A Whale Of A Week!

4 Badass People Who Are Changing the Way We View Marine Captivity. For years, SeaWorld has manipulated scientific information to influence the public’s perception of marine mammal captivity, and for years, a silent war has been waging against SeaWorld by scientists and activists alike.

In 2009, the documentary The Cove brought attention to the plight of marine mammals being captured and sold to marine parks all over the world. This singular film was incredibly successful and garnered worldwide attention for the issue of marine captivity. While SeaWorld wasn’t particularly targeted in the film (SeaWorld parks have not ,at least, not to the public’s knowledge, imported wild animals since the Marine Mammal Protection Act was enacted in 1972.), the growing popularity of the topic started a ripple effect against keeping cetaceans in tanks that would only grow with the release of Blackfish in 2013.

The documentary focused on the death of senior SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau, who lost her life after being pulled into a pool by an orca in 2010. This particularly tragic story inspired Gabriela Cowperthwaite, a filmmaker, to question why it happened and delve into the history of marine parks looking for answers. Like The Cove, Blackfish brought global attention to the issue and gave an incredibly public forum for scientists and activists that had been working for years to end marine mammal captivity to share their knowledge on the detriments of marine captivity.

These films helped raise public awareness for the issue, but it is the ongoing work by activists and marine animal advocates that is now driving us towards a future where marine parks will be a thing of the past. By galvanizing the public and empowering people with the tools and knowledge they need to make a difference, these awesome game-changers are picking up where documentaries end and bringing the fight to the real world.

These four individuals are just a few of many, but their unique and powerful bodies of work are beyond inspiring. If you are in need of a little – or a lot of – inspiration, check out these four marine animal heroes.

1. Ric O’Barry
marine mammal captivity: the game changers
Former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry worked for the Miami Seaquarium on the TV series Flipper in the 1960s. Responsible for capturing and training the dolphins, amongst other marine mammals, it was the sudden death of one of his beloved dolphins, Kathy, that sent Ric on a drastically different path.

Ric spent 10 years working in the industry and has spent the latter half of his life fighting to end it. An activist and author, he founded the Dolphin Project in 1970 and was featured in the Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove. Currently in Taiji for the annual dolphin drives, Ric continues to fight for the welfare of all marine mammals, wild and captive.

2. Dr. Ingrid Visser
marine mammal captivity: the game changers
Dr. Ingrid Visser has been studying wild orca populations officially for more than two decades, and even longer prior to the founding of her non-profit, the Orca Research Trust, in New Zealand.

After the release of Blackfish, SeaWorld attained Dr. Visser’s research of dorsal fin collapse and falsely cited it on their website as proof that dorsal collapse was a phenomenon found in captive and wild whales. This, of course, couldn’t be further from the truth. In the past, SeaWorld has successfully avoided being challenged when they manipulate and publicize scientific data, but Ingrid continues to challenge SeaWorld requesting that they retract their statements.

3. Dr. Naomi Rose
marine mammal captivity: the game changers
Dr. Rose worked for the Humane Society International as their Senior Scientist for more than 20 years, and for the Animal Welfare Institute. Her experience studying the social dynamics of male killer whales and working to address the issues involved in keeping marine mammals in captivity has made her one of the most vocal scientists (and activists) we know today.

Dr. Rose fought for AB-2140, the Orca Welfare and Safety Act, last year in California and continues to travel and voice her opposition to marine mammal captivity.

4. John Hargrove
marine mammal captivity: the game changers
Recently the victim of SeaWorld’s tragic PR team, John Hargrove is a former senior trainer who began working for SeaWorld in 1993. John left SeaWorld in 2012, following one too many injuries and tragic deaths that left him questioning holding marine mammals in captivity.

His book, Beneath the Surface, chronicles his time at SeaWorld and the disturbing practices he participated in and, at the time, supported. Prior to the release of his book, lawyers for SeaWorld issued a letter to John warning him against disclosing confidential information. We can’t imagine why SeaWorld would be concerned that a former trainer would write a tell-all book if they assert all of the information provided is false. Thankfully, John trusted his instincts and went ahead with the release anyway.

These amazing individuals are only four among many who are fighting for the rights of captive cetaceans. Given all that we know about the intelligence and social capacities of these animals, it is only a matter of time before all that this knowledge is reflected in how we treat marine animals.

These four individuals have helped to start the wave of awareness against marine captivity, but it is up to all of us to keep the ripples going. The best way that you can act for marine animals is to refuse to pay to see them in marine parks or zoos. No animal deserves to suffer for the sake of our entertainment. Lead image source: Abi Skipp/Flickr. Academy Award-winning film.

