Our Dolphin Weekly Update From Friday!

AFD at Enoshima Aquarium.

AFD at Enoshima Aquarium.
Australia for Dolphins

Response to our Free four wild dolphins contained in a tiny pool at Wake Bali Adventure Petition at Change.org (5 days ago, you signed this petition. Help it reach 500,000 signatures):

Menteri Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan
Jul 27, 2015 — Dear friends,

Thank you very much for your concerns and voices through this petition. Your support and reports help us in conserving the environment and protecting wildlife. Know that I have noticed this petition since the beginning, and following its updates.

Since receiving the petition, I have discussed this issue with my team. Several days ago, the petition was hand-delivered to me by our friends at Jakarta Animal Aid Network.

We are taking this report seriously and currently, investigating the situation. If in fact there are violations happening in the resort that are unlawful such as abuse, neglect, or not up to the standards of the regulations, rest assured we will take action.

Moreover, this has opened a public discourse about the existence of places with captive dolphins and other wildlife. I want to open up this dialogue to the public and the experts, and determine the best way forward, that is best for the environment, best for the animals, and best for the people.

In several weeks we are planning to have a round table discussion about the topic of captive dolphins, and we will invite experts in education, psychology, conservation, animal protection, civil society organizations, to talk openly to try to come up with a solution.

I will surely share the results of that discussion back to you.

Thank you for your attention.

Dr. Ir. Siti Nurbaya Bakar, M.Sc.
Minister of Environment and Forestry
Republik Indonesia

A breakthrough, but we need action fast by Craig Brokensha from Sydney, NSW

Jul 27, 2015 — Thanks to your support and over 350,000 signatures, the Minister listened to us and has agreed to investigate the situation at Wake Bali Dolphins.

I am seriously worried about how long this will take. How can she not realise how urgent this - the dolphins need to be removed from the pool before it is too late.

I know the resort is doing everything they can to cover up the abuse and they’ve heavily increased security to monitor activity near the pool.

The Minister’s full reply is here https://www.change.org/p/wake-bali-dolphins-free-four-wild-dolphins-contained-in-a-tiny-resort-pool/responses/29420

Please can you leave your comments to her response at the bottom of the page about how urgent it is that the dolphins are freed, regardless of whether the resort is acting within official guidelines or not!

This isn’t the end, but a step in the right direction. The campaign to get these dolphins free is still on until then - please keep sharing.

Cheers, Craig

P.S. A huge thank you to the Jakarta Animal Aid Network (JAAN) who delivered my petition to the Minister on my behalf!



Orkid has been imprisoned for decades. She's watched other orcas die in front of her, dragged trainers into the water, and never had even a taste of freedom.

But Orkid's story isn't unique. SeaWorld enslaves many animals in small tanks at marine parks around the country, where they're forced to perform tricks for food. It's a business built on the suffering of intelligent, social animals who are denied everything that is natural and important to them. As a result, animals imprisoned by SeaWorld often die prematurely from captivity-related causes, including ones related to stress.

In the wild, orcas are intelligent predators who work cooperatively in search of food. They share intricate relationships in a matrilineal society. In some populations, orcas rarely leave their mother's pod, but at SeaWorld, they are often separated. Free orcas are among the fastest animals in the sea, and they swim as far as 100 miles every day. But at SeaWorld, orcas swim in endless circles or float listlessly in small, barren concrete tanks.

Please, don't go to SeaWorld. Visit SeaWorldOfHurt.com to learn more.

Subscribe: http://youtube.com/subscription_cente...

The website the meat industry doesn't want you to see: http://meat.org

How to go vegan: http://features.peta.org/how-to-go-ve...

PETA Saves: http://features.peta.org/petasaves/

PETA: http://PETA.org

FAQs: http://www.peta.org/about-peta/faq/


North Carolina’s Largest Port City Says No to Offshore Drilling

Click here to learn more.

Press Release Date

Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Location: Wilmington, NC
Contact: Dustin Cranor: dcranor@Oceana.org 954.348.1314 
Tonight, the Wilmington City Council unanimously passed a resolution opposing seismic airgun blasting and offshore drilling off the state’s coast. Wilmington, which is the largest port city in North Carolina, fears the federal government’s plans for offshore oil and gas exploration and development threaten coastal communities, economies, fisheries and marine mammals.

