[Closed] 'Blackfish' Backlash: Fan Pressure Leads Willie Nelson to Cancel SeaWorld Concert

9 Times SeaWorld Lied to Your Face
November 6, 2014

SeaWorld worked long and hard to create the illusion of being a conservation organization that housed happy, healthy marine animals. Luckily, Blackfish—the groundbreaking documentary about the abusement park—shattered many of the lies that SeaWorld has been spewing for years. While there’s no hiding from the truth now, SeaWorld is still hoping that people will buy into the myths it’s fabricated.

Here are some of the most shocking lies that SeaWorld expected you to believe. Are you smart enough to see through them?

1. Collapsed dorsal fins are normal.
All the captive adult male orcas at SeaWorld have a collapsed dorsal fin, and the company has said that this is a common and naturally occurring problem. But the truth is that this only rarely happens to wild orcas (only 1 percent), and when it does, it’s a sign that they’re injured or sick.

2. SeaWorld respects the bond between a mother and child.
In the wild, orcas stay in their family pods their whole lives. The company has said that it doesn’t separate mothers from their calves—but SeaWorld declares that calves are full grown at 4 years of age and moves them to a different location, away from their mothers, at this time. SeaWorld claims that this maintains a “healthy social structure,” while it’s actually the complete opposite of how orcas live in the wild.

3. SeaWorld cares about a “healthy social structure”.
SeaWorld insists that it promotes healthy social structures among the orcas it holds captive. In reality, the orcas are kept close together in cramped tanks, which causes stress and anxiety, which often lead to aggression and fights. When a fight or an attack occurs in the wild, orcas are able to flee—in captivity, they have nowhere to escape to.

4. The orcas at SeaWorld are mentally stimulated.
The orcas at SeaWorld would have to swim about 1,500 laps a day in their cramped pools to equal the approximate 100 miles they’d swim every day in their ocean home. Their desperation and boredom lead them to display psychotic behavior such as gnawing on the concrete sides of their tanks, which breaks their teeth.

5. SeaWorld prioritizes wildlife rescue, rehabilitation, and conservation.
SeaWorld tries very hard to appear as though it’s concerned with wildlife rescue, rehabilitation, and conservation. However, over the past decade SeaWorld has contributed less than 1 percent of its profits to conservation efforts.

6. Captive orcas’ life spans are equivalent to those in the wild.
Granny, a wild orca who was spotted off the coast of Canada in May 2014, is 103 years old. Other wild orcas have been known to live as long as 90 years—only five of the captive orcas at SeaWorld are more than 30 years of age. Most of them die in their teens, with the median age being 9 years old, and not a single captive orca has ever died of old age.

7. It’s safe for trainers to be in the water with orcas.
An orca at SeaWorld named Tilikum was forced to perform in circus-style shows, despite having already been involved in the deaths of two people. Dawn Brancheau, a trainer at SeaWorld, became the third person to die—a death that could have been prevented—when she was killed by Tilikum on February 24, 2010.

8. SeaWorld’s stock is fine.
After Blackfish unveiled the ugly truth behind the abusement park, stock in the company took a huge hit, plummeting by 35 percent. SeaWorld also saw a 13 percent drop in attendance, and its market value dropped $1.7 billion. Despite SeaWorld’s claims that its attendance was down only because of bad weather and “a shift in the Easter holiday,” it’s clear that many people no longer want anything to do with the torture that SeaWorld calls “entertainment."

9. Increasing the size of the tanks will make a difference.
After its stock plummeted and its attendance dropped, SeaWorld released a media statement saying that it was going to expand the orcas’ tanks—despite the fact that it had yet to apply for the permits required to build the new tanks. The expansion plan, which is now expected to conclude in 2018, includes tanks with a maximum depth of 50 feet and a length of 350 feet. In the wild, orcas dive up to 1,000 feet and swim up to 100 miles a day. This expansion will affect only the paying guests—it’ll make virtually no difference to the orcas who are trapped at SeaWorld. The company’s plans are nothing more than an effort to distract us from something that we all know to be true: A bigger prison is still a prison.

Keep the momentum going against this deceptive company that cruelly holds orcas hostage, and please share this information with your friends and family.

