The Whale Sanctuary Blog Archives
2017

News updates … Opinion … Commentary … Press releases … Background info … Archives.

Morgan the Orca: a Tale of Betrayal

Morgan, an orca who was captured 10 years ago, is pregnant. A story of corrupt justice and corporate dealing involving ...

The Blackfish Effect

It’s coming up five years since the movie Blackfish premiered at Sundance. How has the landscape changed for whales and dolphins ...

Superpod One – Where it All Began

In the summer of 2011, a group of scientists, journalists and former orca trainers met up on San Juan Island. ...

Sanctuary Groups Share Info at Marine Mammal Conference

The Whale Sanctuary Project presented a workshop at the conference of the Society for Marine Mammal Biology last week, in ...

Will Canada Ban Captivity for Whales and Dolphins?

Canada has taken another step toward retiring whales and dolphins from captivity in marine parks and aquariums. The Coastal First ...

Dental Damage and Decay Among Orcas at Marine Parks

A new study, “Tooth Damage in Captive Orcas”, is the first comprehensive, peer-reviewed, quantitative assessment of how extensive tooth damage ...

Marine Conservationist Carl Safina Joins the Board

Conservationist and author Carl Safina joins forces with The Whale Sanctuary Project to establish the first permanent whale sanctuary in ...

Sylvia Earle & Jean-Michel Cousteau Join the Team

A big welcome to two new members of our Advisory Committee: Sylvia Earle and Jean-Michel Cousteau.

Conversations with Aquariums and Marine Parks

Aquarium and zoo industry people don’t often get together with animal protection groups. But Ron Kagan, Director of the Detroit ...

Caring for Orcas at a Sanctuary

In this video, Charles Vinick, our Executive Director, talks about how attitudes are changing toward keeping whales and dolphins in ...

A Whale and Her Family

Following the sad news yesterday about the death of killer whale Kasatka at SeaWorld San Diego, SeaWorld wrote that she ...

SeaWorld Attendance Still Falling

The days of keeping whales and dolphins on display are clearly numbered. And SeaWorld appears to be seeing its long-term ...

Canada Considers Ban on Captivity of Whales and Dolphins

The Canadian Senate is currently considering an amendment that would make it illegal to keep whales or dolphins in captivity. ...

Kyara’s Death a Tragic Irony

It’s a tragic irony that Kyara, the last orca to be born at SeaWorld, died yesterday at the age of ...

Carl Safina Joins the Board

Today, renowned conservationist Dr. Carl Safina joined the board of the Whale Sanctuary Project. And board member Charles Vinick accepted ...

Exploring Locations for a Sanctuary in British Columbia

Two members of the Whale Sanctuary Project team have been exploring coves and bays in the supremely beautiful region of ...

Fourth Graders Share Love of Orcas

As part of Orca Awareness Month, five students from Norton Elementary School in Chicago sent this video postcard to our ...

Merlin Entertainment Seeks to Move Belugas to Sanctuary

Merlin, a British company that specializes in amusement parks, is looking to create a whale sanctuary off the coast of ...

When Belugas Learn to Say “Vrooom”

Wilma was an orphan beluga whale who had been in the bay trying to make friends with fishermen and tourist ...

Smart, Chatty and Chirpy – and That’s Their Problem

Beluga whales are cute, charming, chatty, curious and all-around delightful. And that’s their problem, in that these attributes make them ...

World Oceans Day and Captive Whales

World Oceans Day, June 8th, celebrates life in the oceans. It draws our attention to what’s happening to the coral ...

My Life with the Belugas

(Third in a series about beluga whales in captivity.) Samantha Berg worked with the belugas at SeaWorld in the 1990s. ...

How the Beluga Business Began

What Sarah had seen that day in 1861 was one of the first beluga whales to be captured and put ...

Beluga Whales – Cute, Curvy and Exploited

The Georgia Aquarium had arranged to have the whales captured from the Sea of Okhotsk on Russia’s west coast, and ...

Response to the Vancouver Aquarium

Vancouver Aquarium veterinarian Martin Haulena and former SeaWorld trainer Mark Simmons claim that a concrete tank at an aquarium is ...

What Is a Sanctuary?

In this short video, Dr. Lori Marino defines a sanctuary as “a place of refuge” and highlights two key differences ...

Park Board to Vancouver Aquarium: ‘No New Whale Displays’

The Vancouver Park Board has voted in favor of amending a bylaw that would effectively prevent any new whales, dolphins ...

Canadian Senate Hearing on Banning Captivity of Whales & Dolphins

Should it be made a criminal offense to keep healthy whales and dolphins in concrete tanks in Canada? At a ...

Munchkin Donation in Memory of Tilikum

Shortly after the announcement from SeaWorld, this morning, that Tilikum the orca had died, we had a call from Steven ...

Tilikum and “Granny”

We’re sad to report two deaths this week: This morning, SeaWorld Orlando announced that Tilikum had passed away from a ...

Holiday Shopping

The Whale Sanctuary Project store is open for your Holiday shopping, with T-shirts, mugs, bags and mouse pads.

Morgan: When Rescue Becomes Capture

In 2011, a young, lone, female orca was captured in the waters of the Netherlands under a “rescue, rehabilitation and ...

How the First Orcas Were Captured and Sold to Marine Parks

In August 1970, TV cameras were on hand as seven orcas (killer whales) were captured off the coast of Seattle ...

Sanctuaries, Conservation and Reparation

Occasionally, anyone creating or running an animal sanctuary is asked whether the money wouldn’t be better spent on conservation and ...

International Conference on the Captive Dolphin Industry

At the International Conference on the Captive Dolphin Industry in Mexico, Dr. Marino laid out the mission of The Whale ...

Unlocking the Cage

The movie follows attorney Steven Wise as he prepares his first lawsuits to have nonhuman animals recognized by the legal ...

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