The Whale Sanctuary Blog

2017: A New Beginning for Captive Whales

Thanks to you, 2017 has exceeded our expectations in site selection, fund raising, and the growing movement to bring an ...

Posted December 13, 2017 in News

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 ...

Posted December 9, 2017 in News, Opinion

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 ...

Posted November 20, 2017 in News

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. ...

Posted November 11, 2017 in Learn More

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 ...

Posted November 2, 2017 in News

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 ...

Posted October 20, 2017 in News

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 ...

Posted October 12, 2017 in Opinion

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 ...

Posted September 29, 2017 in For the Media

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.

Posted September 28, 2017 in News

Tales from the Whale Side – Seven

Why would these beings declare unilateral peace with humans and not with dolphins and seals, whom they hunt and eat? ...

Posted September 11, 2017 in Learn More

Tales from the Whale Side – Six

One of the dolphins came briefly nearer the boat, and then suddenly fled. At that point, someone discovered that one ...

Posted September 9, 2017 in Learn More

Tales from the Whale Side – Five

She allowed herself to wonder: were the whales trying to communicate something after she’d defended their family? Reading her thoughts ...

Posted September 7, 2017 in Learn More

Tales from the Whale Side – Four

The dog’s owner was sitting on a log, crying, when he heard the blows of killer whales. He could see ...

Posted September 5, 2017 in Learn More

Tales from the Whale Side – Three

“It was like a portal opened, or an introduction to another possibility of communication. I felt lighter, more integrated, very ...

Posted September 5, 2017 in Learn More

Tales from the Whale Side – Two

Killer whales seem capable of random acts of kindness that defy explanation and make scientists consider some pretty far-out possibilities. ...

Posted September 4, 2017 in Learn More

Tales from the Whale Side – One

“The whales understood that we weren’t going to be involved in high-speed chases. We weren’t going to be shooting any ...

Posted September 3, 2017 in Learn More

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 ...

Posted August 31, 2017 in News

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 ...

Posted August 24, 2017 in Learn More

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 ...

Posted August 17, 2017 in Opinion

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 ...

Posted August 13, 2017 in Opinion

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. ...

Posted July 26, 2017 in News

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 ...

Posted July 25, 2017 in Opinion

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 ...

Posted July 19, 2017 in News

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 ...

Posted July 13, 2017 in News

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 ...

Posted June 20, 2017 in News

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 ...

Posted June 15, 2017 in News

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 ...

Posted June 9, 2017 in Learn More

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 ...

Posted June 8, 2017 in Learn More

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 ...

Posted June 8, 2017 in Opinion

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. ...

Posted June 7, 2017 in Learn More

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 ...

Posted June 6, 2017 in Learn More

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 ...

Posted June 5, 2017 in Learn More

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 ...

Posted May 22, 2017 in Opinion

What Is a Sanctuary?

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

Posted May 17, 2017 in Learn More

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 ...

Posted May 17, 2017 in News

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 ...

Posted April 2, 2017 in For the Media, News