Read more: http://www.seaworldofhurt.com/features/9-times-seaworld-lied/#ixzz3MRYnuaiC

Let’s make West Coast swordfish dolphin-safe
Act Now: Urge fishery managers to clean up the California drift gillnet fishery
ACT NOW: URGE FISHERY MANAGERS TO CLEAN UP THE CALIFORNIA DRIFT GILLNET FISHERY
Drift gillnets are banned in many parts of the world because they indiscriminately catch all sorts of marine life, including whales, dolphins, sharks, sea lions, sea turtles, and other species of fish. Yet a drift gillnet fishery targeting swordfish still operates off the coast of California. It’s time to begin transitioning this fishery to more selective gear. In the meantime, strict limits need to be in place to reduce the number of vulnerable animals incidentally killed by drift gillnets.

SEND A MESSAGE TO FISHERY MANAGERS: IT’S TIME TO CHANGE THE WAY SWORDFISH ARE CAUGHT
In March, West Coast fishery managers will make a critical decision on the future of drift gillnets. As regulators consider what course this fishery should take, we must make clear to them that it is unacceptable to harm iconic and endangered species to catch a luxury seafood item such as swordfish. We want dolphin-safe swordfish.

YOUR VOICE CAN SAVE MARINE MAMMALS AND SEA TURTLES
Please act now. The Pacific Fishery Management Council needs to hear from you. Ask them to uphold their reputation as leaders in responsible fishery management. Help us to make drift gillnets a thing of the past.

Take Action: see link to sign petition: http://advocacy.pewtrusts.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1793&ea.campaign.id=34509&ea.tracking.id=Alert&utm_source=Eloqua&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=PEG-PFC-CA-Drift-Gillnet

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok6pI1iD8PU

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=R10hvEiOFho

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=5fiBvLaqE2I

The truth about Dolphin captivity:

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=cmZ1faMTC2s

This says it all.
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=D0xBzV-0nf0

PETA Shareholder Resolution Offers Bailout Plan for SeaWorld
December 16, 2014

In the wake of SeaWorld’s announcement that employees at the parks will be laid off as well as the departure of CEO Jim Atchison, PETA has a solution to stop the company’s downward spiral and regain its lost favor with the public: retire the orcas it holds prisoner to coastal sanctuaries.

As stockholders, we have the right to submit shareholder resolutions telling the company what changes we want to see—and we want the orcas and other marine mammals at SeaWorld’s parks retired from forced performances and returned to the ocean in large coastal sea pens where they can be rehabilitated.

The coastal sanctuaries, in the form of sea pens or netted-off bays or coves, could include whale-watching centers where visitors could observe the orcas in their ocean environments and learn about the animals’ natural behavior. Whales would have space to explore in a stimulating environment and the opportunity to hunt for their own food, and they could even interact with other sea life through the pen’s barrier. Family groups would be preserved, and incompatible animals would not be forced to interact.

In addition, SeaWorld could fill its park space with rides, state-of-the-art augmented or virtual reality marine mammal exhibits, and other experiences that would allow visitors to learn about marine life without paying to see imprisoned animals.

The parks and the orcas are both in dire need of a bailout plan. If SeaWorld accepts PETA’s shareholder resolution, it could be the lifeline the company needs. And it is certainly the one the orcas need.

Read more: http://www.seaworldofhurt.com/peta-shareholder-resolution-offers-bailout-plan-seaworld/#ixzz3Nha3g9dv

Awesome Orcas

Orcas in the Wild

Orcas, or killer whales, are marine mammals that are found in all the oceans of the world, especially the freezing waters of the polar regions. They are easily recognized by their distinct black and white markings and their large dorsal fins. Males can reach 9 metres in length and weigh over 5,000 kilograms; females are slightly smaller, weighing between 1,500 to 3,500 kilograms, with an average length of 6-7 metres.

Orcas live in an aquatic habitat, and spend a large portion of their time travelling. In a single day, an orca may swim as far as 160 kilometres, reaching speeds of more than 50 km/hour. The home range of a group of orcas may vary from over 1,000 square kilometres to over 100,000 square kilometres. For example, individual whales have been identified in Monterey Bay, California that had previously been identified in Alaska. Orcas spend the vast majority of their time underwater and typically dive 30-60 metres below the surface.

