Keep Whales Wild

Since the creation of this blog, I’ve focused on sharing international facts about captivity. I’ve tried to write about every important subject (captures, Taiji, breeding programmes, trial, etc.) But, I wanted to create this blog to study more seriously the French marine parks. The recent death of the dolphin named Ecume (in English, Sea Foam) at Marineland, Antibes, seemed to me the perfect occasion to get going on that subject. [Foam died on February 26th, after 28 years at Marineland….

Read More Read More

The last orca who needs rescuing is, of course, Morgan. I have mentioned her story in my very first article, so click ->here<- if you want to read it. Morgan is a lone female orca who was rescued in the Wadden Sea, off to the northwest coast of the Netherlands in June 2010. She was found in very poor health (weighing approximately 950 pounds and likely being dehydrated – she was 11.5 feet long) and was therefore rescued and administrated medical…

Read More Read More

A week ago, I was telling you about the birth of Kasatka’s calf In the cetacean world, there are two groups: pro-caps and anti-caps. The first ones are those in favour of captivity, whereas the other ones are against this industry of enslavement. Pro-caps claim that captive orcas have the same average life expectancy than those living in the wild. (Be careful not to mix “average life expectancy” with “maximum life span”). How long do captive orcas live? How long…

Read More Read More

Let me present you the third orca who needs us to help her : Lolita is a female orca who was brutally captured from her family pod near Seattle in August 1970. Five whales drowned during the assault and seven young calves were caught for aquariums. For the past 40 years, she has lived in a tiny tank at Miami Seaquarium which violates USDA/APHIS standards. Indeed, it is no larger than a hotel swimming pool. It is 35 ft by 80 ft long….

Read More Read More

Who doesn’t know about the massacres of Taiji? Rhetorical question, of course. I thought it would be interesting to show the steps the dolphins go through, from their capture to their transfer into marine parks. I used pictures posted on the Cove Guardians’ Facebook page to create the story with visuals: