June 2019.

Jane Goodall and Sen. Murray Sinclair

The following year, in November 2020, Senator Murray Sinclair partnered with Dr. Jane Goodall to introduce the Jane Goodall Act, which is now working its way through Parliament and, if passed, will become one of the strongest animal laws in history.

Senator Marty Klyne

In March of this year, 2022, Senator Marty Klyne reintroduced the Jane Goodall Act to the Canadian Senate as Bill S-241 and with new and even stronger provisions. During his speech, the senator noted:

“The coalition behind this bill has led efforts to establish new legal protections for over 800 species … In determining these priority species, based on welfare and safety concerns, zoo and NGO input has been valuable, along with the advice of Dr. Lori Marino. She is the animal neuroscientist who proved that dolphins are self-aware and who leads the whale sanctuary planned in Nova Scotia.”

Toward the end of his speech, Senator Klyne also spoke about the lone orca Kiska, who is held at Marineland Canada:

“Kiska was captured in Iceland in 1979 before being purchased by Marineland. Her five calves have died, and she has lived alone since 2011.

“… In her concrete tank, Kiska swims in repetitive, counter-clockwise circles and exhibits atypical behavior like floating motionless or thrashing her head at the poolside. Senators, this is not right. Kiska should not have to die alone, and if she can safely be moved, options need to be considered.

“For this reason, the Jane Goodall act’s preamble observes that the Ontario Government has jurisdiction to grant civil standing to Kiska. This would allow for a court order in her best interests by her own right, such as relocation to the whale sanctuary planned at Port Hilford, Nova Scotia.

On May 5th, as the bill proceeded through its Second Reading, Senator Peter Harder spoke as follows in the Senate:

Senator Peter Harder

“Bill S-241 … grants limited legal standing to animals in criminal sentencing for captive offences, notably illegal breeding or use in performance.

“… The practical effect of the bill could, for example, see the forced relocation — with costs — of all of a roadside zoo’s big cats if it were found that any of the zoo cats were to have been illegally bred. Similarly, if a proprietor were to stage an illegal whale show, the same could apply for the relocation of whales.

“This new version of the Jane Goodall act also encourages the Government of Ontario to grant civil standing to Kiska, the lone orca at Marineland, and basically advocates for recognition of her rights as an individual.”

And last week, on October 4th, Senator Jane Cordy rose to announce her support for the bill:

Senator Jane Cordy

“Honourable senators, Bill S-241 has the potential to establish the strongest legal protections for captive wild animals anywhere in the world … and it can also lead to change worldwide.

“After an extensive search, the Whale Sanctuary Project chose a bay in Port Hilford, Nova Scotia, to establish the world’s first whale sanctuary. This will be the first permanent seaside sanctuary in the world for beluga whales and orcas. The sanctuary will provide a natural environment for once-captive animals who are incapable of being released into the ocean for their own safety.

“… The sanctuary is gearing up to welcome their first inhabitants in 2023, and they have made it publicly known that their hope is to relocate Kiska the killer whale from Marineland as their first inhabitant.”

After further questions and debate of this Second Reading, the Senate will likely vote to send the bill to committee hearings, where expert witnesses will be called to testify and advise on the proposed legislation. Following these hearings, the committee will send the bill back to the full Senate for a Third Reading. And if the Senate votes to pass it, the bill will go to the House for a vote to enact it into law.

All of this takes time. As does establishing the whale sanctuary itself. And the history of each of these efforts continues to dovetail the other:

In August 2015, around the time that Senator Moore of Nova Scotia was conceiving his bill to end the captivity of whales and dolphins, a group of marine mammal scientists, veterinarians and trainers, engineers, non-profit groups and others met at the University of British Columbia. It was there that Dr. Lori Marino, who chaired the meeting, first raised the possibility of developing a coastal sanctuary for whales and dolphins who might be retired from entertainment facilities.

The history of each of these efforts continues to dovetail the other.The following year, in April 2016, as Bill S-203 – the Ending the Captivity of Whales & Dolphins Act – was proceeding through its first reading, the Whale Sanctuary Project was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization and began its extensive search, on both the east and west coasts of North America, for a suitable site.

In June 2019, as the Ending the Captivity of Whales & Dolphins Act was being voted into law, the site search was homing in on locations in Nova Scotia. And the following year, in 2020, soon after we announced our choice of Port Hilford Bay as the best location for the sanctuary, the Jane Goodall Act was introduced into Parliament.

Right now, as we continue the preparatory work that precedes construction of the sanctuary, the Jane Goodall Act is completing its Second Reading. And, if the Senate so votes, it will then head into committee hearings.

And meanwhile, at the end of July 2022, the new SWIMS Act (Strengthening Welfare in Marine Settings) was introduced into the United States Congress to prevent the future capture and breeding of whales for public display and thus, over time, to end the exploitation of whales in entertainment parks and aquariums.

It’s heartening to see the synchronicity in all of this work over recent years as public opinion grows toward retiring captive whales and dolphins to authentic sanctuaries.

The post Sanctuary, Parliament and Synchronicity appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Last year, it was Skyla at age 17. Five months later, it was Ula at age 2. Today it is Kohana, at age 20.

The press statement from this Spanish zoo reads in a way that’s altogether familiar when whales die at entertainment parks: a “sudden passing” … “deep sadness” … “did everything in our power” … “part of the Loro Parque family” … “love and respect”, and so on.

This time, Loro Parque adds: “The memory of Kohana … will make our mission even stronger: to provide the best care and welfare to the different species of our animal embassy.” We’re left wondering to whom these whales are ambassadors, and what is the message about care and welfare that they’re conveying.

Photos of Kohana above and in title are by Diva Flora Nikolova, used with permission.

Kohana was born at SeaWorld San Diego in 2002. As with the whales at all these facilities, her family tree and her travels tell us a lot about her welfare and wellbeing. Her father was Tilikum and, living across the country at SeaWorld Orlando in Florida, he fathered her by artificial insemination.

In the ocean, orcas live in close family groups their whole life. But at age two, Kohana was transferred to SeaWorld Orlando, and two years after that to Loro Parque across the Atlantic.

In 2010, she gave birth to Adán, a male, and in 2012 to Victoria, a female. Their father was Kohana’s half-uncle Keto, who had been shipped to Loro Parque with her. Adan is still alive, but Victoria died after less than a year.

Very simply, whales can never thrive in concrete tanks. In the ocean, an orca learns from her elders how to be a successful, thriving member of her family: what to eat, how to communicate with family members, when and how to give birth, how to care for her young. Just as we humans do. Born into a concrete tank, however, and then shuttled around the world, Kohana learned none of this. Treated more like a breeding machine than a mother, she was unable to bond with and care for either of her calves, and she rejected both of them.

Loro Parque has announced that a full necropsy will be conducted. But what will we learn from it? In Skyla’s case, we learned about an intestinal torsion and acute septicemia. In Ula’s, we heard of a deformation of the skull and photo-toxic lesions.

But medical reports of this kind have a way of masking the underlying basic truth: Very simply, whales can never thrive in concrete tanks.

The post Orca Kohana Dies at Loro Parque Zoo appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

The concept of flourishing is key to understanding the argument for recognizing that dolphins and whales have clear and inalienable rights.

Tom was the guest of Dr. Lori Marino, President of the Whale Sanctuary Project, in a webinar on September 1st, 2022.

Below is a transcript of Dr. White’s comments, edited for length.

Lori Marino: In your experience, Tom, what’s the difference between seeing dolphins in captivity and seeing them in their natural habitat?

Thomas I. White, Ph.D.

Tom White: The difference is enormous. The best simple phrase I’ve heard is from scientist Denise Herzing, who says a dolphin in captivity is “a shadow of a dolphin.” And when you first experience what they’re like in their natural environment, it’s a huge difference. It’s a reminder that any animal (including us humans) is the way they are because of an evolutionary history and how they have progressed over time and have adapted to an environment to be able to survive and to lead a full life.

Flourishing is simply a shorthand way of talking about this. When we talk about the conditions necessary for flourishing, we’re talking about the conditions necessary for a being, given its evolutionary history, to be able to have even a rudimentary opportunity for a successful life as the member of that species.

The notion of a “right” is simply a shorthand way of referring to conditions that are necessary for beings to thrive and flourish.There’s no way that dolphins in a tank can live a full, satisfied life because that’s not where they evolved. In the same way, the kinds of conditions that we humans need in order to grow, to develop and to have some sense of satisfaction in life is all defined by our evolutionary history. And this is a way of talking about ethics that gives it a biological foundation.

Speaking very practically, if an action advances the likelihood that members of our species are going to be able to have a fuller and satisfying life, that’s a long way of saying something is right. And if an action is going to get in the way of your being able to flourish, then it’s wrong. The notion of a “right” is simply a shorthand way of referring to conditions that are necessary for beings to thrive and flourish.

The point here is that this takes us out of the realm of opinion. People like to say that ethics is a matter of opinion most of the time. No, it’s not. We can define and identify the conditions that have to be met under which human beings grow and develop emotionally and intellectually in order to flourish, to have a full and satisfying life, and to have an opportunity to be successful as a member of that species. And that’s all empirical.

LM: Is it the case that animals can never flourish in a situation to which they are not adapted?

TW: When you talk about adaptation, think of the amount of time it takes for adaptation to take place. Every now and then people will ask whether a dolphin can adapt to captivity and how long it might take. And my answer is maybe a million years, maybe just a hundred thousand years. Evolution moves slowly. Think of all the ways in which humans still possess traits that were once adaptive but are now maladaptive. One of my favorite examples is diet. We evolved in a way to like stuff that was scarce at a certain time, but that we can have all the time now. So, now it’s maladaptive to have fat and sugar as central parts of our diet. Adaptation moves really slowly.

LM: People sometimes argue that when dolphins are born in captivity, they are adapted to captivity. But the science tells us that they do just as poorly, if not worse, than those who were captured from the wild. There’s no such thing as a domesticated dolphin. These animals are not adapted to living in captivity. They don’t live very long. Their quality of life is very poor. And what they suffer in terms of behavioral disorders etc. all points to the simple fact that this is not an environment that allows them to thrive or flourish.

TW: We’re talking about beings with self-awareness and self-consciousness. They’re individuals. And individuals count. It isn’t just populations. It isn’t groups. It’s individuals.

Bodie at Dolphinaris, a failed swim-with-dolphins facility in Scottsdale, AZ.

This is really important. It relates to when people say, for example, that dolphins live reasonably long in captivity. Now it’s true that dolphins, in some ways can adjust to bad circumstances in the same way that human beings can adjust to bad circumstances. It’s true that human beings can adapt to servitude for a while, but one of the things that human beings have evolved to like is individuality and making choices.

That’s why we always make a big deal about freedom. And the need for freedom and individuality is such a deep need that eventually people in servitude get so angry that they will revolt. They will put their lives on the line to get this need. They can adjust for a certain amount of time, in some cases even for their whole life. And they can adjust to poor conditions. But just because they are adjusting to poor conditions doesn’t mean that it’s consistent with the kinds of needs that have to be met in order to grow and develop. And exactly the same thing is true of cetaceans.

LM: At a meeting that you and I attended in Helsinki that was hosted in 2010 by Whale & Dolphin Conservation, the group established a Declaration of Rights for cetaceans. Five of those rights are:

• The right to life and bodily integrity – not to be subjected to invasive treatment of any kind;
• The right to bodily freedom within your natural environment – not to be subjected to captivity or servitude
• The right not to be owned – not to be the property of any human individual, group, state or corporation;
• The right to protection of your natural environment;
• The right to protection of your culture.

TW: When we talk about their rights, we’re really just talking about anything related to the fact that dolphins are individuals. They are self-aware with the kind of sophisticated intellectual and emotional capacities that have them being autonomous. They make their own decisions. They make choices in the same way that human beings do.

But let’s skip down to Number Five on your list, the issue of culture, because that becomes extremely important when you’re talking about beings like dolphins. The point of culture is to transmit information. Culture gives us a sense of belonging, a sense of community. And most importantly from an evolutionary standpoint, culture transmits information from one generation to another about how to survive.

When we talk about flourishing, it’s about how, as an advanced, sophisticated being in a particular environment, do you manage to stay alive? How do you manage to function in your group? How do you make it possible for your children to survive and for your species to continue?

Culture transmits information from one generation to another about how to survive.Well, one of the most important ways is through information that can be transmitted from one generation to another. With humans, we do a lot of that through books. And that depends on the kind of human language that we have.

Dolphins have their own way of transmitting information. Hal Whitehead has documented the fact that one of the consequences of whaling was that an area of the Atlantic got so wiped out that the whales who carried the information about how to survive were hunted to the point where the information never got passed on about how to live successfully in that part of the ocean. That means when you talk about whales being killed, you have to appreciate the fact that part of the ethical significance of this is that you also kill off the ability for the information to be transferred.

So, we’re talking about generational consequences, long term consequences. And one of the things people have sort of resisted is the notion of the culture of cetaceans. People get okay with understanding personhood. “I can understand health and safety and emotional wellbeing. I can understand family. But culture? Isn’t that kind of just a nice add-on?”

No, culture is absolutely central. So, one of the most significant things of the document we put together in Helsinki was to appreciate that one of the long-term consequences of human behavior toward whales is the question of the harm we can’t undo because we didn’t know we were doing it.

And from an ethical standpoint, if you do that kind of harm, don’t you have some responsibility to try to try to make it right? In the past, we had this bias that we were the only complicated animals on the planet. But it’s just not the case. And that’s the kind of work that scientists like Hal Whitehead and Luke Rendell are doing to recognize the significance of culture and the complexity of other beings and the kind of harm that goes with depriving beings of that kind – individuals and groups – of the conditions that they need, not just for them to survive now, but for their children and grandchildren to survive.

Dolphins surfing, by David O’Brien via Shutterstock.

LM: And then there’s the issue of what we’re doing to the planet. Climate change is making it pretty impossible for generations, human or non-human, to flourish in the future. Traditional conservation is just not enough – this notion of numbers. You can’t just wave off the problem by saying that these animals are plentiful around the world. That’s not the issue. Orcas in the Pacific Northwest are a different culture from those off New Zealand or Iceland. The bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Florida are a different culture from those off the coast of Australia.

It’s not enough just to count the numbers. If you wipe out a particular community of dolphins or whales, it’s cultural genocide. You’re wiping out an entire culture that can never come back.

TW: So, from an ethical standpoint, we need to talk about the conditions that beings of this sort need in order to grow, develop and have healthy, happy, satisfying lives, or at least an opportunity for that. We need to identify those conditions. And we need to ask how do we prevent harm from happening? How do we prevent harm from continuing in the future?

Group of southern right whales with mother protecting calves. Nullarbor, Australia. By Wildestanimal via Shutterstock.

It’s not a matter of how many are there out there. You wouldn’t say that about humans. You wouldn’t argue that we have plenty of humans. And the reason we don’t say that is that we have this attitude that we’re “different”. And in certain ways that’s true. We’re special in certain ways, as all beings are. We’re unique in the sense of being human, but we aren’t unique in having individual consciousness and the ability to control our actions.

An argument can be made that cetaceans have a kind of intelligence that’s different from ours and that in some ways they are more intelligent than humans.

LM: What kind of intelligence would that be? How do you define intelligence?

In some ways they are more intelligent than humans.TW: My definition of intelligence starts with: Can you identify problems that are threats to your survival? And can you provide solutions that make it more likely you’re going to survive?

When you look at our behavior as humans, you’re looking at global warming, trashing our own environment, overpopulating, killing one another on such a regular basis. And then you look at whales and dolphins. They’ve been around a whole lot longer than we have, so we don’t know what they did in their history. But you’re looking at a species that came up with solutions to their problems and threats. And looking at human behavior, you’d have to say we’re not doing that. We’re just exploding the planet.

LM: That’s not intelligent and it gets to the question of the changes that we’ve made by being such an invasive force on the planet. What are some of the elements of cetacean culture that are particularly affected by human activity?

TW: Communication is one thing and social bonding is another. Noise pollution affects being able to make your way through the ocean and avoid ship strikes. Scientists are telling us stories about how noise pollution dramatically affects what used to be an easy way for whales to communicate basically halfway around the globe [with their low-frequency sound waves].

We’re learning that whale song isn’t just the smaller rituals of social interaction, but a primary way of being connected with others. With humans, it’s mainly visual. But if you’re a whale and you’re designed to be able to communicate with folk halfway across the planet, what happens when that goes away because of ship noise? What is the psychological experience then of your identity, how you bond and feel some kind of social belonging? They’re social animals.

LM: So, where do we go from here?

TW: From an ethical standpoint, I’m a fan of saying let’s just start with “Do No Harm.” If we can just do that, we’re a long way down the road.

LM: What do you see as being the way forward for captive whales and dolphins? Going back to those fundamental rights, perhaps we should be thinking about concepts such as reparation. Creating a sanctuary is a form of reparation. It’s not full restitution because we can’t ever give back what we took. But we can make reparations.

TW: At this point, the only ethical thing to do is to put them in a situation where they can have the closest thing that is practical at this point to a decent life. And that’s what you’re working on with the sanctuary. If, for whatever reason, you can’t transition them into a natural habitat, you can still put them in a situation that’s closer to a natural habitat where they can have a better life.

And overall, it’s true that humans didn’t know enough about dolphins and orcas when we got into the business of captivity. But you’re responsible for the consequences of your actions. So, when you finally get the information about what the consequences are, you have a moral obligation to act appropriately. You just can’t say, “Oh well, we didn’t know. And we’re just going keep on going.” Well, we didn’t know before, but now we do.

LM: And that’s an excellent message to end the webinar on. Thank you, Tom.

TW: Thank you, Lori.

LM: And thank you, everyone. Be well!

The post Five Fundamental Rights of Whales & Dolphins appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

On August 5th, SeaWorld announced that “Every attempt was made to save his life. Veterinarians and health specialists had been actively treating an infection, but aggressive therapeutic and diagnostic efforts were unsuccessful.”

Photo of Nakai from Creative Commons by Zaleem324

Nakai’s mother was Kasatka, who died in 2017. Tilikum, who lived at SeaWorld Orlando, was his father by artificial insemination.

Nakai’s half-sister Kalia was fathered by Keet, who has lived at SeaWorld parks in San Diego, San Antonio and Ohio.

One of his half-brothers, Makani, was fathered through artificial insemination by Kshamenk, who lives in an amusement park in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

His other half-brother, Ikaika, was fathered by Tilikum. Ikaika spent several years at Marineland Canada, as part of deal between SeaWorld and Marineland with the aim of breeding Kiska and alternating ownership of the calves between the two companies. But in 2011, a custody battle erupted. SeaWorld won the case in court and Ikaika ended up back in San Diego.

If this piece of family genealogy seems a bit confusing and convoluted, that’s because it is. It does, however, give the briefest glimpse into the breeding and interbreeding of whales for profit among amusement parks around the world. In one of many other examples, the orca Keto lived at every SeaWorld park in the United States before being transported in 2006 to Loro Parque Zoo in the Canary Islands, where he killed his trainer, Alexis Martinez, on Christmas Eve 2009. He went on to father Ula, the daughter of Morgan, which was a violation of the conditions of her transfer from a dolphinarium in the Netherlands.

Nakai in 2012 after he had sustained an injury to his jaw. Photo By Ingrid Visser.

In 2016, SeaWorld made a pledge to stop the breeding of orcas at its facilities and to begin replacing its circus acts with “new, inspiring orca encounters” and more naturalistic presentations.

The whales, however, continue to live in totally unnatural conditions that subject them to chronic stress, leading to immune system dysfunction and high morbidity and mortality. (Nakai’s death comes less than a year since the demise of six-year-old Amaya, also at SeaWorld San Diego, about whom the company wrote that “her death was sudden and unexpected.”)

The conditions they’re kept in also lead to violence. The same week we learned of the death of Nakai at SeaWorld San Diego, the animal protection group PETA posted video of another of the orcas there being attacked by tankmates. You hear the voices of horrified young children, and an eyewitness writes: “We all immediately saw blood soaking the water, which triggered my nine-year-old daughter to start crying.”

As we post this account, we have not heard anything from SeaWorld about that incident. But it is now way beyond time for the company to follow the lead that was set earlier this year by the Miami Seaquarium in charting a new course for captive whales. On March 23rd, the new owners of the Seaquarium announced a level of public transparency about the health, welfare and care of the orca known as “Lolita.”

In Nova Scotia, the Whale Sanctuary Project is pioneering a gold-standard sanctuary where orcas and beluga whales can be retired. More sanctuaries will be needed for the many whales in captivity at home and abroad. This first one is being created as a model for others to follow.

What’s needed now is the willingness of the marine mammal entertainment industry to end the shows, to adopt a new level of transparency regarding their health, to begin the process of preparing the animals for retirement, and to join our existing donors in providing the funds for the construction of this first-of-a-kind sanctuary and the care of the whales who will live there.

As world-renowned oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau has noted:

“The time has come to see whales in captivity as a part of our past, not a tragic part of our future. Let’s end the shows now and retire these intelligent, social, complex animals to seaside sanctuaries.”

What you can do:

• Ask SeaWorld for a transparent accounting of the death of Nakai and of the violence that was witnessed in one of its most recent shows;
• Invite the company to support the Whale Sanctuary Project, to work with us toward completing the sanctuary, and to move ahead in giving captive whales a new and better future.

Public opinion clearly indicates that it is time for a new relationship to these magnificent and emotionally sensitive animals. Together with the generosity of our existing supporters, the support and cooperation of the marine entertainment companies themselves is the next step in bringing it about.

The post The Death of Nakai and the Future of Captive Whales appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

• Progress at the Sanctuary Site: engineering work, infrastructure, planning and permits, fundraising for capital costs, potential whale candidates for the sanctuary and timeline going forward.
• Our Current Whale Aid Program in support of the orca Tokitae (better known by her stage name “Lolita”) at the Miami Seaquarium.
• Outreach and Education: with a remarkable art show by talented and energized 4th and 5th-grade students in Texas.

The link to the full newsletter is below (and is best viewed on your computer).
You can also access it at https://express.adobe.com/page/NylrWxun9g0ke/

Your support of the Whale Sanctuary Project makes all of this work possible. Very simply we cannot build the sanctuary, welcome the whales, and give them lifelong care without your continuing support. There is much work yet to be done. And the plight of whales in tanks at entertainment parks and aquariums only makes for greater urgency.

Please donate what you can. Your donation, large or small, and one-time or preferably monthly, makes an enormous difference.

And please contact us if you can consider making a special contribution toward the capital costs of the sanctuary.

Thank you for caring about the whales. Together, we can give them a new life that makes up, as much as possible, for what went before.

The post Summer Newsletter 2022 – Creating the Whale Sanctuary appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

It all began five years ago when Rachel Friend, a 4th Grade teacher in the Chicago area sent some of her students’ writings and drawings to Steven Dunn, the Founder of Munchkin, Inc., which makes unique products for young children. Rachel discovered that Steven also had a passion for ending the captivity of whales and dolphins and that he had just become the founding sponsor of a new organization, the Whale Sanctuary Project. So, she and her students decided to host their own fundraisers for the whales.

In the two years that followed, they performed plays and created presentations and other events around the theme of whale captivity and the solution of sanctuary.

Fast forward a few years and a family move to Texas. Now teaching at Schluter Elementary in Haslet, Rachel began introducing her 4^th graders to the plight of captive whales and the work of the Whale Sanctuary Project, this time through our award-winning short film “Whales Without Walls”.

The students invited our Executive Director, Charles Vinick, to join them for a Zoom chat and shared Charles’s TEDx talk with their families, who, in turn, began having conversations with their children about the topic.

“It’s essential to provide children with opportunities to impact our world for the better and inspire others.”“As educators,” Rachel says, “it’s essential to provide children with opportunities to impact our world for the better and inspire others.” To share their concerns, some students decided to write about whales in captivity. One writer asked, “Should the show go on?” Another writer described going to a marine park to see an orca show and “when the orca comes out, you see his face and he’s sad and he looks like he doesn’t want to perform.”

As their interest and concern took hold, the youngsters not only learned more about the lives of whales and dolphins; they also grew their art skills. “Through writing and art,” their art teacher Keisha Casiano, explains, “our students learn that their voices make a difference and promote change in a positive way.” And what better way to do that than to mount an art show and raise funds for something they felt passionate about. From there, the hard work in preparing for an art show began.

And so it was that on February 1st, 2022, Showcase Art Not Whales and Dolphins took place in the school’s gymnasium to rave reviews. The vibrant, underwater scenes painted by the students depict orcas in an ocean environment, robust with bright green sea grasses, sea life, and a sandy ocean floor, some of the many natural elements that will be their new sanctuary home.

Rachel and Keisha were thrilled with the accomplishment of their students, and how this project was embraced by families and the school faculty. And all of us at the Whale Sanctuary Project are hugely impressed with their work and very appreciative of their remarkable fundraising and awareness-raising effort.

“It was a really special evening, one we will never forget,” Rachel says. “We are so proud of the kids for how they took over the project and wanted to share their passion with others.”

The post A Whale of an Art Show! appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

The Wendy P. McCaw Foundation has been the major supporter of the Whale Sanctuary Project since 2017. Her work reaches far and wide and protects animals of many species.

Wendy McCaw’s concern for captive whales dates back to the 1990s, when she took up the cause of Keiko, the famous Free Willy orca, and made it possible for him to return to his home waters.

Keiko had been captured from his family in the Icelandic Ocean in 1979 and put on display at an aquarium. From there, he was sold to Marineland Canada and then to the Reina Aventura amusement park in Mexico City where he was housed in a small, shallow tank. In 1993, when he became the star of the movie Free Willy, tens of thousands of children who saw the film wrote letters pleading for him to be returned to the ocean.

But it would take an angel donor to make this possible. And it was Wendy McCaw and her then-husband Craig McCaw who stepped forward to take that role.

Wendy and Craig had met during their sophomore year at Stanford University. After they married in 1974, they grew McCaw Communications into McCaw Cellular, eventually selling the company to AT&T in 1994.

“I was appalled by what I read in the press about Keiko’s treatment and his horrible situation,” Wendy says. “And I talked Craig into ‘doing something’ about Keiko’s situation.”

And so it was that Keiko found himself on a plane to Newport, Oregon, to a specially built facility at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, courtesy of the Craig O. and Wendy P. McCaw Foundation.

Keiko then began a two-year rehab program to build up his muscles, clear his skin infections, restore his overall health, and practice for the long flight to his home waters in Iceland.

“I visited Keiko in Mexico City before he was moved to Oregon,” Wendy recalls. “I was in the ‘chase plane’ when he was flown to Oregon, and it was a thrill to be in Vestmannaeyjer, Iceland, when Keiko arrived from Oregon and was placed into his sea pen.”

A deeply held philosophy rooted in respect for all living creatures and an appreciation of the roots and values that hold a community together.When she talks about Keiko and other animals, Wendy uses the words “fairness” and “respect” frequently. “Being held captive after having been taken from their families in the wild is unfair and isn’t right. These animals were not given a choice.” She calls appreciation, respect and fairness the cornerstones of her Foundation’s grant-making.

And that’s why she was “more than interested” when Charles Vinick, Executive Director of the Whale Sanctuary Project, approached her about creating a whale sanctuary.

“The idea was exciting for me,” she says, “because of the unfairness with which whales and other sea creatures are held in captivity for the enjoyment of audiences. I think it is becoming more unpopular as people get more of an understanding about what it means for the animals to be imprisoned.”

Creatures great and small

Wendy’s animal causes reach far and wide, spanning the spectrum from wildlife conservation to companion animal care; from rescuing wild burros to protection of the forests; and from supporting major national programs to funding smaller local rescue groups.

One of those local efforts is the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network. We wanted to ask their executive director, Ariana Katovich, about their work, and on the day we spoke, it turned out they were just starting to move into their new wildlife hospital. “Just in time for the baby bunny season!” Ariana said with noticeable relief.

Wendy had played a significant role in making the hospital possible. “She’s a long-time supporter of our work,” Ariana told us. “She’s been instrumental throughout our history.”

For Ariana, it’s the combination of staff, volunteers, donors and citizen rescuers that makes it all work and makes her hopeful for the future.

“That’s what’s inspiring to me about Wendy,” she added. “Her commitment and her work to champion and care for animals is so broad. And it’s connected to so many efforts. It’s how we’ve made such progress here. We now care for between four thousand and five thousand animals a year. And that’s from more than 220 species.”

At home, Wendy lives with a 26-year-old burro, Watson, whom she adopted, along with his companion Eli, from the Bureau of Land Management when the two were living in a holding pen. Eli passed away a few months ago, but Watson has a new friend in the form of a nine-year-old adopted hinny.

Historic buildings – the soul of a city

Along with her passion for animals, Wendy has a deep concern for the human environment – especially for historic buildings. “When an historic building is destroyed,” she says, “so goes a piece of that city’s soul.” Her foundation has supported the rehabilitation of many buildings, including the Santa Barbara Bowl, the Folger Estate Stable in nearby Woodside, the former I. Magnin building (a testament to contemporary 1940’s architecture), and the Granada Theatre, an anchor for the historic cultural district and a stunning example of Santa Barbara’s history, its architecture and traditions.

Wendy’s concern for these cultural icons was also one of the reasons she purchased the Santa Barbara News Press from the New York Times. The downtown building, which is the paper’s original structure, had been built by George Washington Smith in 1922, and thanks to her work on it, it has now been deemed a “City Landmark” by the City of Santa Barbara.

The other reason for buying it was to bring local news back to Santa Barbara. “It was not focusing on the local news,” she says.

The newspaper has twice been honored by the annual Genesis Awards, which feature people in the news and entertainment media who have significantly raised public awareness of animal issues.

In 2005, the News Press received the award for Outstanding Newspaper Editorials, citing “an unrivalled collection of 44 insightful, timely and reasoned editorials, exploring an array of significant animal issues in need of public attention and effecting change in the process.” And in 2008, the writers at the newspaper received Special Recognition for Outstanding Written Word.

A deeply held philosophy

At first blush, the newspaper, the historic buildings and the protection of animals may seem to be disparate interests. But when you put the pieces together – animals, wildlife, the environment, the human environment and its historic buildings, local news and the local community – you see the key elements of a deeply-held philosophy that is conservative in the true meaning of the word: rooted in respect for all living creatures, fairness toward all animals, a passion for the conservation of life, and an appreciation of the roots and values that hold a community together.

“Our fellow animals are equally rooted in their communities,” she says. “They are held together in the web of life that sustains us all.”

Critical to that web of life are the keystone species – wolves, bears, mountain lions, coyotes, orcas and others – who have historically been given bad press and short shrift.

“They have not been treated fairly, their importance is not respected, and in many cases, they are still being persecuted. Everything flows from these creatures; without them other species would not exist. This is not only unfair; it’s not right. What motivates people to kill for sport or to kill because they don’t like a certain species? Where is the respect for all living creatures?”

How to change this mentality? Her answer is straightforward: “Educate future generations that all life is sacred, and to respect all life.” In the case of the whale sanctuary, it’s the vision of a world in which all ocean-going creatures are treated with respect and are no longer confined to concrete tanks in entertainment parks and aquariums.

The post Wendy McCaw: a Lifeline for Animals appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Mayor Danielle Levine Cava, entrepreneur and conservationist Pritam Singh, and Whale Sanctuary Project Executive Director Charles Vinick. (View the full press conference here.)

Miami, Florida, March 23rd, 2022:

At a press conference this afternoon, the Mayor of Miami-Dade County, Danielle Levine Cava, announced an agreement with the new owners of the Miami Seaquarium – the Dolphin Company – regarding the orca Lolita, also known as Tokitae and, by the Lummi Nation of the Pacific Northwest, as Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut.

As part of this agreement, the Dolphin Company will be providing access to Lolita for a team of independent veterinarians and other experts to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of her physical and mental health.

To facilitate this work, an informal coalition of organizations and individuals has been brought together by philanthropist and environmentalist Pritam Singh, who has committed $1 million to support Lolita and established a new non-profit named Friends of Lolita. The Whale Sanctuary Project continues to provide advice and expertise for purposes of addressing Lolita’s health and welfare needs, and our Executive Director Charles Vinick is serving as a volunteer Board member of Friends of Lolita.

The Whale Sanctuary Project will be providing our best resources to this endeavor. And we thank the Mayor, the Dolphin Company, and Friends of Lolita for opening the door to giving Lolita/Tokitae a new and better life.

The post Lolita/Tokitae to be Examined by Independent Vets appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

How Beluga Whales Learn to Spot Each Other in a Crowd

In more ways than most people imagine, beluga societies are very like our own. Females form friendships, traveling together and cooperating to raise their young. The kids play and socialize together. And the older males form clubs and long-term alliances.

They learn all of this from their parents and families and from each other. It’s what we call culture: the knowledge, wisdom and behavior that we pass from generation to generation.

Beluga whales are denizens of Arctic and sub-Arctic waters, often traveling more than 3,500 miles each year and spending their winters and summers in different locations as they raise their young.

Photo of Belugas by Lisa Barry/NOAA/NMFS

During the summer, these highly sociable animals often have giant meet-ups, hanging out in the thousands close to the shore. But if you’re a beluga, how do you know where to go, what to do when you arrive, and how to behave when you’re meeting up with thousands of other whales, some of whom you know, others you don’t?

To learn some of the answers, Greg O’Corry-Crowe, a research professor at Florida Atlantic University, led a multi-year study of belugas in various parts of the Arctic.

His team followed generations of the whales, collecting genetic samples along the way.

And what they learned was that the whales pass along the knowledge of their travels and their routes from one generation to the next.

“Many other animals migrate on an annual basis,” explains Lori Marino, President of the Whale Sanctuary Project. “These remarkable journeys are based on social learning from one generation to the next. And that’s the basis of culture. Belugas aren’t just a migratory species; they’re a migratory culture.”

“Call Me Squeak-Trill-Pop!”

Another thing you need to know as a beluga whale, especially when you’re still a youngster among hundreds or thousands of other whales, is how to find your mom in the crowd and let her know where to find you.

We humans have names to identify ourselves. We don’t know whether that’s exactly what belugas have, but they do have individual contact calls. And these may well be the very first thing a baby beluga learns.

Valeria Vergara, director of the Cetacean Conservation Research Program at Raincoast Conservation Foundation, has been studying communication among belugas for more than 20 years.

She says that it would be highly beneficial to them, as well as fascinating to us, to understand their “language” better.

When we welcome the first belugas to their new home at the sanctuary in Nova Scotia, we’ll be able to listen in to their vocalizations and keep a record of them that we can share with scientists like Valeria Vergara and Greg O’Corry-Crowe.

The more scientists understand, the better they can help protect whales who live in the open ocean. This kind of work underscores how important the sanctuary will be for whales who have lived in captivity as well as whales in the wild.

For more about beluga culture, go here. And Greg and Valeria will be among the guests at an upcoming webinar on February 24th.

Next: How Sperm Whales Taught Each Other to Defeat Whaling Ships  

The post How to Be a Successful Whale or Dolphin appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Check out the extraordinary, specially donated paintings and photos that depict the lives of whales in the wild, their plight in captivity, and the future they can have when retired to Sanctuary.

The urgency for completing the first whale sanctuary in North America grows with every day. That’s why, on this Giving Tuesday, we invite you to join with whale lovers everywhere in bringing this vision to reality:
A world where no whales are being kept in captivity for entertainment. 

This year, our friends at the Animal Welfare Institute are dedicating their Giving Tuesday appeal to providing the Whale Sanctuary with a work boat that we will use to complete site development work and create and maintain the perimeter net.

This is the kind of work boat we’ll be using to complete site development, create and maintain the perimeter net and other structures, and serve the ongoing need for sanctuary monitoring and security. 

Their goal is to raise $30,000. And your donation, large or small, can help match that amount and take us another step forward toward completing the sanctuary and welcoming the first whales.

In North America alone, about 100 orcas and beluga whales languish in concrete tanks. Worldwide, the number is estimated at more than 350. This sanctuary will be the first of its kind for captive whales, and a model for more sanctuaries to come in other countries.

Every donation, large and small, brings us a step further toward being able to give the whales a new home in an ocean environment.

Thank you again for being part of the Whale Sanctuary Project.

The post Come Inside the Operations Center! appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

The Operations Centre is now our home base for directing the design, engine­ering and construc­tion of the sanctuary. The conference room has full tele­communi­cations equipment enabling the team on the ground to consult with our expert advisors from around the world on everything from sanctuary construction to whale transport to veterinary care.

Charles Vinick, Executive Director, (right) gestures toward photos that show the difference between life at an entertainment park and life in nature. All photos on this page by Kevin Fraser and Melanie Wood.

The centre doubles as a welcome and information hub for the local communities of Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore, as well as for the thousands of environmentally conscious tourists who visit the region every summer. And it has an overnighting area for up to two visiting staff members and advisors.

It is also our Canadian office, where we meet with government officials and community leaders. And this was in evidence when His Honour, the Hon. Arthur J. LeBlanc, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, representing the Crown, stepped forward to cut the ribbon and lead the way in a tour of the exhibit area.

Other dignitaries at the opening included Hon. Wilfred Moore, who, as a Senator, introduced Senate Bill S-203 – the landmark Ending the Captivity of Whales & Dolphins Act – into Parliament. And Kerry Prosper of the Paq’tnekek Mi’kmaq First Nations community and Mi’kmaq Knowledge Keeper, spoke about how the project is a great way to connect with nature and treat whales in a good way.

Here’s a slideshow of some of the day’s events:

Visitors will be able to watch interactive video displays to learn about the sanctuary. They can learn about whales in general, and about whales in captivity and how their lives will be changed when they are retired to the natural environment of a sanctuary.

“We acquired the property in town from a good friend of the project who lives nearby,” said Charles Vinick, Executive Director of the Whale Sanctuary Project. “He bought it solely for the purpose of helping the whales, so we’re very grateful for that. The Whale Sanctuary Project will pay a nominal rent, which has been covered for the first year by supporter David Reuben, who continues to play a pivotal role in the creation of the sanctuary.”

As a century home, the building required some important renovations, and we’re very grateful to local volunteers who stepped in to help with much of this work.

The Centre is open to visitors on Mondays and Fridays from 10:00AM to 1:00PM and Wednesdays from 4:00PM to 7:00PM. Please check our local Facebook page for any schedule changes during winter months.

The post Opening Day at Whale Sanctuary Operations Centre appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

The facts we have been learning are detailed in a report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) of a special inspection that it conducted in June. It begins with the assertion that the Seaquarium’s management has been deliberately ignoring the recommendations of its inhouse veterinarian:

“The facility’s attending veterinarian’s recommendations regarding the provision of adequate veterinary care and other aspects of animal care and use have been repeatedly disregarded or dismissed over the last year.”