Orcas are highly social animals and they spend their entire lives in close-knit family groups called pods, which consist of 1-3 maternal groups. A calf is born into a pod that may include her mother, grandmother, sisters and brothers, aunts, uncles and cousins. A calf remains in very close physical proximity to her mother, although other pod members help in the care and raising of the calf. Even upon reaching sexual maturity, both male and female adult whales will stay with their family pod; only death or capture can separate members of a pod.

The diet of an orca whale is often geographically or population specific. Orcas are carnivores and eat a wide variety of prey, including salmon, shark, squid, sea turtles, sea otters, penguins, sea birds, seals and sealions, manatees, dolphins, and even other whales. Orcas hunt cooperatively, working together as a group, and using different hunting strategies that are passed down to younger members of the pod. Orcas find their way around underwater and hunt their prey using echolocation. They create a "sound" picture by making a rapid series of clicking sounds and listening for the echoes that bounce back from the seabed, other whales, boats, prey animals, or other objects. Using sonar, whales are capable of identifying the shape, density, distance and location of objects.

Aside from clicks for echolocation, orcas also make a variety of calls that resemble high-pitched squawks, whistles and squeals. Biologists have determined that different pods of orcas have discrete calls, or 'dialects'. These calls are an important part of the social lives of orcas, and may contain information about the identity of the whale, including age, sex, and physical condition, as well as location and emotional state. Play behaviour, including breaching, diving, rolling, tail thrashing and spy-hopping, are also important social activities.

Orcas have no natural predators, and are not routinely hunted by humans. The biggest threat that orcas face in the wild is chemical contamination of their marine habitat.

Orcas in Captivity

Orcas have been kept in captivity since 1961. At least 135 whales have been captured from the wild since that time, and the vast majority of them (86%) are now dead. In fact, the average length of survival in captivity is under six years, despite the fact that in the wild, female orcas may live as long as 80 years, and males as long as 50.

Orcas have also been bred in captivity; many of those pregnancies result in miscarriage, stillbirth, or the death of the calf shortly after birth. Of 69 pregnancies in captivity since 1968, only 29 calves have survived.

Currently there are 45 orca whales in captivity, in only 6 countries around the world - Japan, Argentina, Spain, France, Canada and the United States. As we learn more about orcas in the wild through long-term studies of wild populations in natural habitats, it has become clear that there are serious problems with keeping these animals in captivity. These include:

Space. Orcas live in a vast ocean environment, easily swimming over 100 kilometres in a day. In captivity, these whales are confined to pools that are dramatically smaller than their natural habitat. For example, the Marineland pool in Ontario is only 23m x 7.6m, and is only 6.7m deep. The US minimum standard required for an orca in captivity is a tank with a 14.6m diametre and 3.7m deep. No whale is capable of exhibiting normal behaviours in a tank of this size.
Exhibit Design. Complex filtration and purification systems are required to maintain clear, clean water is marine park tanks. The pools are designed for the enjoyment of the spectator, not the needs of the orcas. Captive orcas are forced to live in permanently chlorinated water, and are exposed to the constant noise of filtration pumps.

Food. Orcas are top predators in the wild, and have developed sophisticated hunting strategies, many of them cooperative. In their wild habitat, a great deal of their time is spent travelling and foraging. In captivity however, orcas are given no opportunity to hunt live prey; they are fed a diet of frozen fish, and often, they are required to perform tricks for their food.

Acoustics. Orcas create 'sound' pictures of their habitat using echolocation. They are highly intelligent and inquisitive about their environment. In captivity, many of their reasons for vocalizing are unnecessary. There is no opportunity to locate and track prey, and the super-clean, sterile tanks offer nothing to navigate or investigate. As well, there is no need to communicate acoustically with other whales using contact calls because of their physical proximity.

Social Behaviour. In the wild, orcas live in family pods for their entire lives. Much of their time is spent socializing, including vocalizing and playing with other pod members. In captivity, orcas are often held in tanks with whales from different pods, or indeed, from different oceans. Even worse, some whales are completely socially isolated from other whales. For example, Marineland, in Ontario, kept a young male orca isolated in an indoor holding pen for more than four years. Calves born in captivity, if they survive, are often separated from their mothers at as young as six months of age, despite the intense social bond they share.

Abnormal Behaviour. Living in an unnatural habitat creates unnatural behaviours. Orcas in captivity exhibit many behaviours - such as repetitive behaviours, lethargy, refusal to eat, self-inflicted injuries (eg. slamming their head or body into the wall of the tank) and aggression between whales or towards trainers - that teach us nothing about the natural behaviour of wild whales.

