The Whale Sanctuary Blog Archives
2022

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

How to Be a Successful Whale or Dolphin

How whales teach their young, learn from their families and friends, and pass along their culture to new generations.

Our Year-End “Ask Us Anything” Webinar

In this webinar, Dr. Lori Marino and Charles Vinick answer a wide range of questions: from when the sanctuary will ...

Public Notice re. Canadian Navigable Waters Act

The following is an official public notice regarding our request to the Canadian Minister of Transport for approval of the ...

Come Inside the Operations Center!

Today, Giving Tuesday 2021, we’d like to share a short video tour from Charles Vinick, our Executive Director, of the ...

Dolphin Assisted Therapy, Autism and Pseudoscience

Dr. Lori Marino of the Whale Sanctuary Project discusses how Dolphin Assisted Therapy is a nonscientific practice claiming to be ...

The Landmark Study that Led Me to Reject Research on Captive Whales and Dolphins

It was a landmark study in our understanding of the cognitive abilities of dolphins. But what I learned most from ...

Opening Day at Whale Sanctuary Operations Centre

It's another milestone toward the creation of the Whale Sanctuary in Nova Scotia. People from near and far gathered for ...

From Keiko to Kiska – Whales Without Walls

I’m sitting on the wharf, here at Port Hilford Bay, and behind me are 100 acres of water space that ...

Shocking Government Report on Miami Seaquarium

New and deeply disturbing facts in a government report about life for the orca Lolita and other marine mammals at ...

Sanctuaries and the Study of Cetacean Communication

How an authentic coastal sanctuary will be able to supplement the work that’s being done in the open ocean by ...

Of Mice and Orcas

A recent video of Kiska the orca at Marineland Canada shows her slapping the side of her body against the ...

Crisis at Marineland Canada

Last week, Kiska the orca at Marineland Canada became news all over the world when video was posted of her ...

Why Captive Cetaceans Have Been Dying

The recent spate of deaths of young whales have apparently been a surprise to their owners at entertainment parks. But ...

Ula Was Never Part of Their “Family”

On Monday of this week, Loro Parque Zoo in the Canary Islands announced that the young orca Ula had died. ...

The Rescue of Toa

Toa, as the six-month-old orca would later be named, was living the life of any young whale’s dreams, leaping in ...

Orca Skyla Dies at Loro Parque Zoo

Following the death of the orca Skyla, Loro Parque Zoo offered a very brief statement on the necropsy. Here are ...

A Major Update on the Creation of the Whale Sanctuary

It is just over a year since Dr. Lori Marino and I announced that Port Hilford Bay in Nova Scotia ...

“What I Wish I Could Ask a Whale”

Senator Daniel Christmas of Nova Scotia, Canada, joins Dr. Lori Marino, President of the Whale Sanctuary Project, for this conversation ...

What Is an Authentic Sanctuary?

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

Keiko the Orca’s Legacy

Several of us on the Whale Sanctuary team today worked together 20 years ago to return to the ocean the ...

Message from the Sanctuary Site

A brief video message from Charles Vinick, Whale Sanctuary Project executive director, taped at the wharf that overlooks the sanctuary ...

A Deep Dive into Environmental Analysis

At the sanctuary site: ADCPs? Multibeam Sonar? Benthic Surveys? Water and Sediment Sampling? Hydrophones and Underwater Microphones? What's it all ...

Another Infant Beluga Dies at Shedd Aquarium

Another beluga infant has perished at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Beluga whales are highly intelligent, wide-ranging, socially complex, cultural ...

A New Calf for the Southern Resident Orcas

Tahlequah (J-35), a member of the endangered Southern Resident orca population, has given birth to a healthy-looking calf, Two years ...

Whale Camp!

On August 15th, we held a Whale Sanctuary Family Day Camp in Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia, just 15 minutes from the ...

Another First for Captive Whales and Dolphins

Little Grey and Little White, two beluga whales who had spent eight years on display at an entertainment park in ...

Are Beluga Whales Social Butterflies?

A new study shows beluga whales have an even more complex social life than we imagined, one that’s more similar ...

Reintroducing Keiko to the Wild – the “Free Willy” Whale

Two members of Keiko’s team talk about what it was like bringing him to Iceland on a giant cargo plane ...

“Please Don’t Interact with Curious Beluga Whales in the Ocean!”

A few of the beluga whales who had been captured illegally from Russian waters and were returned to the ocean ...

Letter to Russian Government re. Ban on Capture of Cetaceans

Letter to the President and Prime Minister of Russia in support of a ban on the capture of cetaceans for ...

Big and Beautiful: the Beluga Brain

In terms of brain size and complexity, beluga whales are among the most sophisticated cetaceans. These big beautiful brains underlie ...

Canaries of the Sea

We’ve barely begun to learn who these amazing, charming and complex beings are. Among their unique abilities is their highly ...

We Couldn’t Have Chosen a Better Site!

Port Hilford is a wonderful location for a seaside sanctuary for whales being retired from marine entertainment parks. It offers ...

A Message from Our President re. COVID-19

I wish you all health and well-being in what are trying times for everyone. And meanwhile, our work in creating ...

Canadian Senate Pays Tribute to Work of Whale Sanctuary Project

We are deeply honored by the speech by Senator Patricia Bovey in the Senate of Canada paying tribute to the ...

Whale Sanctuary Project selects Port Hilford, Nova Scotia, for sanctuary site

The Whale Sanctuary Project has announced that it will work together with Sherbrooke and the Municipality of the District of ...

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