In an interview with the Miami Herald, Magdalena Rodriguez, who had been that veterinarian until she was fired in June of this year, says she believes her dismissal was based on concerns she had raised for several years and that coincided with the USDA’s inspection of the facility. Rodriguez says she had warned management about poor water quality, bad food and other serious issues.

“Sidelining the attending vet undermines the entire basis for protecting captive animal welfare in the United States.”As regards the food, the report says that “Beginning February 25th, 2021, poor-quality ‘fragile soft-bellied’ capelin that smelled bad was fed to the marine mammals despite concerns from some of the trainers and the Attending Veterinarian … Medical entries made by [Rodriguez] tracked the effects of the poor-quality fish for her and other animals at the park. One week later [Lolita] developed inflammation according to her bloodwork.”

Rodriguez requested that the bad fish be withheld, but two days later she discovered that “a consulting veterinarian had been contacted without her knowledge and that he had agreed with Facility Curators that the bad capelin could be fed.”

All of this took place despite the fact that “feeding poor-quality fish or partially decomposed fish is detrimental to the health of the animals and can result in illness, compromised immune systems and even death.”

In an extended blog post, Naomi Rose, a member of the Whale Sanctuary Project board and marine mammal scientist for the Animal Welfare Institute, writes:

“There really isn’t anything worse for a USDA inspector to report than the fact that those in charge of a facility are disregarding their attending veterinarian. Sidelining the attending vet undermines the entire basis for protecting captive animal welfare in the United States.”

Injuries and water contamination

Among other times when the Seaquarium ignored or dismissed the recommendations of its veterinarian is that after Lolita had injured her lower jaw, Rodriguez specifically directed the staff not to request head-in entry jumps or fast swims from Lolita, now a geriatric whale. Yet, regardless of this directive, according to the report, the training manager incorporated extra head-in jumps to its routine and continued fast swims. Her jaw injury likelt occurred during either of these behaviors.

Photo of Lolita by Piotr Domaradzki via Wikimedia

According to the Herald, a government scientist was alarmed at the spike in deaths and flagged the events to the USDA. “Two dolphins and a sea lion died from trauma to the head and neck, while a third dolphin drowned after getting caught in a net that divides two pools. A fourth dolphin died from an unexplained gas embolism and another one was reported as having developmental abnormalities, according to the documents.”

“So much algae it sometimes wasn’t possible to see the bottom of the whale tank.”“In short,” Rose comments, “the dolphins were fighting; two individuals were seriously injured and three died from the trauma their tank mates inflicted … In the wild they would never have associated or would have had plenty of room to escape each other. But at MSQ, apparently, despite one, two, and now THREE dolphins being killed, little to no effort was made to separate incompatible animals, which would have prevented this tragedy from repeating itself. And STILL there has been no enforcement action!”

Another issue was the lack of competent people to care for the animals. “Staff shortages left dolphins, manatees and even the park’s star attraction, Lolita the killer whale, with inadequate care,” Rodriguez tells the Herald. “Broken pumps and malfunctioning filters choked water with so much algae it sometimes wasn’t possible to see the bottom of the whale tank. Records on water quality were inaccurate and managers didn’t keep track of where animals were placed in the park’s different pools, a critical part of safely maintaining captive animals.”

Accreditation questions

Another major question that Rose raises is that, while the Association of Zoos and Aquariums has not accredited the Seaquarium, American Humane has given the facility its certification, saying, “The facility passed rigorous, independent third-party audits to earn the certification.” The Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums has also given its accreditation. But why?

“What professionally-accredited zoo or aquarium anywhere on this earth,” Rose asks, “gives BAD FOOD to its animals?”

Photo of Lolita by the Orca Project

What, if anything, will change at the Seaquarium as a result of the government’s report? Very little, Rose predicts. “They will suffer no penalty, they get to keep their [federal] APHIS license, no animals will be confiscated. And NOTHING WILL CHANGE. They are likely to be cited again in the future for similar infractions, because they know they will suffer no real consequences for cutting corners and being lax.”

Rescue efforts

Over the years, there have been numerous efforts on the part of animal protection groups and of the Lummi Nation of the Pacific Northwest to have Lolita returned to her native waters. To the Lummi, she is known as Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, a member of Sk’aliCh’elh family of orcas who call the Salish Sea home and where her mother and other family members still swim the waters of the Pacific Northwest.

A comprehensive operational plan to safely bring her to a secure and protected area within the Salish Sea.As part of our Whale Aid work, the Whale Sanctuary Project has drafted a comprehensive operational plan to safely bring Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut to a secure and protected area within the Salish Sea where she can thrive in her natal waters while receiving ongoing human care and while prioritizing the wellbeing of the Salish Sea ecosystem and all its inhabitants, including the Southern Resident orcas.

Such a plan would depend on whether Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut could safely make the arduous journey back to her home waters. And bearing in mind her age and the trauma and abuse to which she has been subjected over the years, any such determination can only be made after a careful and complete health evaluation by an independent team of veterinary experts.

Meanwhile, Rose is not confident that waiting for governmental action is going to be productive. “It is now very clear that the law will NEVER protect [Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut]. I don’t know what will work, after all these years of so many people trying to help her, but at the very least, we need to spread the word of what has happened at MSQ. Based on this inspection report alone, MSQ is failing abysmally in its duty of care for this amazing being. Something has to give.”

The post Shocking Government Report on Miami Seaquarium appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

The coastal sanctuary that the Whale Sanctuary Project is creating in Nova Scotia for whales who are being retired from entertainment parks will be an ideal location for the non-invasive study of cetacean (whale and dolphin) communication.

And since the vocalizations and communication among the residents of the sanctuary will be an important measure of their well-being, we invited five pioneers in animal communication studies to join us for a webinar to tell us about some of their remarkable discoveries and how their work might benefit the whales at the sanctuary.

Right now, there are basically two ways of studying communication among whales and dolphins: in the wild and in aquariums and entertainment parks. Studies of whale communication at entertainment parks have limited value because of the entirely unnatural conditions in which the whales are forced to live. And while studies conducted in the wild have enormous value, they are challenging because of the time and expense that’s involved in traveling with the whales and dolphins over an extended period of time.

An authentic coastal sanctuary, however, will be able to supplement the work that’s being done in the open ocean by monitoring and recording all the communication among the whales and pairing it with their other activities, movements and behaviors. Moreover, we will be able to see how communication and other behaviors change over time in the sanctuary environment.

Our guests were:

• Dr. Valeria Vergara, who has conducted groundbreaking studies of beluga whale communication both in captivity and in the wild and is well-known for her discovery of contact calls between beluga whales.
• Aza Raskin, co-founder and executive director of the Earth Species Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to decoding nonhuman communication and creating better interspecies understanding. He is also co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology.
• Dr. Brenda McCowan, a biological anthropologist who uses information theory and other methodologies to assess the diversity, complexity, and development of communicative repertoires across a wide range of species.
• Dr. David Gruber, the founder and lead of Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative), an interdisciplinary project aimed at decoding sperm whale communication using artificial intelligence and non-invasive robotics.
• Dr. James Crutchfield, a physicist who studies complex systems and pattern discovery to learn how these can be applied to understanding nonhuman communication systems.

After presentations by each of the guests, the ensuing discussion quickly became a brain-storming session in which the group discussed the kinds of protocols, methodologies, and technical features of the sanctuary that could be used to study the whales. For example, observation towers and arrays of hydrophones synched with underwater cameras and drone footage could be key systems of data collection.

At the end of the webinar, it was clear that this webinar is just the beginning of what will be an ongoing dialog that will influence the design of the sanctuary and the ways it can contribute to our scientific understanding of who belugas and orcas are.

The post Sanctuaries and the Study of Cetacean Communication appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

This video was taken by a visitor and is posted here with permission. In the background, you can hear another visitor saying: “Oh! Right against the glass. Splashing. She’d love to be free in the oceans. Here she is, in this concrete and glass tank.” And then, as Kiska moves away, “And now she’s going to swim in circles.” Video credit: @jennyveganmcqueen 

In “The Whales” section of this website, we describe Kiska as “the loneliest whale in the world.” We note that orcas and beluga whales are highly social animals and that Kiska holds “the cruel distinction of being the only orca in North America held in social isolation from any other marine mammal.”

Earlier this year, the Canadian Press reported that “a months-long inspection of Marineland by Ontario’s animal welfare watchdog has found that marine mammals at the tourist attraction were in distress due to poor water quality.” Inspectors ordered the park to repair the water system. Marineland appealed the order, but later withdrew the appeal.

People who have visited Marineland recently have been commenting on what they have been observing there. One person wrote that Kiska “spent the day flip flopping between logging and swimming quickly around her tank in her counter-clockwise circles.”

Endless circling of the tank, grating their teeth on tank walls and gates, and other forms of self-injury.Dr. Lori Marino, President of the Whale Sanctuary Project and a neuroscientist, explains that these kinds of behaviors, known as stereotypies, can include endless circling of the tank, grating their teeth on tank walls and gates, and other forms of self-injury.

“They all stem from the chronic stress of trying to adapt to the barren and artificial environment of a concrete tank,” she says, “very often leading to physical illness and sometimes even death.”

During a recent televised election debate that focused on animal welfare, a question was posed regarding the animals at Marineland. Candidates Nathaniel Erskine Smith, Liberal Party, Alistair MacGregor, NDP, and Elizabeth May, Green Party, all talked about the plight of large animals in captivity.

Ms. May, one of the sponsors of Senate Bill S-203 banning the keeping of cetaceans in captivity, noted that this law was “the first time we’ve actually taken into account the suffering of an individual animal as a sentient being.”

But the sentient beings at Marineland are not doing well. We have been hearing that over the last year at least ten of the beluga whales have died, one of them just three months after being transferred to an aquarium in the U.S.

To avoid yet more of them from succumbing to what appears to be pervasive ill-health, it is time for all of us who care about them to work together to create a comprehensive solution that can save and protect the whales and dolphins at this troubled amusement park.

The post Crisis at Marineland Canada appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

But the zoo doesn’t even mention the one member of Ula’s family who is truly bereaved. Her name is Morgan, and she is Ula’s mother. And while Morgan cannot tell us in words what she is feeling and experiencing – her daughter would have been three years old next month – we do know that the bond between orca mothers and daughters is deep and powerful. (You may recall how Tahlequah, one of the Southern Resident orcas in the Pacific Northwest, carried the lifeless body of her baby up and down the Puget Sound coast for two weeks on what was described around the world as a “tour of grief.”)

And yet, no word from Loro Parque about the grief that Morgan must be experiencing – what it must have been like for her when her echolocations suddenly ceased to pick up a heartbeat from her daughter.

Morgan (left) and Ula. Photo by Diva Flora Nikolova via Inherently Wild

Morgan was a calf herself when, underweight and swimming alone, she was rescued off the coast of the Netherlands in 2010 under a “rescue, rehabilitation and release” permit. And yet, instead of being given the chance to return to her family, she was shipped 2,000 miles to this zoo and tourist attraction in the Canary Islands. (Read more about her here.)

Zoos and marine amusement parks routinely refer to the whales as being part of their “family.” But Morgan could never be part of Loro Parque’s family. For starters, five of the other six orcas there had been born at SeaWorld amusement parks in the United States. Three of them had been fathered by the famous orca Tilikum. Morgan’s lineage was completely different. She couldn’t fit in, and the other whales began ganging up on her. The zoo’s owner, meanwhile, announced his delight at having acquired her, saying that she would provide “a new bloodline” for breeding.

There is not a mention of the grief that her mother must be suffering.When Morgan gave birth to a daughter, Ula, the two immediately bonded. But just a few days later, the park separated mother from daughter, first on the pretext that Morgan had too little milk, and then saying it was for safety reasons. Soon after, reports began circulating of Ula having a deformation of the skull, photo-toxic lesions, and a diseased left pectoral fin.

This year, when Ula became sick and animal protection organizations expressed serious concern about her, Loro Parque brushed them aside, saying that “Ula is fine, playing with the rest of the orcas, and there is no longer a trace of the intestinal disease that she suffered in the past weeks.”

And now she is dead. And there is not a mention of the grief that her mother must be suffering.

Ula is the second orca to have died this year at Loro Parque Zoo. In March, when teenager Skyla died suddenly, the zoo’s management described the cause of death as being “intestinal torsion, which caused acute septicemia and immediate death.” They added: “This pathology can occur suddenly in completely healthy animals and is absolutely inoperable in cetaceans, so, despite all our precautions and efforts, it would not have been possible to do anything to save Skyla’s life.”

We asked Dr. Heather Rally, a wildlife veterinarian with specific training and experience in marine mammal medicine and a member of the Whale Sanctuary Advisory Group, for her view on the zoo’s statement. Dr. Rally called it “highly unlikely that Loro Parque didn’t have some indication of at least a pre-existing gastrointestinal illness, recent traumatic incident, and/or an indication of pain or distress prior to the day of her death.”

Morgan and Skyla. Photo by Ulrich Brodder via Inherently Wild.

The zoo’s management spoke of how Skyla was “part of the Loro Parque family,” just as they would in the wake of Ula’s death. But Skyla, like Morgan and Ula, was never part of the management’s family. Nor, indeed, of any whale family at the zoo. She had been born at SeaWorld Orlando, where her parents were Kalina and Tilikum, and had been shipped across the Atlantic to Loro Parque at age two.

With the deaths of Skyla and Ula, Loro Parque now has five remaining orcas. We have little doubt that the zoo will try to breed more for their “collection,” and doing so will be a travesty and a recipe for more grief and suffering.

Only last week, in the United States, the Mystic Aquarium announced that one of the beluga whales they had acquired just weeks before from Marineland Canada had died. Once again, we were told of the “devastating loss for our staff and for the community.”

These expressions of sadness ring increasingly hollow. It is beyond time for the shows and exhibitions to come to an end … all over the world … once and for all. It is time for the whales and dolphins to be released from their concrete tanks and retired to sanctuaries that can provide the kind of environment in which they evolved over millions of years. All the best veterinary care in the world cannot make up for an artificial environment.

The sanctuary we are creating in Nova Scotia is the first step in our global mission to promote sanctuary for all captive cetaceans and to bring about a time when there are no whales still confined to tanks and used as a form of entertainment.

Thank you for being part of the Whale Sanctuary Project. Together we can give them a life that makes up for as much as possible of what went before.

Photo credit: Title photo at top of this post by Diva Flora Nikolova.

The post Ula Was Never Part of Their “Family” appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Sixteen-year-old Ben Norris and his friends Flora Smith and Sean Carter had spotted the family and were racing down to the beach on their bikes for a closer look. But excitement and pleasure quickly turned to shock and trauma as they witnessed what happened on the rocky shore: As the adult whales turned away toward deeper water, the youngster didn’t follow. Instead, as he kept heading toward the beach, a wave threw him onto the rocks, where he landed on his back, screaming.

Toa stranded on the rocks. Photo by Ben Norris

As Ben described what happened: “He was on his back, and then he was on the beach, wiggling his tail which was driving him further and further up. The rocks were cutting him up and the sound was like nothing you can imagine. His screams were hurting my ears.”

While Flora and Sean raced home to Hongoeka, a Ngāti Toa (Maori) suburb of the town of Plimmerton, Ben got in the freezing winter water to stay with the young whale and try to reassure him. Ben had been learning about orcas as part of a school research project and had recently watched the documentary movie Blackfish about captive orcas at entertainment parks. He said he could see another whale, who must have been the injured calf’s mother, waiting offshore, calling to him, but unable to do more. And by the time Flora and Sean returned with police, fire fighters and Ngāti Toa tribal members – for whom orca are viewed as their ancestors – Toa’s mother and other members of his family were moving further offshore.

The crew of first-time rescuers did everything they could to refloat Toa. “He needed to find his balance and equilibrium,” Flora said, “but we didn’t have enough time to do that because the water was pushing him back on the rocks.”

But expert help was on the way as Ingrid Visser, founder of the Orca Research Trust (and advisor to the Whale Sanctuary Project), flew down from Whāngārei, arriving by evening to help shepherd the calf to a sea pen in Wellington Harbour.

Ingrid Visser, center, with Toa. Photo by Mark Mitchell.

Over the next ten days, hundreds of people worked together to care for Toa, whose name means “brave and strong.” Along with the veterinarians who were treating him and monitoring his condition, the whale was cared for by groups of volunteers working in shifts, with at least four people in the water at any given time. While helping to keep him moving, they needed to make sure he wouldn’t bump into the wall or the net and hurt his back, which had seized up when he was caught on the rocks. Another pair of observers, sitting behind a windbreak out of the water, kept count of the number of times per minute that Toa came up to breathe.

Ben Norris, by Brianna Norris.

Other volunteers from all walks of life became part of the effort, including clothing suppliers and restaurant owners to help keep the team warm, dry, fed and provisioned through winter storms.

One of these remarkable contributions came from the Weta Workshop, a group that’s well known in New Zealand for the amazing props they created in the making of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy of movies. When they heard that Toa needed to be bottle-fed without becoming bonded with humans, they set up their 3-D printer to create a simulation of a mother whale’s teat that the crew could use to feed the calf.

Other experts from far and wide included our own Jeff Foster, the Whale Sanctuary Project’s experienced Animal Transfer & Rehab Coordinator, who was in touch with Ingrid and the rescue team round the clock on matters from bottle-feeding to medicating to drawing blood to developing bonds of trust, and, if all went well and Toa’s family could be located, to the challenge of returning him to them.

“In the end, Tangaroa had his way with him.”For the first few days in his sea pen at Wellington Harbour, Toa made progress: eating and swimming and even becoming quite feisty. When a winter storm approached, threatening both the whale and his caregivers, he was moved to a saltwater pool until the storm passed. But then, back in his sea pen, he began to take a turn for the worse, becoming seriously lethargic, and despite all the efforts of the veterinarians, he died on Friday evening, July 23rd.

“In the end, Tangaroa had his way with him,” said Hongoeka member Justin Stretch, referring to the great atua of the sea, lakes, rivers, and creatures who live within them.

Local observer Tony Sutorius wrote:

“When Toa went quite suddenly downhill, Ingrid did a beautiful thing. Everyone who had been closely involved in his care was quietly called down to the water’s edge, and those dozen or so [whom] Toa knew best went into the water and held him upright and comforted him, very silently, for the last hour of his life, which ended very gently.

It was a rarely still and beautiful cold evening, under a full moon. When he died, several karakia were sung and a few spoke briefly. It was a sad, very lovely time of aroha and pure community.”

And so, even though little Toa lost his struggle to survive, the effort was far from being in vain. Jeff, who has participated in numerous marine mammal rescue efforts all over the world, notes that he and other rescuers and veterinarians always learn a great deal, regardless of the outcome. Every lesson learned is carried forward to the next effort and is now also helping to build our Whale Aid program and its worldwide network of expertise and commitment that’s writing a new chapter for whales and dolphins, both captive and free ranging.

Orca mothers have deep and lasting emotional bonds with their children, and our thoughts are with Toa’s mother as she grieves his loss. Our thoughts are also with everyone who worked so hard to save Toa’s life and return him to his family – and perhaps especially with those three teenagers, without whom there would have been no rescue effort in the first place. May they lead the way for the new generation of animal rescue and protection.

The post The Rescue of Toa appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

“Skyla was in perfect condition until yesterday, when she began to show some signs of discomfort, which immediately mobilized our team of experts. Despite all the effort, the veterinarians were only able to certify her demise.”

The following day, the zoo offered this brief follow-up on the necropsy they had performed:

“According to the results of the necropsy, the cause of death was intestinal torsion, which caused acute septicemia and immediate death. This pathology can occur suddenly in completely healthy animals and is absolutely inoperable in cetaceans, so, despite all our precautions and efforts, it would not have been possible to do anything to save Skyla’s life.”

Since Loro Parque offered no further details, we asked Dr. Heather Rally, a wildlife veterinarian with specific training and experience in marine mammal medicine and a member of the Whale Sanctuary Advisory Group, for her view on the zoo’s statement. Dr. Rally responded that while it is likely true, it is not necessarily the full truth.

“While the zoo’s statement is likely true, it is not necessarily the full truth.”“It is highly unlikely,” she writes, “that Loro Parque didn’t have some indication of at least a pre-existing gastrointestinal illness, recent traumatic incident, and/or an indication of pain or distress prior to the day of her death. Indeed, most cases of intestinal torsion in cetaceans were preceded by some predisposing factor. For example, we know that chronic gastrointestinal conditions can predispose to intestinal torsion in cetaceans, and in an array of other species.

“We also know that Morgan [one of Skyla’s tank mates] routinely eats paint, and likely pieces of concrete that she has bitten off of the sides of her tank, and we have no reason to believe the other orca don’t engage in the same behavior. This is just one example of a hazard in their immediate environment that can cause gastrointestinal disease and thereby predispose to torsion when a portion of the digestive tract becomes twisted by rotating, looping around, or folding over itself.”

Dr. Rally says that in extreme cases, once the intestines have become twisted, “the tissues rapidly lose their oxygen supply and die, causing the release of bacteria from the intestines into the abdomen and bloodstream. This can happen rapidly, leading to a sudden onset of pain and distress, and quickly progressing to death by sepsis and circulatory shock.”

Skyla with Kohana and Tekoa at Loro Parque Zoo. (This and title photo from Wikimedia Commons.)

Skyla’s family

Loro Parque’ statement included a sentence about Skyla having been “part of the Loro Parque family.” In fact, Skyla was born at SeaWorld Orlando, and her family consisted of her parents, Kalina (the first orca to have born and raised in captivity) and Tilikum (who had been captured as a calf in Icelandic waters), and many brothers and sisters, most of whom she would never meet.

Kalina and Tilikum had three more calves “together” (one of whom was stillborn), and each was bred many more times with other captive whales. Kalina died at age 25 of bacterial septicemia.

At age two, Skyla was transferred across the Atlantic to Loro Parque. She was said to have a dominant personality, which she exhibited not only toward her tank mates but toward her trainers, to the point where humans had to be prohibited from getting in the water with her. (In 2009, a Loro Parque trainer, Alexis Martinez, had been killed by one of the other orcas, Keto.)

With the death of Skyla, Loro Parque has six remaining orcas: Keto, Tekoa, Kohana, Adàn, Morgan and Morgan’s two-year-old daughter Ula.

The post Orca Skyla Dies at Loro Parque Zoo appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Senator Christmas served on the Standing Committee on Fisheries & Oceans, which in 2017 was considering Bill S-203: the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act.

“It was very intense,” he recalls. “We heard [testimonies] from those who were strongly opposed to the S-203 legislation and equally we had people who very strongly believed we were doing the right thing.

“I wish we had the whales here tonight so we could ask them what do they think.”“And I was so frustrated, I said: ‘I wish we had the whales here tonight so we could ask them what do they think.’”

Senator Christmas told his colleagues that if he could have had such an opportunity, he would have wanted to ask the whales, “What is best for your family?”

Speaking of when he first heard that the whale sanctuary would be located in Port Hilford near Sherbrooke, he says he was “so joyful,” not only for Nova Scotians but for the whales from aquariums and entertainment parks who would have “a brand-new home where they could be looked after with love and respect and with some dignity finally.”

The senator also talks about the honor and respect with which whales have always been held by the Mi’kmaq people and says that the sanctuary will give young people the opportunity to reconnect with that relationship.

“I think we’ve forgotten who [the whales] are as people, as persons,” he says. “There’s an opportunity to bring something back from the past that was lost. And hopefully it won’t just remain with us [but] that others will come to Nova Scotia and see these beautiful creatures, and we can share the stories, the relationship, the honor and the respect we have.”

The post “What I Wish I Could Ask a Whale” appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

In this wide-ranging webinar, Charles Vinick, Executive Director of the Whale Sanctuary Project, talks about his earlier work as manager of the Keiko project and what he sees as Keiko’s legacy:

The amazing story of Keiko the orca

Keiko, you will recall, had been captured in 1979 and taken from his family in the Icelandic Ocean to Marineland Canada. From there he was sold to an amusement park in Mexico City, where he was housed in a small, shallow tank, insufficient for an adult male orca to thrive.

In 1992, Warner Brothers began filming Keiko for a movie that would tell the story of Jesse, a foster boy who befriends a captive orca named Willy and helps him escape back to the ocean.

The film became a major box office success, spawning three sequels, a television series and a video game. But unlike the character he was playing, Keiko himself didn’t get to leave the tank in which he was being housed at the amusement park. (His “stunt double” in the action sequences was an animatronic model.)

Fortunately, however, that was not the end of the story. After seeing the movie, tens of thousands of children wrote letters pleading for the return of the real-life whale to the ocean.

As a result of this intervention from all over the world, Keiko was indeed rescued, and in 1996 he was brought to a specially built large pool in Oregon, where he was treated for multiple health conditions. Two years later, he was flown to a bay on an island off the coast of Iceland, where he spent four years going on open ocean “walks”, learning to catch his own fish, and introducing himself to wild orcas, all with full-time care while preparing for a life in the open ocean.

In the summer of 2002, while in the company of a pod of orcas, Keiko left his caregivers and swam more than a thousand miles to the coast of Norway. He made his home in and around a fishing village, where he thrived for another year, free from captivity in a concrete tank before succumbing to a pneumonia-like infection.

Check out this slideshow of Keiko’s journey to freedom:

Keiko’s enduring legacy

You can also watch this video in which Charles talks with Jeff Foster, who served as Keiko’s Director of Field Operations and Research and is today our Animal Transfer & Rehab Coordinator. The video includes lots of fascinating archival footage, and at the end Charles sums up his overall takeaway from the project:

“It is very easy,” he says, “to capture a whale from the ocean. It’s much harder to put one back!”

Indeed, for all but maybe one or two of the whales on display at entertainment parks today, returning them to the ocean is not an option at all. That’s because they were born into captivity and have never seen the ocean, the sky or even a live fish.

And that’s why our focus is on seaside sanctuaries as the right future for all captive whales.

* Members of the Whale Sanctuary Project team who were also on Keiko’s team are Charles Vinick (WSP Executive Director and Board member), Naomi Rose and Dave Phillips (Board members), Jeff Foster (Animal Transfer & Rehab Coordinator), Jean-Michel Cousteau, Chuck Davis, Terry Hardie, Michael Parks, Paul Spong and Ingrid Visser (Advisory Group members).

The post Keiko the Orca’s Legacy appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Much of the work on the water is conducted aboard the boat of our friend and local fisherman Hughie MacDonald, seen here with our environmental analyst Amanda Babin.

When we talk about the creation of the whale sanctuary in Port Hilford, Nova Scotia, we regularly explain that we’re currently in the site development stage and that this includes “on-site environmental data collection.”

So, what kinds of environmental data do we need to collect? And what do we use it for?

To ensure that the sanctuary can provide the quality of life that the whales deserve, we need to know as much as possible about the bay, the freshwater inlets and ponds nearby, and of the lands surrounding the bay. The results of the data analyses will be included our permitting submissions and will inform our engineering studies for construction of the sanctuary. Some of the things we have to understand are:

• the ranges of water temperature;
• whether there is runoff from the shore during storms and if it contains any detrimental pollution;
• details about currents, tides and wave action and how these change during storms;
• whether there are any underwater sounds that might disturb or alter whale behavior;
• and what other kinds of animals live in and around the bay.

Our Environmental Analyst Amanda Babin has been conducting much of this work and taking photos and videos as she goes. So, in this post she takes us through some of the activities and equipment that the team has been using to gather all of this information.

Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler

Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) tell us how fast the water moves and in what direction at different depths. We use two kinds: The blue-and-white one is deployed on a frame with weights so that it can sit on the bottom of the bay. The other is mounted on an orange float that looks a bit like the space shuttle and is deployed on the surface.

Multibeam Sonar

We’re doing a multibeam sonar survey to make a detailed picture of the seafloor, which will show us areas that are shallow and deep. The survey will also identify any anomalies in the sea floor and tell us whether there could be a sunken boat (or even an old car that may have been dumped into the bay!).

Once we know the detailed shape of the sea floor, we can add the ADCP data and create a hydrodynamic model of Port Hilford. This will give us a dynamic picture of how water moves around the bay, which is critically important for engineering the placement of the sanctuary net enclosure, as well as for understanding how the whales can interact with their environment.

The team that worked on collecting the data includes the Applied Geomatics Research Group of the Centre of Geographic Sciences of the Nova Scotia Community College. It was led by Dr. Tim Webster, and included Sean Dzafovic, Nathan Crowell, Dedipya Kodavati, and Connor Dearing.

Hydrophones and Underwater Microphones

Whales are acoustic animals and their primary sense is sound, so we want to know whether the sounds of boats or any other noise will have an impact on their hearing frequencies. Having an overall acoustic profile of the environment will help us understand how the whales will react in their new home.

Hydrophones and microphones record noise to measure the volume at each frequency and tell us how quiet or loud it is underwater. Here’s a typical hydrophone, along with what one of the spectrograms looks like. (Spectrograms are a picture of the volume of the sound at different frequencies over time.)

In this video, we’re collecting a hydrophone that’s been measuring underwater noise.

A hydrodynamic model creates a picture of water speed and direction at different depths. This will help us understand what the whales will experience. It will calculate how quickly water moves in and out of the area to understand how debris and whale waste will move in the marine environment. And it helps with sanctuary design.

Benthic Surveys

Benthic animals are those who live in or on the seafloor, and benthic surveys are one of the main ways that scientists assess the health of our estuaries and coastal waters.

In this video, Connor Dearing and Dedipya Kodavati are lowering a photo drop frame to the seafloor so that we can take GoPro video to identify the substrate type and any flora and fauna that are present.

Water and Sediment Sampling

With water samples taken at a variety of locations in the bay, we are doing lab analyses for around 30 different metals and we’re measuring nutrient levels to test for any contaminants in the water.

Freshwater Survey

During the snow melt, we identified and measured all of the major freshwater sources that enter the bay, including their depth at high water, their width, and the water speed. This allows us to understand how much freshwater is entering the bay.

We collected water samples, and samples of invertebrates living in the streams. We then identified the species and calculated what percentage were sensitive to water pollution. These percentages were above 70 percent, which is quite high, indicating that the streams were clean.

Much of this work was conducted by our environmental analyst Amanda Babin, her husband Kraig, and their dog Kes.

Storms

Photos and videos like this one, taken as Hurricane Teddy arrived in Port Hilford, show us whether debris comes ashore and whether there are particular locations where more or less debris accumulates. This helps us plan our operations for all types of weather events.

This video was taken by Jamie Anderson from our standardized location for taking photos and videos along the western shore. The video is time-matched to the data from the ADCP to relate how high the waves actually were to our perception of the wave heights from shore.

The post A Deep Dive into Environmental Analysis appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Last week, Tahlequah gave birth once again. And according to the Center for Whale Research on September 6th, her new baby, J-57, appears to be doing well:

J-47 (Tahlequah’s mother), Tahlequah/J-35, and her newborn J-57. Photo by Sarah McCullagh, Pacific Whale Watch Association, Sept 5 2020

“Her new calf appeared healthy and precocious, swimming vigorously alongside its mother in its second day of free-swimming life. We know that it was not born today because its dorsal fin was upright, and we know that it takes a day or two to straighten after being bent over in the womb, so we assign its birthday as September 4, 2020. (Ergo gestation commenced in February 2019).

“Tahlequah was mostly separate from the other whales and being very evasive as she crossed the border into Canada, so we ended our encounter with her after a few minutes and wished them well on their way.”

The good news and excitement over the new birth is tempered by the fact that the southern residents are officially designated an endangered population and that the mortality rate for young calves is 40 percent.

Their troubles are largely due to three factors: the continuing decline of their preferred food chinook salmon; boat noise and traffic; and the pollution of the waters of the Salish Sea.

However, the new baby is the third to be born to the southern residents since 2019, and the other two continue to survive.

The southern residents comprise three pods, known as J, K, and L. And J-pod has suffered the greatest losses in recent years. In the wake of the 2018 death of her previous infant, Tahlequah generated a worldwide outpouring of sympathy when she carried the lifeless body up and down the coast for 17 days and 1,000 miles in what became known as a “Tour of Grief.”

Then, only a month after Tahlequah’s loss, J-pod lost another member of the extended family. Four-year-old Scarlet (J-50) had been known as a vibrant and energetic youngster – a celebrity, indeed – as she would launch herself out of the water in a perfect arc, nose pointing to tail, over and over again to the delight of photographers.

Scarlet, left, with her sister. Photo by Katy Foster/The Whale Sanctuary Project under NOAA permit 18786.

But by age three, Scarlet was looking thin and weaker. And by the time she approached age four, she was the size of a two-year old. More than a dozen organizations, including the Whale Sanctuary Project, worked together under the auspices of NOAA to consider the best ways to help Scarlet in what was an unprecedented but ultimately unsuccessful effort to save her life.

Happily, in recent days, all three pods have been seen together around the San Juan Islands, their traditional summer home waters.

Deborah Giles, science and research director for the non-profit Wild Orca, who had been collecting fecal samples from the orcas for ongoing research, told the Seattle Times “It was a fantastic day with members of all three pods … The whales behaved much like we used to see them, socializing, with lots of amazing surface active behavior.”

We wish them all well in the days ahead.

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The belugas’ lucky break began when the Changfeng Ocean World was purchased in 2012 by the British company Merlin Entertainments, which operates family attractions around the world. Merlin’s non-profit sister organization, Sea Life Trust, operates aquariums around the world, but the two companies have a longstanding policy of not displaying whales and dolphins at any of their facilities.

Little Grey and Little White on their first day in their new sanctuary home.

Changfeng had three belugas on display, so Merlin and Sea Life immediately began making plans to move them to a sanctuary where they could have a more natural life. One of the belugas died before she could be included in the move, but the other two, Little Grey and Little White, were flown to Iceland in 2019, spent the winter in an indoor pool, and were moved on Friday to the  sanctuary’s care area.

A statement from Sea Life Trust says: “Little Grey and Little White are now in their bayside care pool and will need a short period of time to acclimatize to their new natural environment and all the outdoor elements before their final release into the wider [10-acre] sanctuary in Klettsvik Bay in the Westman Islands off the south coast of Iceland. The expert team and the independent vets were with Little Grey and Little White throughout the move and said they are healthy and are feeding after the short trip from their landside care facility back to the sea.”

The cost of construction of the sanctuary, along with the transport of Little Grey and Little White, was covered by a donation from Merlin to Sea Life Trust. And Sea Life, in turn, is being advised in its work by the British charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation, which supports and leads whale and dolphin conservation field projects and research around the world.

Once the two belugas have adapted to their new life, Sea Life Trust says it will consider opening the sanctuary to a few more belugas currently on display in concrete tanks.

“We are full of praise for Merlin’s principled stand on not keeping whales and dolphins in concrete tanks,” said Dr. Lori Marino, president of the Whale Sanctuary Project, which is working in Port Hilford, Nova Scotia, to create a seaside sanctuary for whales currently in other marine entertainment parks. “And we congratulate Merlin Entertainments and Sea Life Trust on giving these two belugas a much better life in a natural environment.”

The Beginning of a Sea Change

According to a recent report, China has at least 76 dolphinariums and marine parks, and at least 25 more planned over the next few years. But Burleigh says he observes significant changes already taking place. But James Burleigh, a board member of Sea Life Trust and Divisional Director for Merlin Conservation, Welfare and Engagement, hopes that relocating Little Grey and Little White from Changfeng Ocean World to the new sanctuary will have some effect on the growing marine park industry in China.

Beluga whales at Changfeng Ocean World under its former management

“When you look at what people go and pay money for and what they enjoy as families in America, now, it’s very different from how they did it 20 years ago,” he says. “Your experiences are totally different, and the technologies are different. You’ve got virtual reality, augmented reality, all sorts of stuff. People don’t need to be in a pool swimming with dolphins. They can have that essential experience in different ways.”

He believes the same will unfold in China. “The world will change, and people will change, and we’ve had a lot of support there. And people understand where the direction is. And for us, we just have to set an example and do it the way we do it.”

That change is evident all over the world. In 2016, the National Aquarium in Baltimore announced plans to create a seaside sanctuary for its dolphins and is currently focusing on several possible locations in the Caribbean.

“You’ve got virtual reality, augmented reality, all sorts of stuff. People don’t need to be in a pool swimming with dolphins.”Last year, Canada passed legislation that bans keeping whales, dolphins and porpoises in captivity for entertainment. On June 10th, the House of Commons voted overwhelmingly in favor of Senate Bill S-203, the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act. The bill phases out the captivity of cetaceans (i.e. whales, dolphins and porpoises) in Canada, except for rescues, rehabilitation, licensed scientific research, or cetaceans’ best interests. It also prohibits the trade, possession, capture and breeding of cetaceans.

And earlier this year in Australia, the Dolphin Marine Conservation Park in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, announced a plan to work with animal protection groups to relocate its three dolphins from their concrete tanks to a semi-open sea enclosure in a sectioned-off area of the marina.

The change in public opinion, along with the commitment of aquariums and entertainment parks to transfer their whales and dolphins to sanctuaries, is part of a yet-wider societal change. In 1986, the Performing Animal Welfare Society welcomed first of many elephants to its sanctuary. And today, there are numerous sanctuaries for elephants, great apes, big cats and other animals who have been transferred from zoos and research facilities.

Happily, that change is now reaching whales and dolphins, too. And with a whole new life ahead of them, Little White and Little Grey are in the vanguard of how that change is touching the lives of these amazing animals.

We congratulate Merlin/Sea Life Trust and wish all the best for Little White and Little Grey.

The post Another First for Captive Whales and Dolphins appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

It’s a fascinating discussion between Jeff Foster, Keiko’s Director of Field Operations and Research, and Charles Vinick, who served as Project Director in Iceland. Today, Charles is the Executive Director of the Whale Sanctuary Project, and Jeff is our Site Search, Animal Transfer and Rehab Coordinator.

Toward the end of this webinar, Charles looks back over the whole experience and notes that while we have always known that it is very easy to capture a whale from the ocean, “What we learned is that it is very difficult to put one back.”

The post Reintroducing Keiko to the Wild – the “Free Willy” Whale appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

The whales have been approaching recreational boaters, and people have been seen petting them and interacting with them. This kind of behavior is dangerous, both to the whales and to the humans who encourage it.

In the following video, our colleague and advisor Jean-Michel Cousteau of the Ocean Futures Society, who joined with the Whale Sanctuary Project in leading our Whale Aid Russia program last year, explains why it is so very important for people not to engage with whales who approach them.

The orcas and beluga whales at the “whale jail” had been captured illegally in 2018. And throughout 2019 the Whale Sanctuary Project worked closely with the Russian government to help prepare the whales to be returned to the ocean. All of them were successfully returned to the ocean: all of the orcas and most of the belugas to the Sea of Okhotsk, from where they had been captured, and the last 31 belugas to the Bay of Uspeniya Lavosky.

“We are currently working with local volunteers in their efforts to keep the belugas safe and wild,” said Charles Vinick, Executive Director of the Whale Sanctuary Project. “We’re providing guidelines for people to stay away from these whales and not to engage with any whales who approach them.”

Catherine Kinsman, our Nova Scotia beluga expert, has been instrumental in leading our effort to adapt her standard guidelines “Sociable Belugas Whales – Things You Should Know” to the current situation in Russia. As co-founder of the Whale Stewardship Project, which pioneered the world’s first research protection and education programs for sociable beluga whales, she has developed this expertise over more than two decades working with lone sociable belugas in Atlantic Canada.

Catherine produced the poster above, in which she urges beachgoers and boaters to stay away from these beluga whales, both for their own safety and for the safety and well-being of the animals.

“I completely understand that a beluga’s appeal can seem irresistible,” she said. “But for the belugas’ sake and people’s safety, having the will to resist engaging with them is the most responsible, sensible and selfless action a person can take.”

The post “Please Don’t Interact with Curious Beluga Whales in the Ocean!” appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Here is the video, along with the text of her remarks, which we greatly appreciate.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Senators, I rise to pay tribute to Dr. Lori Marino and the Whale Sanctuary Project, who announced on February 25th, 2020, that a site has been chosen for the first seaside sanctuary in North America for whales being retired from entertainment parks.

I would like to congratulate the community of Port Hilford and the province of Nova Scotia for being selected as the ideal place for this sanctuary after an exhaustive search involving hundreds of locations. The community is excited and honored to have been chosen, and has support coming from the Nova Scotia government as well.

This sanctuary will house belugas and teach a positive message to us all about whales and the relationship we have with them, as well as the respect we owe them as intelligent, emotionally sensitive and socially complex animals.

As one who has lived in two provinces where there are oceans and whales, I would like to note that the genesis for this tremendous achievement began here in this chamber with the introduction of Bill S-203 by our former colleague Senator Wilfred Moore and the subsequent sponsorship of Senator Murray Sinclair, which passed in the other place last year. I would like to thank all those senators who supported this legislation and Canadians across this country who refused to take no for an answer when it comes to the captivity of these majestic animals.

I look forward to the day when we see the first whale find its new home in the sea and for furthering our more respectful relationship with our environment in the years to come.

Thank you. Merci beaucoup.

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We look forward to working together with the people of Sherbrooke and the Municipality of the District of St. Mary’s who have opened their home and their hearts to the whales.

Below is a copy of the announcement, and we look forward to posting more news, photos and information over the coming days and weeks about the site and the people of the region.

Many thanks to all of you who have supported the Whale Sanctuary Project throughout this extensive search, and especially to our lead sponsor, Munchkin, Inc., makers of unique products for babies and children, without whom we could not have begun this project.

Port Hilford, Nova Scotia

Whale Sanctuary Project selects Port Hilford, Nova Scotia, for North America’s first sanctuary for captive whales

Will work with local community to create a permanent seaside home for whales retired from marine parks

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia – Feb. 26, 2020 – The Whale Sanctuary Project has announced that it will work together with Sherbrooke and the Municipality of the District of St. Mary’s on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia to create a seaside sanctuary in Port Hilford for whales being retired from entertainment parks.

“Of the hundreds of locations that we’ve researched in British Columbia, Washington state and Nova Scotia, Port Hilford stands out as the premier location for a whale sanctuary,” said Charles Vinick, executive director of the Whale Sanctuary Project.

Port Hilford offers an expansive area that can be netted off for the whales in a bay that’s open to the ocean but is sheltered from storms. It has access to necessary infrastructure and plenty of room along the shore for the facilities that will be needed to care for the animals, as well as for an onsite education and interpretive center.

“It’s an ideal location for whales coming from marine parks and aquariums,” Vinick said, “You couldn’t ask for a more welcoming and eager community than the people of the Sherbrooke area.”

Intelligent and socially complex animals

The plan to locate a sanctuary in Nova Scotia comes in the wake of Parliament passing Bill S-203 in 2019 to bring an end to keeping whales and dolphins captive in Canada.

“Whales and dolphins are highly intelligent, emotionally sensitive and socially complex animals,” said Dr. Lori Marino, president of the Whale Sanctuary Project. “In the confines of a concrete tank at a marine park they suffer chronic stress and then often fatal illness. Relocating them to an ocean environment will give them a healthier life where they can thrive.”

Marino added that the whales captured the imagination of the people of Sherbrooke from the very first meeting. “They’ve been holding special activities for the kids,” she said. “It’s as though they’ve already made the whales part of their community. And the town already has the feel of a sanctuary.”

Support from local community

Dr. Stephen Flemming, executive director of Sherbrooke Village Museum, is delighted at the prospect of having a whale sanctuary nearby.

“The Museum, through the Rural Institute for Cultural Heritage and Environmental Sustainability, has been pleased to assist the work of the Whale Sanctuary Project to date, and looks forward to continuing its efforts to help see this project through to fruition,” he said. “I couldn’t be more pleased that this group of distinguished cetacean experts chose Nova Scotia for their first sanctuary.”

Minister Lloyd Hines, Member of Legislative Assembly for Nova Scotia, added that the Sherbrooke community is looking forward to playing host to North America’s first seaside whale sanctuary.

“We are truly honored to participate in this very special project,” he said.

Next steps

The next steps in working toward the creation of a sanctuary will be to work with local fishers and community members to further define the vision for the whale sanctuary, and to initiate the regulatory processes needed to establish the site.

The Whale Sanctuary Project’s objective is to have the sanctuary ready to receive whales in 2022.

Dozens of considerations went into selecting the best location for a seaside sanctuary: from water analysis to sea-floor conditions, to tides and currents, to potential impacts of local wildlife on the whales and vice-versa. Members of the organization visited locations along the south and the eastern shores, and met with communities in Shelburne, Liverpool, Port Hawkesbury and Sheet Harbour as well as Sherbrooke to seek proposals for potential sites.

“As important as the physical properties of the location are in deciding on a site location, we also knew that the relationship the sanctuary would have with its host community would be pivotal,” Vinick explained. “The Sherbrooke community has exceeded all our expectations.”

Plans for the sanctuary include a visitor center, nature trail and viewing spots. The sanctuary will also work with schools and museums to offer educational programs about the whales at the sanctuary and their counterparts in the wild.

Funding for the creation and operation of the sanctuary will be through private donations. Funding for the two-year search for an ideal site for the sanctuary has been led by Munchkin, Inc., makers of unique products for babies and children.

The mission of the Whale Sanctuary Project is to establish a model seaside sanctuary where whales and dolphins can be rehabilitated or can live permanently in an environment that maximizes well-being and autonomy and is as close as possible to their natural habitat.

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“Belugas swimming past me, not bothered by my presence, just cruising.”

You don’t often see really good photos of beluga whales in the wild. In fact, you don’t often see any photos of belugas in the wild. That’s because, while most other whales roam far and wide in the ocean, belugas make their homes in the arctic and sub-arctic regions and don’t venture south very much.

But award-winning wildlife photographer Ellen Cuylaerts has a passion for belugas, and the photos she has captured on her expeditions to Hudson Bay are unlike any others. She says it began when she was growing up in Belgium and went to a dolphinarium.

“Of course, as a kid it’s amazing to see such animals closely. But I could also feel the hurt and the suffering, and since then, I’ve always felt strongly about marine mammals of all kinds in captivity. These creatures are intelligent, they live in complicated family structures, and they roam the oceans in freedom.”

Ellen migrated from Europe to the Caribbean in 2009 and soon began diving. “I wanted to capture the soul of my subjects and tell the story about their nature and habitat,” she explains. “I dived and snorkeled with sharks after learning how to behave with them in the water, and how to read them.”

“Beluga whales lack a very pronounced rostrum or beak like most dolphin species have. Instead they have a flat snout. And instead of a dorsal fin, they have a tough dorsal ridge that preserves body heat (less surface area to lose heat) and allows them to swim easily under ice floes. Its a characteristic of all Arctic whales.”

And then, one day, she was approached by a solitary dolphin. “I realized that being in the water with very intelligent and complex creatures was more difficult, and you need to be even more switched on to react correctly. They feel your vibes and they’re very picky about any interaction.”

Ellen spent time with spinner and bottlenose dolphins in Hawaii and with sperm whales in Dominica. And then her fascination with whales and dolphins took her to Canada to photograph belugas.

“I was determined to show the belugas
in their world”“I’d learned about how they migrate to Hudson Bay during the summer to feed and to give birth to their young. But I’d also seen images of them that had been taken under the ice, and I’d learned that those animals were kept in a closed sea pen and that some wildlife photographers were not concerned about ethics and didn’t care about their subjects. Taking an image of an animal in captivity is not showing them in their natural habitat. I was determined to show the belugas in their world, so I decided to go to Churchill further north, and by myself, even though going alone can be quite challenging when you’re traveling with photo gear and drysuit and there are lots of logistics.”

The first year Ellen visited Churchill, the weather conditions were not the best and the visibility underwater was no more than one foot. “I could hear the belugas with all their vocalizations, but I hardly saw them at all!”

A year later, however, she was back in Churchill and the water was a bit clearer.

“Once I caught the interest of the belugas, they swam closer to me and checked me out, circling sometimes and nodding. Unlike in other dolphin and whales, the neck vertebrae of belugas are not fused, which allows them to move their head from side to side and nod.”

Beluga whales are known for their curiosity and intelligence, their playfulness, and their spirited personalities. But Ellen says that as a photographer, you need to keep them interested. If they’re not engaging with you, they will just swim past, nod their head a few times, and move on.

“So, I tried to move in the water like they did, twisting and turning, nodding my head and being vocal. Mothers with calves made several swim-by’s, and females without calves would turn around and sometimes come straight up to me to check their reflection in my dome. The males were mostly bolder, and one day I had two pods of males come up to me. They started bumping each other and me, and it felt like they were trying to impress me with dominance behavior, so I got out of the water. Still, they stayed next to the boat for the next half hour and were very loud!”

“Two pods of male belugas displayed some dominance behavior by snapping at each other while being extremely vocal. The image is a bit blurry in the background due to two layers of water with a different temperature coming together and causing a thermocline.”

Swimming with belugas is now restricted in Churchill, and Ellen has mixed emotions about that. She hopes the whale watching tours will continue in a way that’s respectful toward the animals. And she adds that her interactions with them in the ocean have only added to her conviction that whales and dolphins simply do not belong in captivity.

“They suffer when they’re held in small concrete tanks and sea pens where they’re out of their normal social network,” she says. And she sees no merit in any of the claims that keeping them captive has education and conservation value.

“We should observe them responsibly in the wild to learn more about their natural needs in order to better protect their habitats while we can.”

(You can find out more about Ellen Cuylaerts and her work on her website and on her Instagram page.)

The post Photographing Belugas in the Wild appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

The 5½-minute film opens with stunning footage of orcas in the wild. Charles Vinick, Executive Director of the Whale Sanctuary Project, draws on his work returning the captive orca Keiko to the ocean in 1998 to describe what life is like for whales in the open ocean, where they can travel 100 miles a day.

And Lori Marino, our President, draws on her experience as a neuroscientist to show us the amazing complexity of the orca brain (“They’re right up there with us”) and how these highly intelligent and sensitive animals simply shut down in the confines of a concrete tank.

Public opinion in North America and Europe is increasingly calling for an end to keeping these animals at entertainment parks and aquariums. And since whales who were born in captivity don’t have the skills to live successfully in the open ocean, the solution is to create seaside sanctuaries for them.

The film concludes by giving us a real sense of what life will be like for them when they are retired to sanctuaries.

Many thanks to Matt Stamm of Oceanic Preservation Society (producers of The Cove) for his work in directing and editing the film. And to you, as always, for your support as we work together to create the first seaside sanctuary for orcas and beluga whales.

Enjoy the film and please share this post with friends, family and anyone you feel may be interested.

The post Short Film about Whale Sanctuary Project Premieres at Film Festival appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

The new show has been playing at SeaWorld San Diego for two years, and soon after it opened, it was filmed by “Behind the Thrills,” a website about theme parks and attractions. Parts of the show have been revised since then, largely because many SeaWorld aficionados complained that it was dull compared to the old show. But the video below is still essentially what people will see when it opens in Orlando (and soon, according to SeaWorld, in San Antonio).

Here’s the complete show. It runs just over 25 minutes:

Behind the display tank where the orcas perform, you see a large projection screen picturing an ocean scene with orcas swimming close to shore. It’s designed so that the display tank almost looks connected to the ocean scene. And as the screen shows orcas breaching, spy-hopping and working together in the ocean, the whales in the tank are trained to display similar behaviors.

Discussing the opening in Orlando, SeaWorld’s chief zoological officer Chris Dold writes:

“Guests will learn about killer whales’ role in the ocean ecosystem, behaviors the animals exhibit in the wild, the importance of conservation to their habitat and animal welfare practices at SeaWorld. This educational presentation reflects our company’s mission to inspire people and protect the animals and wild wonders of our world through education, research, animal rescue and conservation.”

But however much the display tank is designed to look like an extension of the ocean background, it’s still nothing more than a small space that the captive whales can circle in just a few seconds. And you can’t help but notice that the second whale to go around the pool has a collapsed dorsal fin – a common condition among captive male orcas. (It’s caused by the fact that they spend most of their lives simply logging on the surface of the water for hours and hours with nothing to keep that dorsal fin from eventually collapsing.)

As for education, the projection screen tells you some facts about orcas around the world, but the orcas in the tank can tell you nothing about life in the ocean. Instead, you can only imagine what it must be like being confined to a barren, claustrophobic tank where their primary form of communication – echolocation – just bounces back at them from the smooth, deadening walls of their prison.

For the orcas on display, nothing has changed.And while SeaWorld touts the new show as being educational and promoting conservation, the one thing the company does not address at all is whether or how their new show has made life any better for the animals themselves.

But it’s all plain to see from the video itself: Very simply, for the orcas on display, nothing has changed. They’re still totally captive in a concrete tank performing tricks in exchange for being fed. It’s a life of utter tedium, as described in this article by Lori Marino, Founder and President of the Whale Sanctuary Project and a leading expert on the brains of whales and dolphins:

“The chronic stress of trying to adapt to such a barren and artificial environment leads to psychological and behavioral abnormalities that eventually wear down the whales’ immune system, resulting in increased infection rates and early death.

“Common behavioral problems include stereotypies – repetitive actions without purpose, e.g. endless circling of the tank, grating the teeth on tank walls and gates. The result of the latter is that 61 percent of captive orcas have dental pathology so that their teeth must be drilled out and then rinsed daily to try to prevent infection.”

For the orcas, then, what’s new is old: an endless repetition of the same daily routine in a small, empty world devoid of the rich experiences and complex relationships they would have known in the ocean that’s portrayed on a two-dimensional screen behind them.

And what of the young people being “educated” by this show? What are they actually learning? Primarily, and regardless of whatever other messages may be being displayed, that it’s OK to treat our fellow animals this way and that they exist for our benefit and entertainment.

Basically, it’s a message of dominance and power. And in particular, when the victims are orcas, it’s a message to young people that we are superior even to the capstone species of the ocean. “You orcas may be the kings and queens of the ocean,” we learn as we leave the stadium, “but when all’s said and done, the fact is you’re the ones who’ll be staying here in the tank.”

More than ever, we need to be offering our children a different kind of education: one that demonstrates a more authentic and humble relationship to our fellow animals; one that would promote an attitude of redress and reconciliation and that would give back to them, in the form of a seaside sanctuary, something of the life that’s been taken from them.

The post What Does SeaWorld’s New “Orca Encounter” Teach Us? appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Since its premier in January 2020 at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, our short film has made some waves in the film festival circuit as an official selection of several North American film festivals and as an award recipient at several of them.

The 5½-minute film opens with stunning footage of orcas in the wild. Charles Vinick, Executive Director of the Whale Sanctuary Project, draws on his work returning the captive orca Keiko to the ocean in 1998 to describe what life is like for whales in the open ocean, where they can travel 100 miles a day.

And Lori Marino, our President and leading expertise on the intelligence and cognition of whales and dolphins, shows us the amazing complexity of the orca brain (“They’re right up there with us”) and how these highly intelligent and sensitive animals simply shut down in the confines of a concrete tank.

The film concludes by giving us a real sense of what life will be like for whales when they are retired to sanctuaries.

Please feel free to share the film widely and support the work of creating a seaside sanctuary for these amazing marine mammals.

Whales Without Walls

Official Selection:
• Santa Barbara International Film Festival
• Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
• Florida Environmental Film Festival
• Big Apple Film Festival and Screenplay Competition
• International Ocean Film Festival
• Niagara Falls International Short Film Festival
• DocLands Documentary Film Festival
• Mountainfilm Festival

Award of Merit:
Best Shorts Competition
• Documentary film category

Award of Excellence:
IndieFEST Film Awards Competition
• Nature/Environment/Wildlife category
• Documentary Short category

Humanitarian Award:
• IndieFEST Film Awards Outstanding Achievement

ImpactDOC Awards
• Documentary Short category

Best Documentary Short:
• Toronto Short Film Festival
• North Hollywood Cinefest

Finalist Award:
• Canada Shorts – Canadian & International Short Film Fest

The post “Whales Without Walls” – a short film appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

This is the story of the biggest whale rescue in history – of the Whale Sanctuary Project’s work with the Russian government and Russian animal protection groups to return to the ocean 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales who had been captured illegally for sale to marine entertainment parks in China. On November 10th 2019, the last group of whales were back where they belonged and the notorious “whale jail” was finally closed. Here is how it all unfolded:

Part One: The Whale Jail at Srednyaya Bay

In November 2018, the Russian media became aware of a largely secret operation being conducted in a quiet area of the country’s Far East coast, known as Srednyaya Bay, about 115 miles north of Vladivostok. The compound included a series of sea pens containing more than 100 orcas and beluga whales. The sea pens were already starting to freeze over and the beluga whales were beginning to show signs of frostbite.

As news of this “whale jail” began to spread through the Russian media and then the international media, vigorous protests erupted at home and abroad.

For more about the capture of young orcas from their families:
* Novaya Gazeta writes about the companies that capture the whales and how they profit; 
* Scuba Film Factory filmmakers go undercover to follow the kidnappers;
* Hakai Magazine writes about the growing market for these captive orcas and belugas.  

Part Two: The World Reacts

In January 2019, news of the whale jail was spreading rapidly around the world and major media were starting to tell the story. Free Russia Whales, a network of Russian animal protection groups, launched a petition that quickly garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures. Letters of protest poured into the Kremlin.

In January, Charles Vinick (Whale Sanctuary Project), Jean-Michel Cousteau (Ocean Futures Society), David Phillips (Earth Island Institute) and Roger Payne (Ocean Alliance) wrote a letter to President Putin, offering our collective assistance in assessing the condition of the whales with a view to helping return them to the ocean.

Over the next two months, we received informal indications that our assistance might be welcomed. In response, we began to organize an international team of experts who could take part in a visit to the whale jail in Srednyaya Bay on Russia’s Far East coast. And at the end of March, we received formal permission to visit Russia and were invited to Moscow to meet with the Minister of Natural Resources & Environment.

Also, see article by National Geographic, including interview with Jeff Foster, our Transport and Rehabilitation Coordinator. 

Part Three: Whale Sanctuary Project Goes to Russia

Our diplomatic team arrived in Moscow on Wednesday April 3rd for a meeting on Thursday with scientists and government officials, who wanted to hear our ideas as much as we wanted to understand their perspective on the capture of the whales and to have a joint discussion of how we should proceed. The governmental meetings were presided over by Minister of Natural Resources & Environment Dmitri Kobylkin and were followed by a joint press conference to announce that our team was working with the Russian government to determine what could be done for the whales. As a symbol of welcome, the Minister presented Jean-Michel Cousteau with a beautiful ammonite fossil.

Then it was on to Vladivostok, the capital of Primorsky Region, at the invitation of Governor Oleg Kozhemyako, who introduced us to his team and put them at our disposal to provide guidance and liaison during our visit to Srednyaya Bay.

The following day, Saturday, we drove up the coast to the port city of Nakhodka, close to Srednyaya Bay, where we sat down with Dr. Vyacheslav Bizikov, Deputy Director of the Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, to negotiate exactly what our team would be allowed to do in terms of working with the whales.

At the end of the day, the Governor invited Charles Vinick and Jean-Michel Cousteau to an overnight visit at his country retreat, where together they drafted an agreement to work together toward returning the whales to the ocean. Then, on Monday, back at Srednyaya Bay, and in the presence of the Russian press, all three signed a formal agreement stating that “our goal is to release the cetaceans back into their natural environment” and then held a press conference to announce this intention to the Russian people and the world.

Video slides in the slideshow by Harry Rabin.

Part Four: At the Whale Jail

“It was truly disturbing to see 97 whales confined in such a small space,” said Jeff Foster, our rescue and rehabilitation expert, when the team was admitted to the whale jail.

We were there to assess, as best we could (given that our access was strictly limited by the captors), the health and behavior of the animals. Many of them were showing signs of frostbite and skin and eye infections. But these conditions were treatable, and our initial observations were that the whales were all in reasonable health and showed no physical signs of conditions that would preclude them from being returned to the ocean.

As for their psychological and behavioral condition, Jeff put it this way: “The bad side was that they were all  languishing in extreme boredom. They weren’t getting any enrichment, training or exercise. And the good side, on the other hand, was that they were all languishing in extreme boredom and not getting any enrichment, training or exercise.”

In other words, because of this general neglect, the whales had never bonded with humans, and the upside of this was that they would likely re-adjust more easily to being back in the ocean and would seek out companionship with their own kind rather than with humans. So, while this treatment made their life at the whale jail even more miserable, it might be something of a blessing in disguise.

Video slides in the slideshow by Harry Rabin. 

Part Five: Our Report to the Russian Government

On our return from Russia, we reported to the Russian government that “the team has not identified any scientific reasons why any individual animals cannot be rehabilitated and released.” (Details of our report are in this post.)

A few days later, the Consilium of the Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) mirrored our assessment, announcing that “The general recommendation of the scientists now is that the whales should be released around the same location where they were captured.”

Over the following months, there was much internal government discussion, along with pressure from the four companies that had captured the whales in the first place and who were now hemorrhaging potential profits while continuing to have to care for the whales. 

At one point, a proposal was put forward to open the gates of the sea pens and simply release the whales into Srednyaya Bay. However, we made it clear that even if the government were not to accept our full suite of proposals, the option of releasing the whales into the bay should be rejected at all costs. They should, instead, be transported back to the region where they were captured in order to have the best chance of re-connecting with their families.

Video slides in the slideshow by Harry Rabin.

Part Six: The First Whales Return to the Ocean

On June 20th, the first eight whales – two orcas and six belugas – began an 1,100-mile, six-day journey to the Shantar Islands in the Sea of Okhotsk, the area from which they had been caught the previous year.

The releases did not all go perfectly, especially at first when the whales were clearly severely stressed by a storm-ridden journey. The Russian government had contracted with the same fishing companies who had captured the whales the previous year to transport the whales back to the waters from which they had been taken. And while there was certainly some logic to doing it this way, the government did not accept, or believed they could not execute, some of our recommendations for the releases. But by now (mid-June), time was pressing if the whales were to be released before another icy winter set in, so it was urgent to get the transport and release program underway.

Over the next two months, all 10 orcas and 12 of the belugas were transported back to the region from which they had been taken and were successfully returned to the ocean. 

Overall, this represented exceptional progress, and seeing these whales swimming exuberantly in the open sea for the first time in almost a year was truly heartwarming.

In the final video slide in this section, you can see and feel the joy of the whales as they head out into the open ocean – their home.

Video slides in the slideshow by VNIRO and Greenpeace Russia..

Part Seven: The Whale Jail Is No More!

The last group of beluga whales from the “whale jail” in Russia have been returned to the ocean. The notorious sea pens that housed 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales who had been captured for sale to marine parks in China are now closed.

On November 10th, the Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) reported that they carried out the release of 31 beluga whales into the Bay of Uspeniya Lazovsky in the Primorsky Krai district in accordance with the instructions of President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government.

Here are three short videos from the Russian TV service Ruptly. The first two show the whales being transported in floating sea pens from the facility at Srednyaya Bay to one of the ships that would take them to the release area. The third video shows them being lowered into the Bay of Uspeniya Lazovsky, where they swim away.

The rescue and release of 97 captive whales is a remarkable and historic achievement in which many people played a key role, including:

• The Russian activists who brought the plight of these whales to the world’s attention and maintained steady pressure for their release;
• The expert members of the international team assembled by the Whale Sanctuary Project to assess the health of the whales in their sea pens and recommend protocols for their release;
• The Russian scientists whose expertise was critically important to the releases;
• Our Executive Director Charles Vinick, who steered our whole Whale Aid Russia operation, and Jean-Michel Cousteau, who opened doors to the highest levels of the government;
• And the generous supporters of the Whale Sanctuary Project, without whom none of this would have been possible. Thank you so much.

Here are some photos of the transport and release, courtesy of the Russian institute VNIRO:

Thank you

Today, because of the care and concern of people all over the world, these whales are now back home in the ocean, where they belong. 

Your continuing donations are critical to ensuring that more whales will not be captured in the future for sale to marine entertainment parks in China. Thank you for caring.

This post is but a brief summary of the Whale Aid Russia program. For more details go to any of the dozens of posts, which start here, and select an item from the right-hand navigation.

Left: Letter of Appreciation from the Ministry of the Environment & Natural Resources in Moscow. (Go here for pdf and translation.)

The post Whale Aid Russia appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

On November 10th, the Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) reported that they carried out the release of 31 beluga whales into the Bay of Uspeniya Lazovsky in the Primorsky Krai district in accordance with the instructions of President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government.

The whales were transported in floating sea pens from the facility at Srednyaya Bay to one of the ships that would take them to the release area, and then lowered into the Bay of Uspeniya Lazovsky, where they swam away.

Here are some photos of the transport and release, courtesy of the Russian institute VNIRO:

The rescue and release of 97 captive whales is a remarkable and historic achievement in which many people played a key role, including:

• The Russian activists who brought the plight of these whales to the world’s attention and maintained steady pressure for their release;
• The expert members of the international team assembled by the Whale Sanctuary Project to assess the health of the whales in their sea pens and recommend protocols for their release;
• The Russian scientists whose expertise was critically important to the releases;
• Our Executive Director Charles Vinick, who steered our whole Whale Aid Russia operation, and Jean-Michel Cousteau, who opened doors to the highest levels of the government;
• And the generous supporters of the Whale Sanctuary Project, without whom none of this would have been possible. Thank you so much.

The Whale Sanctuary Project’s involvement began in January 2019 with a letter to President Putin offering our help and expertise for the purpose of returning the whales to the ocean. In early April, the Russian government invited our international team to Moscow with a view to our visiting the whales, assessing their condition, and offering recommendations for their safe rehabilitation, transport and release.

On April 8th, in Vladivostok, Governor Oleg Kozhemyako of Primorsky Region sat down with Charles Vinick and Jean-Michel Cousteau to sign an historic agreement stating the Russian government’s commitment to releasing all the whales.

And on June 20th, during his annual televised phone-in with the Russian people, President Putin announced that the first transport had begun. Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Gordeyev added that the government would change the law in order to ban hunting whales for “educational and cultural purposes,” a loophole that has been used to capture whales for sale to marine entertainment parks in China.

Today, because of the care and concern of people all over the world, these whales are now back home in the ocean, where they belong.

Thank you for making it possible.

Note: The full story of our Whale Aid Russia program is told here.

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In British Columbia, we have researched hundreds of locations that would be ideal for orcas, and we’ve visited dozens of them around Vancouver Island. Most, however, are too far from human civilization – fresh water, power, transport, schools, medical facilities – to be practical. But one that fits many of the necessary physical criteria and has better access to civilization is Mound Island.
More about British Columbia in this post.

The San Juan Islands, by comparison, are within easy reach of a major metropolitan area. But most of the sites that would be good for whales are also close to people with homes and businesses nearby. One location that doesn’t have this challenge is Deepwater Bay on Cypress Island.
More about Deepwater Bay in this post.

Nova Scotia is the third region we’ve been exploring. And several small communities have stepped forward not only to offer their help in finding a suitable location, but to engage with us as potential partners in the creation of a beluga sanctuary.
More about Nova Scotia in this post.

Next: Site Search in British Columbia.

The post Site Search Report appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

This year, Canada passed Bill S-203, the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act, which will bring an end to whales and dolphins being held in captivity except for rescue and retirement sanctuaries like those being planned by the Whale Sanctuary Project. A recent count at Canada’s only marine entertainment park, Marineland in Niagara, showed 54 beluga whales languishing in concrete tanks. And with public opinion increasingly opposed to having whales on display for entertainment, there is a growing need for one or more sanctuaries to which they could be retired.

The waters around much of Nova Scotia are beluga whale territory, and the eastern shore of the province has hundreds of bays, coves and inlets that we have investigated as possible locations for a beluga sanctuary.

What has been remarkably helpful in our site search across this region is the number of small communities who have stepped forward not only to offer their help in finding a suitable location, but to engage with us as potential partners in the creation of a beluga sanctuary.

Our Preferred Sites

Three towns in particular – Shelburne, Sheet Harbour and Sherbrooke – stepped forward to offer not just their support but their very active involvement. Shelburne had to drop out because their proposed sites did not have sufficient depth. But community leaders in Sheet Harbour and Sherbrooke are working closely with us to plan how the sites they’ve proposed can be configured to meet the needs both of the whales and of local residents with private or commercial fishing and boating interests.

One thing we need to be very sure of is that the chosen location can handle the effects of strong storms. Most recently, Hurricane Dorian, which swept up the coast of Nova Scotia in early September, gave us a good opportunity to observe the effects of 80-mile-an-hour winds in both locations. Sheet Harbour has several islands off the coast that act as barriers, offering excellent protection from heavy weather and storms. And at Port Hilford, we’re still collecting data that will help us be sure we can mitigate any exposure to potential extreme weather events.

Here’s a brief look at the two locations:

Going In-Depth

Another part of our work in surveying a potential location involves analyzing the water quality and scanning the sea floor conditions with sonar to detect anything that might be hazardous to the whale residents. Our site search coordinator in Nova Scotia, Catherine Kinsman, took some video of one such outing on a day when we had an opportunity to join a Nova Scotia Fisheries and Aquaculture team that was conducting side scan sonar imaging and other analyses at a site we were interested in. And while we’re no longer pursuing that location, you can get an idea of what’s involved in this kind of work:

Community and Government Meetings

Around Sheet Harbour, the protection that would be offered to a sanctuary by the outer islands also makes it an attractive waterway for recreational boaters and fishers. So, we are working with local residents to see if locating a sanctuary at this site can meet the needs of all community members.

That was the topic of a town meeting one evening, and in this next clip one of the residents who also owns a recreational boating tour business describes why she supports having a whale sanctuary there even though its location will affect the work of her company:

Meetings like these, which involve the whole community, are a critically important part of selecting a sanctuary location. Here’s how, during a scouting trip, our executive director, Charles Vinick, describes the relationship between the community and the sanctuary, and the value of this kind of partnership:

And here are a few photos from our meetings with local citizens and community leaders:

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While the sites we explored in B.C. are remote from cities, those in the San Juan Islands are within easy reach of a major metropolitan area. That’s a big plus in terms of having access to power, infrastructure, and all the facilities that staff members would need for their families who are living there year-round.

It also means, of course, that many of the sites we’ve looked at that would be ideal for a sanctuary are also close to people with homes and businesses nearby. And while they love the idea of a sanctuary, many people prefer not to give up any coastal access.

One location that doesn’t have this challenge is Deepwater Bay on Cypress Island, which is sparsely populated and close to the mainland. Deepwater Bay is home to some Department of Natural Resources operations. It was formerly a salmon hatchery that failed two years ago, and the owners must give up possession by 2023, so we’re working to see if we can acquire the bay sooner than that for an orca sanctuary.

The bay has good depth and excellent tidal and current flows, and can be segmented to accommodate the net enclosures. It is also close to the mainland and it continues to be one of our preferred sites.

Plight of the Southern Resident Orcas

Orcas being rounded up in Penn Cove in 1970. Photo: Wallie Funk/Whidbey News Times

Just as the region we explored in British Columbia is home to the Northern Resident orcas, the waters around the San Juan Islands are home to the Southern Residents.

For more than a decade, starting in 1965, some 270 orcas were captured in these waters. More than 50 of them were dispatched to entertainment parks around the world. Others either died or were later released. The Southern Residents have never recovered from this travesty, and their situation is only made worse by pollution, noise and lack of food.

In the summer of 2018, the world was transfixed by the scene of a mother orca carrying her dead infant in what could only be interpreted as a display of profound grief and loss. Tahlequah/J-35 had given birth to a daughter who had lived for only 30 minutes. With help from other members of her family, Tahlequah kept the dead baby afloat for 17 days as the pod continued to ply the waters of the Salish Sea, off the coast of Seattle, in their search of an ever-diminishing supply of food.

At the same time, another young member of the family, Scarlet/J-50, was ailing, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) asked the Whale Sanctuary Project, along with several local organizations, to join in an emergency effort in the Pacific Northwest to try to save her life.

“Our team has expertise to assess her health and to provide help to her at this critical time,” our Executive Director Charles Vinick said. “It is something we must do and as much as we are committed to improving the welfare of captive whales, we must also do all we can to help free-ranging whales.”

As it turned out, it was too late to save Scarlet’s life. But it was also clear to us that if our sanctuary were to be in these waters, and with a full staff of veterinarians and caregivers at hand, it could play a key role in providing emergency short-term care to other free-ranging whales in need.

The Lummi Nation and Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut

To most of us, they’re killer whales or orcas. But to the Lummi Nation of the Pacific Northwest, they are “qw’e lh’ol’ me chen” – our relations who live under the water.

“Lolita” entertaining tourists at the Miami Seaquarium

One of those relations is the sole survivor of the infamous kidnappings of infant Southern Resident orcas. Now 53-years old, she still spends her days in a concrete tank at the Miami Seaquarium, where she is known as Lolita. To the Lummi, however, she is Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, and they are determined to bring her home.

Last year, they carved a totem pole in her honor and brought it to Miami, where they held ceremonies to press for her return. The totem itself is a stunning artistic achievement: a 16-foot orca resting on two harbor seals and with their mythic “Whale Rider” on her back.

We are honored to be collaborating with the Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office of the Lummi Nation and with other tribal nations as we work to create a seaside sanctuary for orcas who are retired from life in concrete tanks and that can also serve as a rescue and rehabilitation facility for marine mammals in the region.

Town Meetings

In July of this year, we held a series of six town meetings across the Salish Sea region – Seattle, Olympia, Gig Harbor, San Juan Island, Lopez Island and Orcas Island – to discuss our concept for a home in the San Juan Islands for orcas who are retired from entertainment parks, and how it can also serve as a rehab/rescue facility for the endangered Southern Resident orcas.

Here’s the presentation at the meeting in Seattle. Lori Marino talks about the origins of the Whale Sanctuary Project in the wake of the movie Blackfish as public opinion began pressing for an end to using whales and dolphins as a form of entertainment. She describes how a group of whale and dolphin scientists, former trainers, attorneys, writers and other experts came together to plan the creation of a seaside sanctuary where orcas and belugas could be retired; and what it’s like for whales and dolphins living in concrete tanks.  Jeff Foster describes the main features of a seaside sanctuary and how it can also serve the needs of orcas in the wild. And then Charles Vinick talks about the locations we’ve been exploring and what it will take to create the sanctuary itself. The presentation runs 42 minutes:

After each of the presentation at the six town meetings, there was a Q&A period, including general comments and discussion. Here’s the Q&A session from the meeting on Lopez Island, trimmed to 20 minutes from its original 40:

And here are some photos from the various town meetings:

Next: Nova Scotia.

The post Site Search in Washington State appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

How many coves, bays and inlets are there in British Columbia that would be heavenly as a sanctuary for orcas being retired from captivity in marine entertainment parks?

Truly, the number of possible locations must be in the thousands. Most of them, however, are too far from human civilization – fresh water, power, transport, schools, medical facilities – to be practical.

The closest are around Vancouver Island and, starting in 2017, we researched hundreds of these, first using desktop maps with overlays showing water depth and other valuable information. Over several visits, we visited dozens of them, first by plane and then by boat. Here are a few that we visited by float plane in the Johnstone Strait on one particular day:

Mound Island

Among the many sites that we followed up by boat, one that presented itself as fitting many of the necessary physical criteria – depth, sea-floor conditions, tides and currents, flora and fauna, and with access to civilization was Mound Island.

In Johnstone Strait near Farewell Harbour, Mound Island is a beautiful, protected area that’s remote from major human habitation. Its remoteness makes it a good example of a site that would be great for orcas and has few conflicts with local residents. But that same remoteness would, on the other hand, make it difficult for staff living and working there full-time over many years to come.

Our Executive Director Charles Vinick and President Lori Marino visited Mound Island during a boat tour of several locations.

A few months later, our West Coast site coordinators Jeff and Katy Foster conducted a general assessment of the site and concluded that while its remoteness would indeed pose a challenge, it met the key physical criteria for an orca sanctuary.

Free Corky

We also had an opportunity to visit with the renowned husband-wife team of Paul Spong and Helena Symonds, co-directors of OrcaLab, a land based whale research station on Hanson Island, and directors of the non-profit Pacific Orca Society.

Their work focuses on the long-term life history of the Northern Resident orcas, the protection of orca habitat, and cetacean welfare issues such as commercial whaling and captivity. In 1984, Paul & Helena launched the “Free Corky” campaign, in an attempt to return the last surviving Northern Resident captive orca to her family and community. Now in her mid-50s, Corky was captured as a four-year-old and has been at SeaWorld San Diego since 1987.

(More about Corky here. including an ABC News Nightline report from 1993.)

It is Paul and Helena’s desire to see Corky returned to these waters where her family, the “A” pod, still make their home.

Reconciliation

During our first field visit to prospective Canadian sanctuary sites, Whale Sanctuary Project president Lori Marino was invited to speak at Vancouver’s Roundhouse Community Centre.

The theme of the evening was “Reconciliation,” and it was introduced by Chief Bob Chamberlin of the Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation. Chief Chamberlin (in the slideshow above) talked about his work in helping to bring about reconciliation between his people and European immigrants. In the same way, he said, it’s time to bring about reconciliation with our fellow animals and the natural world.

Dr. Marino took up the theme of reconciliation, discussing how a sanctuary can give back to captive whales as much as possible of the life they’ve lost by being taken from their homes and families in the wild.

Next:The San Juan Islands.

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The question: How did this land animal with hooves, who was related to what are today cows and deer …

… develop into this large and formidable character with big teeth and a small brain …

… and then into a modern orca with small teeth and a large and extraordinarily complex brain …

… along with all her relatives?