The fired CEO of SeaWorld has scored a whale of a severance plan: worth $2.6 million.

CEO Jim Atchison will swim away with a $2.6 million parting gift after being replaced at embattled SeaWorld (SEAS), according to the company’s most recently filed proxy statement. Specifically, the regulatory filing says Atchison will get $2.4 million in a cash severance payment, $40,268 value in the continuation of his health care plan and $10,000 in outplacement services. That’s not to mention the consulting contract Atchison is being given and appointment to the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund, where compensation information was not disclosed.

Watch This Video of Rare and—Rarely Seen—Killer Whales
A Sea Shepherd ship encountered a pod of elusive "Ecotype D” orcas in the southern Indian Ocean.

http://www.takepart.com/video/2015/01/06/watch-video-rare-and-rarely-seen-killer-whales?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-01-06

January 06, 2015 By David Kirby

David Kirby has been a professional journalist for 25 years. His third book, Death at Seaworld, was published in 2012.

A pod of killer whales that live in waters so remote they are almost never seen has been caught on video, providing marine scientists with new information about the mysterious marine mammals.

The video of 13 “Ecotype D” whales was shot in the southern Indian Ocean on Dec. 26 by crew members of the Sea Shepherd ship the Bob Barker. The environmental group is engaged in an extended chase of a Nigerian vessel, Thunder, that deploys giant gill nets to poach Patagonian toothfish, better known as Chilean sea bass.

“We watched in awe as the 13 killer whales, including a small juvenile and a large male, used the six-meter swell to surf across the bow,” Erwin Vermeulen, Bob Barker’s chief engineer, said in a statement. “For almost an hour the surf-show continued and was accompanied by bow riding, tail-slaps and breaches.”

Sea Shepherd said it was the first time the Ecotype D killer whales were filmed, though that claim was disputed by Ingrid Visser, an orca scientist from New Zealand’s Orca Research Trust. In an email, Visser said the ecotype was filmed in 1955 and again “a few years ago.”

The Ecotype D orca is distinguished by its large, bulbous forehead and extremely small white ovals—or “eye patches”—behind each eye. The population was first identified when a pod was stranded in New Zealand in 1955 and was not seen again for 50 years, according to Sea Shepherd.

“It is believed that there have been approximately 13 sightings to date,” said Sea Shepherd in its statement. “DNA retrieved from the 1955 stranding revealed that Ecotype D's genetic differences point at a divergence from other orcas about 390,000 years ago. This makes Ecotype D the second oldest orca type, and second most genetically divergent.”

The term “ecotype” refers to animal populations that are physically and ecologically distinct from other populations. In some cases, they may be different species or subspecies, so scientists use the term until they can gather more definitive information. There are believed to be eight or nine orca ecotypes in the world.

“Type D killer whale is the most different-looking killer whale that we know of; it could easily be a new species of killer whale, which would make it a candidate for the largest undescribed species of animal we have left on the planet,” Robert Pitman, marine ecologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in an email.

Pitman, who reviewed the Sea Shepherd footage, said the ecotype had only recently been recognized as distinct. “Although it has been photographed a few times, it has never until now been recorded on video,” he said. “Very exciting!”

So why are the whales so elusive?

Their distribution is limited to “some of the most inhospitable ocean waters in the world,” Pitman said. “Few have had the stomach to look for whales in the turbulent Southern Ocean.”

You can also check this link: http://www.orcaresearch.org/

NEW BABY GIVES IMPERILED ORCAS A HAPPY NEW YEARS SURPRISE!

http://www.care2.com/causes/new-baby-gives-imperiled-orcas-a-happy-new-years-surprise.html?onswipe_redirect=no&oswrr=4#comments

Coming to Your Dinner Plate: Dolphin-and-Whale-Safe Seafood
After decades of delay, the U.S. will ban the import of fish caught in ways that harm marine mammals.

January 07, 2015 By David Kirby

That tasty piece of tuna on your plate may well have been caught at the cost of the life of a dolphin or a whale.

About 90 percent of the seafood Americans eat is imported from countries that do not require fishing operators to avoid killing marine mammals trapped in their nets. An estimated 650,000 whales, dolphins, and other ocean animals perish each year as the bycatch of commercial fishing gear. Such equipment includes gill nets and long lines that stretch up to a mile, with hundreds of hooks baited with fish that marine mammals eat.

