Helped to lead campaigns against dolphin captivity & Taiji massacres, & for dolphin-safe tuna & freeing Keiko Mark Ira Berman, 63, the primary spokesperson for Earth Island Institute on marine mammal issues since 1991, died on May 13, 2016. E-mailed Mark J. Palmer, an Earth Island Institute colleague for more than 25 years, “Mark had chronic […]
SeaWorld ends Shamu’s sex life
But SeaWorld will still have orcas for years to come ORLANDO, Florida; SAN DIEGO, California; PENN COVE, Washington–– Acceding to the apparent inevitable, SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. president and chief executive officer Joel Manby on March 17, 2016 announced an end to 32 years of SeaWorld efforts to breed orca whales. “Times have changed, and we […]
Could SeaWorld survive if founded today?
In quest of aquatic novelty SAN DIEGO, ORLANDO, SAN ANTONIO––A false alarm that SeaWorld San Diego might phase out orca exhibitions in early November 2015 upstaged word that would-be aquarium magnate Ammon Covino had been arrested––again––for wildlife trafficking. Even in San Antonio, Texas, where Ammon’s brother Vince Covino operates an aquarium almost in the […]
Dirty Pool, part 3: Keiko
by Merritt Clifton January/February 1995 I had not planned to write a third part of my “Dirty Pool” series on propaganda interfering with marine mammal protection, but as the second part went to press on November 22, 1994, Warner Brothers and New Regency Productions donated $2 million to a new Free Willy/Keiko Foundation formed by Earth […]