Help Preserve The Lives Of These Majestic Whales Before It Is Too Late.
Help Preserve The Lives Of These Majestic Whales Before It Is Too Late
PETITION: Click Here To Sign It!  (158,364 SIGNATURES have signed it so far, less than 2K or so to go to reach goal of 160K)
TARGET: International Whaling Commission; Japanese Government

In June of 2015, Japan stated that it has plans to begin whale hunting in the winter months of this year. Despite the Interntional Whaling Commission (IWC) banning commercial whaling in 1986, Japan has continued to hunt whales under the pretense of "research."

In 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that the whale hunts were not scientific in nature. What's more, the International Whaling Commission stated that, "Tokyo has not proven the mammals need to be killed for research." 

Nevertheless, Japan plans to catch a total of 333 Minke whales each year, beginning from the winter months of 2015 and ending in the winter months of 2027. Please sign this petition demanding a stop to the Japanese whale hunt for good!

Navy agrees to restrict offshore training to protect marine mammals.
Humpback whale
The Navy has agreed to curtail its use of sonar and underwater explosives during training exercises in key marine mammal habitat off Southern California and Hawaii.

The settlement brings an end to legal challenges against the government from environmentalists — led by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Earthjustice. It was signed Monday by U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway in Honolulu.

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In April, Mollway ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service had violated federal environmental laws when it decided the Navy’s training would have a “negligible impact” on whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions and sea turtles.

That set off months of negotiations between the Navy, the fisheries service and the environmental groups.

“By agreeing to this settlement, the Navy acknowledges that it doesn’t need to train in every square inch of the ocean and that it can take reasonable steps to reduce the deadly toll of its activities,” said Earthjustice attorney David Henkin.

The Navy’s testing plan could have proved disruptive to feeding areas, migratory corridors and places where the animals reside, he said.

A spokesman said the Navy agreed to the settlement because it faced “the real possibility that the court would stop critically important training and testing.” Lt. Cmdr. Matt Knight, spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said that “the Navy has been, and will continue to be, good environmental stewards as we prepare for and conduct missions in support of our national security.”

The litigation centered on a disagreement about how many marine mammals might be harmed by the Navy’s training regimen. Mollway ruled that the Navy had vastly underestimated the threat.

According to the environmentalists, the settlement calls for a ban on mid-frequency sonar and explosives on the eastern side of the Big Island and north of Molokai and Maui, in an effort to protect whales and Hawaiian monk seals. Surface ships would be required to use “extreme caution” to avoid hitting humpback whales.

They need to use computer simulations for radar training and not the real thing. I'm tired of seeing these animals beach themselves because they can no longer navigate.

Off Southern California, the Navy is banned from using mid-frequency sonar between Santa Catalina Island and San Nicolas Island, also near blue whale habitat off San Diego, the environmental groups said. The same extreme caution would be required for ships in the feeding habitat and migratory corridors for blue, fin and gray whales.

The Navy asserted its training could kill 155 whales over five years. Environmentalists said the number of those killed or injured would be much higher.

Among other things, the Navy uses sonar to teach sailors how to detect “super quiet” submarines that can operate in relatively shallow near-shore areas.


Though the military would have preferred a less-restrictive agreement, Knight said, “this … preserves critically important testing and training.”

Bill Rossiter, executive director for advocacy, science and grants at Cetacean Society International, said the agreement means “beaked whale populations in Southern California that have been suffering from the Navy’s use of sonar will be able to find areas of refuge where sonar will be off-limits.”

The new restrictions will be applied under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Woman Plans to Live in Bathtub for One Month to Raise Awareness for Lolita the Captive Orca. The issue of marine animal captivity is one that never fails to inspire great passion in animal lovers around the world. From the amazing kids who campaign against it, to Steve-O’s recent stunt of climbing a crane in Hollywood, Cal., it seems that the very idea of the cramped, frustrating conditions that captive orcas, dolphins, and other marine animals must endure inspires countless numbers of people to speak out and take action, no matter what.

And now, a twenty-nine-year-old woman named Danielle Daals has taken her activism to new heights by vowing that she will stay outside the Miami Seaquarium in a bathtub for one month.

She wants to raise awareness of the plight of Lolita, a female orca who has lived at the Seaquarium for almost 35 out of her 45 years in captivity. Captured from the wild and cruelly separated from her family – the L-Pod of the Southern Resident Killer Whales population – she has been forced to live in the smallest orca tank in the country. The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) has described it as “smaller than even the minimum standard required by federal law.”
Orca
Legal attempts to free Lolita from her situation and have her retired to a sizeable sea pen have so far been unsuccessful. However, Howard Garrett of the Orca Network has said, “it’s hardly the end of the road for our legal efforts for Lolita,” explaining that further cases are planned, which will seek to argue that Miami Seaquarium’s multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) mean that Lolita should no longer be housed with them.

Danielle Daals said of her planned protest: “Living in a bathtub is the best analogy for (Lolita’s) situation. (In the wild,) orcas swim so many miles a day that their tanks are the equivalent to a bath tub! No one has lived in a bathtub to support her freedom, which is why I’m hoping this will gain so much attention.”

She intends to carry out her unusual form of protest next summer, adding that “This is a peaceful protest and I will be fully clothed in the bathtub with no water. There should be no safety concerns for anyone, including myself.” The Miami-Dade Police Department will only step in to prevent her action if it poses a safety threat to Daals herself, or to passing traffic.

Geragi Jeff, cofounder of Miami’s Animal Activists Network, has praised Daals’ decision, saying, “If this could be pulled off, I think it could bring a tremendous amount of awareness to Lolita’s plight over these past 45 years and put pressure on Miami Seaquarium to finally retire her.”

Jared Goodman, director of animal law at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was also supportive of Daals’ plan. “A month may be an unthinkable stretch of time to spend confined to a bathtub, but the orca Lolita has been confined to the smallest orca tank in North America for more than four decades,” he commented.

So, will Daals’ protest help discourage members of the public from attending Miami Seaquarium, or even push the marine park into letting Lolita go at long last? It remains to be seen. We wish her the best of luck. Lead image source: PublicBroadcasting.net

Whales and Dolphins Win Battle Over the Use of Harmful Sonar. A settlement between environmental groups and the U.S. Navy restricts the deployment of sonar and explosives that can hurt marine mammals.
The long-running war between the whales and the United States Navy is over.

A federal judge on Monday approved a legal settlement that limits the use of sonar and other underwater explosives that can inadvertently harm whales and dolphins.

For marine mammals, the ping of sonar or the muffled blast of underwater detonations can be deafening and even deadly.

The settlement ends litigation brought by environmental groups against the Navy over its use of sonar in important feeding grounds for whales off the Southern California coast near Santa Catalina, San Clemente, and San Nicolas islands, as well as waters around Hawaii, including Maui, Molokai, and the Big Island.

“The settlement protects some of the most important areas for marine mammals that are sensitive to sonar,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of several groups involved in the litigation. “It’s a great benefit to the whales and lets the Navy fulfill its training needs.”

It’s the first time the Navy has acknowledged that it is possible to protect marine mammal habitat without hindering its training regimen—abandoning its previous stance that putting limitations on sonar testing and exercises wasn’t feasible, Earthjustice lead counsel David Henkin said.

“This sets a precedent for future approvals of Navy activities, not only here in Hawaii and Southern California, but everywhere the Navy conducts its activities,” Henkin said in an email.

A 2013 Navy report estimated that over the subsequent five years (2014 through 2019), sonar testing, underwater detonations, missile launches, anti-submarine warfare, and ship strikes could kill up to 155 whales, dolphins, seals, and sea lions and permanently injure more than 2,000 animals. The Navy also estimated that 9 million incidents of marine mammal disturbances could alter feeding and breeding activities in the 120,000-square-mile Southern California testing zone.

The National Marine Fisheries Service approved the Navy’s testing plans in 2013, finding the activities would have a “negligible impact” on marine mammals. But in April, a U.S. district judge in Hawaii ruled that the agency violated environmental laws by approving the Navy’s plan.

Here are the highlights of the settlement:

California
The Navy can no longer use sonar between Santa Catalina and San Nicola islands—a prime feeding ground for beaked whales.

Sonar is banned in a blue whale feeding area near San Diego.
Navy Sonar testing is now banned in areas near San Diego where blue whales feed (Fig. A and B). (Map: EarthJustice.org)
The Navy can no longer test sonar in beaked whale feeding grounds (Fig. A and B) between Santa Catalina and San Nicolas islands. (Map: EarthJustice.org)

Hawaii
Sonar and explosives training is banned on the east side of the Big Island of Hawaii and north of Molokai and Maui. That will protect critical Hawaiian monk seal habitat and small populations of endangered false killer whales.

Limits are imposed on major Navy training exercises in the channel between Maui and the Big Island.

The National Marine Fisheries Service will investigate any marine mammal injuries or deaths.
Navy sonar and explosives training is banned along the east side of the Big Island of Hawaii (Map: EarthJustice.org)
Navy sonar and explosives training has been banned along the north coasts of Molokai and Maui, to protect critical habitat of endangered monk seals and false killer whales.  (Map: EarthJustice.org)
Protect whales from explosive compressed air guns
PETITIONClick Here To Sign It!  (95,380 SIGNATURES have signed it so far, 100K is the goal) 
TARGET: U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

Hundreds of whales and other marine mammals are being unnecessarily subjected to loud explosions that damage their hearing, destroy their navigation systems, and interfere with breeding. 

A group of international scientists is urging the government to protect our precious marine mammals by cutting out unnecessary noise pollution. Sign this petition to add your name to the call and save our whales from terrifying, dangerous blasts in their habitat.