That was the question Dr. Lori Marino posed – and then answered – at the Whale Museum on San Juan Island at the end of a recent week of town meetings around Washington State.

The town meetings were to explain the why’s and wherefore’s of a seaside sanctuary for captive orcas, along with possible locations in the San Juan Islands for the sanctuary (which we’ll outline in an upcoming post). But this particular talk was less about the work of the Whale Sanctuary Project and more about her favorite topic: the evolution of orcas and other cetaceans, along with what we know about their remarkable brains and how, in many measures of brain development, they exceed the capacity of the human brain.

As a neuroscientist whose specialty is the study of the brains of cetaceans (whales and dolphins), one of the discoveries of Dr. Marino and her colleagues is the fact that while we humans (and most other mammals) have one primary auditory center in the brain, cetaceans have TWO.

So, what exactly does this second auditory circuit do?? We don’t fully know, but the fact that they have two completely separate pathways to the brain’s cortex shows that they are doing something very complex with sound processing.

It was a fascinating talk, delivered to a packed house at the Whale Museum. And we think you’ll enjoy watching it.

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As soon as the Whale Sanctuary Project was incorporated, CEO and “Head Munchkin” Steven Dunn pledged $1 million toward the creation of a seaside sanctuary for orcas and beluga whales. (Here’s how it came about.)

And the company regularly holds special sales of its products with proceeds going toward our work in creating a sanctuary so that orcas and beluga whales can be retired from living in concrete tanks.

Munchkin’s Line of “Wild Love” Miracle® 360 Cups

Munchkin has just introduced a new Wild Love line of its #1 selling Miracle® 360° cup, featuring orcas and other animals who need our help.

Available online and at stores nationwide, they foster empathy and respect for animals while supporting the work of the Whale Sanctuary Project and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

The Munchkin orca cup supports the end of orca captivity for human entertainment and brings awareness to the thousands of whales killed each year due to entanglement in fishing nets.

And the packaging (100% recycled and recyclable) includes child-friendly stories and key facts about at-risk animals, including orcas, African elephants, polar bears and red foxes.

“Protecting animals and supporting the welfare of the planet are core beliefs of Munchkin,” says Head Munchkin Steven Dunn. “Our partnerships with The Whale Sanctuary Project and IFAW deepen our commitment to a sustainable future for our children while encouraging empathy and compassion.”

When you purchase a Wild Love cup, you support Munchkin’s donations to both organizations and help the next generation on its way to a life of kindness and caring toward animals everywhere.

See also this guest post on how Munchkin’s latest product inspires conservation awareness with the Whale Sanctuary Project and International Fund for Animal Welfare.

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This morning, Russia began the process of returning to ocean waters the 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales who were captured last year and have been living in what has become known as the “whale jail” in the country’s Far East.

The first eight animals – two orcas and six beluga whales – began an 1,100-mile, six-day journey to the Shantar Islands in the Sea of Okhotsk, the area where they were caught last year. They are traveling in water reservoirs installed in trucks and are being monitored by 70 specialists, including veterinary doctors and scientists. Each whale will be accompanied by two people and will be equipped with a GPS tracker before release.

Photo by Yuri Smityuk/TASS

The transport and release program is being supervised by the Deputy Director of the Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) Vyacheslav Bizikov. The Whale Sanctuary Project team worked with the Institute during and after our visit to Russia in April to assess the whales in their sea pens. After the visit, we sent a detailed report and recommendations to the government, and we have been in regular contact with the Institute since then.

The most critical aspect of our input was that the whales should be returned to ocean waters close to where they were captured. And an initial decision to release them directly into the bay next to the sea pens where they are being held was overruled.

“This is a good day for the whales.”This morning, Bizikov communicated with Charles Vinick, Executive Director of the Whale Sanctuary Project, to express his thanks for the help that our team has provided.

“We are trying to use as much of your input as we can,” he wrote.

“We are gratified to see that the orcas and belugas are being transported to the Sea of Okhotsk for release,” Vinick later said. “And we wish VNIRO and the release team every success in returning these orcas and belugas to the open ocean. This is a good day for the whales.”

Our original recommendations for release included a longer period of time for rehabilitation. But time is now of the essence in getting the whales back to the ocean before winter sets in. And the order in which the groups will be transported can allow for those who need more time and preparation.

The announcement of today’s transport was made this morning by President Putin during his annual four-hour “Direct Line” televised phone-in with the Russian people. A state TV reporter introduced the announcement, saying that by “coincidence” the operation began just before the start of the show.

Putin commented on the release of the whales, saying that the problem was “not easy to solve” since the orcas alone were worth $100 million and there were many potential buyers.

“Wherever there’s big money there are always difficulties with solutions, but thank God the process has begun,” he said.

Russia intends to clamp down on the capture of whales.Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Gordeyev added that the “right decision was taken on the recommendation of scientists” to release the mammals in their native habitat.”

Russia will also clamp down on the capture of whales, Gordeyev told Putin during the call-in show. He said that the government would change the law in order to ban hunting whales for “educational and cultural purposes” – a loophole used to capture these whales.

“This is a momentous decision,” Vinick said. “We are very pleased to hear that Russia has stated that they will change this policy. It should signal the end of the capture and sale of orcas and beluga whales from Russia to entertainment parks, primarily in China.”

During the discussion of the whale release program in President Putin’s Direct Line phone-in, Deputy Prime Minister Gordeyev added that the “right decision was taken on the recommendation of scientists” to release the mammals in their native habitat, and that it will take “around four months” to release all the whales in the groups that they have been living in.

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Today, the House of Commons voted overwhelmingly in favor of Bill S-203, the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act. The bill phases out the captivity of cetaceans (i.e. whales, dolphins and porpoises) in Canada, except for rescues, rehabilitation, licensed scientific research, or cetaceans’ best interests. It also prohibits the trade, possession, capture and breeding of cetaceans.

“This is a major victory for cetaceans,” said Dr. Lori Marino, President of the Whale Sanctuary Project, who testified at Senate hearings in 2017. “They are among the most cognitively complex of all animals. Confining them to life in a concrete tank is truly unbearable for them.”

Only two facilities in Canada house cetaceans: the Vancouver Aquarium, which has a Pacific white-sided dolphin, and Marineland in Niagara Falls, which holds a lone orca, Kiska, and more than 50 beluga whales. The bill permits these facilities to keep them but not to breed them.

The bill took nearly four years to work its way through Parliament. Sponsored in the Senate in December 2015 by Sen. Wilfred Moore, it was opposed, blocked and obstructed by special interests. Forty witnesses, six experts from the Whale Sanctuary Project, testified at 17 committee hearings.

“We have a moral obligation to phase out the capture and retention of animals for profit and entertainment,” Moore said after today’s vote. “Canadians are calling upon us to do better – and we have listened.”

Moore himself had not been able to see the bill through to its final reading in the Senate, last year, since he had reached the compulsory retirement age of 65. His place was taken by the renowned Sen. Murray Sinclair, who spoke of plans to create a seaside sanctuary so that whales and dolphins could be retired from captivity:

“The intention of this sanctuary is to provide a place where rescued whales and dolphins can be rehabilitated for release while living in an environment that maximizes their well-being and autonomy in a setting as close as possible to their natural habitat, or where they might remain permanently if unreleasable.

“… Let’s not forget the creatures living in the concrete tanks. And let’s not forget the wild cetaceans who may yet face violent capture from their family groups for the purpose of display for human entertainment. That’s what this bill is about and why it matters so much.

“… Given the scientific knowledge presented by experts about the biological characteristics and needs of cetaceans during the study of this bill, it is evident that it is cruel to keep cetaceans in captivity.

“We, I believe, do not want to be cruel. We should not allow others to be, either.”

And Senator Daniel Christmas noted that no testimony had been possible, of course, from the people who will be most affected by the vote: the whales themselves.

“A lot of the argument talked about the human need to research the species … but I wish it were possible to get the testimony of a cetacean,” he said. “If I had the opportunity to ask a beluga, I believe I would ask them: ‘What is best for your family?’”

The bill passed in the Senate in October 2018 and then moved to the House of Commons, where it was championed by Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.

“Canadians have been clear, they want the cruel practice of keeping whales and dolphins in captivity to end,” she said after today’s vote.

“With the passage of Bill S-203, we have ensured that this will happen.”

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“It will be the summer period for sure,” Dmitry Kobylkin said. “We would like it to happen as soon as possible. I think it will be July or August; August is the deadline.”

While Kobylkin’s comments do not constitute a formal decision on the part of the Russian government, they do represent a clear step forward.

Kobylkin added that, based on his discussions with experts, the whales will be ready to re-adapt to the ocean by then. “I talked to the person with the most profound knowledge of the issue, Jean-Michel Cousteau,” he said. “The [animal] skills cannot be lost in one year.”

At a press conference at the Ministry in April, Cousteau and Whale Sanctuary Project Executive Director Charles Vinick had cautioned that each animal will need to be evaluated and rehabilitated individually.

“Each of the animals is an individual and has to be treated as an individual,” Vinick told reporters. “In Srednyaya Bay, the challenge for rehabilitation and release is complex. And therefore, we need to work together to identify a strategy for rehabilitation and for reintroduction or release of as many of those animals, one by one, as is possible.”

He added that because the whales have been in captivity a relatively short time, this will be an advantage in their rehabilitation.

The following week, after the Whale Sanctuary Project team had traveled to Srednyaya Bay and spent several days observing the whales, we reported to the minister that we were optimistic about a successful release program:

“Preliminary results of the behavioral analyses conducted by the Team show that all orcas and belugas in the holding facility at Srednyaya Bay can be rehabilitated and released. The Team has not identified any scientific reasons why any individual animals cannot be rehabilitated and released.”

Various plans have been put forward for where and when the whales should be released. Minister Kobylkin told TASS that the Russian Scientific Research Institute of Fishery and Oceanography endorses the same plan that the Cousteau/Whale Sanctuary Project team proposed in its report to the ministry: to release the whales where they were captured – off the Shantar Islands.

The Whale Sanctuary Project considers this to be the most responsible rehabilitation and release program, and we remain committed to providing expertise and assistance to facilitate it.

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We greatly appreciated the gesture and the ensuing response from many of their followers. And we’d like, in turn, to introduce you to the latest initiative of the LDF. It’s the Global Deal for Nature, a major effort to protect as much as possible of our planet and all the living creatures who are under threat these days.

The Global Deal for Nature is the first undertaking that’s backed by the most up-to-date science to establish science-based conservation targets for the entire planet – terrestrial, freshwater and marine – in order to protect life on Earth. It’s a bold and urgent venture that involves restoring at least 50 percent of the world’s land and oceans over the next 30 years.

A bold and urgent venture that involves restoring at least 50 percent of the world’s land and oceans.Our participation relates directly to our own mission of bringing an end to keeping orcas and beluga whales in captivity and supporting rescue and rehabilitation efforts in the wild. And an example of a region that’s in urgent need of restoration is Puget Sound, off the coast of Seattle, whose waters are home to the Southern Resident orcas. (This region also includes several possible locations for the whale sanctuary we’re creating.)

The Southern Residents are classified as an endangered population and their situation is increasingly desperate. Last summer, we joined an emergency effort to try (without success, sadly) to save the life of a four-year-old orca, known as Scarlett, who was emaciated and starving. This was just a few weeks after another member of the same extended family, Tahlequah, had lost her newborn daughter and carried her body up and down the coast for more than two weeks.

The Southern Residents have been in trouble for almost 50 years. The first body blow came in 1970, when seven of their young were captured in a brutal, deeply troubling roundup and taken to marine parks like SeaWorld and the Miami Seaquarium. The entertainment industry continued these captures until public outrage led to a moratorium six years later. But the damage had been done, and the families would never recover.

Add to this the fact that the whales’ main food source, Chinook salmon, is drying up, thanks to a confluence of troubles: the construction of dams along the rivers where the salmon breed; the fact that the orcas can barely hear each other through the noise and disturbance of commercial shipping and recreational boating; and that their ocean environment is poisoned with PCBs and other pollutants.

It is a great irony that for thousands of years, it was the orcas who kept all ocean life in balance. As the capstone species – the apex predators – of the ocean, they are central to the functioning of ecosystems, the regulation of disease, and the maintenance of biodiversity in every ocean on the planet.

But now this essential, delicate balance has been upset and this pinnacle species itself is under siege.

If we are to turn things around – for the orcas and all the other animals who depend on their presence – it will take the combined efforts of many of us working together. So, if you’d like to be part of this effort, please take a moment to visit the Global Deal for Nature and sign on to the petition. It’s an initiative of large organizations like the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation and National Geographic Society, and of many smaller organizations like ours that can benefit greatly when we all cooperate and complement each other’s work.

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Along with six other belugas, Skyla and Orion had been seized from their families in the Sea of Okhotsk and sold to Marineland Canada, an entertainment park in Niagara Falls. Over a period of nine years, another 24 would be captured from the Sea of Okhotsk and sold to Marineland.

Today, the 87 belugas and 10 orcas currently being held at the so-called “whale jail” on Russia’s Far East coast come from that same region. The plan for them, too, was to sell them to entertainment parks – in their case in China, where business is booming in trafficked whales and dolphins. (The Animal Welfare Institute estimates that China has at least 76 dolphinariums and marine parks, with at least 25 more planned over the next few years.)

No orca or beluga should ever have to suffer what happened to Skoot. But in the face of worldwide protests sparked by Russian animal protection groups, the Russian government is considering returning them to open ocean waters.

Marine entertainment parks are notoriously secretive about what goes on behind the scenes, and even more so in China where animal welfare laws are practically nonexistent. But what happened to Skyla and Orion offers some insight into what life is like for whales and dolphins who end up at these facilities.

Neither these two belugas, nor the six others who came with them, would ever know what it’s like to grow up with their families in the ocean. Instead, upon arrival in Toronto, they would be loaded onto trucks and driven 80 miles to their new “home” at Marineland: concrete tanks and a life to be spent entertaining tourists. Ten of them would die before reaching adulthood; others would give birth to children who, if they survived, would never see anything beyond their crowded tanks.

Like other marine entertainment parks, Marineland guards its secrets. But occasionally news leaks out, as it did in August 2012 after the untimely death of Skyla’s infant daughter, Skoot.

Skyla and her baby, Skoot. (Toronto Star)

Baby Skoot was less than a year old when, one evening, Orion cornered her in the “Arctic Cove” pool. What followed is even more distressing given that Orion and Skyla may well be brother and sister. But in the confined, totally unnatural conditions of life in a concrete tank, the social norms that beluga whales learn in the ocean growing up with their families are lost. Instead, and because the animals are in claustrophobic spaces, tension and aggression build up, just as they do among humans in close quarters. And if an older male starts to behave aggressively, infants like Skoot have nowhere to go to get out of the way.

On this occasion, Orion had teamed up with an older male, Andre, and now baby Skoot’s fate was sealed. They chased her around the pool, bit her, spun her about, and slammed her into a rock wall to which, according to a tour guide who was the only human present, she became literally stuck.

Charmin being moved at Marineland.

Skyla tried desperately to save her calf, “bashing Orion away,” as the tour guide described it, and looking up at the human as if she were pleading for help. When two trainers finally arrived and pulled Skoot from the water, the baby beluga had a series of convulsions and mini seizures and then died in their arms.

Today, Skyla and Orion are still captive at Marineland, where Skyla has had two more calves. Her heartbreaking story is by no means unique. (Check out, for example, what happened one day when Charmin and Tofino, also captured from the Sea of Okhotsk, were being moved from one display tank to another and things went awry.)

There are currently more than 55 beluga whales at Marineland, along with the lone orca Kiska, who came from Iceland. But if the Canadian Parliament passes Bill S-203: the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act, it will be illegal to add to their numbers. And the best future for those now in captivity there will be to retire them to seaside sanctuaries modeled on the one that the Whale Sanctuary Project is planning.

Meanwhile, for the 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales captured last year from the Sea of Okhotsk and currently languishing in sea pens in Srednyaya Bay, an even better option is taking shape. Members of our team who visited them two weeks ago at the invitation of the Russian government are confident that, given the right kind of care, all of them can be returned to the ocean. That’s because, unlike the whales at Marineland, they have not been in captivity very long.

If this is the direction that the Russian government decides to take, we at the Whale Sanctuary Project will continue to help in every way possible. After all, no orca or beluga should ever have to suffer what Skyla and Orion continue to endure on a daily basis, let alone the horror of what happened to Skoot.

It will be a long-term project requiring significant time and funding as each of the whales at Srednyaya Bay learns, at his or her own pace, the essential survival skills they will need such as how to catch their own food.

But what a day it will be when we know for sure that these orcas and belugas have the kind of future that nature intended for them.

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On Monday, Governor Oleg Kozhemyako sat down in Vladivostok with Charles Vinick of the Whale Sanctuary Project and Jean-Michel Cousteau of Ocean Futures Society to sign a formal agreement. The text reads:

Photo by Harry Rabin.

“We have made the fundamental decision that our goal is to release the cetaceans back into their natural environment.

“Our goal is to release all of them. Scientists, including both Russian and international scientists from the Cousteau Team, will continue to evaluate the animals to determine when and how to release them.

“Until then, we will immediately begin work so that the cetaceans are held in conditions most like their natural environment.

“We also expect that a rehabilitation center will be created for those animals that are injured in wild nature and that need to be rehabilitated.”

“We are working in a unified team toward this goal.”

From left: Charles Vinick, Oleg Kozhemyako, Jean-Michel Cousteau at press conference in Vladivostok. (Photo by Harry Rabin.)

This agreement is the essential first step that opens the door to the various parties collectively working out the details for each of the individual orcas and beluga whales who are being held captive.

“A decision in principle has been taken to release all the animals into the wild,” the Governor told reporters.

The rehabilitation and release of these whales will take time. At an earlier press conference in Moscow at the Ministry of Natural Resources, Vinick and Cousteau emphasized that each of the animals will need individual treatment and that readapting some of the whales to their natural environment might take years.

“Each of the animals is an individual and has to be treated as an individual,” Vinick explained. “The challenge for rehabilitation and release is complex. And therefore, we need to work together to identify a strategy for rehabilitation and for reintroduction or release of as many of those animals, one by one, as is possible.”

Dr. Lori Marino, President of the Whale Sanctuary Project, explains each of that each of the whales has had to cope with the trauma of capture and confinement in their own individual way.

“They are just like us that way,” she says. “So, each and every one of them has to be evaluated individually to determine his or her mental and physical health and what they need.”

Some of the whales are so young, they were not even weaned when they were captured, and they may have never even had the experience of catching food on their own. Instead, during their time in captivity, they have been hand-fed dead fish.

“So, instead of having been brought up as part of a family that works together to catch food,” Dr. Marino says, “they will have to be taught by us to catch live fish on their own. And because they are kids, they still have a lot of learning ahead of them. We will have to act as substitute mothers and aunts and older siblings and teach the young whales what they would have normally been learning from their families.”

In order to accomplish this, Governor Kozhemyako announced that a special rehabilitation facility would be set up under the agreement, with conditions as close as possible to the whales’ natural environment.

Jean-Michel Cousteau (right) with Gov. Oleg Kozhemyako and Charles Vinick at one of the beluga sea pens at the “whale jail.”

After the signing ceremony, the team traveled to Srednyaya Bay, about 200 miles north of Vladivostok, to begin their initial assessment of the whales. After spending time at the sea pens, Cousteau commented that this is very much an international effort.

“The people taking care of these animals and members of our team who are representing many parts of our planet are working together,” he said, “to come up with solutions to see what we can do with the whales to release them [at once] or to take them into rehabilitation.”

Cousteau described the signing of the agreement as a very emotional moment for him. Much work lies ahead, he said. “But I have no doubt that we are going to succeed.”

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A team of experts, brought together by Jean-Michel Cousteau of Ocean Futures Society and Charles Vinick of the Whale Sanctuary Project had been invited to meet with government officials and Russian scientists. And at the end of the meeting, Cousteau and Vinick sat down with the Minister of Natural Resources Dmitry Kobylkin for a press conference.

It would not be overstating what transpired to say that the day was a classic example of what happens when people of different backgrounds and cultures come together to cooperate on a greater mission: doing good for our fellow animals.

One of the highlights was when, in a gesture of friendship, Minister Kobylkin presented Cousteau with the remarkable gift of a stunningly beautiful ammonite fossil.

Jean-Michel Cousteau of Ocean Futures Society

Cousteau told reporters that this mission is “the most exciting time of my life,” emphasizing that “we are not here to criticize; we are here to work together and find solutions.”

To which, Kobylkin replied that “We are being led by our science and by the vision that we have to run this work as openly as we can. We especially value the international experience.”

None of this is to say that what lies ahead will be easy. Vinick explained some of the challenges that the team will face.

“Each of the animals is an individual and has to be treated as an individual,” he said. “The challenge for rehabilitation and release is complex. And therefore, we need to work together to identify a strategy for rehabilitation and for reintroduction or release of as many of those animals, one by one, as is possible.”

Charles Vinick of the Whale Sanctuary Project

Cousteau and Vinick both emphasized that this will be a long-term project that will likely take several years before all the orcas and belugas are rehabilitated.

And that will mean long-term cooperation among the many people involved. It also means that we all go into this with our eyes fully open as to not only the complexities of the work, but also the potential for differences and conflicts of opinion and personality. That’s human nature. But when we rise above these inevitable disparities and keep our focus on the animals who depend on us, then the outcome can be one that fulfills the vision that was laid out at yesterday’s gathering in Moscow.

After the press conference, the team departed Moscow for a nine-hour flight to Vladivostok, and then on to Srednyaya Bay, where they will visit the whales.

Here is some background to the mission to return the whales to the ocean

Last November, reports started to emerge that more than 100 orcas and beluga whales had been captured and were being held in small, crowded pens in Srednyaya Bay on Russia’s far east coast. Russian animal protection groups were calling it a “whale jail,” a term that quickly caught on in the national media.

A month later, animal advocate Anastasia Kovalenko launched a petition on Change.org that quickly drew hundreds of thousands of signatures, mostly Russian. When actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio promoted it on his personal and Foundation social media pages, more signatures poured in from around the world. (Right now, the petition has close to 1.5 million signatures.)

Meanwhile, winter had set in and temperatures had begun to plummet in Russia. During the long nights it had become a challenge for the whale captors simply to keep the sea pens free of surface ice so the whales could breathe. The situation was becoming an emergency.

President Putin steps in

Late in December, President Putin directed the new Governor of the Primorsky Region, Oleg Kozhemyako, to address the problem.

In January, a group of Russian scientists and government officials visited the whale jail, where they collected skin and breath samples and water samples from the pens. The video footage they took showed skin lesions on and around their dorsal fins, suggesting frostbite or a fungal or bacterial infection, or both, and a skin infection that was likely the result of rotting food being left in the pens.

A few weeks later, one of the orcas was no longer to be seen in any of the sea pens. The captors claimed that he/she had escaped, an explanation that was generally considered absurd.

Letters to President Putin prompts an invitation to Moscow

A few weeks later, four prominent whale experts, including Cousteau and Vinick, wrote to President Putin, offering to visit the whales and then advise the government on what could be done to return them to the ocean. Thirty-four marine mammal biologists also sent a letter to Putin, as did a group of global citizens including Queen Noor of Jordan, Dr. Jane Goodall, Sir Richard Branson, actor Pamela Anderson, along with other business leaders, actors and musicians.

Skin lesions, frostbite, and a fungal or bacterial infection or both.In response, Governor Kozhemyako of the Primorsky Region invited Cousteau to visit the whale jail” and Cousteau and Vinick began to gather a team of experts that would travel to Srednyaya Bay to assess the situation and advise the government.

At the beginning of April, the Whale Sanctuary Project received a formal invitation to meet with Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dmitri Kobylkin and with Russian scientists and then to travel to Vladivostok and visit the whales at Srednyaya Bay.

At the end of this visit, the team will compile a report to submit to the Minister of Natural Resources, offering our best advice on a rehabilitation program for the whales with a view to their being returned to the ocean. We will also offer whatever help the government may ask for in the work that lies ahead.

The post Whale Jail: From Global Outcry to International Cooperation appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

First, in excerpts captured by Ruptly TV, Minister Kobylkin explains that the whales have not yet been released back into the wild because of winter:

“If we had released the animals at this period, they all would have died,” he says. “Summer is coming, and now we can, and we have to, conduct this work.” He added that this case is unique, as there has never been such a large number of whales captured in one place.

Cousteau says that readapting the whales into their natural environment might take years, and he pledges that the Whale Sanctuary Project team will do everything possible to succeed in it.

Vinick, who directed the successful return of the orca Keiko (of Free Willy fame) to his home waters off the coast of Iceland, confirms that most and hopefully all of the 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales can be returned to the ocean.

“Keiko was successful in joining other whales even after 20 years of captivity,” he said. “He learned that wild fish was food. He didn’t know that when we started.”

The next video is a complete, 45-minute record of the proceedings, including translation in French, English and Russian for the benefit of international reporters.

After Minister Dmitry Kobylkin says that the release of orcas and beluga whales is planned for this summer, he confirms that “No matter how good a golden cage is, it is clear that there is nothing better than letting animals go into the natural environment.”

Some key moments from the video:

At 09:30, Cousteau says “We not here to criticize; we are here to work together and find solutions.” He calls this the most exciting time of his life because” we are now in a position to make sure we can look in the eyes of our children and grandchildren and say you will have the same privilege that we had when we were your age.

At 12:10, he explains that every one of the whales is an individual, and that “we are going to be in a position to readapt every one of them to be released naturally in the environment.”

At 13:13, Charles Vinick (off camera at this point) explains our overall mission and the schedule for the next 10 days as we visit with the whales and offer our help and advice to the Russian government.

At 17:21, Minister Kobylkin says “We’re being led by our science and by the vision that we have to run this work as openly as we can. We especially value the international experience” in what is a unique situation.

At 22:03, Vinick talks about the experience of the team in captures and releases, entanglements and disentanglements, and how every case is different.
“Each of the animals is an individual and has to be treated as an individual.”“Each of the animals is an individual and has to be treated as an individual. In Srednyaya Bay, the challenge for rehabilitation and release is complex. And therefore we need to work together to identify a strategy for rehabilitation and for reintroduction or release of as many of those animals, one by one, as is possible.” He adds that the advantage we have is that these animals have been in captivity a relatively short time.

At 27:00, the Minister has to leave to go to a Cabinet Meeting. But first, he presents Cousteau with a remarkable fossil of an ammonite. (Check it out; it’s quite amazing.)

Vinick and Cousteau then talk about how long it took from the rescue of Keiko to the day he left his caregivers and took off with a pod of orcas who were passing by.

At 34:48, Vinick explains that because the orcas and belugas are so young, they had not yet learned to catch their own food when they were caught. So, it won’t simply be a matter of opening the gates and letting them go. And for each one of them, he emphasizes, it’s a different situation.

At 40:35, Cousteau tells the deeply touching story of a dolphin who had been captured and was living in a concrete tank “the size of this room.”

“She was a young female, and every day I was going to look at her and I felt something was wrong but the scientists would say they would take her temperature and blood samples, and they kept saying that she was fine. And one day, about six months later, I walked in and she was dead and she had swum from one side of the pool to the other and blew her brain on the concrete wall. That’s what I experienced as a young person. She committed suicide [because she was] in jail.

“And that’s what we want to avoid.”

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WHALE AID – RUSSIA!

Russia invites Whale Sanctuary Project to visit illegal “whale jail” where 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales are confined in appalling conditions.
Visit to be led by Jean-Michel Cousteau.

April 4th, 2019

A team of experts, brought together by the Whale Sanctuary Project and led by explorer and environmentalist Jean-Michel Cousteau, has arrived in Moscow for a meeting at Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment to help and advise the government on how 97 illegally captured orcas and beluga whales can be rehabilitated and returned to the ocean.

The invitation comes in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin having tasked the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment with determining the future of the whales.

The team’s mission will be to assess the condition of the 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales who are being held in sea pens, commonly referred to by Russian media as a “whale jail,” and to advise the Russian government on their health and how best they can be returned to the open ocean.

The Russian government has stated that the whales were captured illegally last year by a consortium of four companies whose apparent intention was to sell them to marine entertainment parks in China.

They have been languishing in icy water throughout the bitterly cold Russian winter. At least three of the original whales are no longer in the pens and are assumed to have died, and others have serious skin wounds and appear to be suffering from the cold and loss of energy.

The Whale Sanctuary Project team is led by Executive Director Charles Vinick, who managed the reintroduction of the orca Keiko to his home waters off the coast of Iceland in the 1990s.

“We look forward to providing our experience, expertise and assistance for the welfare of these orcas and beluga whales,” Vinick said.

The team will meet with government officials and scientists on April 4th at the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment in Moscow. After the meeting, there will be a joint press conference at the Ministry, and the team will then travel to Srednyaya Bay, where the whales are being held, to be there from April 6th to April 11th.

Russian law allows for whales to be held for scientific and educational purposes, but the whales in Srednyaya Bay were apparently destined for neighboring China, where there are already at least 76 dolphinariums and marine parks, and at least 25 more planned for construction over the next few years.

While public opinion in most countries is no longer in favor of keeping whales and dolphins captive in concrete tanks as a form of entertainment, marine display shows are multiplying in Asia. Approximately 954 cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), of at least 12 species, are currently on display in China. Most of them were captured from the wild and imported, primarily from Japan and Russia.

The primary mission of the Whale Sanctuary Project is to establish a model seaside sanctuary where whales and dolphins can be rehabilitated or can live permanently in an environment that maximizes well-being and autonomy and is as close as possible to their natural habitat. It is the first organization focused on creating seaside sanctuaries in North America for orcas and beluga whales who are being retired from entertainment facilities or have been rescued from the ocean and need rehabilitation or permanent care.

Members of the Whale Sanctuary Project team are among the leading experts in rescue, rehabilitation and transport of whales and dolphins. 

Media Contact:
Michael Mountain
The Whale Sanctuary Project
877-942-5399
michaelm@whalesanctuary.org

###

The post Whale Aid – Russia: News Release appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

A team of experts, brought together by the Whale Sanctuary Project and led by explorer and environmentalist Jean-Michel Cousteau, is on its way to Russia, where 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales have spent the bitterly cold winter languishing in small, icy sea pens, commonly referred to by Russian media as a “whale jail.”

Four of the original whales are no longer in the pens and are assumed to have died; others have serious skin wounds and appear to be suffering from the cold and loss of energy.

The whales were captured illegally last year by a consortium of four companies whose apparent intention was to sell them to marine entertainment parks in China.

After President Vladimir Putin tasked the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment with determining the future of the whales, the Ministry invited Cousteau to bring a team to Russia to assess the condition of the whales and to advise the government on a rehabilitation program with a view to their being returned to ocean waters.

The Whale Sanctuary Project has set up a special fund to meet the costs of this mission and we still need to raise a further $20,000. Your donations, large or small, are deeply appreciated.

The Team: Along with Jean-Michel Cousteau, the Whale Sanctuary Project team is led by Executive Director Charles Vinick, who managed the reintroduction of the orca Keiko to his home waters off the coast of Iceland in the 1990s. The team they have assembled includes:

• • Jean-Michel Cousteau, Special Advisor to the Whale Sanctuary Project (WSP) and Founder of Ocean Futures Society;
  • Charles Vinick, Executive Director of the Whale Sanctuary Project;
  • Jeffrey Foster, WSP marine mammal expert and researcher, rehabilitation and release specialist;
  • Ingrid Visser, PhD, marine mammal scientist and orca research, rehabilitation and release specialist, and WSP Advisory Group member;
  • Katy Foster, WSP marine mammal researcher, rehabilitation and release coordination and documentation;
  • Grigoriy Arkad’evich Tsidulko, marine mammal research specialist, expert of IUCN cetacean working group; former beluga whale trainer;
  • Tatyana Evgenyevna Denisenko, Veterinarian, Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology of the K.I. Skryabin Moscow State Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology;
  • Tatiana Beley, Director and co-founder of “Delfa Center” and specialist in dolphin rescue and release;
  • Harry Rabin: Science documentarian;
  • David Gordon: Advisor and translator;
  • Russ Abdrakhmanov: Translator.

For regular updates on the “Whale Aid – Russia” mission, please subscribe to our email newsletter.

The post Russia Invites Whale Sanctuary Project to Visit Whale Jail appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

A team of experts, brought together by the Whale Sanctuary Project team and led by explorer and environmentalist Jean-Michel Cousteau, has received a formal invitation from Russia’s Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources to visit Srednyaya Bay on Russia’s Far East coast.

Our mission there will be to assess the condition of the 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales who are being held in sea pens, commonly referred to by Russian media as a “whale jail,” and to advise the government on their health and how they can be returned to the open ocean.

The Whale Sanctuary Project has set up a special fund to meet the costs of this initial visit.

Your donations to this fund are greatly appreciated.

The whales were captured illegally last year by a consortium of four companies whose apparent intention was to sell them to marine entertainment parks in China.

Three of the original whales are no longer in the pens and are assumed to have died.They have been languishing in icy water throughout the bitterly cold Russian winter, and there are conflicting reports on their condition. When a recent inspection concluded that “there is no threat” to the health of the whales, the national newspaper Izvestia noted that these conclusions “raise questions among some scientists, [who] do not trust the organization conducting the survey.”

What we know for sure is that three of the original whales are no longer in the pens and are assumed to have died, and that others have serious skin wounds and that they appear to be suffering from the cold and loss of energy.

Along with Cousteau, the Whale Sanctuary Project team is led by Executive Director Charles Vinick, who managed the reintroduction of the orca Keiko to his home waters off the coast of Iceland in the 1990s. Other members include Jeff Foster and Ingrid Visser who are among the leading experts in whale and dolphin rehabilitation and release, and Russian veterinarian Tatyana Denisenko.

In his reply to the invitation from the Director of the Ministry, Vinick writes:

“Jean-Michel Cousteau offers his and his team’s assistance … to return these orcas and beluga whales to marine waters close to where they were caught and where their populations are found, or to other appropriate open ocean water habitats with sufficient food resources …

“We look forward to providing our experience, expertise and assistance for the welfare of these orcas and beluga whales.”

The Russian press is now reporting that an investigation has been launched into the illegal capture and abuse of “aquatic animals.” Russian law allows for whales to be held for scientific and educational purposes, but the whales in Srednyaya Bay were clearly destined for neighboring China, where there are already at least 76 dolphinariums and marine parks, and at least 25 more planned for construction over the next few years. Approximately 954 cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), of at least 12 species, are currently on display in China. Most of them were captured from the wild and imported, primarily from Japan and Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has tasked the Environment Ministry and the Ministry of Agriculture with determining the future of the whales.

The full Whale Sanctuary Project team will be departing for Russia on April 3rd and will be assembling in Srednyaya Bay to work with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, as well as Russian scientists.

The post Russia Issues Formal Invitation to Visit “Whale Jail” appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

The Whale Sanctuary Project is organizing a team of experts from non-profits and other NGO’s to go to Srednyaya Bay in Primorsky Region on the Far East coast of Russia and assess the condition of the orca and beluga whales being held there.

Jean-Michel Cousteau, explorer, environmentalist and special advisor to the Whale Sanctuary Project, has been invited by the Governor of the Primorsky Region to visit the notorious so-called “whale jail,” where 10 orcas and 87 belugas are languishing in icy sea pens.

The team is prepared to travel to Srednyaya Bay as soon as approval is given by the federal government.

The mission will be to take stock of the whales’ health and to advise Russian authorities on a plan to rehabilitate them and to assist in preparing the whales to be returned to open ocean waters where there is sufficient prey.

Simultaneously, members of our Board and Advisors, including Naomi Rose, Ingrid Visser, Don Baur, Heather Rally, Jeff Foster, Katy Foster, and Lori Marino have been participating in a letter from scientists, coordinated by Mark Palmer of Earth Island Institute, that presents the scientific evidence against keeping these whales in captivity. They have included numerous scientific papers to provide data to Russian leaders.

The whales were captured from the Sea of Okhotsk, on the east coast of Russia, by a group of companies who reportedly intended to sell them to entertainment parks in China. (A single orca can fetch more than $6 million in the booming Chinese theme park industry.)

Worldwide outrage at the treatment of these whales has been growing since the time the first whales were captured last summer. In January, Cousteau, Charles Vinick of the Whale Sanctuary Project, David Phillips of Earth Island Institute (and Whale Sanctuary Project board member), and Roger Payne of Ocean Alliance sent a letter to President Putin, commending the Russian Government for prohibiting the sale of these whales to China and offering assistance in the release. The Governor of Primorsky Region responded with an invitation for Jean-Michel Cousteau to come to the Region.

Well-known personalities have joined the campaign to save the whales. In February, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who has worked with President Putin on other wildlife projects, asked his followers on Twitter to “join me in speaking out against the inhumane capture of orcas and belugas in Russia” by signing a petition on Change.org. The petition has so far garnered more than a million signatures.

On March 1st, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Putin had “made the relevant order” and that the President hoped “the problem around the killer whales will be resolved in a very short time and that they will be released.”

In response to this news and to the public invitation from Oleg Nikolayevich, Governor of the Primorsky region, Cousteau sent him a personal letter, offering his assistance.

“We hope that our experience can assist the Russian government and scientific community develop and implement a plan for the cetaceans in Srednyaya Bay,” he wrote to the Governor. “I strongly believe that the best outcome for the orcas and belugas is to be rehabilitated and returned to the wild, not to be committed to a life in captivity in aquariums. I and my team stand ready to assist Russian authorities to make a successful return of the orcas and belugas to the wild a reality.”

Cousteau and Vinick have worked together on many projects on behalf of marine life, with Vinick serving for more than 25 years as Vice President of Ocean Futures Society and the Cousteau Society. So, together, with the team, they formulated the plan to travel to the Primorsky Region and provide assistance for the release of the whales. The team they have assembled will include:

• Jean-Michel Cousteau, oceanographer, environmentalist;
• Charles Vinick, Executive Director of the Whale Sanctuary Project (WSP) and senior advisor to Cousteau;
• Jeffrey Foster, WSP marine mammal expert and researcher, rehabilitation and release specialist;
• Ingrid Visser, PhD, marine mammal scientist and orca research, rehabilitation and release specialist, and WSP Advisory Group member;
• Katy Foster, WSP marine mammal researcher, rehabilitation and release coordination and documentation;
• Grigoriy Arkad’evich Tsidulko, marine mammal research specialist, expert of IUCN cetacean working group; former beluga whale trainer;
• Tatyana Evgenyevna Denisenko, Veterinarian, Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology of the K.I. Skryabin Moscow State Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology;
• Tatiana Beley, Director and co-founder of “Delfa Center” and specialist in dolphin rescue and release.

The health and wellbeing of the whales has been declining by the day. Three of the belugas and one orca are no longer present in their tanks and are assumed by observers to have died.