The Obama administration is currently considering opening a large swath of the Atlantic Ocean, from Virginia to Georgia, to offshore drilling. Meanwhile, seismic airgun blasting, a process used to search for oil and gas deposits deep below the ocean floor, is continuing to move forward in an area twice the size of California, stretching all the way from Delaware to Florida. 

“We applaud the Wilmington City Council for taking a stand against Big Oil and saying NO to seismic airgun blasting and offshore drilling,” said Randy Sturgill, campaign organizer at Oceana. “Opposition to East Coast drilling is growing every day and the federal government should be listening. Opening up the Atlantic to offshore drilling is a dirty and dangerous business—there are countless risks with little to no reward. Coastal communities like Wilmington have the most to lose, and their voices must be heard. We encourage local residents and their elected officials to continue to speak out against the Obama’s administration’s proposed plan to open up the Atlantic to Big Oil.” 

As of today, more than 60 coastal communities have passed similar resolutions against seismic airguns and/or offshore drilling, including 16 in North Carolina such as Carolina Beach and Wrightsville Beach. In addition, more than 85 members of Congress, roughly 500 local and state officials, over 160 conservation and animal welfare organizations, as well as the Billfish Foundationthe International Game Fish Associationthe Southeastern Fisheries Associationthe South Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, have all publically opposed offshore oil exploration and/or development. In March, Oceana and others delivered more than half a million petitions opposing offshore development to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Also in March, 75 leading marine scientists sent a letter to President Obama on the impacts of seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic Ocean, stating that “the magnitude of the proposed seismic activity is likely to have significant, long-lasting, and widespread impacts on the reproduction and survival of fish and marine mammal populations in the region, including the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, of which approximately only 500 remain.”

“These efforts could destroy our coastal economies and communities for decades to come,” said Sturgill. “If allowed, this plan would open the East Coast to industrial offshore drilling for the first time in U.S. history. Offshore drilling in the Atlantic would lead to a coast scattered with oil and gas rigs, the industrialization of coastal communities and the looming threat of a Deepwater Horizon-like disaster. Port cities such as Wilmington, NC, Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA, which would be essential to offshore drilling off the East Coast, are simply not willing to trade in their oceans or their way of life all for less than 4 percent of the nation’s total oil and natural gas reserves.” 

Oceana’s own analysis found that offshore wind would create twice the number of jobs and generate twice the amount of energy as offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean, without the risk of a catastrophic spill. For North Carolina specifically, offshore wind would produce more than twice as many jobs and nearly thirty percent more energy than offshore drilling in twenty years.

For more information about Oceana’s efforts, please click here

A Race Against Time to Save the Littlest Porpoise


vaquita (c) Raziel Levi Mendez Moreno
Photo by Raziel Levi Mendez Moreno
Vaquitas could go extinct within the next three years! Tell the U.S. government to take action and prevent the extinction of the vaquita.

Take Action

Unless we act soon, the world’s tiniest porpoise species could go extinct within the next three years!

New estimates place the global population of vaquitas at around 50 animals. That’s fewer than half as many vaquitas as scientists had believed. 

And at current rates of loss, scientists predict the vaquita could be extinct by 2018! 

And that’s why I am turning to you for help. 

Please make a generous donation to Defenders TODAY. Your support will help save vaquitas and a host of other imperiled wildlife on land and sea! 

As you know, vaquitas are dying, because they’re caught in illegal nets set in the Gulf of California to trap another critically endangered animal, an endemic fish called totoaba. The swim bladder of the totoaba is used in traditional Chinese medicine. The black market price of a single totoaba swim bladder is between $5,000 and $10,000 - and the illegal market is booming. 

Because of this, vaquitas are dying. 

Your support will help Defenders save the world’s last vaquitas by: 

Turning up the pressure in Washington, D.C. to increase enforcement of wildlife trafficking laws. Most of the illegal totoaba bladders are transported through the United States;

Working with U.S. and Mexican authorities to encourage talks between U.S., Mexico and China to work together to help stop the illegal trade of totoaba;

Helping to create educational materials on the vaquita and totoaba for coastal communities in the Upper Gulf of California to prevent illegal fishing practices;

Participating in global treaties like the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES); and

Mobilizing concerned wildlife lovers to demand action to save the vaquita!

If you don’t stand up for the vaquita, I fear no one will. 

Can I count on you to help? 

From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for all you do for our wildlife!