Four dead dolphins bring “temporary” closure of barely two-year-old swim-with-dolphins attraction SCOTTSDALE, Arizona––Already a target of protest before opening in October 2016, Dolphinaris Arizona, the newest U.S. marine mammal exhibition facility, is to be scene of yet another of many demonstrations on February 9, 2019. This demonstration, though, will have a bite to it […]
Japan hands whales a Christmas gift camouflaged as coal
Withdrawal from IWC covers for decision to halt Antarctic whaling TOKYO––Handing whales a Christmas Day gift camouflaged as coal, Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga on December 25, 2018 confirmed months of speculation and decades of threats that Japan would withdraw from membership in the International Whaling Commission, which has maintained a global moratorium on […]
Russ Rector, “the feared activist feared even among activists,” dead at 69
Said of marine mammal parks, “We’re all showing our age, but I don’t have to pass building inspections.” FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida––Russ Rector, 69, a former Ocean World dolphin trainer whose campaigns on behalf of marine mammals later closed Ocean World, unexpectedly died from natural causes at about 10:00 p.m. on January 7, 2018. Though […]
Vaquita captures suspended after death of female of breeding age
Two captures with only frozen tissue samples to show for it (Updates coverage of November 6, 2017.) SAN FELIPE, Mexico––VaquitaCPR and SEMARNAT, the Mexican Secretariat for the Environment & Natural Resources, have indefinitely suspended attempts to bring highly endangered vaquita porpoises into a captive breeding program, Sandra Dibble of the San Diego Union-Tribune and CBS News […]
Delivering vaquita damsels to the ogre: U.S. Navy dolphins sally forth
Sea of Cortez campaign may be more about saving the Navy Marine Mammal Program than saving vaquitas SAN FELIPE, Mexico; SAN DIEGO, California––Purported knights errant sent to save a damsel in distress, the U.S. Navy dolphins Andrea, Fathom, Katrina and Splash on October 5, 2017 arrived in San Felipe, Mexico, on the east coast of Baja California, to […]
Hurricanes: most famous fatality was Molly the dolphin
Molly’s life was microcosm of marine mammal captivity history MARATHON, Florida––Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria killed more than 200-and-counting humans among them, from Barbuda to the southern end of the Coastal Bend region of Texas, but the best-known victim so far was apparently a dolphin, Molly, who was among the oldest dolphins on record. Molly […]
The dolphin stories that made two authors famous
Build Me An Ark: A Life With Animals, by Brenda Peterson WW. Norton (500 5th Ave., New York, NY 10110-0017), 2000. 256 pages, hardcover. $23.95. Journey Of The Pink Dolphin: An Amazon Quest, by Sy Montgomery Simon & Schuster (1230 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10020), 2000. 320 pages, hardcover. $26.00. Reviewed by […]
Ric O’Barry rips SeaWorld & HSUS execs for grandstanding on Taiji
Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project is there, again; SeaWorld & HSUS have never been there TAIJI, Japan; TAMPA, Florida––Keeping the infamous dolphin-killing cove at Taiji, Japan under around-the-clock surveillance for the fourteenth consecutive killing season, Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project might have welcomed substantive support from SeaWorld chief executive officer Joel Manby and Humane Society of […]
From the whales of Miami Beach to the seals of Puget Sound
Growing up & growing wiser with Lolita & Sidney by Beth Clifton California governor Jerry Brown on September 13, 2016 endorsed into law a bill prohibiting breeding orca whales in captivity, six months after SeaWorld announced that it would end attempts to breed orcas at its marine mammal parks in San Diego, Orlando, and San Antonio. […]
Marine mammal activist Mark “The Bermanator” Berman, 63
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 […]