Also, most, if not all, of these orcas and belugas are young. So, they will need to be released in waters where adult members of their populations are likely to be and where there is sufficient food for them.

In addition to the evaluation of the health of the animals, another critical factor will be developing a safe and practical program to transport and release the whales. With 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales being held in these pens, every step in the process must be very carefully planned and implemented.

Members of our team have the necessary experience to advise the Russian authorities on the preparation and initiation of such a plan. But Cousteau is emphasizing that time is of the essence if the whales are to be restored to a healthy condition so that they can be released to the open ocean.

Next: The Whale Jail in Srednyaya Bay

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The Whale Sanctuary Project is organizing a team of experts to go to Russia and assess the condition of 10 orca and 87 beluga whales being held in small pens there. (See our earlier post.) Here is some background.

Video from National Geographic, with comments from Jeff Foster of the Whale Sanctuary Project.

Last November, reports began to emerge that more than 100 orcas and beluga whales had been captured and were being held in small, crowded pens in Srednyaya Bay on Russia’s far east coast.

Local media were calling the facility a “whale jail,” and the term quickly went viral.

As winter set in and temperatures began to plummet, especially during the long nights, ice covered the bay, and it was a challenge simply to keep the sea pens free of ice so the whales could breathe, let alone get the exercise they would need to be able to keep warm. Having conducted the successful return of a captive orca to his home waters, we would like to offer the Russian government and the Russian scientific community our expertise and help in restoring the current captive orcas and beluga whales, now being held in series of sea pens in Srednyaya Bay, near the east coast city of Nakhodka, to their home pods.

According to the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, some of the animals had been at the facility since July and were owned by four companies – Bely Kit, Afalina, Oceanarium DV, and Sochi Dolphinarium – that had worked together between 2013 and 2016 to ship 13 orcas to China, where a single orca can fetch more than $6 million.

While Russian law allows for whales to be held for scientific and educational purposes, the whales in Srednyaya Bay were clearly destined for neighboring China, where there are already at least 76 dolphinariums and marine parks, and at least 25 more planned for construction over the next few years. Approximately 954 cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), of at least 12 species, are currently displayed in China. Most of them were captured from the wild and imported, primarily from Japan and Russia.

There were also reports of what appeared to be a whale being lifted out of a tank by a crane near the Chinese border, of a scam by which whales were being “loaned” rather than sold to evade environmental laws, and of a photographer having her camera’s memory card taken when she tried to investigate.

Video from Pravda describing the condition of the whales.

In December, after three of the belugas had disappeared and were widely assumed to have died, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov asked the new Governor of the Primorsky Region, Oleg Kozhemyako, to address the problem. Soon after, the Prosecutor General’s Office began an investigation into “the illicit extraction of aquatic biological resources” and into criminal “cruelty to animals.”

In January of this year, a group of Russian scientists and government officials visited the whale jail, where they collected skin and breath samples and water samples from the pens. They also made recordings of vocalizations and took photos and video footage.

Mark Palmer of the International Marine Mammal Project wrote that the scientists had expressed “a great deal of concern … for one of the orcas that appeared lethargic and was logging at the surface. Many of the orcas showed skin damage, presumably from frostbite and contact with the sharp ice that forms in the sea pens, despite the efforts of the staff of the sea pens to keep the pens clear of ice … The team also noted that the facility had no means of dealing with sanitary conditions, as the sea pens are exposed to bay water and lacked any barriers or means of disinfecting in case of disease or pollution.”

 
Tatiana Denisenko and Dmitry Lisitsyn

Among the scientists who visited the whales were Dmitry Lisitsyn, head of the Russian NGO Sakhalin Environment Watch, and veterinarian Tatyana Denisenko, a professor at the Moscow-based Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology. Lisitsyn told National Geographic that the belugas all appeared to be in distress and that 15 of them were babies who had probably not yet been weaned from their mothers’ milk when they had been captured. He added that workers at the sea pens had to keep breaking up ice so the animals could surface in order to breathe and stay alive.

Belugas are “used to living in ice,” he said. “But they’re not used to being held in a 12-by-10-meter [space] with men crashing shovels over their heads.”

As for the orcas, Lisitsyn said their condition was even worse than that of the belugas since they typically migrate south to warmer water during the winter. His video footage showed skin lesions on and around their dorsal fins, which, he said, could be frostbite from exposure to prolonged cold, or a fungal or bacterial infection stemming from the stagnant water, or both.

After examining skin samples from the orcas, veterinarian Denisenko said, “The skin of most of the 11 killer whales is thickly seeded with various microorganisms.” She concluded from this that their skin infection was likely the result of rotting food being left in the pens.

Denisenko, Lisitsyn and others said they were particularly concerned about one young orca named Kirill, who had been acting very lethargically and exhibited extensive skin lesions. Lisitsyn said he feared Kirill might already be dead.

Within a few weeks of the scientists’ visit, one of the orcas was no longer to be seen in any of the sea pens. The whales’ captors claimed that he/she had escaped, an explanation that was generally considered absurd.

In Moscow, members of Greenpeace Russia protest the capture of the whales.

Despite the poor condition of the whales, scientists who reviewed the reports and video footage concluded that after receiving the urgent care they obviously need, they could still be returned to the ocean. Time, however, would be of the essence in conducting a successful return of the whales to their home waters.

Vladimir Putin with Leonardo DiCaprio at the Kremlin.

Meanwhile, protests were growing in animal protection circles around the world. By early March, a petition on Change.org that was being promoted by celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio and Pamela Anderson had garnered more than a million signatures. (Russia’s President Vladimir Putin considers DiCaprio a friend, having welcomed him to Russia in 2010 to speak at his Save the Tiger Summit.)

And a letter to President Putin from explorer and environmentalist Jean-Michel Cousteau, Charles Vinick of the Whale Sanctuary Project, David Phillips of Earth Island Institute, and Roger Payne of Ocean Alliance had prompted an invitation from the Governor of Primorsky Region for Cousteau to come to the region.

Cousteau had already worked with Vinick on many projects on behalf of marine life, with Vinick serving for more than 25 years as Vice President of Ocean Futures Society and the Cousteau Society. So, they began to organize a team of experts from the Whale Sanctuary Project and from other non-profits and NGO’s. The team would travel to Srednyaya Bay where they could assess the condition of the whales, advise the Governor on a plan to rehabilitate them, and assist in preparing the whales for return to suitable open ocean waters.

Right now, the team is prepared to travel to Srednyaya Bay as soon as approval is given by the federal government. Details for the visit are in our post from earlier this week.

Next: Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Letter to President Putin

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Jean-Michel Cousteau

The following letter was sent from Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

The four signatories spearheaded the return of the orca Keiko to his home waters in the 1990s. They offer the Russian government and the Russian scientific community their expertise and help in restoring the orcas and beluga whales, now being held in sea pens in Srednyaya Bay, to their home pods.

Here is the text of the letter in English. (The original, in Russian, is here.)

President Vladimir Putin
Russian Federation
23, Ulitsa Ilyinka,
103132, Moscow, Russia

Russian Federation Embassy
2650 Wisconsin Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20007

January 31, 2019

Dear President Putin:

We want to thank you and the Russian government for blocking the export and sale of live orcas (killer whales) and beluga whales caught last summer in the Sea of Okhotsk.

We have extensive expertise from studying whales in the wild and in captivity, including having spearheaded the successful return of Keiko, an orca featured in the Hollywood movie “Free Willy”, to his home waters in Iceland in the 1990s. We believe, based on our expert review of the science, that orcas and beluga whales simply cannot be kept healthy in captivity, even under the best of circumstances.

During that process, we worked closely with the governments of the United States, Mexico, Iceland and Norway in our care for Keiko.

Having conducted the successful return of a captive orca to his home waters, we would like to offer the Russian government and the Russian scientific community our expertise and help in restoring the current captive orcas and beluga whales, now being held in series of sea pens in Srednyaya Bay, near the east coast city of Nakhodka, to their home pods.

We of course defer to the Russian government and scientific community in heading up a rescue operation for these cetaceans. We are not seeking to replace your expertise, but rather to augment it with our real world “hands on” experience with Keiko and other cetaceans.

We also wanted to lay to rest some claims we have seen that America somehow will benefit from your policy to block captures of wild orcas and beluga whales: The United States currently bans any wild captures or export of orcas and beluga whales under the provisions of the US Marine Mammal Protection Act. In fact, such captures in US waters ended more than a decade ago, and there are no plans to revive such captures.

Rest assured that if someone asked for permits to capture wild cetaceans in US waters for captivity, our organizations would vigorously oppose such captures. Again, these cetaceans do very poorly in captivity, and we strongly oppose any efforts anywhere to put them into captivity.

In closing, let us emphasize our concerns:

We appreciate the Russian government’s denial of new permits to capture orcas and belugas from the wild in 2019, and encourage your government to permanently end such captures.

We further encourage the Russian government to lead in returning the current captives (11 orcas and 87 beluga whales) to their home waters and family pods. We are pleased to offer our expertise to this effort in any way that can be useful to the Russian government and scientific community.

Thank you again for your efforts and feel free to contact us at any time.

Sincerely,

Jean-Michel Cousteau
Chairman & President
Ocean Futures Society

Charles Vinick
Member of the Board
Ocean Futures Society

David Phillips
Executive Director
Earth Island Institute

Roger Payne, PhD
President
Ocean Alliance

Next: 34 Marine Mammal Biologists Urge Putin to Release the Whales

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A group of prominent marine mammal scientists from around the world has written a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin encouraging the government to release 10 orcas and 80+ beluga whales now kept in inadequate sea pens in the “Whale Jail” in Srednyaya Bay, near the east coast city of Nakhodka.

The letter requests that the Russian government allow an international team of experts to evaluate and treat the whales, who are being held in poor conditions in small sea pens. The letter notes that the health of the whales is rapidly deteriorating health and that time is of the essence if they are to be returned to the ocean.

Here is the text of the letter:

President Vladimir Putin
Russian Federation
23, Ulitsa Ilyinka,
103132, Moscow, Russia

Dear President Putin:

As a group of marine mammal scientists with expertise in orcas and white whales, many of whom expressed concern specifically about the orca captures in previous correspondence with Russian authorities, we would like to address several issues surrounding the individual animals now held in very poor conditions in enclosures in Srednyaya Bay, Nakhodka. We hope these comments will be of help to you in your deliberations, in conjunction with the scientific community of Russia, in making decisions for these whales.

The Condition of These Whales Is Poor and Declining

We have attached a document (Decline in Health of an Orca Held in Russian ‘Whale Jail’) recently prepared by biologists and veterinarians comparing an orca in photos taken 42 days apart, which documents that the health and wellbeing of this whale, and likely others, are deteriorating rapidly. Additionally, at least one orca and several white whales are reportedly missing and, although the captors claim these animals escaped the pens, given their young ages and their poor condition, we are concerned that they may actually have died.

Steps Should Be Taken Now to Improve the Health of These Animals and the Conditions of their Captivity

We urge you to provide access for a team of Russian and international experts to enter the facility to evaluate and treat the whales and start the process of improving the captive facility. Such improvements could include expanding the size of the pens to provide more room for the whales (especially the white whales, who seem unduly crowded), providing a way to warm the waters to prevent icing over of the pens (if icing is still a problem at the facility), and reducing the bacterial and other contaminants in the pens through, for example, better water circulation. The poor water quality is likely contributing to the apparent decline in the health of these animals, as evident from the poor state of their skin.

Plans Should be Made to Rehabilitate and Return the Whales to Where They Were Captured

We understand there has been some criticism regarding the idea of returning the whales to their capture sites (which are currently iced over). Given our knowledge of the social structures of these species, we believe it is very important to return these young animals to their birth populations. If this is done, the release effort, after appropriate rehabilitation, could be a success.

While they are being treated, arrangements for transport for the whales can be completed. In the meantime, the release sites in question should become free of ice, and the groups of whales from which these individuals were removed should have returned to the capture areas. These factors would all contribute toward higher likelihood of success.

We would be happy to consult with Russian specialists and your Government on plans to return these whales to their capture sites and release them.

We Repeat Our Hope that the Russia Government Will Prevent Future Captures of Orcas and White Whales in Russian Waters

As this incident has dramatically shown, free-ranging orcas and white whales are traumatically stressed by capture and face a high risk of mortality after capture. Captures also can have a significant impact on the conservation status of wild populations, and this could result in damage to Russia’s precious natural resources.

Last November, many of us conveyed our concerns regarding these whales in our letter to Mr. A.L. Strelnikov of the Russian Federal Service for Overseeing Natural Resources in the Far Eastern Federal District, and we attach a copy of that letter here.

Thank you for the efforts of the Russian Government and scientists so far in working to resolve this problem. We appreciate those efforts and hope to assist in resolving this issue.

Sincerely,

Regina Asmutis-Silvia, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, USA

Giovanni Bearzi, PhD, Dolphin Biology and Conservation, Italy

Maddalena Bearzi, PhD, Ocean Conservation Society, USA

Leslie Cornick, PhD, Eastern Washington University, USA

Sylvia Earle, PhD, National Geographic Explorer in Residence; Founder, Mission Blue, USA

Alexandros Frantzis, PhD, Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute, Greece

Toni Frohoff, PhD, Terramar Research, USA

Pierre Gallego, DVM, Odyssea, Luxembourg

Deborah A. Giles, PhD, University of Washington, USA

Joan Gonzalvo, PhD, Tethys Research Institute, Italy

Denise Herzing, PhD, Wild Dolphin Project, USA

Erich Hoyt, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, UK

Samuel Hung, PhD, Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society, Hong Kong

Krista Hupman, PhD, National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd., New Zealand

Miguel Iñíguez, Fundación Cethus, Argentina

John Jett, PhD, Stetson University, USA

Janet Mann, PhD, Georgetown University, USA 

Lori Marino, PhD, Founder/President, the Whale Sanctuary Project, USA

Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, PhD, Founder, Tethys Research Institute, Italy

Prof. Mark Orams, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia

E.C.M. Parsons, PhD, University of Glasgow, UK

Roger Payne, PhD, Founder/President, Ocean Alliance, USA

Heather Rally, DVM, PETA Foundation, USA

Randall Reeves, PhD, Chair of the IUCN SSC Cetacean Specialist Group, Canada

Diana Reiss, PhD, Hunter College, City University of New York, USA

Fabian Ritter, M.E.E.R. e.V., Germany

Naomi A. Rose, PhD, Animal Welfare Institute, USA

Carl Safina, PhD, Stony Brook University, USA

Mark Peter Simmonds, OBE, Humane Society International

Paul Spong, PhD, OrcaLab, Canada

Els Vermeulen, PhD, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Ingrid N. Visser, PhD, Orca Research Trust, New Zealand

Lindy Weilgart, PhD, Dalhousie University, Canada

Hal Whitehead, PhD, Dalhousie University, Canada

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A group of prominent global citizens signed a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin encouraging the government to release 10 orcas and 80+ beluga whales now kept in inadequate sea pens in the “Whale Jail” in Srednyaya Bay, near the east coast city of Nakhodka.

Dr. Jane Goodall

The letter, which was prepared by the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute, is signed by Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Dr. Jane Goodall, Sir Richard Branson, business leaders like Tom Gruber and David Shaw, actors like Pamela Anderson, Mark Ruffalo and Holly Marie Combs, and musicians like Jackson Browne and Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart.

Here is the text:

President Vladimir Putin
Russian Federation
23, Ulitsa Ilyinka,
103132, Moscow, Russia

Russian Federation Embassy
2650 Wisconsin Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20007

Dear President Putin:

​We are writing to thank you and the Russian government for steps taken to protect 80+ beluga whales and 10 orcas now held in inadequate conditions in Srednyaya Bay, near the east coast city of Nakhodka.

We commend the action you have taken so far to block the export of these amazing beings to dolphinariums in other countries, as whales and dolphins do not cope well with captivity. We further commend you and your government for not approving new capture permits for 2019, and fully support the Russian initiative to implement a permanent ban on capture of Russian orcas and beluga whales. Such an action would prevent the horrible situation playing out in the Far East from happening ever again in the future.

We would like to ask you to take several important steps for the welfare of the remaining whales in the sea pens. We cannot stress enough that the lives of these whales are in danger, and they need immediate help. Please consider expanding their current sea pens in size and/or building additional enclosures to reduce the number of animals per pen and introducing insulation and warming protocols to prevent ice from forming in the enclosures. These steps are critical for the whales’ survival.

We further ask you and the Russian government, in consultation with Russian scientists and Russian non-governmental organizations, to plan to return the orcas and beluga whales to the Sea of Okhotsk and their birth populations when feasible. There are many international scientists and experts as well who have extensive expertise in successfully rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing orcas to the wild, such as Keiko, Springer and many others. International experts will be happy to provide their help to Russian colleagues with rehabilitation and release of the orcas and belugas back into the wild.

This is an important moment for Russia on the world stage.​

The world is waiting for a happy ending in this tragic and unfortunate situation. Thank you again for all that you have done, and please take action to protect these magnificent Russian whales!

Sincerely,

Tom Campbell, Cinematographer, Producer, Director

Susan Casey, Bestselling Author, Voices from the Ocean, Former Editor-in-Chief, O Magazine

Gregory Colbert, Artist, Creator of Ashes and Snow

Holly Marie Combs. Actor

Celine S. Cousteau, Filmmaker, Environmentalist

Jean-Michel Cousteau, Chairman and President, Ocean Futures Society, Member, Ocean Elders

Gabriela Cowperthwaite, Director, Blackfish

Beth Davidow, Cinematographer, Filmmaker, Author

Kristin Davis, Actor, Environmentalist

Saba Douglas-Hamilton, Television Presenter, Wildlife Conservationist

Sylvia Earle, PhD, National Geographic Explorer in Residence, Founder, Mission Blue, Member, Ocean Elders

Dr Jane Goodall PhD, DBE, Founder, Jane Goodall Institute, UN Messenger of Peace

Adrian Grenier, Actor, Director, Producer

Tom Gruber, Co-Founder of Siri Inc., Member, Ocean Elders

Graeme Kelleher, Former Chairman and CEO, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Member, Ocean Elders

Yuri Kolokolnikov, Actor

Doutzen Kroes, Model, Actor Environmentalist

Ilya Lagutenko, Musician, Mumiy Troll, Founder of VROX.org Festival

Kate Mara, Actor

Eli Martinez, International TV presenter, Environmentalist, Founder of Shark Diver Magazine

Leilani Münter, Race Car Driver, Environmentalist

Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, Member, Ocean Elders

Edward Norton Jr., Actor

Hayden Panettiere, Actor

Prof. Bertrand Piccard, Chair, Solar Impulse Foundation, Member, Ocean Elders

Louie Psihoyos, Executive Director, Oceanic Preservation Society, Director, The Cove

Mark Ruffalo, Actor, Environmentalist

David Shaw, Manager, Black Point Group, Member, Ocean Elders

Robert Talbot, Film Maker, Photographer

Anne-Marie van Dijk, International Model

Captain Don Walsh, PhD, USN (Ret), Member, Ocean Elders

Bob Weir, Musician, Member, Ocean Elders

Maisie Williams, Actor, Environmentalist

Ann Wilson, Musician, Heart

Nancy Wilson, Musician, Heart

Olga Zueva, Filmmaker.

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While the tide is turning in the West for captive marine mammals, live capture operations, traveling dolphin shows, polluted sea pens and needless deaths of animals characterize the captivity industry around the world. Marine entertainment shows are multiplying in Asia, where in China alone the number of these facilities has nearly doubled in the past three years.

In their updated report “The Case Against Marine Mammals in Captivity,” Naomi Rose of the Animal Welfare Institute and Chris Parsons of Glasgow University lay out in plain English what’s wrong with keeping whales and dolphins and all other marine mammals in captivity.

It’s an invaluable resource for any of us wanting a clear explanation, whether for ourselves or for sharing with others.

In 12 brief chapters, full of pictures and pull-outs, they offer the latest scientific understanding of:

• What’s wrong with the claims made by the marine entertainment industry that their shows are educational;
• What’s wrong with their claims that keeping marine mammals in captivity is valuable for conservation and research;
• How, contrary to popular belief, marine entertainment parks, especially in the East, are still capturing marine mammals in the wild;
• The fact that the size of a typical captive tank or enclosure is generally less than one ten-thousandth of 1% of the range of a marine mammal’s natural habitat;
• The enormous growth of marine entertainment parks in Asia. China has at least 76 dolphinariums and marine parks, and at least 25 more planned over the next few years.
• Which health problems are unique to marine mammals in captivity – like damage to their teeth by chewing or grinding them on concrete tank walls and floors and biting down on metal gates;
• How the stress of confinement can lead the animals to increasingly frequent, intense levels of aggression;
• Why bottlenose dolphins never become accustomed to transport, whether it is an initial capture or being shuffled from one facility to another, and why the stress they experience can be fatal;
• What’s wrong with swimming with dolphins, feeding programs, and dolphin-assisted-“therapy”;
• How disease may be transmitted when humans and marine mammals interact;
• And how the extraordinary level of complex cognition of these animals leads to yet more suffering in captivity.

Naomi Rose PhD is Marine Mammal Scientist at the Animal Welfare Institute and a board member of the Whale Sanctuary Project. Zoologist Chris Parsons PhD is a research affiliate of the University of Glasgow and has been studying and teaching the biology and conservation of whales and dolphins for over two decades.

You can download their report here.

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In the two years and four months since the grand opening of Dolphinaris Arizona, half of its eight dolphins had met untimely deaths: 7-year-old Bodie in September 2017; 10-year-old Alia in May 2018; 11-year-old Khloe in December 2018; and 22-year-old Kai just a month later.

Two of the remaining dolphins – Liko and Noelani – were on loan from Dolphin Quest, a resort in Hawaii, whose owners were telling Dolphinaris that enough was enough and that they wanted those two dolphins out of there immediately. Within days, the disgraced dolphinarium had taken down its sign, closed its doors, and arranged for Liko and Noelani to go to Coral World Ocean Park with the other two survivors of Dolphinaris: Sonny and Ping.

What killed Bodie, Alia, Khloe and Kai?

Dolphinaris Arizona before the sign was taken down

How could so many dolphins have died in such a short time? Dolphinaris has only released an “official” cause of death in the cases of Bodie and Alia, who are reported as having died of infections – common causes of death in captive dolphins. Khloe was said to have had a “chronic illness” but no details have been given. Nor has any information been released about Kai.

“The consequence of living in a tank amid an artificial grouping of other cetaceans and with the constant requirement to take part in performances leads inevitably to chronic stress,” explains Dr. Lori Marino, neuroscientist and President of the Whale Sanctuary Project. “This stress eventually wears down the immune system, making the animal vulnerable to all kinds of infectious pathogens. When contact with humans is added, as it is in ‘swim programs,’ there is not only more stress but also the very real risk of transfer of disease from human to dolphin and dolphin to human.”

Dolphinaris presented a “perfect storm” of such risks for the dolphins. Plus, there were serious concerns all along that the Arizona desert is a notorious hotspot for valley fever, a fungal infection caused by contaminated agricultural dust that could easily drift into the dolphin tank.

What’s next for the four surviving dolphins?

A behavior manager at Dolphinaris, AZ, kisses dolphin Liko. Photo by Matt York/AP

The four survivors have now been taken to a sea pen at Coral World Ocean Park in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Coral World calls their sea pen a “sanctuary” – a word that’s generally defined as a “place of refuge.” By that definition, we would question whether any commercial facility fits that definition.

As we understand it, Coral World is planning to use these four dolphins in a Dolphin Experiences attraction where visitors interact with them. Coral World’s president and general manager, Trudie Prior, has said that the “the Dolphin Experiences are designed to provide visitors a unique opportunity to get up close and personal with our dolphins in a sea sanctuary setting.”

How does the Whale Sanctuary Project define a sanctuary?

“Hold on tight with the famous belly ride!” says the promo for a swim-with-dolphins experience at another Dolphinaris facility. “You can grab onto a dolphin’s fins while racing across the water at top speeds for a thrilling experience on the island of Cozumel.”

A true sanctuary strives to create the most naturalistic environment possible for the residents. It does not burden them with visitor “experiences” in which people are allowed to get “up close and personal” with the animals and to touch, feed or swim with them. “Encounters” with paying visitors are not part of a dolphin’s natural environment. Nor is having the animals participate in any form of entertainment for a human audience. Rather, at an authentic sanctuary, the autonomy of the residents is a priority.

Also, no authentic sanctuary breeds the animals in its care.

Is living in a sea pen better than living in a concrete tank?

Generally speaking and all else being equal, anything is better than life in a concrete tank. But a sea pen is not a sanctuary, and not all sea pens are equal. The Animal Welfare Institute notes that “the four remaining captive-born dolphins [from Dolphinaris] who are potentially immunocompromised, will be held in a sea pen enclosure in a bay known for its limited water circulation and poor water quality. Based on Clean Water Act monitoring, Water Bay is not fit for human swimmers 40 percent of the year. These four dolphins must live in this polluted water all day, every day.”

The sea pens at Coral World Ocean Park, demonstrating poor water quality in Water Bay, where the dolphins will be spending the rest of their lives, compared to the ocean beyond.

How we define an authentic sanctuary

As we continue our search for the best location for a whale sanctuary, here are some of the considerations that go into making that determination.

• An authentic sanctuary is not just a place to live but a place to thrive. It should be an example of a fundamental change in our relationship with cetaceans from one of exploitation to one of restitution.
• Sanctuaries do not offer public performances. They do not allow breeding. Nor do they permit any unnecessary invasive procedures. Rather, they promote autonomy and as natural a life as possible.
• They are fully transparent in their care of the animals and in the dissemination of health and behavior information.

And for an overview of the considerations as we evaluate sites of interest – including space, depth, water quality, environmental factors, and facilities, please check out this post. (Many thanks to our remarkable team of advisors for helping to compile these specs. They are among the world’s leading experts on the care of cetaceans.)

A whale sanctuary is a sanctuary for people, too

While there are no public performances at a sanctuary, that doesn’t mean there has to be a giant “Keep Out” sign at the entrance! A true sanctuary is a wonderful place for people to visit, a place of refuge where one can connect with nature and experience the animals in their own environment.

A sanctuary is also a place for education and inspiration where people, young and old, can appreciate how, when we give back to our fellow animals something of what we humans have taken from them, we experience something of inestimable value in return.

The post Dolphinaris Closes – What’s Next For the Dolphins? appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Recent 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. She is the mother of Tahlequah (J-35), who captured the hearts of people all over the world last summer when she carried her dead calf up and down the Washington coast for 17 days.

And Scoter (K-25) is also showing signs of decline. Scoter is 28 years old and he lost his mother, Skagit (K-13), in 2017. Southern Resident orca males are considerably larger than the females and need more food, so they stay close to their mothers, who make sure that food is shared among the family group.

The coalition of groups in the region is working to gather baseline data on all individuals in the population and to be prepared to assist NOAA Fisheries if further medical analysis of potentially compromised animals is deemed to be warranted.

Video from King5 TV Seattle

Jeff Foster, who leads the Whale Sanctuary Project’s site selection effort on the West Coast, has decades of experience working with marine mammals and is a key member of the coalition to help the Southern Resident orcas.

“It’s a collaborative effort to collect biological samples (fecal, prey, and respiratory samples), from the overall population,” he explained.

Jeff Foster prepares to take a breath sample from one of the whales during the effort in the late summer of 2018 to help the ailing orca Scarlet (J-50).

Jeff  was NOAA’s Environmental Hero of the Year in 2006 for his dolphin rescue work during Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in Southeast Asia. And for his work as part of the coalition, he is listed on the federal permits needed to take fecal samples. He does this by closely following the whales and scooping up fecal matter in a net. The permits are for population-level health studies, not for specific individuals, but fecal samples from any of the whales in each of the pods will give a general idea of what most of them are eating at this time of year when salmon, their primary prey, are few.

And breath samples could reveal pathogens, such as bacteria or viruses that could be affecting one or more of the whales and causing their decline in health. (Breath samples are taken by driving a boat alongside one of the whales and reaching out over the whales’ blow holes with a long pole that has a collection device on the end.)

If the seaside sanctuary that the Whale Sanctuary Project is creating is going to be located in the vicinity of the Southern Residents and their neighbors, it will also support rescue and rehabilitation functions in the region. So, it makes sense for us to be engaged with these kinds of efforts at this early stage.

“Getting samples will help us learn if there’s more we can do to help this fragile population.”

“Getting samples from the Southern Resident population will teach us more about what they’re eating in the winter months and whether they’re dealing with disease or unusual parasite loads,” Jeff said. “Hopefully, we can learn if there’s anything more we can be doing to help this fragile population.” 

Sightings of the Southern Residents in the inner waters of Puget Sound are infrequent during the winter because they tend to venture further out in search of food. That’s particularly the case for the K & L pods.

“Some of them even travel down to the waters off of Point Reyes in California,” said Deborah Giles, Science & Research Director of the conservation organization Wild Orca. “Their food supply (mainly salmon) is dwindling all up and down the coast.”

Two boats could be involved in the research effort. One, skippered by Dr. Giles, is a University of Washington vessel that conducts the Conservation Canines expeditions using expert sniffer dogs. The other is a NOAA vessel operated by Dr. Brad Hanson of NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

The Lummi Nation is another key member of the coalition and has a relationship with the Southern Residents that goes back thousands of years. They have written to NOAA Fisheries urging action to try to save the lives of Princess Angeline and Scoter.

“We are faced with the loss of two more relatives [among the Southern Resident orcas] and know that the loss of K-25 and J-17 will likely lead to additional losses,” Tribal Secretary Lawrence Solomon wrote. “We all have a sacred obligation to take action, now, and we need your help and support to save our relatives.”

Indeed, the Lummi Nation is prepared to take action itself even if NOAA does not. “The Lummis have an inherent right to do that,” said Kurt Russo, senior policy analyst for the Lummi Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office.

Because the whales are an officially endangered population, any decision to intervene on behalf of specific Southern Resident orcas can only be made by NOAA Fisheries. If and when that time comes, the coalition will work closely with NOAA to develop the most appropriate plan of action.

The post Groups Prepare for Wild Orca Medical Assessment appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

• Dartmouth – Thursday, Jan 31st, 7.00 pm. (Doors open at 6.30.) Alderney Landing (The Rotunda), 2 Ochterloney Street;
• Liverpool – Friday, Feb 1st, 6.30 pm. Astor Theatre, (Gorham Room) 219 Main Street;
• Port Hawkesbury – Monday, Feb 4th, 6.30 pm. Civic Centre, 606 Reeves Street;
• Sherbrooke – Wednesday, Feb 6th, 6.30 pm. Fire Hall, 91 Old Road Hill;
• Sheet Harbour – Thursday, Feb 7th, 6.30 pm. Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 58, 23566 Nova Scotia Highway Trunk 7.
• Shelburne Area – Saturday Feb 9th, 1 pm. Parish of Christ Church Hall, 128 Hammond Street, Shelburne.

Jan 29, 2019: At a news conference, this morning, in Halifax, the Whale Sanctuary Project announced a series of public information meetings over the next 10 days to identify communities in Nova Scotia that may be interested in becoming home to a seaside sanctuary for beluga whales being retired from entertainment parks.

Charles Vinick and Lori Marino answer a question at the news conference in Nova Scotia, Jan 29, 2019. Photo by Kevin&Melani.

“We think that somewhere along this Atlantic coast of more than 8,000 kilometers, there may be an ideal site for a whale sanctuary,” our Executive Director, Charles Vinick, told reporters. “Most importantly, we believe there is the perfect community that shares our vision. And, once we find this community, we will find that site. That’s what we’re setting out to do over the next few weeks while we host public information meetings.”

“We believe there is the perfect community that shares our vision. And, once we find this community, we will find that site.”

Charles explained that the sanctuary will be a benefit not only to the whales who will be living there, but also to the community that hosts the sanctuary. For example, economic benefits to the community will include the creation of education center, employment for local residents, and the fact that the sanctuary will be purchasing food for the whales.

Dr. Lori Marino, President of the Whale Sanctuary Project, talked about her 30 years studying whales and dolphins.

“I’ve learned that belugas and other whales are highly intelligent and social mammals with a highly complex sense of self,” she said. “And because of these characteristics they suffer greatly spending their lives in concrete tanks in entertainment parks.”

Lori described their lives in those facilities as stressful, unhealthy, and short.

“The only way to end their suffering is to relocate them to a permanent seaside sanctuary, where they can receive expert care in a natural environment that serves their needs.”

Charles said that the site we’re looking for would be a 40-hectare area (roughly 100 acres) along the Atlantic shore of Nova Scotia. It would be a home for five to eight whales who are retired from entertainment facilities or who are injured and need rehabilitation within a netted-off area. On the shoreline there will be facilities for animal care and for sanctuary staff.

Together, Lori and Charles emphasized the importance of finding a coastal community that sees itself as the ideal home for what is certainly a novel project.

“We’re looking for communities that are as excited about this project as we are,” Charles said, “and who want to roll up their sleeves on the details so that together we can create this world-class endeavor.”

The post News Conference & Public Meetings in Nova Scotia appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

UPDATE: Whale Sanctuary Project Community Information Meeting Details:

• Dartmouth – Thursday, Jan 31st, 7.00 pm. Alderney Landing (The Rotunda), 2 Ochterloney Street;
• Liverpool – Friday, Feb 1st, 6.30 pm. Astor Theatre, (Gorham Room) 219 Main Street;
• Port Hawkesbury – Monday, Feb 4th, 6.30 pm. Civic Centre, 606 Reeves Street;
• Sherbrooke – Wednesday, Feb 6th, 6.30 pm. Fire Hall, 91 Old Road Hill;
• Sheet Harbour – Thursday, Feb 7th, 6.30 pm. Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 58, 23566 Nova Scotia Highway Trunk 7.
• Shelburne Area – Saturday Feb 9th, 1 pm. Parish of Christ Church Hall, 128 Hammond Street, Shelburne.

Non-Profit Group Seeks Community Partner for Whale Sanctuary in Nova Scotia

HALIFAX, NS, January 29th, 2019
The Whale Sanctuary Project is holding a series of public information meetings over the next 10 days to identify communities in Nova Scotia that may be interested in becoming home to a seaside sanctuary for beluga whales being retired from entertainment parks.

The meetings will be held in Dartmouth, Liverpool, Port Hawkesbury, Sherbrooke and Sheet Harbour.

“We see this as an opportunity for the host community as well as for the whales who will live in the sanctuary for the rest of their lives,” said Charles Vinick, Executive Director of the non-profit organization. “There would be economic benefits including the creation of an education centre, an on-going need to purchase tons of frozen fish to feed the whales, as well as full and part-time jobs to be filled by local residents. Beyond these benefits, a community can take pride in the good they are doing for these whales.”

Public opinion continues to shift away from keeping highly intelligent and far-ranging marine mammals in tanks.

“Whales and dolphins have a highly complex sense of self,” said Lori Marino, President of the Whale Sanctuary Project, who is also a neuroscientist. “They suffer greatly spending their lives in concrete tanks, and the only way to end their suffering is to relocate them to a permanent seaside sanctuary, where they can receive expert care in a natural environment.”

Right now, Parliament is poised to enact a ban on keeping any more whales and dolphins at entertainment facilities, and a seaside sanctuary will provide the space and autonomy the whales need in order to thrive.

The organization is looking for a 40-hectare area (just under half a square km) along the Atlantic shore of Nova Scotia that can become a home to whales who are retired from entertainment facilities or who are injured and need rehabilitation within a netted-off area. Sanctuaries already exist for land-based animals like elephants and chimpanzees who come from zoos and circuses. But there are none yet for whales and dolphins.

“Most of them have never learned survival skills, so they cannot be released into the open ocean,” Vinick explained. “But a seaside sanctuary will give them a chance to thrive in a stimulating natural ecosystem.”

At the upcoming meetings, Marino and Vinick will discuss what a sanctuary will look like and how it can play a positive role in the local community.

“We realize that people have questions and concerns about such a novel project,” Vinick said. “Some will be interested in potential environmental impacts. And local fishers will want to be assured that their livelihoods are preserved. We share these concerns and we want to work with everyone to figure out whether a sanctuary is a good fit for your community.”

If you think your coastal community could be well suited to a sanctuary, the Whale Sanctuary Project would be pleased to hear from you. You can contact them by email at charlesv@whalesanctuary.org.

To learn more about the project and meet Lori and Charles, the public is invited to attend the community information meetings.

For more information visit: https://whalesanctuary.org/our-work/.

Media contact: Mary Ellen MacIntyre: 902-989-3522

The post News Release in Nova Scotia appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Last month, on November 16th, a New York State judge issued a habeas corpus order on behalf of Happy, one of the elephants at the Bronx Zoo.

The Hon. Tracey A. Bannister ordered the Director of the zoo to appear in court at a hearing on December 14th, so the court can determine whether Happy “is being unlawfully imprisoned” and should be released immediately to an appropriate sanctuary.  

By issuing a habeas corpus order on the elephant’s behalf, Judge Bannister implicitly recognized her as a “legal person” who has the capacity for certain legal rights – in this case, the fundamental right to bodily liberty.

The lawsuit was brought by the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), and it marks the second time a judge has issued a writ of habeas corpus for a nonhuman animal. Two years ago, in another case brought by the NhRP, Judge Barbara Jaffe ordered the Attorney General of New York, representing Stony Brook University, to appear in court and provide a legally sufficient reason why two chimpanzees, Hercules and Leo, should continue to be held at the university for laboratory experiments. 

In requiring the A.G. to show cause, the judge was implicitly affirming that your right to have your day in court does not apply exclusively to humans. It does not depend on what species you are, any more than it depends on your skin color or your gender. Rather, it depends on the degree of autonomy – the ability to determine and pursue your own course in life – that you exhibit. (While their case was still working its way through the legal system, Hercules and Leo were voluntarily transferred by their “owners” to a sanctuary.)

How legal opinion is evolving

The two cases represent a remarkable evolution of opinion in the legal system of the United States and most other countries, where nonhuman animals are still treated as “legal things” that are the property of the human beings who “own” them.

“Elephants are autonomous beings,” says attorney Steven M. Wise, President of the NhRP. “They are extraordinarily cognitively complex, and they ought to have fundamental legal rights that protect these fundamental cognitive characteristics.”

Scientific evidence clearly demonstrates that great apes and elephants demonstrate autonomy. The same is the case for orcas and other cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises). So, might they, too, get their day in court soon? Wise says his legal team is already considering the possibilities of filing suit on behalf of an orca.

The lawsuits being brought by the NhRP are fundamentally different from other kinds of cases on behalf of nonhuman animals in that they do not seek better treatment of those animals. They are not to do with animal welfare. They don’t, for example, invoke laws that protect animals against cruelty. Instead, they address the more basic issue of whether that animal has the legal right not to be held captive in the first place. 