That could soon change.

The United States government has finally agreed to issue a warning to the roughly 122 nations that export seafood to this country: Catch your fish in a manner that doesn’t harm whale and dolphin populations, or you cannot sell those products in the U.S.

The government’s move was the result of a lawsuit filed last July by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Turtle Island Restoration Project. On Tuesday, the three groups announced that the government had agreed to settle the legal complaint, which was brought before the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York.

“The U.S. government agreed to adopt new rules that ensure seafood imported into the United States meets high standards for protecting whales and dolphins,” the groups said in a statement. “The long-delayed regulations will require foreign fisheries to meet the same marine mammal protection standards required of U.S. fishermen or be denied import privileges.”

Experts believe most countries will comply with the regulations.

“This market is very lucrative, so it’s not really in their interest to abandon it,” said Nina Young, foreign affairs specialist with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries. “I would hope they would do their best to reduce their bycatch. We’re certainly interested in working with countries to achieve that end.”

The Marine Mammal Protection Act, passed in 1972, was amended in 1994 to establish standards for how many marine mammals could be killed as bycatch by U.S. fisheries. Today, marine mammal bycatch must be a small fraction of the numbers needed by each species’ population to sustain growth, something known as the Potential Biological Removal level.

Although American fishers have been placed under the world’s strictest bycatch regulations, foreign fishers operate without such limitations.

Under the terms of the settlement, the National Marine Fisheries Service has until June 1 to propose rules on imported fish and fish products, requiring foreign fishers to adhere to the same restrictions imposed on U.S. operators. The agency must issue final regulations by Aug. 1, 2016.

“What this settlement says to the government is that you guys have completely ignored this provision for more than 40 years, and it’s time to actually start doing something about it and make the provision matter,” said Sarah Uhlemann, senior attorney and international program director of the Center for Biological Diversity.

The United States imports about $30 billion worth of seafood each year, much of it from China, India, and Latin America.

“There are places that don’t even track how many marine mammals are caught in their fishing gear, and they certainly don’t have the strong standards that the United States has,” Uhlemann said. “So I do anticipate that this is going to have a very wide-ranging effect on every nation that exports to the U.S.”

How will the new regulations be enforced?

Uhlemann said the process would likely be similar to that required by a federal law, passed in the 1980s, on the import of yellowfin tuna caught in the eastern Pacific.

“That law says the U.S. shall ban imports that don’t meet marine mammal protection standards and requires countries to provide reasonable assurance that their catch complies with U.S. standards, usually through a certification process,” Uhlemann said.

Young said the government shares that goal.

“We’re playing catch-up on the international front—we need to enact a proposed rule that will better reflect what we are asking our own fishermen to do,” Young said. “It’s a matter of leveling the playing field internationally. We have our fishermen, who are highly regulated, and now we’re asking our trading partners to step up as well.”

Why did it take so long for the government to agree to act?

“We deal with developed nations and undeveloped nations, and the complexion of the fisheries are very different,” Young said. “It goes from somebody who has a small net in a coastal village to large trawlers in the middle of the Pacific. So crafting something that’s fair to all those individuals is a daunting task. In some cases, countries are going to have to start over from scratch.”

This High-Tech, Biodegradable Fishing Net Could Help Save Dolphins and Whales.

A Spanish inventor hopes to replace abandoned "ghost nets" that kill marine mammals and other sea life.

November 20, 2014 By Zachary Slobig

A biodegradable fishing net lined with radio frequency identification chips promises to dramatically reduce the number of abandoned “ghost nets” that kill thousands of marine mammals and account for an estimated 10 percent of ocean plastic pollution.

Alejandro Plasencia, a Barcelona, Spain–based product engineer who grew up in the Canary Islands, calls his fishing net project Remora, inspired by the symbiotic relationship of the remora fish that attaches itself to sharks.

The net is treated with the biodegradable additive d2w, which the manufacturer claims would cause the polymer to begin to break down after four years. The net is studded with ultrathin RFID transmitters to pinpoint its location so it can be quickly repaired rather than abandoned.

A smartphone app would let fishing boat captains keep track of their nets. Plasencia’s main target is the commercial tuna operators who use the “purse seining” method of fishing, which deploys gigantic nets—some measuring more than a mile wide and 700 feet deep—around entire schools of fish.