Compressed air guns are used by oil and drilling operations to scan the ocean floor. When they release a blast, it sounds like a bomb exploding. You can hear a recording here.

We can't always protect animals from human activity, but ecologists have revealed that dozens of these seismic tests are completely unnecessary. Instead of issuing just one permit to explore an ocean area, the U.S. government gives out multiple permits to blast explosives in the exact same place.

These whales don't have to live in a war zone. The Norwegian government issues just one permit per location, and companies wanting to explore the region work together using the same seismic data. For the sake of our wildlife, it's time for us to do the same!

Sign this petition to join the international movement to stop noise pollution that's hurting our ocean ecosystems.

Whales got their day in court -- and WON For a decade NRDC has been watchdogging the U.S. Navy and pursuing it through the courts on behalf of whales in the Pacific. Today the whales won!

Whales are now safe from the Navy's deadly ocean noise.
After more than a decade of fighting us in and out of court, the U.S. Navy has agreed to save whales, dolphins and other marine mammals by limiting deadly sonar and explosives during training exercises.

The Navy has finally agreed to meet its obligation under the law and end the needless sonic assault on whales, dolphins and other marine mammals -- agreeing for the first time to put vital ocean habitat around Southern California and Hawaii off-limits to destructive sonar use during training exercises.

Make no mistake: it wouldn't have happened without you. Together with high-profile advocates like Pierce Brosnan, we ignited a public outcry and flooded President Obama and the Secretary of Defense with hundreds of thousands of messages demanding action. And your generous financial support gave us the vital funds needed to keep our lawyers in court for as long as it took to win.

I can think of few movements with the energy, determination and above all, public support, to get this far against such a powerful adversary. Thank you, truly.

For marine mammals -- whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals and sea lions -- hearing is essential. They use sound to communicate, to navigate, to feed and to find a mate. So when sonar occurs nearby, producing sound of extraordinary intensity, the effects on these acoustic creatures can be terrible.

The Navy's own Environmental Review concedes sonar could kill nearly 1,000 marine mammals over the next five years and cause more than 13,000 serious injuries, such as permanent hearing loss or lung damage.

As you know, NRDC filed a lawsuit last year challenging the Navy's massive sonar and high explosives program off Southern California and Hawaii. In March, a federal court ruled in our favor on every count. And now, that hard work has paid off in a strong settlement that protects both our naval security and our environment.

This victory is as massive as the animals we're protecting, including endangered blue whales -- the largest animal ever to have lived on the planet. Not to mention the array of small, resident whale and dolphin populations off Hawaii, for whom the islands are literally an oasis -- their only home.

Of course, as critical as this win is, it's a far cry from the end of our fight to protect marine mammals from Navy sonar. Our job now is to expand this victory to the Navy's other ranges, off the Pacific Northwest, in the Gulf of Alaska, off the southeast coast and elsewhere.

We'll need your strong support, as always, but for now -- you deserve to celebrate.

Read my blog post for more on this exciting victory you made possible for whales.

Teens vs. Orcas: Who Wins at Life?

Teens vs. Orcas: Who Wins at Life?
peta2TV

Click here to add your name now.
Tell President Obama it’s time to place the health of the Arctic Ocean first, not the interests of Big Oil >>As I write this email, Shell Oil Company is drilling in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northern coast.

Bowhead whales, polar bears, walrus and other marine animals that depend on the Arctic Ocean now face the terrifying threat of an oil spill – a spill that neither Shell nor the government has any proven way to contain or clean up.

But it’s not too late to protect the Arctic Ocean.

Sign this petition now to ask President Obama to wipe the slate clean by prioritizing economic and environmental sustainability in the Arctic Ocean >>

The Arctic Ocean is one of the last intact ecosystems largely untouched by large-scale industrial activity. With drilling underway, all of that can change in an instant.

Shell and the government are taking huge risks in one of the most remote and dangerous places on Earth. It’s time to stop taking those risks and take steps to protect the ocean.

The U.S. should wipe the slate clean by allowing drilling leases to expire, canceling scheduled new lease sales and prioritizing the protection of the Arctic Ocean.

President Obama has a unique opportunity to chart a new course for the Arctic. In Alaska just last week, the president committed to action to address climate change.

Exploring for and developing oil in the Arctic Ocean is not consistent with that commitment!

Tell President Obama it’s time to place the health of the Arctic Ocean first, not the interests of Big Oil, and then watch Oceana’s new video narrated by board member Sam Waterston to learn more about this threat >>

For years, Oceana successfully helped keep Shell at bay and prevented drilling in the Arctic Ocean. Wavemakers like you, Don, were a big part of that. Be a part of our ongoing efforts to protect the Arctic by adding your name now.

Moving forward, we need bold action for the Arctic Ocean. My grandfather, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, understood how precious our oceans are and I know you do to. Thank you for being bold.