Getting to this point has taken decades of research and preparation, during which Wise wrote three books on the topic of legal rights, including one that tells the story of the landmark court case in 1772 regarding a slave, James Somerset, who had escaped from his owner while accompanying him on a business trip to England. Somerset had been recaptured, but a group of abolitionist attorneys filed suit on his behalf challenging the slave’s classification as a “legal thing.” The case went before the Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench, Lord Mansfield, who, in what became one of the most important trials in legal history, ruled that Somerset was not a piece of property, but a “legal person,” and set him free.

Similarly, Wise argues that with their advanced cognitive skills, certain nonhuman animals should also have the right to bodily liberty. And since they cannot exercise that right at an entertainment facility or laboratory, and also cannot simply be set free, they should go to a suitable sanctuary.

Wise knew from the start that his work would be an uphill battle. Most of us humans still cling to the notion that we are fundamentally different from and superior to other animals. But public opinion is changing, and the legal wall that separates all humans from all other animals has now begun to crack.

“Our approach was that if we kept presenting the arguments, and if the arguments were good and the facts were good, then judges would begin to come around,” Wise says.

No court has yet ordered the actual release of a nonhuman animal. But when one of the NhRP’s chimpanzee suits reached New York State’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, one of the judges wrote:

“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.”

Other judges are taking note. In a recent criminal case in New York City regarding maltreatment of a dog, the judge wrote of:

“… an emerging awareness of the injustice of treating animals as ‘things,’ and [of] present efforts to change the status of non-human animals from ‘things’ to legally recognized ‘persons,’ for the purpose of habeas corpus protection.”

And a New York State appellate court recently wrote that “it is common knowledge that personhood can and sometimes does attach to nonhuman entities like corporations or animals.”

The difference between animal welfare and legal rights

The Bronx Zoo has reacted to the habeas corpus petition by noting that Happy shows “no signs of physiological or psychological stress.” But the zoo’s statement misses the point in that the question before Judge Bannister is not whether Happy should be cared for better. The issue in a habeas case is not one of animal welfare, but of legal rights: the right, in this case, not to be held at the zoo in the first place.

“Let’s say your wife is kidnapped,” Wise explains, “and you want to bring a writ of habeas corpus to have her freed. And the kidnappers’ defense is that your wife shows no signs of stress, so you can’t have her back.

“Well, of course, you say: ‘What the heck are you talking about? You don’t have the right to keep her imprisoned.’

“It’s the same thing in Happy’s case. We’re not getting into the question of whether she’s happy or sad. We just want her out!”

What these cases could mean for whales and dolphins

What, then, could all of this mean in the future for orcas, belugas and other cetaceans at marine entertainment parks? If a suit were to be filed on behalf of, say, an orca, two key questions would have to be answered:

First: Does she have the degree of advanced cognition and autonomy to be recognized as a “legal person” with the right to bodily liberty? The scientific evidence says yes for orcas as clearly as it does for chimpanzees and elephants.

That brings us to the second question: Can the plaintiff be set free? Since writs of habeas corpus provide for the immediate release of the person being held captive, the judge would want assurance that the orca could be released from captivity – i.e. that she could either be released directly into the ocean (not an option for whales who are not used to providing for themselves), or could be placed in a sanctuary.

Sanctuaries already exist for great apes and elephants, so habeas corpus lawsuits are already a practical strategy for them. But Wise says that a seaside sanctuary would need to be at least close to completion before it would make sense to file a habeas corpus suit on behalf of a cetacean.

Meanwhile, the pioneering work of the Nonhuman Rights Project is part of a wider sea change that’s taking place in public attitudes toward keeping these highly intelligent and socially complex animals in concrete tanks for the purposes of entertainment.

And all such efforts go hand-in-hand with the work of the Whale Sanctuary Project in ensuring that when the time comes, there will be a sanctuary to welcome them.

The post Judge Issues First-Ever Habeas Corpus Order for an Elephant appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

The bill now goes to the House of Commons, where, if it is approved, it will bring an end to keeping whales and dolphins in captivity except for rescue and retirement sanctuaries like those being planned by the Whale Sanctuary Project.

Senator Wilfred Moore

The bill was introduced by Sen. Wilfred Moore in December 2015, and was opposed, blocked and obstructed by Conservative Senator and party whip Donald Plett before finally being passed on Tuesday. (Right up to the end, Sen. Plett and a few colleagues were attempting to hold off the vote by introducing amendments, the last of which was defeated 49-29.)

Honourable Moore was not present for the vote since he reached the mandatory retirement age last year. Sponsorship of the bill was taken over by Sen. Murray Sinclair, who is renowned for his work as Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which reported on the abusive treatment and cultural suppression of indigenous people over decades and centuries.

When word reached Honourable Moore that the bill had finally passed, he emailed his successor saying “Honourable Murray, THANK YOU! I just spoke with your office. Your steadfast support + patience was remarkable. Our mammal friends will be forever grateful.”

To which Sen. Sinclair responded: “It took some staring down but your Bill ending captivity of cetaceans and dolphins passed tonight. Congratulations my friend.”

Earlier this year, at the third reading of the bill, Sen. Sinclair spoke of the Whale Sanctuary Project’s plans to create a seaside sanctuary:

Senator Murray Sinclair

“The intention of this sanctuary is to provide a place where rescued whales and dolphins can be rehabilitated for release while living in an environment that maximizes their well-being and autonomy in a setting as close as possible to their natural habitat, or where they might remain permanently if unreleasable.

“… Let’s not forget the creatures living in the concrete tanks. And let’s not forget the wild cetaceans who may yet face violent capture from their family groups for the purpose of display for human entertainment. That’s what this bill is about and why it matters so much.”

In the House of Commons, the bill will be sponsored by Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, who, earlier this year, was joined at a press conference by members of parliament from all parties to call on obstructionist senators to stop playing games with this bill and others that would protect nonhuman animals.

She also called on Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer to tell his senators to stop blocking the bill. Their behavior, she wrote, “disappoints the tens of thousands of Canadians who wish to see a vote on this bill and reflects poorly on the national Conservative caucus.”

So, What Happens Next?

Procedure in the House of Commons is similar to that of the Senate, although passage of S-203 is expected to be faster and smoother than it was in the upper house. 

The first reading of the bill could take place before the end of this week. There would then be two separate hours of debate, likely scheduled for some time in December or early January. The bill could then be sent to a committee for hearings, but most likely not nearly as many hearings as there were in the Senate (and quite possibly none at all). And there could be a final vote before the end of April.

And while nothing is a foregone conclusion, supporters of the bill are cautiously optimistic that it will pass. That’s because the Liberals hold a substantial majority, and most of them, along with the New Democratic Party and the Green Party, are expected to vote in favor. 

Beluga whales at Marineland – from Alamy

Whatever the outcome, the effect of the bill on the two facilities that currently hold whales and dolphins will not be immediate since existing animals at display facilities will be grandfathered in.

Of the two display facilities in Canada, the Vancouver Aquarium only holds a lone cetacean, Helen, a Pacific white-sided dolphin.

Marineland holds the single orca Kiska along with around four dozen beluga whales. However, any further breeding will be prohibited, and this could pose a problem for Marineland since the belugas are crammed together in small tanks and seem to be breeding indiscriminately. The penalty for breeding would be a fine of up to $200,000.

Overall, the bill sends a clear message from the people of Canada – a message that is already reaching far and wide – that whales and dolphins do not exist for our entertainment. As Sen. Sinclair put it at the third reading of the bill in the Senate:

“Given the scientific knowledge presented by experts about the biological characteristics and needs of cetaceans during the study of this bill, it is evident that it is cruel to keep cetaceans in captivity.

“We, I believe, do not want to be cruel. We should not allow others to be, either.”

The post Canadian Bill S-203 Passes in Senate. Now Goes to House. appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

A classic example is to be found in this recent article in the entertainment section of the Orlando Sentinel, where “journalist” Kathleen Christiansen reports on a new experience at SeaWorld Orlando, in which kids learn how to teach tricks to an orca.

Without asking a single question about the educational value of the $85-per-person “Killer Whale Up-Close Tour,” Christiansen simply leaves it to John DeLuca, leader of SeaWorld Orlando’s education department, to characterize for her what she’s seeing: “It’s everything you would hope for — intimate, exclusive, and immersive.”

“Bringing guests this close,” he continues, “letting them see and experience the power and wonder of these incredible whales first-hand, it’s an amazing opportunity and one I’m super proud to be able to offer.”

Back at the office after the tour, Christiansen writes about how one of the trainers demonstrated behaviors taught to the orcas through hand gestures and positive reinforcement, ranging from spin around to sing and boo — my personal favorite in which the orca is ‘scared’ and then screams.”

And she continues: “After learning each sequence of movements to get the desired behavior, my group participated, rewarding Kayla with fish or ice each time she responded correctly. We even taught Kayla a new trick: boo with spinning.”

So, what exactly are these kids being taught on this “Killer Whale Up-Close Tour”?

Randy Malamud, Professor of English at Georgia State University and author of several books about animals in captivity, writes that these facilities “offer an opportunity for people to observe these animals conveniently: on our own terms and in our own neighborhoods. It may be argued that this constitutes miseducation – a delusory vision of how other animals really live in our world.”

This is the bottom-line “education” that anyone inevitably receives when they get to teach inane tricks to a majestic creature who, as we sadly witnessed just a few years ago at this same entertainment park – SeaWorld Orlando – can tear a human to pieces in but a few seconds.

Malamud continues: “When we look at other animals through a frame that asserts our fantasy of dominion over them, when we alienate ourselves from them, we are proclaiming: ‘I am not an animal! You are the animal!’”

Rather than learning how we are part of the fabric of nature and the proverbial web of life, what we are taught at shows like the new “Killer Whale Up-Close Tour” is that we humans have taken “dominion” over the Earth and all its creatures. And that the only thing that might be scary about a “killer whale up close” is that she might spin around on command and go “Boo!”

The post SeaWorld’s New “Education” Tour appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

And now here we are again. On Thursday, September 14th, another member of the “J” pod of Southern Resident orcas was declared dead by the Center for Whale Research. Four-year-old Scarlet (J-50), sick, starving and emaciated, had not been seen for more than a week.

Scarlet had had a difficult start in life. Rake marks seen along her body soon after she was born suggested that she’d been a breech baby and that family members had midwifed her out of her mother Slick (J-16).

But she was a vibrant and energetic youngster who soon became something of a celebrity – a wildlife photographer’s dream – as she would launch herself out of the water in a perfect arc, nose pointing to tail, over and over again.

It didn’t last. By age three, she was looking thin and clearly weaker. And by the time she approached age four, she was the size of a two-year old.

Joe Gaydos, a wildlife veterinarian with the SeaDoc Society, called her “the thinnest killer whale I have ever seen.” But as sick as she was, Scarlet was determined to keep up with her family in their daily travels through the Salish Sea in search of food.

“She was like this little Energizer bunny that just keeps going and going, and definitely captured our hearts,” Dr. Gaydos said.

*           *           *

Scarlet with her family in mid-August. Photo by Katy Foster/Whale Sanctuary Project under NOAA permit 18786.

Scarlet’s family was already in trouble. A dwindling supply of their main diet, chinook salmon, along with a growing supply of environmental and noise pollutants, was making life harder for the three pods – J, K, and L – that make up the subspecies known as the Southern Resident Killer Whales. And since they are now designated an officially endangered population, it was up to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to determine whether action should be taken to save Scarlet’s life, and if so how much. Any decision would have to take into account that orcas have especially strong social and family ties. And human interference with Scarlet could cause added stress to the rest of the pod.

We would not support her transfer to a display park or aquarium.

More than a dozen organizations collaborated under the auspices of NOAA in the effort to save Scarlet’s life. The Whale Sanctuary Project team was led by our site-search and rehab coordinator Jeff Foster. One of the world’s experts in cetacean rescue, Jeff supervised the rehab of the orphan orca Springer in 2002 and the humane capture of sea otters during the Exxon Valdez oil spill. And his dolphin rescue work during Hurricane Katrina won him the honor of being named by NOAA as Environmental Hero of the Year.

Setting aside their work at possible sanctuary locations in British Columbia and Washington, where they were conducting environmental analyses, Jeff and Katy (his wife and rescue partner) worked with NOAA and the other organizations to develop the protocols to help Scarlet, and Katy also documented the rescue effort. (Most of the photos and videos in our updates were taken by her.)

And since NOAA could not fund the costs of the participants, we were grateful to all of you whose donations made it possible for us to be involved.

From the beginning, we made it clear that we would take part in the effort as long as Scarlet continued to swim free with her family group. Only if she were to live-strand or become separated from them would we then support taking her to an ocean-based sea pen for temporary treatment prior to returning her to her pod. And under no circumstances would we support transferring her to an entertainment park or aquarium.

Jeff Foster prepares to take a breath sample from Scarlet. Photo by Katy Foster/Whale Sanctuary Project under NOAA permit 18786.

As the plan took shape, the protocol that Jeff recommended required that the team would first collect breath and fecal samples for analysis. Then Scarlet would receive antibiotics and other medication through injection (via a dart) or by offering her medicated fish. If her condition still deteriorated, there would be an option to pick her up – but only if she were acoustically separated from her family.

Once on board a boat, she would be examined and given medication, and preferably be put straight back in the ocean. But if her condition demanded it, she could be brought to a sea pen for more treatment and to build up her weight to the point where she could be returned to her family.

Springer being treated in her sea pen in 2002. Photo by Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada.

Something similar had been done 16 years earlier when an ailing orca, known as Springer, began approaching boats. She was taken to a sea pen, where she was fed and medicated for a month and then taken up to British Columbia and reunited with her Northern Resident pod.

The rescue/rehab was a major success, and Springer has since given birth to two calves. And while Scarlet’s situation was different (for starters, Springer was considered an orphan), the same sea pen was still available.

Scarlet did get two antibiotic shots, but she continued to decline, and so plans were made to pick her up if she were to become acoustically separated from her family.

But the rescue team never found her in a situation where they could pick her up. The last time she was seen was on September 7, when she was lagging up to a mile behind the rest of the family but still acoustically in touch with them.

Keeping tabs on the pod was difficult in itself, since orcas can travel up to a hundred miles a day. But when we next saw the family, a couple of days later, Scarlet’s mother Slick was not among them. We guessed that she had gone to be with Scarlet and had stayed with her until the youngster could no longer hold her head above the water.

And when we next saw Slick, she was back with the rest of the family, but with no further sign of Scarlet.

*           *           *

It has always been part of our plan that at any sanctuary we create for captive whales, rescue and rehab of free-ranging whales will also be part of our work. But Scarlet’s plight propelled us into that side of our mission earlier than expected.

We couldn’t save her, but we believe the effort was worthwhile, both in itself and for the future. That’s because sooner or later – probably sooner – there will be another Southern Resident orca in trouble. And when that happens, and if the team that worked together from the start of this mission can collaborate again, then Scarlet will have left a legacy of hope for the future of her family.

The post In the Wake of Scarlet appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

“There has been much discussion over the past couple of days about the next steps that should be taken to help Scarlet. The Whale Sanctuary Project supports continuing treatment for Scarlet while she is free-swimming with her family group. Only if she were to live-strand or to become separated from her family would we support taking her to an ocean-based sea pen for temporary treatment prior to returning her to her family. Under no circumstances would we support transferring Scarlet to an entertainment park or aquarium.”

The post Statement re. Future Treatment of Scarlet appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

We are updating this page regularly to keep you informed of how Scarlet and Tahlequah are doing.

September 13: From NOAA. 
Unfortunately J-50 has not been seen in several days of favorable conditions and repeated sightings of her pod and family group, including J-16, her mother. Teams were on the water searching yesterday and are increasing a broad transboundary search today with our on-water partners and counterparts in Canada.

We have alerted the West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network, which is a tremendous resource in such situations. Airlines flying in and out of the San Juan Islands are also on the lookout. The hotline for stranding reports is 1-866-767-6114.

September 12: 9 am PT. NOAA will be holding two public meetings this weekend to outline the basic options that now being considered for Scarlet/J-50. Your participation is welcome. The meetings will be:

• Saturday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m. at Friday Harbor High School in Friday Harbor, Wash.
• Sunday, Sept. 16, at 1 p.m., at the University of Washington, Haggett Hall Cascade Room, in Seattle.

Next steps could include a rescue operation and hands-on physical examination. That could lead to rapid treatment and return to the water, or short-term care and rehabilitation to improve her chances of survival.

In order to minimize potential stress to the rest of Scarlet’s family, response teams would act to rescue her only if she becomes stranded or separated from the rest of her family. And the overriding priority of any rescue would be to evaluate, treat, and rehabilitate her to give her the greatest chance of survival while ensuring her return and reunification with her family as soon as possible.

Scarlet Sept. 8, 2018. The dent behind her head shows her emaciated condition. Photo by Katy Foster/Whale Sanctuary Project, under permit 18786.

September 8: From NOAA
Scarlet/J-50 was seen lagging a half-mile to a mile behind the rest of her family group at times on Friday (Sept. 7), and her body condition is not improving. She appeared to have lost more weight and looked very thin.

With growing concern, we are working with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to evaluate options.

Our highest priorities are to do all we can to ensure J50 remains a contributing part of the Southern Resident killer whale population and to prevent any harm to her and her family under any potential response scenario.

That is the bottom line.

Scarlet with other members of J Pod. Photo by Candace Emmons/NOAA Fisheries, under permit 18786.

September 6: 2 pm PT – from NOAA
We now have some results of the fecal and breath samples the team collected to better understand and diagnose Scarlet/J-50’s condition. We reported back on August 17 on the first fecal sample, which was collected from a small group of J Pod whales, including J-50.

Genetic analysis determined that the sample is likely from Slick/J-16, Scarlet’s mother. This sample showed evidence of parasitic worms. Since Slick catches fish that she then shares with Scarlet, the veterinary team prioritized treating Scarlet with a dewormer, following antibiotics. A second fecal sample was identified as from J-27, an adult male.

Researchers at our Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle have meanwhile extracted DNA from the breath sample collected on August 9. While the sample was small and yielded little DNA, researchers are adapting their analysis to make the most of the available material. We will update you when we have more information.

September 6: 8 AM PT. This morning, the Whale Sanctuary Project posted the following statement about next steps in the treatment of Scarlet:

“There has been much discussion over the past couple of days about the next steps that should be taken to help Scarlet. The Whale Sanctuary Project supports continuing treatment for Scarlet while she is free-swimming with her family group. Only if she were to live-strand or to become separated from her family would we support taking her to an ocean-based sea pen for temporary treatment prior to returning her to her family. Under no circumstances would we support transferring Scarlet to an entertainment park or aquarium.”

September 4: – from NOAA – Once again, Scarlet impressed scientists on Monday as remarkably active and engaged with her family, J Pod, despite her severely emaciated condition. Never have researchers seen such an emaciated whale defy the odds for so long. Scarlet stayed close to her mother, Slick/J-16, and continued the longer dives expected of healthy whales.

Researchers from SR3 and NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center collected new aerial images of J-50 and other J Pod whales for comparison to a 10-year time series to assess growth and body condition.

Veterinarian Dr. Martin Haulena of the Vancouver Aquarium gave Scarlet another dose of antibiotics through a dart. (Her first dose was on August 9.)

The treatment priority has now shifted to administering a dewormer, also through a dart, to reduce any parasitic burden on Scarlet’s system. Teams did not get the chance to provide the dewormer on Monday, but will continue to attempt that, depending on the location of the whales and conditions on the water.

Scarlet/J-50 off the west side of San Juan Island on Aug. 11, 2018. Photo by Katy Foster/Whale Sanctuary Project, under permit 18786.

September 3 11.45 am PT. We’ve been hearing reports for the last hour that Scarlet has been sighted with her family. NOAA has now confirmed this, saying:

“Good news! Multiple organizations are reporting that J50 has been spotted with J Pod in the U.S. waters of the Salish Sea this morning. We will continue our efforts to assess the health of J50 and treat her according to the priorities outlined by our team of veterinarians and scientists.”

September 3: 9.30 am PT – from NOAA – We are disappointed to report that J-50, the young female Southern Resident killer whale also known as Scarlet, did not return from open waters off the West Coast of Vancouver Island to the Salish Sea with J Pod over the weekend. Biologists from Center for Whale Research, Vancouver Aquarium, Soundwatch, and the University of Washington spent much of the day Sunday (Sept. 2) with other members of J Pod, including J-16, her mother. Scarlet was not seen with them.

We all hold out hope that J-50 is still alive, and we are in touch with the Pacific Whale Watch Association, Fisheries & Oceans Canada (DFO), and other organizations with eyes on the water to check for any other recent sightings, which may help us determine where to look more closely.

We all know J-50 as tough and tenacious. One of the last sightings by DFO on Thursday (Aug. 30) reported that J-16 and J-26, J-50’s brother, were lagging behind most of J Pod by about three nautical miles, and J-50 was lagging about a half-mile behind them. Sometimes she got closer, but she looked to be struggling to keep up.

The standard for determining the loss of any of the Southern Residents is to spot a whale’s family group multiple times without them. This rule may be relevant for J-50 to confirm her status given how far behind the other whales she had followed at times.

We do know that J-50 had lost a great deal of weight in recent months. Biologists recognized her condition as grave. An international team of biologists, veterinarians, tribes, and other partners had mobilized an unprecedented effort to try to support J-50 through health assessments and treatment.

We and our many partners are hopeful that the additional efforts to follow up on sightings and take advantage of all the organizations on the water today will give us more information about J-50 and J Pod. We will update everyone tomorrow.

August 24: Scarlet and the entire J pod have not been seen in the area of the San Juan Islands since our last update. They were observed in Canadian waters on Wednesday (Aug. 22nd), but were farther out to sea than the research boats can practicably reach – meaning that by the time the boats reach the place where there’s been a sighting (like from the air), the whales are likely long gone. And given the distance involved, there’s not enough time for a round trip transit plus time near the whales.

We need to wait until they come closer to land. But we’re also aware that as fall comes closer, the Southern Resident orcas all routinely move further out to sea, where the food supply is better at that time of year. So, the window of opportunity will likely be closing in the coming weeks.

(Note: Check out our Facebook page for new video from Jeff and Katy Foster.)

Scarlet’s mother, Slick/J-16, spyhops as her daughter waits close by. (Photo: Katy Foster/NOAA Fisheries, under permit 18786)

August 20: 2 pm PT – from NOAA Response teams spent about three hours on Saturday (Aug. 18) monitoring Scarlet as J Pod returned to the Salish Sea on the way towards San Juan Island.

Biologists aboard a SeaDoc Society vessel reported Scarlet actively socializing with the rest of the pod, a hint that her condition may be improving slightly. She fell behind as the whales swam east, but a University of Washington (UW) team saw her rejoin her mother Slick/J16 and sister Echo/J42 to forage near Hannah Heights on the west side of San Juan Island. The UW team also collected two fecal samples from the group.

On Sunday, J Pod was seen heading west, back toward open ocean. The plan going forward is to administer another dose of antibiotic through a dart and, if possible, a second dart with dewormer to reduce parasitic worms, known to be harmful in emaciated marine mammals like Scarlet, and that were found in the recent fecal samples from a group of three whales including J50. The veterinary team believes another dose of antibiotic remains the priority to treat potential infection since the first dart on Aug. 9th delivered only half a dose. Darting a swimming killer whale who has thick skin, particularly on fins and flukes, from a rocking boat is challenging. To ensure that J50/Scarlet receives the medication, veterinarians may switch to a collared needle with a ridge that holds it in place long enough to deliver the full dose. This type of dart is commonly used to treat wildlife, such as elephants, and will fall out in time.

Collecting a breath sample from Scarlet. (Photo: Katy Foster/NOAA Fisheries, under permit 18786)

August 17: Test results from the health samples collected from Scarlet/J-50 are starting to come in from several top laboratories around the country.

A fecal sample collected last weekend from Scarlet and from her mother Slick/J16 and her sister Echo/J-42 showed high levels of Contracaecum, a nematode parasite that is commonly found in killer whales and other marine mammals.

The worm is not usually a problem in healthy animals. However, in animals that are emaciated or are otherwise compromised, the parasite can penetrate the stomach lining, introducing bacterial infection to the bloodstream, or it can bore into internal organs. While we cannot be sure the sample came from Scarlet, the veterinary team has updated her treatment priorities to include antibiotics and a dewormer. Both have proven successful and safe in other cetaceans. The treatment should help Scarlet by reducing bacterial and parasitic burdens on her system so she can start regaining the weight she has lost.

The whales remain in open waters off the west side of Vancouver Island, beyond the reach of the response teams.

August 14: The J pod has headed out into open waters for a few days, so the team won’t be able to work directly with Scarlet until the pod returns. Meanwhile, NOAA posted the following this morning:

From NOAA – “Now that the response team has met all the initial goals for Scarlet/J-50’s health assessment and treatment, and the J Pod has headed out to open waters, biologists and veterinarians are taking stock of what they have learned so far. They are reviewing video footage and photos and processing samples to gain further insights into Scarlet’s health and behavior. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, University of Washington, Center for Whale Research and other partners continue to monitor the whales and collect fecal and prey samples (e.g., fish scales) when possible.

“The teams will also review the results of the feeding trial on Sunday, August 12th, while they determine next steps. We are grateful to all our partners for their help, patience and support over the past few weeks. The response team thanks all of you who are following this story closely for your support and positive wishes. Recovering these whales and the West Coast salmon runs they depend upon will take all of us.”

Lummi Nation vessel (top) releases live fish during trials near San Juan Island on Aug. 12, 2018. (Photo by John Gussman/NOAA Fisheries, under permit 18786)

August 13: noon PT – From NOAA:
Favorable conditions yesterday allowed the teams to proceed with an experimental live fish release off the west side of San Juan Island to evaluate the process as a way to treat Scarlet with medication and supplements.

Under the direction of Jeff Foster of the Whale Sanctuary Project, a Lummi Nation vessel released eight live hatchery salmon about 75 to 150 yards in front of Scarlet, while teams observed from NOAA Fisheries and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) vessels.

While she appeared to react to the released fish by quickly diving, biologists could not confirm whether she took the fish, and they are now reviewing aerial footage for further clues.

Jeff Foster coordinating the supplemental nutrition deployment from the Lummi Enforcement Vessel (Photo: Katy Foster/NOAA Fisheries, under permit 18786)

Scarlet socialized with other members of J Pod, at one point surrounded by a cluster of other whales but did sometimes fall behind in the strong current.

Researchers collected a fecal sample from the pod but could not confirm whether it was from J50 herself. Fecal samples can reveal whether the whales are eating and what they are eating, as well as providing clues about their health and gauging their stress levels by evaluating hormones such as cortisol.

The whales appeared to be headed back west toward the open ocean this morning, and teams were standing by for further sightings.

J-50 (Scarlet) off the west side of San Juan Island near Lime Kiln Lighthouse, Aug 11, 2018. (Photo: Katy Foster/NOAA Fisheries, under permit 18786)

August 12: 8 am PT – From Jeff and Katy Foster in the field:
We found J-50 (Scarlet) near Open Bay, Henry Island and spent about 6 hours with her today. We spent most of the time working with Dr. Deborah Giles and her crew from the Univ. of Washington trying to get a fecal sample and watching J-50’s behavior. We were able to get a sample but due to the close proximity of the animals it was difficult to tell which one it came from.

The J16’s (Scarlet’s mother and close family) were fairly spread out and J-50 spent most of her time alone, at times over a mile away from the other animals. The tides today were very strong and at one point she swam in the same spot bucking the tides for more than an hour while the other animals continued ahead, looking like she was having a difficult time keeping up. We’re going to try to get some fish into her midday Sunday.

August 11: 2 pm PT – From Ken Balcomb at the Center for Whale Research:
This afternoon, J-35 (Tahlequah) vigorously chased a school of salmon with her pod-mates in mid-Haro Strait in front of the Center for Whale Research for a half mile, no longer carrying the deceased baby that she had carried for at least 17days and 1,000 miles. Her tour of grief is now over and her behavior is remarkably frisky.

Photo of Tahlequah (J-35) with her family Aug 11. Telephoto digital image by Ken Balcomb/CWR

Telephoto digital images taken from shore show that this mother whale appears to be in good physical condition (no evidence of “peanut-head”) following her record-setting ordeal. There had been reports from brief sightings by whale-watchers two days ago that J35 was not pushing the calf carcass in Georgia Strait near Vancouver, BC, and, now we can confirm that she definitely has abandoned it. The carcass has probably sunk to the bottom of these inland marine waters of the Salish Sea, and researchers may not get a chance to examine it for necropsy.

August 11: 9 am PT: Yesterday’s plan was to test-feed live salmon to Scarlet (J-50) in waters off Washington State’s San Juan Island. NOAA wants to see whether medication can be given to her through live Chinook salmon (the sole food of the Southern Resident orcas).

Dr. Marty Haulena, Dr. Brad Hanson, Candice Emmons, Jeff Foster, Katy Foster, & Trevor Foster on the NOAA health assessment vessel for J50 Aug. 9, 2018. (Photo: John Gussman/NOAA Fisheries, permit #18786)

But first, the team needs to test whether Scarlet will catch a salmon who is put into the water from a boat. So, two boats carrying live fish headed out in the early morning.

NOAA notes that the team watched as Scarlet repeatedly dove and surfaced where the pod was feeding. Biologists could not tell whether she also fed, but they collected leftover scale samples that will help identify what kind of salmon the whales had eaten. Scarlet again appeared active and energetic. The team also sighted Tahlequah (J-35), but could not confirm if she was still carrying her calf due to poor visibility.

The feeding plan had to be aborted when the J pod crossed into Canadian waters since NOAA hasn’t yet received a permit from Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans to carry out that kind of operation.

Instead, crews aboard a Lummi Nation boat practiced sending the salmon down a turquoise tube into the water. And the Whale Sanctuary Project team practiced taking samples of fish scales, so they can genetically track whether Scarlet consumed the fish carrying the medication.

It was a long day, and a somewhat frustrating one. But the practice was worthwhile, and the team will try again.

August 9: 10.20 pm PT – Progress! Teams reached J Pod in Canadian waters and followed them into U.S. waters near San Juan Island. While very skinny and small, Scarlet (J-50) kept up well with her mother and siblings. Veterinarian Marty Haulena from the Vancouver Aquarium got a thorough look at her and the team obtained a breath sample that will help assess any infection. They also administered a dose of antibiotics through a dart. Next step is to determine whether to proceed with trial feeding, depending on conditions and the location of the whales. Great work by the teams on the water!

August 9: 6.30 pm PT – Tahlequah (J-35) was spotted today off the south shore of Vancouver Island, still holding the body of her baby 17 days after her birth and death. Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale research writes:

Photo of Tahlequah from the Center for Whale Research.

“The spray of water and exhalation is coming from the top of J-35’s head, and the white tube-like structure draped over the foreground side of her head is the baby’s intestine. The white blob seen underwater is what remains of the skin and blubber surrounding the baby’s head.”

August 9: 6 pm PT – This is the plan for what happens if/when we encounter Scarlet:

• Collect breath sample (via long pole)
• Collect fecal sample (scooped from the water)
• Other sampling of mucus and/or skin if practical (via long pole)
• Simultaneously complete visual veterinary health assessment
• Provide antibiotic treatment through pole system or dart

After these steps are complete, the teams will consider using live fish to provide medical treatment. Since nothing like this has been attempted before, they would first conduct a trial release of live fish to see if Scarlet will take the fish. The team would release fish from a vessel through a chute about 50 to 100 yards in front of her. And if she takes it, the team will discuss delivering oral medications inserted into the live fish based on the outcomes of the veterinary assessment

Jeff Foster of the Whale Sanctuary Project checks the pole that will be used to collect breath samples during the planned health assessment of J50. (Photo: John Gussman/NOAA Fisheries)

August 9: 12 pm PT –The team is on the water now, ready to respond as soon as the pod is within range, and conditions allow them to assess Scarlet’s health and also to monitor the condition of Tahlequah.

Note: NOAA emphasizes that the mission of the team is not to start an ongoing feeding program for Scarlet (which could habituate her to being fed from boats). If a decision is made to feed her, the purpose would be to introduce medicine to treat an infection, rather than to provide nutrition.

August 8: A Canadian team from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) spotted J pod in U.S. waters off the Olympic Peninsula northwest of Neah Bay. Scarlet was with her mother, J16, known as Slick. Teams are preparing to approach Scarlet tomorrow in order to collect breath and fecal samples so they can assess her health. They may also attempt to give her some medication, if there is opportunity.

August 8: After not seeing Tahlequah for a week, teams spotted her today. She is still carrying her dead infant daughter – a heartbreaking sight.

August 7: Scarlet was spotted by Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans Canada with her pod off Port Renfew, near the west entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Throughout the day, as some teams searched for J50, other partners in the effort continued making important preparations to be ready for an opportunity to assess J50’s health.

Aerial photo of J16 with her calf, Scarlet, in 2015, when Scarlet was less than a year old. Photo by John Durban (NOAA Fisheries), Holly Fearnbach (SR3) and Lance Barrett-Lennard (Vancouver Aquarium), taken by an unmanned hexacopter during research authorized under NMFS permit #16163.

August 6: Responders continued searching for J pod today without success. The whales have not been seen since Saturday night, when spotted in open waters on the west side of Vancouver Island. Veterinarians are on standby to conduct a health assessment of Scarlet.

August 4: Scarlet was seen with the J pod around the west side of Vancouver Island, beyond the reach of most response vessels. We are awaiting an opportunity to complete a veterinary medical assessment.

August 3: Analysis of a small sample of Scarlet’s breath did not definitively indicate an infection or illness, although it does not rule one out either.

August 2: Experts agreed to focus efforts over the next few days on obtaining better photographs of Scarlet and conducting a veterinary health assessment to inform options for a decision on whether and how they might be able to respond.

Title photo is of Scarlet/J-50 with her sister Echo/J-42, by Katy Foster/WSP/for NOAA.

The post Updates on the “J” Pod Orcas appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

The park, Changfeng Ocean World, was purchased by Merlin Entertainments in 2012. And while Merlin’s partner, Sea Life, operates aquariums around the world, the two companies have a longstanding policy of not displaying whales and dolphins at any of their facilities.

Changfeng had three belugas on display at the park, so Merlin and Sea Life immediately began making plans to move them to a sanctuary where they could have a more natural life. One of the belugas has since passed away, but the other two, Little Grey and Little White, are already preparing for what will be a long flight next year, across two oceans from Shanghai to their new Icelandic home.

Little Grey and Little White are preparing for a long flight from Shanghai to a sanctuary in Iceland.

The cost of construction of the sanctuary, along with the transport of Little Grey and Little White, is being covered by a donation from Merlin to marine focused charity the Sea Life Trust. And the ensuing care of the animals and operation of the sanctuary will be the responsibility of the charity, which is partnering with Whale & Dolphin Conservation (WDC), a U.K.-based charity that supports and leads whale and dolphin conservation field projects and research around the world.

Working together, Sea Life Trust and WDC say they looked at sites in Russia, North America, Norway and Scotland before deciding on Iceland. They settled on Klettsvik Bay, a large natural sea inlet that was used 20 years ago for the rehab and release of the orca Keiko, the real-life star of the 1993 feature film Free Willy. Charles Vinick, who managed the Keiko Project and is Executive Director of the Whale Sanctuary Project, remembers it well.

“It’s a beautiful bay, tucked just inside the entrance to the Heimay harbor” he recalls. “But it can get rough weather; so, I hope everyone involved in creating a sanctuary there is well prepared for that!”

The large bay area, which measures nearly eight acres and has a depth of up to 33 feet, provides plenty of space for the belugas to swim, explore and dive.

Artist’s impression of the future Sea Life Trust sanctuary.

Sea Life Trust has already started building the necessary care facilities for the whales, and is also planning a visitor and education center, along with a puffin hospital. James Burleigh, Board member of the Sea Life Trust, explains that three-to-four thousand “pufflings” hatch on the local islands every year.

“When they start learning to fly, they get disoriented and land in the nearby town (also called Heimaey). The kids rescue them, and they get weighed, named and photographed, and then the kids go to the beach with their parents and release them. So, we’re going to have a sanctuary for some of those puffins that might need a bit of help, too.”

Burleigh, who is also Divisional Director for Merlin Conservation, Welfare and Engagement, says that the policy of Merlin and Sea Life not to have whales and dolphins at any of their facilities goes back nearly 30 years. He recalls a time, back in 1990, when Sea Life took over a dolphinarium in the south of England.

“We took two dolphins, Missy and Silver, to the Turks and Caicos Islands and released them there. We know a lot more about rehab today than we did back then, but that’s where the seed was sown. That’s when our principles were founded. We don’t judge what other people do, but do talk positively about our stance.”

Beluga whales at Changfeng Ocean World under its former management

Sea Life still operates aquariums all over the world – 48 centers in 17 countries – but none with cetaceans. “We want people to fall in love with the ocean,” Burleigh says. “And we’ll do it through our aquaria. But we won’t do it with whales and dolphins.”

While there been a significant change in public opinion in Europe regarding keeping whales in captivity, Burleigh agrees that that’s not the case yet in China and many other parts of Asia.

“This became a bigger challenge for us in Changfeng because cetaceans are a large part of the marine entertainment industry in China. The belugas had been there for eight years before we even arrived. And it’s not that they don’t love the animals there. They love these animals. They’re amazed by them. But they just have a different approach to it.”

The two companies have a longstanding policy of not displaying whales and dolphins at any of their facilities.

Burleigh doesn’t want to comment on the practices of other companies’ marine entertainment parks. “We can’t start to judge that,” he says. But he agrees that in the U.S. the documentary Blackfish “was a key that unlocked the door” in public opinion.

Two years ago, in the United States, the National Aquarium announced plans to create a seaside sanctuary for all their dolphins, most likely in Florida. In an op-ed piece in the Baltimore Sun, National Aquarium CEO John Racanelli wrote: “Through feedback painstakingly gathered over 10 years, we have learned that the American public is increasingly uneasy with the notion of keeping dolphins and whales in captivity.”

Other display facilities in the United States have yet to follow suit, but Burleigh observes significant changes already taking place.

“I still think that when you look at what people go and pay money for and what they enjoy as families in America, now, it’s very different from how they did it 20 years ago,” he says. “Your experiences are totally different, and the technologies are different. You’ve got virtual reality, augmented reality, all sorts of stuff. People don’t need to be in a pool swimming with dolphins. They can have that essential experience in different ways.”

He believes the same will unfold in China. “The world will change, and people will change, and we’ve had a lot of support there. And people understand where the direction is. And for us, we just have to set an example and do it the way we do it.”

All of which will be just fine with Little White and Little Grey.

The post Sea Life Trust Is Building the World’s First Beluga Sanctuary appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Dio with Deborah Giles (left), Collette Yee and Sharon Grace. Photo: Katy Foster/NOAA Fisheries, under permit 18786.

Meet Dio, canine member of the team that’s working to help the ailing orca Scarlet (J-50).

Dio is an ace sniffer dog, and his role is to direct the research vessel to where his colleagues can gather a sample of whale scat and take it back to the lab.

Researchers can glean amazing amounts of information from whale poop (what scientists call “fecal data”) – like what they’re eating, reproductive status, stress level, environmental toxin levels – about the health of an individual animal and of the pod overall. And to get a good diagnosis of what’s ailing Scarlet and what medication she might best respond to, they need a good sample of her droppings.

But first they need to locate a fresh sample. And that’s Dio’s job. He’s everything you want in a sniffer dog and everything that a lot of people don’t want in a family pet: a dog who’s high-energy and obsessed with chasing after balls.

Dogs like Dio often end up at a shelter, and it can be hard to place a rambunctious, ball-obsessed dog in a family home. In Dio’s case, he was a young, stray Queensland heeler mix with an injury to his jaw, who was picked up and brought to the Humboldt County Animal Shelter in northern California. The shelter staff despaired of being able to find him a home because of his off-the-wall high energy. But a volunteer realized that he would be a great sniffer dog, and in August 2015 he found himself on his way north to the University of Washington’s Center for Conservation Biology, where he joined the Conservation Canines Division.

Dio can detect odors so faint they’re just three parts in a million.Dio is one of 17 dogs, eight handlers and five lab staff at Conservation Canines, who can be working on anything from tracking down herds of caribou, to establishing the range of a pocket mouse or a barred owl, to Dio’s current assignment locating whale scat.

Their talent is unmatched. Dio can detect odors so faint they’re just three parts in a million. He can hone in on a sample of whale scat from more than a nautical mile away, even in fast-moving currents. Conservation Canines founder, biologist Sam Wasser, compares the dogs’ ability to detect a specific scent to you or me being able to taste a teaspoon of sugar in a million gallons of water.

Wasser has been called the Sherlock Holmes of the wildlife trade. A conservation biologist, professor and research scientist, he pioneered the genetic, endocrine and detection dog techniques that are used by the Center for everything from tracking down the origins of elephant ivory seized by international law enforcement to the kind of work that Dio is doing to help the Southern Resident orcas.

Dio with Collette Yee. Photo: Whale Sanctuary Project/NOAA Fisheries, under permit 18786.

One day last week, Dio was aboard NOAA’s research vessel with his handler, Colleen Yee, along with Sharon Grace of the Southern Resident Killer Whale Chinook Salmon Initiative, and Dr. Deborah Giles of Wild Orca. Giles (she goes by her last name) is a resident scientist and lecturer at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Labs, and the vessel captain for the Center for Conservation Biology.

With Giles directing the overall operation, Dio was on the bow of the boat with Yee holding his leash. To locate a sample of scat, the boat moves perpendicular to the wind up to a quarter of a mile behind or parallel to the whales depending on the direction of the wind. This helps Dio pick up the scent, and he alerts Yee by pulling over to one side of the boat to show her where to direct the boat. The team then follows the changes in his behavior until they arrive at the sample.

Each sample collected is extracted and assayed for DNA stress, reproductive and nutrition hormones, as well as toxicants (PCB, PBDE and DDT congeners). Usually, this kind of work observes the whales over time, but on this mission Giles and her team were looking for specific information about one whale, Scarlet, and that’s a lot trickier since she needs to be sure she’s getting a sample from her and only her. Still, the researchers collected several fecal samples, and Giles said they’ll be able to conduct genetic typing to discover which whale left which sample, and will be able to test for stress or pregnancy hormones as well as for nutrition information.

If the team determines they need another sample, Dio will get another day on the ocean. If not, he’ll be back on land again for a while, tracking down more treasures from the other kinds of animals who are his specialties: wolverines, bats and various birds.

For the researchers, it’s critically important conservation work. For Dio and his pals, it’s just another day spent doing his favorite thing.

The post Dio the Dog Goes Sniffing for Whale Poop appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Jeff Foster and Katy Laveck Foster, Pacific Northwest site selection coordinators for the Whale Sanctuary Project, are coordinating much of the field work, working hand-in-hand with veterinarians, researchers, and other organizations to conduct the health assessment of J-50, and to develop the protocols for delivering live fish to her, along with medication if that becomes necessary. Katy is also providing photo and video documentation for the NOAA team effort.

Aboard a NOAA vessel, observing Scarlett, are Jeff Foster of the Whale Sanctuary Project (in front), and Dr. Brad Hanson of NOAA, Dr. Deborah Giles of Friday Harbor Labs (Univ. of Washington), and wildlife conservationist Collette Yee. Photo by Katy Foster/WSP/for NOAA.

Over recent weeks, Scarlett has lost about 20 percent of her body weight and it appears that her life is in the balance. She is so thin that she has “peanut head,” meaning that the back of her cranium is visible. A white patch that’s been spotted near her blowhole could be a sign of an infection.

She is a member of the J pod, one of three extended orca families known as the Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW). Their numbers have been dwindling due to lack of their only food source, Chinook salmon, along with ever-increasing environmental pollution and boat noise. The SRKW are now listed as an endangered species, and only 75 remain.

Scarlett (J-50), left, with her big sister Echo (J-42). The indent around her neck indicates the condition known as “peanut head.” Photo by Katy Foster/WSP/for NOAA.

As a young female, Scarlett is one of few among the J pod who represent the next generation of whales. (Two weeks ago, another of their family, Tahlequah/J-35, gave birth to a baby daughter, but the infant only survived for half an hour. Since then, Tahlequah has been carrying the body of her infant as she and the family continue their daily search for food.)

“The situation facing the Southern Resident population is dire, and every member of J, K and L pods is important,” said Charles Vinick, Executive Director of the Whale Sanctuary Project. “Our team has expertise in the effort to assess J-50’s health and to provide help to her at this critical time. It is something we must do and as much as we are committed to improving the welfare of captive whales, we must also do all we can to help wild whales.”

The relief effort for Scarlett, which began on August 3rd, involves acquiring health assessment data through breath and fecal cultures, providing supplemental food, and, if data indicates that medication may be warranted, providing medication through the supplemental food.

Time is of the essence and plans to locate Scarlett and her family have been thwarted by fog over the Salish Sea.

Members of the Lummi Nation have been rehearsing what it will take to deliver live fish to Scarlett. Jay Julius, chairman of the Lummi Nation, and other tribal leaders collected salmon from a local hatchery and took them to one of the locations that members of the team hope the pod will visit in the next few days.

“Everything has to fall into place,” Julius told Lynda Mapes of the Seattle Times aboard their boat, the Lengesot. “We need lots of prayer and optimism and belief. Everything has to align. We are going to give it our all. And we are ready. Now it is time to pray, pray, pray.”

The post Whale Sanctuary Project Joins Rescue Effort for Orca J-50 appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

On July 25th, Tahlequah, known to scientists as J35, gave birth to a daughter who lived for only 30 minutes. The outpouring of sympathy is natural and understandable. Who among us has not lost someone very close to us? And who among us does not relate to the extreme stress and grief associated with a mother losing her child? Motherhood and loss are universal.

Tahlequah carries her dead calf through the busy waters of the Salish Sea off the coast of Victoria BC. Photo by Soundwatch/NMFS

With help from other members of her family, known as the J pod, Tahlequah has been keeping the dead baby afloat as the pod continues to ply the waters of the Salish Sea, off the coast of Seattle, in search of an ever-diminishing supply of food in what is an increasingly depleted, noisy and polluted environment.

As she has struggled to keep the infant body afloat, Tahlequah has sometimes fallen behind her family. Recently, however, she has been seen back together with them. And sometimes she has been observed without the body, but later with it again. Apparently, she may be dropping it and then recovering it from the bottom, or perhaps sharing the burden with other members of the family.

“Just as when someone dies in our own lives, she is neglecting herself because this is taking precedence over everything,” says Lori Marino, President of the Whale Sanctuary Project and a leading expert in marine mammal intelligence.

“It is very familiar to any of us who has lost a family member. And that is why people around the world are feeling such sympathy for her. She carried this baby for 18 months, and then, less than an hour after giving birth, she watched her die.”

Tahlequah in happier times – 2017. Photo by Ken Balcomb, Center for Whale Research.

And her pod, which has not seen a successful pregnancy in three years, grieves with her.

Barbara King, professor of anthropology at the College of William and Mary and author of the book How Animals Grieve, says that grief and loss are not only human qualities.

She notes that there is an extensive body of evidence showing how whales and dolphins – like elephants and chimpanzees – mark the passing of their dead, including keeping vigil around the bodies of dead pod mates or keeping them afloat, as Tahlequah is doing.

Remembering the Captive Orca Mothers, Too

As we join with the orca Tahlequah in mourning the death of her newborn baby, let’s also remember the mothers at marine display parks who, like Tahlequah, have lost their infants to death or forced separation, and in their case without even any close family members to support them in their grief.

Former whale trainer Carol Ray describes the scene when “Baby Shamu” Kalina was separated from her mother, Katina. When Kalina was removed, her mother swam to the side of the pool and stayed there, screaming, screeching and crying.

“There was nothing you could call that beside grief.”

In this same video, former trainer John Hargrove describes what happened when SeaWorld decided to separate Takara from her mother, Kasatka, and ship her across the country to Orlando, Florida. When Kasatka could no longer sense her daughter’s presence in the waters around her, she began to cry out. Her long-range, heart-wrenching vocalizations – a pleading attempt to bring her daughter back to her side – continued long after Takara was gone, testifying to the deep bonds shared between orca mothers and their offspring.

Scenes like these have been repeated, over and over, when mother orcas have either seen their calves die at marine display parks or have had them taken away and transferred to other facilities. Whatever the cause – death or transfer – the grief is real and demonstrable.

Kiska at Marineland.

During her 38 years of life at Marineland, Kiska has suffered the loss of every one of her five children. Their deaths, from 1992 to 2009, likely meant for Kiska the repeated experience of deep despair. People familiar with her report that she used to be a highly vocal whale; they suspect she once called out in an attempt to reach her deceased offspring or former tank mates. Now, as if without hope of ever receiving a response, Kiska is silent.

These hardships are endured by all kinds of cetaceans in marine parks. Maris, a 21-year old beluga whale at the Georgia Aquarium, lived through the death of two of her babies in the span of three short years. Not long after the death of her second child, Maris was found dead of unknown causes.

Tahlequah’s mourning, along with the worldwide sympathy it has engendered, has given us all a moment to reflect on the universality of grief and loss. In the case of whales, both in the ocean and in captivity, it is profound and enduring.

Headline image of Tahlquah carrying her dead infant by Michael Weiss, Center for Whale Research

The post A Mother Orca’s Grief – in the Ocean and in Captivity appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

• How will a whale who’s lived in a concrete tank adapt to the wide-open space of a sanctuary?
• Why can’t captive whales be released into the open ocean?
• Might some of them be suffering from PTSD, given that they already show signs, in their tanks, of stress and other mental disorders?

These were just a few of the questions posed by the hosts and the audience when Lori Marino, President of the Whale Sanctuary Project, was the guest on the People’s Environmental News Hour, a weekly TV show that’s broadcast from San Rafael, California.

It was a full hour of all the kinds of questions you might have posed if you’d been part of the studio audience, including:

• How do marine entertainment parks teach whales to do tricks?
• What’s the incentive for them to give up their whales? Won’t it put them out of business?
• What will you do if some of the whales don’t get along with each other?
• Will you allow them to breed? If not, how do you stop them?
• What might be the effect of a sanctuary on local wildlife?
• What do you think of ecotourism – swimming with dolphins in the ocean, etc.?

And lots more. Check out the video. And if you have questions that didn’t come up during the show, go ahead and ask them on our Facebook page.

Special thanks to Barbara McVeigh and Charlie Siler of the People’s Environmental News Hour for inviting us.

The post Q&A with Dr. Lori Marino appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Due to a Conservative Party filibuster, Canada’s Bill S-203 ­– the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act – was deprived of a final vote as the Senate approached its summer adjournment. But the bill may gain a whole new life when Parliament reconvenes in the fall.

S-203’s likely last gasp in its present form was not a pretty sight. Senator Woo, Facilitator of the Independent Senators Group in Canada, said he was “appalled” by the “spectacle” of the endless stalling tactics.

“What are we doing in the Senate, twiddling our thumbs, for hours waiting for a vote to happen?” he asked after describing the amendments, sub-amendments and several hour-long delays that took the proceedings into the night. The point of the delays, he said, was “to essentially not allow a bill that’s been on the order paper for three years to have a vote.”

When Conservative Whip Senator Don Plett, the bill’s leading opponent, rose to speak, he called the whole debate “a battle between activist and scientist.” Senator Plett carefully omitted that the so-called “activists” were an A-list of world-class marine scientists, and that the people he was calling “scientists” had mainly worked for the captivity industry.
As the Senate prepared to adjourn for the summer, the bill found itself in yet another holding pattern.

Then came a series of Conservative procedural motions that left senators hanging around until 9.30 p.m., unable to force a final vote for technical reasons. “There was no point in continuing with the charge,” Senator Woo said. “They would have continued to move sub-amendments … We’d have done nothing from 10 till midnight.”

And so, 30 months after S-203’s introduction, and as the Senate prepared to adjourn for the summer, the bill found itself in yet another holding pattern. And this time, S-203 may be dead in the water since the Government may call for “prorogation” before reconvening in the fall. This event terminates a parliamentary session and kills bills such as S-203 from the previous session.

While this outcome is very frustrating for senators who have weathered years of stalling tactics, it’s not the end of the road. Even if S-203 cannot be resurrected in the fall, the bill has a path to reincarnation, so to speak. Senators could amend its provisions into Bill C-68, An Act to amend the Fisheries Act and other Acts in consequence, a government bill partially inspired by S-203. C-68 has just passed the House of Commons, and the Senate will review the legislation in the fall. Conservative senators cannot delay government bills to the same astonishing extent as private Members’ bills, such as S-203.

As it stands, C-68 would ban live cetacean captures in Canadian waters and allow the federal government to regulate the import of cetaceans and their reproductive materials. S-203 would go considerably further, by restricting imports and exports in law to cetaceans’ best interests (such as for transport to a sanctuary) or provincially licensed research. Most importantly, S-203 bans cetacean breeding by making it an animal cruelty offence. Performances for entertainment would also require a license. As Senator Murray Sinclair, sponsor of S-203, told the Senate: “I expect that our statement in the Senate about the provisions of Bill S-203 will have an influence on the process of Bill C-68 as it passes through committee stage and its amendment process.”

If a majority of senators voted to amend Bill C-68 to include some or all of S-203’s stronger proposals, a majority of elected Members of Parliament would then need to agree with the appointed Senate’s changes for them to become law.

A positive sign this could happen is that senators voted overwhelmingly to defeat Sen. Plett’s sub-amendment, brought as a stall tactic, to exempt Marineland from S-203’s application. That vote – 51 to 32, with four abstentions – signaled strong support for S-203 in the Senate. As well, Members of Parliament from Canada’s four major political parties, including the Conservative Party, held a rare joint press conference calling for a vote on S-203, indicating potentially broad policy support in the House of Commons.

So, while no whales are breaching for joy yet, there’s some confidence that Canada’s Parliament will soon enact most, maybe even all, of the groundbreaking laws proposed by Senators Wilfred Moore, Murray Sinclair and Daniel Christmas.

The post If Bill S-203 Dies, Will Reincarnation Follow? appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Maxine with her mother, Allie, at the Brookfield Zoo

Maxine was three years old.

“Maxine’s death has been devastating to all of the Chicago Zoological Society family and she will be greatly missed,” said Bill Zeigler, senior vice president of animal programs.

But however “devastating” the loss of Maxine may have been to her zoo “family,” it is likely nothing compared to the grief being experienced by her mother, 32-year-old Allie. Whales and dolphins, like elephants, are known for their behavior in response to the loss of one of their own. Only last week, a new paper was published that explores the evidence for grief and “postmortem attentive behavior” among various species of cetaceans.

For her zoo “family,” meanwhile, Maxine’s death must also have been something of an embarrassment since this was just the latest in a string of young dolphin deaths at the zoo. In 2014, two dolphin calves died at the zoo, and three years earlier a four-year-old died after apparently colliding with another dolphin in their concrete tank and suffering a fractured skull.

Alia at Dolphinaris

Maxine’s death also comes hard on the heels of the demise of Alia, a 10-year-old bottlenose dolphin who passed away on May 22nd at Dolphinaris Arizona. Dolphinaris, a Mexican-owned swim-with-the-dolphins facility outside of Scottsdale, Arizona, has yet to report whether they have done a necropsy and what it may have told them.

Alia spent her short life being shipped around the country. Born at SeaWorld Orlando in 2007, she was transferred to Discovery Cove in Orlando, then across the country to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in California, and finally to Dolphinaris Arizona when it opened in 2016.

Bodie at Dolphinaris

She is the second dolphin to lose her life at Dolphinaris in less than two years. In September 2017, Dolphinaris lost Bodie from what the company called a rare muscle disorder. Animal protection groups, however, suspect that the true cause of death was valley fever, a fungal disease that can lead to deadly respiratory infections. Dolphins are highly susceptible to respiratory ailments and their immune systems are weakened by the stress associated with captivity. Before Dolphinaris was ever built, the Animal Defense League of Arizona (ADLA) and other organizations were issuing warnings that housing dolphins in a dusty desert environment could be fatal.

Following Alia’s death, the ADLA wrote: “Bodie’s death was tragic and preventable, and it’s likely that Alia also died from respiratory disease.”

There’s growing public sentiment that whales and dolphins don’t belong in zoos and marine entertainment centers, whether in big cities in the Midwest, in the desert Southwest, or at any vacation resort. Two weeks ago, Rolling Stone published an article about the pop star Pink after she had sent an email to SeaWorld asking the company to retire its orcas and other marine mammals to seaside sanctuaries. In her email, Pink made this powerful statement:

Singer Pink in 2013 – by Wikimedia Commons

“As a mother, I would never take my kids anywhere that keeps intelligent, sensitive beings in intensive confinement. Children are impressionable, and the last thing I would want to teach my kids is that “might makes right” or that it’s OK to bully and exploit someone just because they look different from us.

But that’s exactly what SeaWorld does by locking up animals who, in their ocean homes, would swim up to 140 miles a day, dive to great depths, cooperate with their pods to find food, communicate in their own dialects, and transmit their own culture from generation to generation. At SeaWorld, all these animals are able to do is swim in endless circles. Some are so frustrated that they break their teeth by gnawing on the concrete corners and metal bars of their tiny tanks.

“But you have a chance to change all that – and do right by orcas and other animals – by sending them to sanctuaries, where they can live a more natural life and receive care for as long as they need it, as well as by making future locations, including your planned park in Hainan Island, China, virtual reality centers without any live animals. People could then feel good about taking their families to your parks. So, my question is this:

“When will SeaWorld transfer its orcas and other marine mammals to seaside sanctuaries to save them – and itself?”

Public opinion has already driven circuses to begin retiring elephants and other land-based animals to sanctuaries. Now it’s time for the marine theme parks to do the same by giving these animals a new life in an environment that’s as close as possible to their natural habitat.

The post More Dolphin Deaths at Zoos and Theme Parks appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Senator Daniel Christmas of Nova Scotia addresses his colleagues, June 11th 2018, on behalf of S-203 – the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act.

“In my aboriginal upbringing, we were always taught that animals are our brothers and sisters. They are living beings like us. They have their own spirits, they have their own families, they have their own language. And when I think of it that way, I see cetaceans as equals.”

That’s the perspective that Senator Daniel Christmas brings to the Canadian Senate on how we should be relating to whales and dolphins who are still being held in captivity at aquariums and marine theme parks in Canada.

He speaks of how, during the committee hearings, there was much testimony from humans on both sides of the question, but no testimony was possible from the people who will be most affected by the vote: the whales themselves.

“A lot of the argument talked about the human need to research the species … but I wish it were possible to get the testimony of a cetacean …

“When I see them as objects, it does make sense that we should put them in pens and use them for research and education. But something tells me in my mind and heart that it is the wrong approach. We really have to see cetaceans as our equals, as living beings.

“If I had the opportunity to ask a beluga, I believe I would ask them: “What is best for your family?”

This excerpt from Senator Christmas’s speech runs about six minutes. The full speech, which includes various procedural matters and a recap of the bill’s history, is available here, beginning at 19:56:25.

Bill S-203 – the “Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act” – has been subject to numerous delays since its first reading in December 2015. Following Senator Christmas’s speech, more amendments were introduced in an attempt to exempt the two facilities that currently hold cetaceans in concrete tanks.

Meanwhile, Senator Christmas and his colleagues are working to bring it to a final vote as soon as possible.

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“How would you feel if you had to spend the rest of your life in a bathtub?”

That was a key question that Senator Murray Sinclair posed in a remarkable speech to members of the Canadian Senate on Tuesday, May 29th.

It was the third reading of Bill S-203, which would phase out the captivity of whales, dolphins and porpoises for the purpose of profit and entertainment.

Sen. Sinclair noted that the bill was first introduced in December 2015 by Sen. Wilfred Moore, who has since retired but is continuing to work with others, including the Whale Sanctuary Project, “towards the realization of Canada becoming the home of the world’s first open-water seaside sanctuary for whales.”

“The intention of this sanctuary,” Sen. Sinclair continued, “is to provide a place where rescued whales and dolphins can be rehabilitated for release while living in an environment that maximizes their well-being and autonomy in a setting as close as possible to their natural habitat, or where they might remain permanently if unreleasable. Some locations being considered for this sanctuary are British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Washington State.”

“Everything we do has an effect on other life forms.”

Since its introduction, the bill has been stalled several times by opponents. It took more than a year for it to go to the standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, which held 17 hearings and heard from more than 40 witnesses, including several from the Whale Sanctuary Project.

In October 2017, the committee sent its report back to the Senate, but it was not adopted until April 2018. “Now here we are, 29 months, 21 days later,” Sen. Sinclair said on Tuesday.

The future of the bill is still uncertain. But what is quite certain is that the senator’s speech will be remembered as one of the great calls to action in the history of animal protection. Here is how it concludes:

“Let’s not forget the creatures living in the concrete tanks. And let’s not forget the wild cetaceans who may yet face violent capture from their family groups for the purpose of display for human entertainment. That’s what this bill is about and why it matters so much.

“Given the scientific knowledge presented by experts about the biological characteristics and needs of cetaceans during the study of this bill, it is evident that it is cruel to keep cetaceans in captivity. We, I believe, do not want to be cruel. We should not allow others to be, either.

“In my community, the Anishinaabe recognize that we are all related. Not just you and I, but you and I and all life forms of creation. As living things, we are connected to each other. We depend upon one another. Everything we do has an effect on other life forms and on our world. That is why we use the term “nii-konasiitook – all of my relations” when addressing each other.

“So, bear in mind why we are here. We are here to take care of our nation, to take care of our land, to take care of the people, and to take care of all that is part of this creation.

“So, be strong and steadfast in your beliefs. Nii-konasiitook, take care of all of our relations.

“Thank you for your attention, I ask you to support this bill.”

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In short, they are family. And last week, members of the Lummi Nation set out from Bellingham, Washington, on a 7,000-mile trek across the United States to visit one of their own, Tokitae, in Miami, Florida, and to deliver a totem pole in her honor.

More than that, they want to bring her home.

“Lolita” at a Miami Seaquarium show

Tokitae, who is known as “Lolita” at the Miami Seaquarium, was taken from her family during one of the infamous Penn Cove round-ups of the 1970s, when orca families were driven into nets so that young ones could be taken from their parents to spend the rest of their lives entertaining tourists.

Since that time, public opinion has shifted dramatically from thinking of these highly intelligent, autonomous animals as a legitimate form of entertainment at marine theme parks.

The families never recovered from having 25 percent of their number carried away to marine theme parks.

Also, since that time, we have come to understand that the kidnappings were not just a catastrophe for the whales who were taken into captivity; they impacted the entire population of Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW). The families never recovered from having 25 percent of their number carried away to marine theme parks. Today, with just 76 left in the ocean, the SRKW are now officially listed as an endangered species, and their situation is going from bad to worse due to the dwindling number of salmon – their only food.

Meanwhile, over the years, all but one of those original captives have died. The sole survivor, Tokitae, continues to perform in shows at the Miami Seaquarium, where she has two Pacific white-sided dolphins, but no orcas, for company. And while her family still plies the waters of Puget Sound every day, the staff at the Seaquarium continue to refer to her as their family.

The blessing at Bellingham, Wash., at the start of the Lummi Nation cross-country trek to Miami.

The Lummi want to change all of that. They are determined to retire her – with a plan for potential release – to a netted cove in the region where her family passes by regularly.

The Miami Seaquarium is firmly opposed to giving her up, now arguing that at her age, roughly 51 years old, she is no longer well enough to travel to a new home and adapt to a new life. General manager Eric Elmstad calls it “reckless and cruel to risk [Lolita’s] life by moving her.”

Such a statement, of course, is a bit rich coming from the people who continue to profit from daily cruelty to a sensitive, highly intelligent, emotional being.

Certainly, there are legitimate questions surrounding such a move: What exactly is Tokitae’s state of health? What pathogens might she be carrying from the waters of the Atlantic Ocean that would be finding their way into the waters of the Pacific Northwest? What pathogens that have evolved in the waters of the Pacific Northwest in the decades since her capture might she have no defenses against?

The first step toward getting answers to these questions would be to have an independent team of veterinarians examine Tokitae. But the Miami Seaquarium remains adamantly opposed to allowing such a team to visit her. And until that changes, anything that anyone says about her health and wellbeing is at best speculation and at worst simply not trustworthy.

Jewell Praying Wolf James of the House of Tears Carvers.

Meanwhile, as the Lummi Nation continues to bring Tokitae’s plight to a larger audience than ever before, they add that their work has an even wider relevance.

“This is about so much more than one whale,” Lummi Nation Chairman Jay Julius told supporters at an interfaith ceremony as they laid hands on the totem pole. “It’s about telling the truth. About all the bad policies that allowed this to happen to her.” He said that it’s also about the ocean itself. “We need salmon; the orcas need salmon. We need to heal the rivers and the land.”

Jewell Praying Wolf James, who carved the totem with his brother Doug James, added, “We are on a journey to free a fellow being.”

The totem itself is a stunning artistic achievement: a horizontal, 16-foot orca with her tail flipped over her back, resting on the backs of two harbor seals. A human figure holds on to the dorsal fin, riding the back of the whale.

“That’s the whale rider,” James explained. “It’s part of a mythology that’s up and down the West Coast here, where the humans are trying to experience the power of the whale and be accepted by them.”

He added that for the Lummi, all life is sacred. “We’re all part of a cosmic song. We believe that we’re not just helping her socially and physically by helping her come home, but we’re helping balance a part of the spiritual atmosphere, the songs of creation.”

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In a case regarding two chimpanzees being kept in cages in private homes, Eugene M. Fahey, one of the judges on New York’s Court of Appeals, has issued an opinion that represents a major step forward in the cause of securing fundamental legal rights for nonhuman animals.

The cases of the two chimpanzees, Tommy and Kiko, have been working their way through the courts since December 2013, when the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) petitioned for a common law writ of habeas corpus “to demand recognition of Tommy’s legal personhood and right to bodily liberty and his immediate transfer to an appropriate sanctuary.”

Judge Eugene M. Fahey — New York Court of Appeals

Last week, the Court of Appeals turned down the NhRP’s request for further review, as it does with 95 percent of such requests, thus bringing an end to the process. But while Judge Fahey concurred in the decision of his colleagues, he notes that the decision was not made on the merits of the NhRP’s claim.

And he writes that the failure of the Court to grapple with the issues raised by the case “amounts to a refusal to confront a manifest injustice” for the question of nonhuman animals’ legal personhood and rights.

“[It constitutes] 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.”

The same can be said for other kinds of animals for whom there is clear scientific evidence of self-awareness and autonomy. These include whales, dolphins and elephants.

Appellate court decisions were “mistaken”

Regarding the chimpanzees, Judge Fahey’s opinion makes clear that earlier rulings against the NhRP by three intermediate appellate courts were wrong in disqualifying chimpanzees from eligibility for habeas corpus merely because they are not human or could not bear duties. Instead, he writes, the lower courts should have “assessed the intrinsic nature of chimpanzees as a species,” as the NhRP had argued.

Judge Fahey concludes his opinion with a remarkable and thoughtful personal reflection:

“In the interval since we [the Court of Appeals] first denied leave to the Nonhuman Rights Project, I have struggled with whether this was the right decision. Although I concur in the Court’s decision to deny leave to appeal now, I continue to question whether the Court was right to deny leave in the first instance.

“The issue whether a nonhuman animal has a fundamental right to liberty protected by the writ of habeas corpus is profound and far-reaching. It speaks to our relationship with all the life around us. Ultimately, we will not be able to ignore it. While it may be arguable that a chimpanzee is not a ‘person,’ there is no doubt that it is not merely a thing.”

In commending Judge Fahey’s opinion, NhRP President Steven M. Wise writes that “it allows us to glimpse how a superb common law judge intellectually and emotionally confronts novel and important legal questions over time.”

Meanwhile, the NhRP has launched a new initiative. In November 2017, it filed a lawsuit on behalf of three elephants who are being held captive at a zoo in Connecticut, where they have been forced to give rides, serve at weddings, and entertain at circuses and fairs. The suit, currently working its way through the Connecticut legal system, argues that they are being held illegally and should be released from the zoo and transferred to a sanctuary.

Attorneys for the organization have also been exploring the possibility of similar legal action in relation to whales who are being held in concrete tanks at marine theme parks.

The post New York Judge Raises Key Questions about Animal Captivity appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Senator Wilfred Moore

The bill known as S-203 – the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act – was first introduced three years ago by Senator Wilfred Moore. The legislation includes exceptions for rescues and open water retirement sanctuaries, provided breeding does not occur. And while most observers consider S-203 to be non-partisan, Conservative senators have relentlessly stalled the bill’s progress at every stage of the proceedings.

All in all, the Senate’s Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans held 17 hearings and heard from more than 40 witnesses, including six members of the Whale Sanctuary Project team. (By comparison, a controversial terrorism bill had just two committee hearings and five pre-study hearings.)

When he introduced the bill, Senator Moore argued that keeping whales and dolphins in captivity is unjustifiably cruel. After winning a critical first vote, Moore reached the mandatory age of retirement, and his place has been taken by the renowned Senator Murray Sinclair.

Senator Murray Sinclair

Sinclair chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which reported on the abusive treatment and cultural suppression of Indigenous people over decades and centuries, behavior that was condoned, indeed promoted, by the federal government. Philosophically, some see certain parallels with the bill he now sponsors that would end the captivity of whales and dolphins.

Among its provisions, the bill prohibits the export or import of whales and dolphins except if licensed for the best interest of the cetaceans (e.g. transport to a sanctuary and for the rescue of animals in distress) or for legitimate scientific research.

Belugas at Marineland Ontario

Whales and dolphins already in captivity (as in marine entertainment parks) would be allowed to remain in their owners’ facilities. This would include the 51 belugas, several bottlenose dolphins and one lone orca currently alive at Marineland of Canada.

The committee voted in favor of the bill last October, and its report was finally adopted by the full Senate on April 26th, 2018, thus opening the way for Senator Sinclair to move third reading debate of the bill, followed by a vote if senators can overcome any additional Conservative obstruction.

Retired Senator Moore has said there’s no reason to wait beyond the end of May for a vote. “The whole delay thing has not helped the image of the Senate,” he told reporters. “We’re supposed to be a chamber of debate, not delay … There’s a lot of very solid public and Parliamentary support for this bill on both sides of the aisle. We have the best marine scientists from across the globe supporting the bill either in person, written brief, or by videoconference. Clearly the Canadian public is with us. There’s no doubt about that, so we’re not going anywhere. We’re in this. We believe in what we’re doing.”

If the bill is passed, it will then then go to the House of Commons for what is generally expected to be final passage.

Filming the debate

Senator Don Plett

Meanwhile, a film crew working on a documentary for CBC’s TV series The Nature of Things has applied for permission to film the proceedings when the bill has its third reading.

In a letter to the Speaker of the Senate, producer and director Nathalie Bibeau has asked to be able to include speeches from Sen. Sinclair and from the bill’s chief opponent, Conservative senator Don Plett.

“My objective is to present all perspectives of the debate on an issue that the public has made clear is important to them,” she writes in her letter. “I hope we can preserve S-203 proceedings for the historical record and allow the footage to be used by Canada’s public broadcaster to communicate the Senate’s work to Canadians.”

Bibeau notes that the bill has generated floods of calls and emails to senators’ offices. She recently told iPolitics: “It’s a bill that’s been in the Senate for almost three years. It has become a matter of great public interest and I think it could be a historic bill if it passes through to the House … It’s an important [issue] to feature in-depth.”

The post Ban on Whale Captivity in Canada Approaches Vote appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

What scientists call culture is not primarily about how to behave in polite society (although belugas certainly teach their children that, too); it’s about what you learn from your family and how you pass this knowledge down from generation to generation. We humans do this in spades, but we are by no means unique, and we’re learning more and more about the many other kinds of animals who have deeply rooted cultures based on social learning.

The new study focused on the migratory patterns of beluga whales in the Gulf of Alaska, the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, and the Sea of Okhotsk from 1978 to 2010. The findings demonstrated that whales who were related to each other returned to the same locations year after year, and even generation after generation.

Beluga whales are denizens of Arctic and sub-Arctic waters, often traveling more than 3,500 miles each year and spending their winters and summers in different locations as they raise their young. During the summer, these highly sociable animals often have giant meet-ups, hanging out in the thousands close to the shore (as in the image above, taken in the Hudson Bay).

Highly sophisticated cognitive abilities

Their highly sophisticated vocal repertoires and acoustic systems, including echolocation, suggest that they can form very complex relationships and groups. But they’ve always been difficult to study in the wild. So, in 1978, scientists began a sophisticated analysis, including genetic samples, from year to year to track a total of 1,647 belugas.

“What intrigued us most was whether particular whales returned to where they were born or grew up, and if this was an inherited behavior,” writes Greg O’Corry-Crowe, Ph.D., lead author and a research professor at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch. “The only way that we could definitively answer these questions was to find and track close relatives from one year to the next and one decade to the next.”

O’Corry-Crowe and his team have concluded that from one generation to the next, the whales have been passing along the knowledge of their travels and their routes.

 
Video from National Geographic

Of course, many other species migrate over thousands of miles, back and forth, every year. So, what’s different about belugas?

“Many other animals do indeed migrate on an annual basis,” explains Lori Marino, President of the Whale Sanctuary Project. “Most of them do this by using environmental cues (day/night, chemicals, magnetism, etc.). But what makes the beluga migrations especially interesting is that they’re based on social learning from mothers to children. And that’s the basis of culture. Belugas aren’t just a migratory species; they’re a migratory culture.”

Learning their culture

The new study also sheds light on how come young belugas are sometimes observed alone and have been known to befriend humans. Such was the well-known case of a beluga known as Wilma, an orphan who befriended fishermen and tourists in Chedabucto Bay, Nova Scotia. Catherine Kinsman, President of the Whale Stewardship Project, was authorized by the government to watch over Wilma.

“They possess extraordinary echolocation abilities with great range.”

“People are always asking, ‘How did this little whale get here, and why doesn’t she just go home?’,” she says. “The most reasonable explanation is that these young belugas, often only about two years of age or so, become separated from their family, get lost, and don’t know where they are in relation to home and don’t know how to get back.”

Just like us humans, young belugas need to spend many years learning their culture. Very young whales may not yet know all the routes any more than a two-year-old human could walk herself from home to the store and back.

It might seem even more remarkable that any beluga could learn to navigate thousands of miles each year to and from their feeding, breeding and meet-up locations. But Kinsman (who was not involved in the study) says that that what appears to us humans as a largely homogeneous ocean environment may not be that at all to a beluga.

“They possess extraordinary echolocation abilities with great range and ability to detect and differentiate shape, size, texture,” she reminds us. “To a beluga, even the sands on the ocean floor in one place may “look” (or rather sound) different from the sandy bottom in another.”

Video from National Geographic

The new study has made a big difference to how scientists study them and how we can protect them in the wild. Does it also have any application to belugas in aquariums and marine entertainment parks?

“In the wild,” Kinsman says, “beluga culture enables individual baby whales to learn, grow and thrive as part of a very complex community.” But life in such a totally unnatural environment actually shuts down their ability to learn. “Barren concrete tanks force them to curtail or even mute their otherwise extraordinarily chatty voices. Instead, they learn to produce an appallingly degraded substitute for their vast range of normal beluga expressions.”

What, then, can these big-brained, intelligent, cultural beings learn when they’re growing up in concrete tanks? Basically, just whatever another captive beluga can show them, or what they can figure out for themselves, if they are to survive within these completely unnatural conditions.

The bottom line, when it comes to whales who have been co-opted into the entertainment industry, is always the same: The more we learn about them, the more we learn that they belong with their families in the wild, not in small pools doing circus tricks in exchange for sustenance.

The post Among Beluga Whales, Family and Culture Come First appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Daphne  was the founder of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, whose Elephant Orphanage has raised hundreds of infants of mothers who had been murdered for their ivory tusks. (The trust was named in memory of her husband, David, the renowned naturalist and founding warden of Tsavo East National Park in Kenya.)

She once told author Charles Siebert:

“Elephants are very human ­animals. Their emotions are exactly the same as ours. They’ve lost their families, have seen their mothers slaughtered, and they come here filled with aggression — devastated, broken and grieving.”

And so, she became their adoptive mother until they were ready to graduate from the orphanage and join an existing family in the wild. Sometimes, many years later, when they gave birth to a calf of their own, they would bring the baby back for a visit and introduce her to Daphne and her team of caregivers. Truly she filled the role of matriarch of all the elephants who had come to the sanctuary as calves. They would never forget her.

Daphne’s work reached way beyond the sanctuary itself. For example, she was well-known for saving habitats, creating conservation programs, and touching wildlife of all kinds all over Africa.

Afternoon tea, Kenya-style. Daphne Sheldrick with orphan Aisha in 1974.

Not talked about so much, however, but just as valuable, was the gold standard she set for the sanctuary movement all over the world. When she established the Trust in 1977, there were very few wildlife sanctuaries anywhere. It would be years before the first elephant sanctuary was created in the United States. And for any of us who would be setting up sanctuaries for chimpanzees, wild cats, homeless pets and so many more, Daphne’s work was the model.

From her first major success in developing a formula to replace elephant mothers’ milk (it took 25 years of trial and error and the critical ingredient was coconut oil!), to building teams of human “families” at the sanctuary to fill the role of the extended family that infants depend on in the wild, to helping them return to the wild, she did it all.

And it all grew out of her uniquely hands-on relationship to the animals themselves: splashing with them barefoot through the dirt during the day, and comforting newborns at night when they cried out in their sleep, apparently suffering nightmares.

 
Daphne with orphan baby Eleanor in 1968 ….. and dwarfed by her 23 years later in 1989. 

For all that Daphne Sheldrick did – and that the Trust will continue to do in the hands of her daughter, Angela – she knew she was fighting an uphill battle. Over the years the elephant population has continued to dwindle to the point where the entire species is now staring into the face of extinction. But rather than this dampening her spirit, it only spurred her to greater efforts. And everything she did was rooted in the simple yet fundamental understanding that the priority was always the elephants in her care.

At the end of her memoir, Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story, in the Acknowledgments section, she expressed her own special thanks to:

“… the elephants themselves, who by example have demonstrated how to cope with adversity …They, who have suffered so much at the hands of humans, never lose the ability to forgive, even though, being elephants, they will never be able to forget.”

All of us who are in the work of creating and sustaining sanctuaries know that we, like Daphne, are guided by the animals and follow their lead. We know that any authentic sanctuary is not just a place to live but a place to thrive. And we understand that the wellbeing of the animals in our care is always the highest – indeed the only – priority.

In a beautiful interview with Bob Simon on CBS’s 60 Minutes (see below), she said of the elephants:

“Their tremendous capacity for caring is, I think, perhaps the most amazing thing about them. They have all of the best attributes of us humans and not very many of the bad.”

Here at the Whale Sanctuary Project, we could say the same of the whales. They have much in common with their pachyderm cousins: amazing intelligence, close family ties, and, of course, the way they continue to be abused and exploited for the basest of human appetites.

So, thank you, Daphne. As the matriarch of sanctuaries, you will continue to be an inspiration to so many of us in modeling the values and techniques that have shaped our movement over the last half century.

Videos of the elephant orphanage:

The “60 Minutes” feature with Bob Simon

Africa’s Elephant Mother: Broadcast: 21 August, 2011 on Sunday Night, Seven Network, Australia.

Daphne Sheldrick’s Elephant Orphanage in Kenya by Michael Fairchild

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Considerations as we evaluate any site include the physical and environmental nature of the site itself, and access to fresh water and electric power; whether sanctuary residents might be affected by local wildlife and vice versa; and the concerns of the local community, including commercial and recreational interests.

Sanctuary environment: Instead of being surrounded by sterile concrete tank walls, the whales will live in a dynamic, complex physical world that has a natural sandy shore and is home to many kinds of plants and animals with whom they can interact.

Here are some of the high-level environmental criteria for a whale sanctuary site. (We can be flexible on some of these if there is no negative impact on the whales’ well-being.)

Space: The sanctuary will be a netted off area like a bay or cove. Our sites of interest all have 100 acres (40 hectares) of water space. That’s 484,000 square yards, compared to the 1,100 square yards of the large display tank at a typical high-end marine entertainment park.

Depth: A minimum average depth of 50 feet (15 meters) over roughly half of the space. 

Shape: A cove, bay, inlet, series of islands or one island and a mainland coast. The shape can be flexible, but size and shape need to allow for segmentation to separate whales when necessary.

Sites of interest must demonstrate:

• Water temperature range of approximately 0°–20° C and salinity in the range of 24-35 ppm;
• Protection from extreme weather and tides;
• No solid ice over extensive parts of water surface area;
• Avoidance of sewage or pollutants (chemical or acoustic);
• Good flushing rate;
• Accessibility;
• Utilities and infrastructure
• Bottom topography and substrate: no specific kind required.

Sanctuary facilities will include:

• The main enclosure;
• An isolation area for new residents;
• Rehabilitation and veterinary care areas.

Beyond the sanctuary: We are conducting rigorous environmental impact assessments at our locations of interest to ensure that there will be no negative effects on wildlife in and around the sanctuary or in the ocean beyond.

The first phase of building will include necessary infrastructure needed to care for residents. This includes the enclosure barriers, infrastructure, lab, medical and sanitation services, food prep services, security, and animal care staff facilities.

Future phases will provide for internship programs, visitors as appropriate to the location, and the kind of equipment (including land and water-based webcams) that will enhance broad and interactive educational outreach.

The post Seaside Sanctuary Concept appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Among the First Nations people with whom we have met are the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia, the Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis of the Johnstone Strait of British Columbia, and the Lummi of Washington State. This series of posts is a brief introduction to who they are as we have come to know them.

The Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia

The Membertou Convention Center

Twenty years ago, The Mi’kmaq nation was suffering from 95 percent unemployment and near-bankruptcy. Unwilling to watch their people slide into ruin, a new team of leaders agreed to abandon the status quo that had been set in place a century earlier by the Canadian government, and to create a different future for their people.

Senator Daniel Christmas

Since that time, Daniel Christmas, Chief Terrence Paul and other Mi’kmaw leaders have transformed their nation into an economic powerhouse with an operating budget of around $112 million. It is now one of the most successful, thriving nations in the whole country and a model for others that are still struggling under the Indian Act of 1876.

Membertou First Nation has built has built a convention center, hotel, bingo hall, sports and wellness complex, and other work and leisure-related activities, welcoming non-Mi’kmaq into the community and driving what’s often referred to as an economic miracle.

But Christmas’s prescription was practical and straightforward: to throw off the Indian Act, by which agencies and bureaucrats controlled almost every aspect of life on reservations, and for the people to take control of their own destiny. The nearly 150-year-old act purported to support the people, but Christmas called it “a horrible and unproductive existence whose ultimate destiny is insolvency and ruin, both economically and emotionally.”

Chief Terry Paul of the Membertou (Mi’kmaq) First Nation

The Mi’kmaq’s new model for change forged economic progress, but anchored it in the nation’s cultural values, overhauling its education system and building a new elementary school that teaches Mi’kmaq culture and language.

When we visited Chief Paul for the first time in 2017 to consult with him about our mission to create a seaside sanctuary for captive whales, he told us that what we are doing is compatible with Mi’kmaq values and that we would be welcome to seek a partnership with them as we go forward.

After all, the Mi’kmaq have a relationship with whales that goes back thousands of years and is embedded in their cultural traditions, teachings and knowledge systems. Author Anne-Christine Homborg writes that in the nation’s traditional culture “all beings are depicted as persons.”

That is why [Indigenous people] could ‘speak’ with nature, have animals as spiritual guardians, or even ‘marry’ animals. What the Romantics, popular writers and movie makers who created stereotypical images of [Indigenous people] do not see is that the tales simultaneously stress an important difference between humans, [other] animals and spirits: a difference in their bodies.

Corporeal diversity thus separates them from each other: It gives them different possibilities: to move, communicate and survive. A whale person has to live as a whale because it has the body of a whale, and a human person has to live as a human because he or she has a human body: but both entities experience their own species as persons.
(Mi’kMaq Landscapes: From Animism to Sacred Ecology – by Anne-Christine Homborg)

In 2016, Daniel Christmas was appointed to the Senate of Canada. (As in the U.K., members of the upper house in Canada are largely appointed in recognition of their contribution to society.) He became a strong supporter of Senate Bill S-203, which would ban any further captive breeding, import, export or live capture of whales, dolphins and porpoises.

The bill, originally sponsored by Senator Wilfred P. Moore of Nova Scotia, is still working its way through the Senate, despite a series of obstacles from a handful of senators, some of whom are tied to the marine entertainment park industry.

“The business of capturing whales for display is shameful.”
Senator Murray Sinclair With Sen. Moore’s retirement, Sen. Murray Sinclair of Manitoba has taken up sponsorship of the bill. The former judge (and the first Indigenous judge to be appointed in his province) is renowned for having chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that held hundreds of hearings to reveal how First Nations children had been forcibly removed from their families and sent to residential schools, to be educated in British values, religion and culture.

While the Truth and Reconciliation Commission focused on the abduction of children, First Nations people also look to a time of truth and reconciliation with their fellow animals – those other “persons” who, like the Mi’kmaq children, have also been abducted and treated with total disrespect.

NEXT: The Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis: Reconciliation with our fellow animals and the natural world.

The post The Whale Sanctuary and the First Nations appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Christian missionaries also separated children from their families, so they could be indoctrinated into European culture.

This month, March 2018, leaders of the Lummi Nation held a ceremony in Miami, Florida – 3,000 miles away from their homeland – during which they performed a song from that painful time about a mother trying to find her baby. The song had a special resonance in that the Lummi people were in Miami to seek the return of another of their family, as they view her: the orca Tokitae (also known as Lolita). In 1970, Tokitae, meaning “nice day, pretty colors”, was taken from her family in the waters of the San Juan Islands and has been living in a concrete tank at the Miami Seaquarium for 47 years. (Six other baby orcas were also taken at that time. None of them are still living.)

Orcas being captured at Penn Cove in August 1970. Photo by Wallie Funk, Whidbey News-Times

Anger and pain have now turned to action as the Lummi people join forces with animal protection groups to demand the return of Tokitae, whose mother, a member of the L pod among the now-endangered Southern Resident Killer Whale group still swims the waters of the Salish Sea and is known to the Lummi as Ocean Sun.

“There’s no way they should be getting away with putting these mammals in captivity for a show,” Lummi natural resource commissioner Steve Solomon told reporters. “Those are our brothers and sisters that were taken.”

The Seaquarium argues that “Lolita,” as they call Tokitae, is loved and well cared for. (Just like the children 200 years ago.) And they call her an “ambassador” for her species. The Lummi vehemently disagree.

“She is not an ‘ambassador,’” says Jewell James, director of the Lummi Nation’s Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office. “She is a captive and must be reunited with her family. It is our ‘xa xalh xechnging’ [sacred obligation] to do this.”

Lummi Nation members Jewell James (left) and Douglas James, Jr. speaking on the cultural significance of returning Tokitae to her ancestral home. Photo by Patricia Guthrie/Whidbey News-Times

The Lummi people are not about to submit to the Seaquarium. They have gone up against big business before – and won. In 2012 they took on shipping giant SSA Marine, which was preparing to build the Gateway Pacific Terminal, a $665 million project that would have been the largest coal export terminal in the country.

“She is not an ‘ambassador.’ She is a captive and must be reunited with her family.”
The Lummi argued that the terminal would violate their rights under the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliot, which gave them the right to take fish at “usual and accustomed grounds and stations.” The terminal, they said, would bring some of the world’s largest ships into these “usual and accustomed” fishing waters up to 487 times a year to load and unload bulk commodities, principally coal, bound for Asian ports.

Referring to coal as “black death,” the Lummi listed numerous ways that the enterprise would poison the ocean, saying that their legal right to fish demands an environment where the fish can thrive.

As they focus now on the matter of abducted whales, the Lummi are planning a 27-day, 13-stop tour of the country with a custom totem pole designed to honor Tokitae. The tour will end with a major event in Miami in May. Tokitae will also be the focus of a panel of experts at the 2018 Vine Deloria, Jr. Indigenous Studies Symposium at Northwest Indian College.

The Lummi Nation is committed to implementing a protocol for Tokitae, who is over 50 years old, to be transported back to her home waters in Washington State with every precaution being taken to ensure that her health is the highest priority, overseen by veterinarians every step of the way. (This will be standard for all whales who become candidates for retirement to a seaside sanctuary).

The Lummi are determined to have it recognized that members of their families, human or otherwise, are not the property of big business and entertainment, any more than their children, 150 years ago, were the property of an alien religion and culture.

The post The Lummi Nation of Washington State appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Chief Bob Chamberlin shows a traditional Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis blanket depicting an orca totem.

The theme of the evening was “Reconciliation,” and it was introduced by Chief Bob Chamberlin of the Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation. Chief Chamberlin talked about his work in helping to bring about reconciliation between his people and European immigrants. In the same way, he said, it’s time to bring about reconciliation with our fellow animals and the natural world.

Dr. Marino took up the theme of “Reconciliation,” discussing how a sanctuary can give back to whales something of the life they’ve lost by being taken from their homes and families in the wild.

While the Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis are a small nation, Chief Chamberlin is increasingly hailed by the wider community of West Coast nations. Most recently, as vice-president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, he has given voice to one of the most pressing causes of his people: their ongoing battle with the energy company Kinder Morgan. Kinder Morgan plans to build a 715-mile Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which would allow them to send 890,000 barrels of diluted bitumen oil from Alberta’s tar sands, along inland waterways, through the suburbs of British Columbia, and out to the B.C. coasts.

As explained by the environmental news site Earther:

The pipeline expansion could create an environmental and economic disaster if [the diluted bitumen] spilled in any of the rivers or streams on the pipeline route. Because it’s heavier than conventional oil, it sinks rather than floats on the water’s surface.

… Once it reaches the terminal in Burnaby, the bitumen would be loaded on tankers and sent through the maze of islands and channels from the Fraser River to the Haro Strait that divides Canada and the U.S. before hitting the global market.

The pipeline and terminal expansion would allow tanker traffic to increase from five tankers per month to 35 per month, dramatically increasing the odds of an accident and clogging the already-busy waterways of Canada’s busiest port. (March 12^th, 2018)

“It’s at a point of exasperation of engaging in due diligence with government,” Chief Chamberlin told the CBC.

“We are constantly pointing to the government’s lack of embracing its very own laws.”

Another critically important cause for all the nations of the B.C. coast is fish farming. Chief Chamberlin is part of the leadership of an alliance of tribes that is strongly opposed to industrial fish farms that poison the waters and are devastating the marine life of the region, in particular the salmon, the herring and the whales, who now find themselves under increasing stress after having lived in harmony with the First Nations people for thousands of years.

The Coastal First Nations of British Columbia – an alliance of tribes – are also calling on senators to vote in favor of Bill S-203, which would permit no more whales or dolphins to be put on display in marine entertainment parks.

Next: The Lummi Nation: Committed to bring the orca Tokitae back home.

The post The Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis of British Columbia appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Photo by Heather Murphy

Katina, an orca who lives at SeaWorld Orlando, has suffered a significant gash to her dorsal fin.

She sustained the injury on March 17th, and SeaWorld reported it yesterday, April 1st, more than two weeks later.

SeaWorld has written in a statement that “over the next several weeks the veterinary and animal care teams will continue to monitor and treat her wounds.”

But the depth of the injury and the fact that Katina already had a collapsed dorsal fin may make it difficult for this injury to be healed.

Wildlife veterinarian Dr. Heather Rally writes:

The wound that Katina has sustained is deep, and appears to have left a large chunk of the dorsal fin missing. The dorsal fin of an orca has an extensive network of blood vessels that play a significant role in the animal’s ability to control their body temperature. It is unclear what role the injury will play in compromising the fin’s essential functions, but it is clear that it is a threat to Katina’s health.

While wild orca have been known to survive severe trauma to the dorsal fins, such as from boat strikes, captive orca are uniquely disadvantaged with respect to wound healing. They are prone to secondary infections of traumatic wounds particularly when the skin (the animal’s first line of immune defense) is broken. It is possible that this predisposition is the result of immune compromise from stress or other factors caused by the captive environment and/or exposure to land pathogens to which orca are uniquely susceptible.

Opportunistic pathogens that typically cause secondary infections are a surprisingly common cause of death in captive orca. These pathogens include fungal organisms that are ubiquitous in the environment and are generally harmless in healthy, immune-component animals.

So, it is clear that Katina’s life depends upon the success of this wound’s healing.

The cause of the injury

How could the injury have happened? SeaWorld says on its website that it was “the result of interactions with other members of the orca pod.” But there are no details, and the company appears not to know what happened. It’s hard to understand how this could have gone unobserved by staff members, or even just from video.

“It is clear that Katina’s life depends upon the success of this wound’s healing.”The company adds that orcas are “a social and hierarchal species, so interacting with other members of the pod, even in an aggressive or antagonistic manner, is a natural behavior we’d expect to see.”

The post also says that aggressive behavior is not a result of the whales living in captivity and that it is not uncommon among wild killer whale pods.

Many experts would disagree with this claim, however. Serious aggression among orcas who live together in the wild is uncommon and decidedly not normal. Orcas live in extended family groups and have very close bonds. By contrast, as Dr. Rally notes, the whales at SeaWorld Orlando are not a family group:

This so-called “pod” in Orlando consists of only two of Katina’s immediate offspring, one of whom was inbred with [her son] Taku. Another is a grandson through Taku, who would not normally live with his paternal grandmother in the wild, at least not in this close of association. The remaining two are completely unrelated to her or to each other, having been captive-born from parents or grandparents who were captured from different sides of the planet and placed in a tank together. They would never have bred together in the wild.

It’s also possible – even probable – that the injury had nothing to do with aggression by Katina’s tank mates. People who have worked at SeaWorld point out that there’s no sign of direct damage from other whales. Former SeaWorld trainer John Hargrove writes on Twitter:

A gash like that is when she lands on a corner or ledge of the glass or gate. Possibly being taught a new behavior using a target pole and brought her in too close. 

And Dr. Jeff Ventre, a physician and former trainer at SeaWorld, offers another possible explanation:

I think her dorsal was “wedged” / positioned between two bars in her tank, possibly at a gate. She may have been resting on her left side, fin pointing toward the bottom of the pool, but between the bars. She forcibly rotated counter-clockwise, possibly approached by another whale, which tore the fin at the base, right where you’d think it would rip. Just a theory. I see no evidence of puncture wounds or bite marks.

Katina was captured from the ocean off the coast of Iceland in 1978. She has been bred seven times. Five of her calves have been taken from her and shipped to other theme parks. One of her sons, Taku, impregnated his mother before he died in 2007, a few months after being separated from her. Three of her other calves have died.

After everything she’s already suffered in her life, we wish Katina a safe recovery and hope that she may one day find peace at a seaside sanctuary.

The post Orca Katina Suffers Injury to Dorsal Fin appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

This news – and the fact that attendance at SeaWorld’s theme parks fell a further 5.5% to 20.8 million last year – continues to confirm that the public no longer embraces the SeaWorld visitor experience and the keeping of whales and dolphins in concrete tanks.

The important issues going forward are the policy implications of SeaWorld’s financial crisis for the whales and dolphins they hold for entertainment.

The company has made some incremental changes in recent years, including a pledge to stop breeding orcas and the introduction of a less theatrical show at one of its theme parks.

However, ending the breeding still leaves 21 orcas living out their lives in concrete tanks and a continuing lack of public interest in what SeaWorld is offering. If the company is to regain public confidence and interest, it needs to bring an end altogether to keeping these highly intelligent animals in concrete tanks.

The Whale Sanctuary Project is moving forward with the creation of the first seaside sanctuary for captive orcas and belugas. We invite SeaWorld and the other marine entertainment parks and aquariums to work with us toward a new future for captive whales and dolphins.

The post Joel Manby Resigns as CEO of SeaWorld appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

She also gave two talks: one at Dalhousie University and the other at the beautiful new Halifax Central Library.

The talk at Dalhousie was primarily for faculty members and students who are following the progress of the Whale Sanctuary Project and are interested in joining the effort. It was made possible by Dalhousie faculty members Andrew Fenton, Letitia Meynell, Tim Krahn and Hal Whitehead, who is a member of our Advisory Committee and is renowned for his groundbreaking studies on deep-water whales.

(Prof. Whitehead was just preparing his research ship, the Balaena, an ocean-going sailboat, for its next trip from Nova Scotia to the warmer and very inviting waters of the Caribbean.)

Lori’s second talk followed a public screening of the movie Blackfish at the Halifax Central Library. The evening was part of the “Pushing Boundaries” series that explores whether there are any differences between us humans and our fellow animals that justify treating them differently from how we should treat one another.

Sen. Moore talked about the Whale Sanctuary Project as the clear alternative for captive whales.

After the film, Lori was joined by Letitia Meynell and Andrew Fenton to discuss the ethical dimensions of captivity for dolphins and whales.

Also present was retired Nova Scotia Senator Wilfred Moore, the author of Bill S-203, which would ban keeping dolphins and whales in display parks in Canada and is currently working its way through the Canadian Senate. Sen. Moore addressed the audience and talked about the Whale Sanctuary Project as the clear alternative for captive whales.

The week was organized by our advisor-on-the-ground Catherine Kinsman, director of the Whale Stewardship Project and of the documentary film Where Whales and Humans Meet. The film is about an orphan beluga known as Wilma, who took up residence in a rural Nova Scotia harbor and charmed residents and visitors with her ability to mimic human language. When Wilma’s survival became threatened by increasingly serious injuries, the community joined with the Whale Stewardship Project in offering her greater protection through adopting the first official guidelines in the world for solitary sociable beluga whales. (Check out this 2012 interview with Catherine about Wilma.)

Chief Terry Paul of the Membertou First Nation

After a full week of other meetings, Lori and Catherine were honored to be invited by Chief Terry Paul of the Membertou First Nation to make a presentation on the Whale Sanctuary Project at the Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn Negotiation Office in Millbrook, Nova Scotia.

The discussion ended with Chief Paul giving Lori and Catherine a quick language lesson, in which they learned the Mi’kmaq word for whale: Putup. (It’s pronounced “boo-dupe.”)

The post Talks and Site Visits in Nova Scotia appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Yet the future of this baby beluga is bleak.

Tyonek on the beach. Photo by NOAA

The story began last fall when Noah Meisenheimer, an enforcement officer of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), was being helicoptered back to Anchorage from his work investigating the death of a beluga. Flying up the west coast of Cook Inlet, he spotted a gray shape on the beach and asked the pilot, Kenneth Reiser, to turn around and land close by.

On the sand, they identified the gray shape as a baby beluga, about a month old, five feet long, barely alive, his skin dried out by the sun.

Belugas in that region are endangered, so Meisenheimer called NMFS’s Office of Protected Resources and got permission to move the animal into deeper water. But despite their several attempts, the exhausted calf simply turned back toward shore.

Meisenheimer called Dr. Carrie Goertz, the Alaska SeaLife Center’s director for animal health, who hastened to the scene.

Beluga calves normally stay with their mothers for at least two years, but there were no signs of any other belugas in the water nearby. And the baby was still resisting any effort to return him to the ocean.

Dr. Carrie Goertz

“I felt that he had zero chance of survival in Cook Inlet,” Dr. Goertz later told the Anchorage Daily News. “And I felt that at least initiating the attempt of a rescue, that that wasn’t going to be cruel and unusual.”

Time was of the essence in saving the baby’s life. So, they took one of the passenger seats out, and using a body bag as a makeshift sling, eased the baby into the back of the Helo3, with the veterinarian sitting at his side.

Meanwhile, emergency staff from SeaLife, the only marine mammal rehabilitation facility in Alaska, were on their way to the helicopter pad in Anchorage with their “cetacean wagon,” a large pickup truck loaded with emergency supplies.

Next day, experts from the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, various SeaWorld facilities, the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and the Vancouver Aquarium all converged on SeaLife to join the 24/7 effort to restore the baby’s health and wellbeing.

At first, the youngster couldn’t even support himself in the water, and it took four people to feed and hydrate him. Within a few days, however, he was growing stronger, but it was still touch-and-go for the first few weeks as he struggled with intestinal problems, skin problems and other issues.

They named the calf Tyonek, which means “little chief” in the local language of the village near where he was found. And over the next month, he gained 39 pounds on his baby formula of powdered milk substitute supplemented with salmon oil and herring filets pureed in a Vitamix blender – two pints at a time, six times a day.

The beluga population in the Cook Inlet has shrunk from about 1,300 in 1979 to an estimated 328 today, and NOAA wanted to give the youngster every chance to rejoin others of his kind. So, while looking after Tyonek, Dr. Goertz and the team were being careful to steer a course between giving him the kind of contact baby belugas normally get from their mothers, aunts and sisters, and not letting him become so conditioned to humans that it would be difficult for him to be released back to the wild.

One example of the environmental enrichment program was to play beluga sounds from Cook Inlet whales, twice a day in five-minute intervals. Tyonek listened carefully and was learning to mimic the calls he was hearing.

Tyonek has gained 60 pounds since he was rescued in late September, 2017.

All the same, everyone knew that release was a long shot. Growing up in the ocean, Tyonek would have been learning so much more from his mother and all his extended family: survival skills, communication skills, social skills. Still, the plan was to keep every option open, and the baby beluga seemed to bond with his caregivers, chatting away with chirps and clicks.

“He’s very tactile,” Goertz told the Washington Post in an interview. “Typically a beluga calf is touching his mom most of the time . . . He’s definitely looking for that type of interaction.”

Tyonek would certainly be a candidate for transfer to a future seaside sanctuary.

Ultimately, on February 8th, 2018, NOAA concluded that Tyonek couldn’t be released back to the Cook Inlet because he was too young when found and lacks the skills he would need to survive on his own. Instead, the now-five-month-old whale would need to spend the rest of his life in human care.

And so began the process of deciding where he should go. This involved checking out the various aquariums and marine theme parks in North America that have belugas.

There should, of course, be one other option: a seaside sanctuary. But while there are numerous sanctuaries in the United States for land-based animals of almost any kind, from elephants to big cats to great apes to birds and butterflies, there are none yet for whales and dolphins.

NOAA has now concluded that the best place for Tyonek is SeaWorld San Antonio, which at least has adult females and other male calves with whom the calf will be able to socialize. A date for his transfer has yet to be announced.

NOAA hopes to learn more from Tyonek while he grows up at SeaWorld. They write:

“By monitoring Tyonek as he grows from a calf to an adult animal, we can learn important information about his physical and behavioral development, including his hearing, vocalizations, social interactions, and overall body condition.

“This knowledge will help inform the protection and recovery of wild populations of belugas, specifically Cook Inlet beluga whales, which are one of eight endangered species that NOAA Fisheries identified as [being] most at risk of extinction.”

The downside, of course, is that Tyonek will be spending his entire life in a concrete tank, earning his keep by performing for human audiences.

There’s still a chance, of course, for the young beluga, since he would certainly be a candidate for transfer to a future seaside sanctuary.

The people who came to look after him from aquariums and marine theme parks across the U.S. and Canada have already given Tyonek back his life. What he needs now is a life where he can grow and thrive – along with others of his kind who may also be retired from the entertainment industry – in an environment that’s as close as possible to the life he would have known in the ocean where he was born.

Working together, we could make that happen.

The post If Only There Were a Seaside Sanctuary for Him appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

And this week, the PBS Newshour accompanied John Racanelli, the Aquarium’s CEO, as he checked out some possible sanctuary locations in Florida.

“We need to get out of that awful era that we have been through for the last 100 years of caging animals,” Racanelli tells PBS Science Correspondent Miles O’Brien as they drive along the Florida Keys to a long-abandoned limestone quarry that’s naturally filled with water, plant and animal life of all kinds from the Gulf of Mexico.

Checking out a location for a dolphin sanctuary, John Racanelli of the National Aquarium finds life everywhere.

After donning a wetsuit to explore the seaside quarry as a possible sanctuary, Racanelli compares the natural environment to what the dolphins experience in a concrete tank.

“The thing that was most impressive was, there was life everywhere. Everywhere! Every time you turn around, a bunch of little clams and scallops were closing their doors. Did you hear the snapping shrimp?”

If all goes according to plan, the dolphins will move to their new home in 2020. And while they’ll still be given human care, they’ll be living in a whole new world.

“It’s an exciting experiment,” Racanelli says, “because everything we’re doing is groundbreaking. And there is something about that that’s very satisfying, to give these dolphins the opportunity to truly thrive.”

“Attitudes Are Changing”

The Newshour first talked with Racanelli about moving the dolphins to a sanctuary back in 2016 when the Aquarium had just announced its plan. At that time, Racanelli told correspondent O’Brien:

“Baby boomers grew up on Flipper, and millennials grew up on Free Willy. So, attitudes are changing. And that is certainly a factor. It’s something we pay close attention to.”

O’Brien describes how we humans have been capturing and training dolphins for entertainment for about 80 years.

“Over time, the shows got more elaborate, even garish, the crowds larger, and the venues added the dolphins’ cetacean cousins, orcas, to the marquees.

Dolphins being “petted” at the Georgia Aquarium – the very opposite of a natural environment.

“… They are trained to do circus tricks, give thrill rides, and be docile with customers in glorified petting zoos, often called a dolphin experience.

“Looking at their permanent ‘smile’, it is easy to misconstrue what this experience is really like for them.”

Dolphin advocate Ric O’Barry tells O’Brien, “It’s really the dolphin ‘smile’ that has created this multibillion-dollar industry.”

O’Barry, who trained dolphins for the TV show Flipper, gave up his career to advocate on behalf of the dolphins. Their apparent smile, he says, is “literally an optical illusion.” It may look cute to human eyes, but it’s just the shape of their face. And it’s brought them the very opposite of good fortune.

Marine mammologist Denise Herzing preparing to dive with spotted dolphins.

O’Brien also talks with scientist Denise Herzing, founder of the Wild Dolphin Project, who has been studying spotted dolphins in the Caribbean for more than 30 years.

“They’re very smart. They problem-solve. They can think in the abstract and recognize that. They have very good comprehension and cognitive skills, so they can understand artificial languages that are presented to them.”

Herzing tells O’Brien it’s time to create dolphin retirement centers.

“We’ve done it for other species. We’ve done it for chimps, elephants, giraffes,” she says. “You name it, we’ve done it. Dolphins are hard. It’s a different environment. It’s expensive. But we owe it to them.”

O’Brien asks her whether future generations will be missing out on a teachable moment when the dolphins have left the Aquarium.

Skype from a sanctuary? A better way for young people to learn about dolphins!

“[But] what are you really teaching your kids [at an aquarium]?” she replies. “Are you teaching your kids it’s OK to confine an animal, to capture an animal for human viewing?”

Racanelli adds: “I think we will be able to ensure that people still get a chance to tune into the lives of these dolphins in a way that inspires them, yet not have to have them here in Baltimore. Maybe dolphin Skype is in our future!”

To which O’Brien concludes: “And maybe then, when people dial up the dolphins for a virtual visit in their more natural habitat, their smile will be more than an illusion.”

The post National Aquarium Discusses Plan for Dolphin Sanctuary appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

Nightingale said he still believes that putting cetaceans on show serves a purpose in “engaging people.”

“But you also have to be realistic,” he said. “And it has gotten to the point where the debate in the community, with the lawyers, with the politicians … is debilitating our work on our [conservation] mission.”

Dr. Lori Marino, President of the Whale Sanctuary Project, praised the aquarium’s decision. “It’s the right one, not only from the point of view of the ethics of keeping healthy dolphins and whales on display in tanks, but also for their ability to now focus entirely on what they have always done so well: scientific field studies, conservation projects, and public education.”

Commissioners said they were concerned about the ethics of keeping the animals in concrete tanks.Last spring, the Vancouver Park Board voted to ban the aquarium from bringing in new dolphins and whales. Commissioners said they were concerned about the ethics of keeping the animals in concrete tanks.

The park board’s decision was proposed on the heels of the deaths of the aquarium’s resident beluga whales last fall. Qila and her mother Aurora died in November 2016 of unknown causes. The aquarium wanted to replace them and to open a new $20-million beluga exhibit.

Then, in November 2017, Chester, a young false killer whale, died, leaving only Helen, a Pacific white-sided dolphin in their care.

The aquarium had planned to replace its lost cetaceans, and Nightingale said he would “fight to the end” against the ban.

But the movement to bring an end to keeping whales and dolphins on display has gotten more and more powerful. And now the aquarium has conceded that there’s no value in keeping up the fight. Nightingale acknowledged the number of visitors to the aquarium has fallen since the death of Qila and Aurora, the two belugas, and then of Chester.

“We decided, through a lot of discussion in the fall, that we needed to get on with it,” he said. “We’ve been here 61 years, the aquarium’s going to be here another 61 years, so it’s really important that we not tie our hands behind our backs.”

The Vancouver Aquarium’s decision leaves just one facility in Canada still vowing to keep whales and dolphins in concrete tanks: Marineland of Canada, outside of Toronto. Marineland currently has 51 belugas on display, and one orca, Kiska, who was captured from the wild, has suffered the loss of all five of her children, and lives entirely alone.

Dr. Marino noted that while Marineland is focused entirely on entertainment, “the Vancouver Aquarium has a strong scientific base to stand on and continue its important work.”

The post Vancouver Aquarium Ends Captive Whale and Dolphin Program appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

In this November 2017 TEDx talk, Charles Vinick, Executive Director of the Whale Sanctuary Project, describes what he’s learned over many years about orca and beluga whales, in the wild and in captivity, about who they are and what it’s like for them to be kept in concrete tanks, and about the growing movement to bring an end to having whales on display in marine parks and aquariums.

“Whales,” he says, “should not have to live in concrete tanks.”

Whale and dolphin shows have been commonplace for the last four decades. But this story is changing. And today some of the most active whale advocates are former marine park trainers. Why? Because they know the animals and they love these animals.

“Whales should not have to perform for their supper and our entertainment.”

In the 1990s, Charles managed the pioneering effort to reintroduce to the wild the captive orca Keiko made famous through the Free Willy films. He describes how, on one of Keiko’s ocean outings from his sea pen off the coast of Iceland, he was approached by a group of wild orcas and how this experience reinforced his understanding that these animals are sentient beings.

“When the wild whales got about a mile from Keiko, they separated into three groups with five whales continuing toward Keiko, one group going wide to the east and one group going wide to the west. What I watched from the air looked like a classic military pincher movement.

“The five whales swam directly to Keiko, they all thrashed around for a few seconds and the five swam on while Keiko returned to our boat. Once the five were well past Keiko, the groups from east and west re-joined them and they all went on together.

“What had we witnessed? A plan to deal with something – or someone – unknown to the group, the execution of the plan to deal with the unknown while not risking the safety of the group, and communication among the team. We had hydrophones in the water the whole time and did not record a single sound from Keiko or the wild whales in advance of the actual encounter. Yet, they knew he was there and they dealt with it – as a group.”

It took more than four years for Keiko to truly spend extended periods of time with wild whales. In the summer of 2002, in the company of orcas, he left Iceland and swam more than 1,000 miles to a fjord in Norway, where he befriended local fishermen and townspeople. His caregivers from the Keiko Project came to the fjord to watch over and care for him, and he was free to come and go. But he never reunited with his family.

“We have always known that it is very easy to capture a whale, but what we learned is that it is very difficult to put one back.”

So, how can we give back to other whales who are still held in concrete tanks something of the life that we’ve taken from them?

“The best solution is to build natural seaside sanctuaries where captive whales and dolphins can live out their lives in an environment as close to their natural habitat as possible.”

Charles describes the work that’s being undertaken by the Whale Sanctuary Project to create the first such sanctuary.

“It’s a bold vision, but these animals have raised tens of millions of dollars for their owners and entertained millions of people. Don’t we owe them something?”

The post TEDx Talk “Whales Without Walls” by Charles Vinick appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

In this talk to students at Franklin & Marshall College in November 2017, Dr. Lori Marino talks about whales and dolphins: “who” they are, their history as a species, and their intelligence and cognitive powers. Some things, for example, that you may not have known:

• The ancestors of whales, dolphins and porpoises (known overall as cetaceans) were land animals, known to scientists as archaeocetes, who went aquatic about 50 million years ago.

• The earliest archaeocete found, called Pakicetus, looked a bit like a dog, but was a hoofed animal. The closest living relative of modern cetaceans is the hippopotamus, another hoofed creature.
• Cetaceans haven’t changed very much in the past 15 million years. (We humans, by comparison, have only been around as a species for about 200,000 years and even our hominid ancestors go back only about 5-6 million years)
• Cetaceans are ridiculously smart and highly social. The brains of orcas are 2.5 times the size that’s typical for an animal of their size. And bottlenose dolphin brains are over four times the expected size.

Human brain (left) and orca brain. The cortex is basically a sheet, so the more actual surface area there is, the more cortical tissue can fit in the skull.

• The adult orca brain is the most convoluted brain on earth, and the orca forebrain comprises a greater proportion of the total brain volume than does the human forebrain. The neocortex is greatly expanded, particularly in areas of “integrative” higher-order processing of emotions and social cognition.
• Orcas can dive to depths of over 650 feet when foraging, and belugas can dive to 2,300 feet. A beluga pod (extended family) can travel up to 70 miles a day, and an orca pod more than 100 miles.
• Every pod is shaped by complex cultural traditions that include different dialects, ways of hunting and foraging, and social behaviors.
• Belugas are known as “canaries of the ocean” because of their remarkable ability to imitate sounds and behaviors. They have especially strong family bonds and babysit each other’s calves.

Dr. Marino then talks about how the life of a whale or dolphin in a concrete tank at a marine park or aquarium bears no relation to life in the ocean. Just for starters, an orca at SeaWorld would have to swim the circumference of the main pool 1,400 times to go the daily distance of her cousins in the wild.

Beyond that, they have no stimulation or challenges, and because they’re frequently moved from one park to another, their families are broken up, their social groups are artificial, and sometimes they live in complete solitude, which must be emotionally devastating.

Dr. Marino talks about the Whale Sanctuary Project and our aim to have the first sanctuary completed by the end of 2019.

And the question-and-answer period opens up some fascinating topics. For example, since orcas are often seen deliberately injuring themselves in their tanks, could this mean that they’re trying to end their own lives? And if so, what does this tell us about their level of metacognition – i.e. their ability to reflect upon their own lives?

The post Whales and Dolphins: “Who” They Are appeared first on The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature.

The paper, published a year ago, is co-authored by Whale Sanctuary Project president Lori Marino, who joined with colleagues at Emory University and at the University of Oxford to use a new imaging method, called Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), to explore the connections between areas in the two dolphin brains. Each of the large brains had to be scanned for over 12 hours for the imaging data to be obtained.

Figure shows the new pathways (in blue and yellow) connecting the midbrain of a dolphin to the temporal lobe.

Earlier studies of a different type, done with live dolphins in Russia, showed that the pathway from the inner ear to the cortex of the brain culminates at the apex of the brain next to the visual processing area. All of that made sense because dolphins are echolocators and integrate visual and acoustic information very quickly.
The unique arrangement of the dolphin brain was added to existing pathways already laid down in mammals.

But when Marino and her colleagues used DTI to examine connections in the postmortem dolphin brains they discovered something never before seen: yet another pathway from the ear to a different part of the brain, the temporal lobe, where the primary auditory cortex of most mammals is located.

This second connection shows that the unique arrangement of the dolphin brain was added to existing pathways already laid down in mammals.

“We found that there are probably multiple areas in the dolphin brain associated with auditory information, and the neural pathways look similar to those of a bat,” lead author Greg Berns says. “This is surprising because dolphins and bats are far apart on the evolutionary tree. They diverged tens of millions of years ago but their brains may have evolved similar mechanisms for using sound not just to hear, but to also create mental images.”

Now that this imaging technique has demonstrated it can reveal connectivity patterns in postmortem cetacean brains, a whole world of opportunity opens up for exploring dolphin and whale brains, and all non-invasively.

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