The Makah Harpooners vs. Willy the Whale, alias Killer Keiko [Originally published in September 1998] NEAH BAY, Washington; NEWPORT, Oregon––If the September 1998 media drama underway in the Pacific Northwest was a professional wrestling match, it would be billed as the Makah Harpooners vs. Willy the Whale, alias Killer Keiko, orca star of the hit […]
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 […]
What did we do during hurricanes Harvey, Irma, & Maria?
We were on the job! We knew longtime dolphin rescuer and advocate Rick Trout, of Tavernier in the Florida Keys, would be among our most valuable sources as Hurricane Irma roared in after devastating the Caribbean. Living in a house built as a storm shelter after the Category 5 hurricane of 1935, Trout sheltered neighbors […]
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 […]
Hurricane Irma: Hemingway cats & dolphin rescuer Rick Trout rode it out in the Keys
Hemingway house cats supplied the grace, staff the courage (See also Hurricane Irma: first reports on animals in the Caribbean islands.) KEY WEST, TAVERNIER––Having famously remarked that “Courage is grace under pressure,” and almost as famously doted upon the six-toed cat Snowflake, also called Snowball, who roamed his Key West home during his years there, […]
Flipper is NOT Rambo! Never was!
by Rick Trout The Campaign to end the obsolete Navy Marine Mammal Program kicks off on October 22, 2016 with a rally at the Harbor Drive Bridge in San Diego, overlooking the “Gitmo-like Dolphin Boxes of Boredom,” where dolphins are kept and trained for U.S. Navy use. This bizarre waste of $30+ million hard-earned tax […]