“We wanted to find a cheap, simple, unobtrusive piece of technology that would work with the existing systems and cause less negative impact,” said Plasencia. “It wasn’t until we started working with printed electronics to embed the chips into the material that our prototypes went from very chunky to much lighter RFID devices.”

The idea is to encourage fishers not to discard their nets at sea, where they can continue to kill fish, dolphins, and whales for decades.

“In Belgium you get paid to turn in your nets, for instance, but in the Netherlands you have to pay because it’s considered industrial waste,” said Plasencia. “That’s why some fishermen dump them in the sea.”

It’s mostly an invisible problem, say conservation advocates, and there’s been little pressure on industry to innovate.

“Six hundred thousand tons of fishing equipment is lost yearly, according to the U.N., and if you walk on any beach, the majority of debris is fragments of net,” said John Hourston, director of Blue Planet Society, a U.K.-based commercial fishing watchdog group.

The nonprofit organization Healthy Seas, for instance, removed some 32 tons of netting from the North Sea this year. “It’s like picking up a cigarette packet in London—it’s a minuscule amount.”

Innovations like Remora, says Hourston, are long overdue, though the commercial viability and the effectiveness of the biodegradable additive need further scrutiny.

Plasencia estimates his production cost to be 15 percent to 20 percent higher than nets currently in use, but fishers would save money by being able to easily locate the nets for repair.

5 Signs That SeaWorld Is About to Sink
Catherine Gill
Jan 11, 2015

In some cases, an impending outcome is pretty clear. Like when the victim in a horror film runs away from the predator, but instead of heading outside or somewhere safer, they corner themselves upstairs. Or when you’re driving along the highway with still some road to cover until your destination and your gas light pops on, but you decide that your car must have a “reserve tank” with plenty of gasoline to get you home.

The point is, with certain situations there are clues leading to the obvious fate. You can do what you want to prolong the consequences that are bound to happen, but in the end you can’t stop certain things from occurring when they are inevitable.

SeaWorld’s actions have caused what is likely to be their demise. Not only that, a series of recent events has really got everyone thinking that the end is near for the sea aquarium franchise. The signs are apparent, and SeaWorld is taking a huge nosedive. Here are five undoubted signs that SeaWorld is about to sink.

1. The CEO resigned.

When the captain of the ship jumps overboard, you know things are not great and that a crash is imminent. If that is not telling enough, the former SeaWorld CEO, Jim Atchison, is also getting a huge $2.6 million dollar severance. He is staying on-board as the company’s vice chairman and collecting a severance that is worth more than double his annual salary plus his bonus. Could he be ringing the company dry one final time before SeaWorld’s perceptible shut down? We don’t know, but the humongous payout going to Jim Atchison alone has got to be a huge hit for a company that is trying to stay afloat.

2. Stocks are down.

SeaWorld’s stocks continue to dive to all time lows. In fact, the value of the company’s stocks have plummeted by 38 percent since the beginning of 2014. News of the stock plunge has been making waves in the financial community since SeaWorld’s last disappointing quarter (in a string of many). The marine park’s stocks dipped lower than Wall Street was expecting, each batch in 2014 dropping equaling a total 41 percent decrease for the year. Ouch.

3. Forced to downgrade.

SeaWorld is downgrading in order to cope with consequences of Blackfish and other activist pressure. Although the earnings and share prices have declined, the company is taking action to cut expenses by $50 million. Significantly reducing expenses is likely the only way that SeaWorld can stay above water. They are also laying off a boatload of employees. Layoffs began in December and will continue into 2015.

4. Attendance is low.

Consumer presence is down and is expected to keep dropping. As a matter of fact, earnings fell by 5.6 percent in the third quarter. That means that compared to the same period the year prior, approximately half a million fewer people patronized SeaWorld. Due to the drop in patrons, earnings also fell — by a significant 28 percent. If people refuse to attend, the writing is on the wall. You don’t have a sea park without visitors.

5. Stars are trash-talking.

Following Blackfish, celebrities and public figures did not hide their disdain for SeaWorld. Actually, not only are famous voices deciding against ever supporting sea parks like SeaWorld, they are also urging their fans to do the same. A famous voice is very powerful, especially to young followers, meaning a generation of individuals that are against the idea of captivity is fast approaching. When the “public eye” doesn’t like you, it is just a matter of time before the populace sends you to walk the plank. When even Josh Groban is throwing shade, that is never a good sign.

There are other options available for the franchise that do not include holding majestic animals hostage and will still bring SeaWorld a profit, maybe even more so. If this marine park were to change its model to include wildlife conservation instead of cruel captivity, it could possibly open up to a whole new genre of consumers – maybe even including the activists!

Hi Lan,

This is an inter

http://news.yahoo.com/activists-sees-public-shift-dolphins-captivity-093847105.html

Activist sees public shift on dolphins in captivity

SOUTH MIAMI, Fla. (AP) — Ric O'Barry feels the tide turning in his long quest to change the public's mind about dolphins in captivity.

He went from being a dolphin trainer on the beloved "Flipper" TV series in the 1960s to a notorious activist featured in the 2009 documentary "The Cove," which shows the killing of dolphins in Japan. His methods and protests against keeping dolphins on display often have been unwelcome as dolphin shows are popular and lucrative.

But in the wake of "The Cove" and the documentary "Blackfish," it seems O'Barry's desire to see all dolphins swimming free may have gained mainstream traction.

The National Aquarium in Baltimore announced last year that it was exploring the feasibility of an oceanside sanctuary where its eight dolphins could retire.

Elected officials nationwide also have taken up the issue of marine mammals, including dolphins. In November, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a non-binding resolution stating that whales and dolphins have the right to be free from life in captivity, and the city council of Malibu, California, issued a proclamation in February proclaiming that all whales and dolphins swimming offshore have the "right to their own freedom and lives."

"Validation! I was right! I feel great about that," O'Barry, 75, said recently at his South Miami bungalow. "Yeah, finally! It only took 50 years but they finally get it. They don't belong in captivity, they're admitting that."

O'Barry's still considered an extremist, though, in an industry that questions why healthy dolphins with trainers who care for them would need sanctuary.

"I'm not sure when someone says a dolphin should retire that you're taking care of their mental and physical needs," said Rita Irwin, president-elect of the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks & Aquariums, which includes over 60 marine parks, zoos and aquariums worldwide.

Irwin also is the CEO of the Florida Keys-based Dolphin Research Center, which in the 1990s took custody of a dolphin O'Barry released into the wild. The center said the dolphin was malnourished, while O'Barry maintained that the dolphin's health was good.

View gallery

In this Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014 photo, Ric O'Barry poses for a photograph at his home in Miami. …

Irwin and O'Barry do agree, though, that many dolphins in captivity generally are not good candidates for release because of the amount of time they've spent under human care.

O'Barry didn't always advocate to free dolphins. He once helped capture and train them for the Miami Seaquarium, where "Flipper" was filmed. He had a change of heart after the series ended and one of the dolphins, ailing in a steel tank, died in his arms. Decades of civil disobedience, media campaigns and advocacy followed through his independent organization, DolphinProject.net.

O'Barry argues that dolphins in captivity have no educational value because their activities bear no resemblance to what they do in the ocean. Visitors only see dolphins appearing to play without understanding the damage caused by confining animals that rely on sonar to experience their environment, he says.

"The music is playing and it's your day off, you've got your family with you, the sun is out, the water is a beautiful, magic, sparkling blue, and the dolphin is smiling back at you. There doesn't seem to be a problem. Unless you're hitting the dolphin with a baseball bat, you don't see the optical illusion that I see," O'Barry said.

He wants to see dolphins that can survive in the wild released, and those that can't be retired to open water sea pens where they would be protected from predators and kept from breeding so more dolphins won't be born in captivity. He's cheered by news that some institutions with captive dolphins now may be seeing his way of thinking.

The National Aquarium dropped scheduled dolphin performances two years ago and instead allows visitors to watch trainers work with the animals throughout the day. Now it's evaluating whether a sanctuary or a national dolphin center would be better options for its dolphins as it plans a variety of changes to its visitor experience.

"Baby boomers grew up watching 'Flipper,' while for millennials it was 'Free Willy' and 'The Cove.' Our audience is evolving dramatically, and if we hope to remain relevant, we must ourselves evolve as well," CEO John Racanelli said in an email to The Associated Press.

Other facilities with dolphins are less willing to talk about the influence those recent films have had on their audiences.

Officials at Clearwater Marine Aquarium sought to clarify revisions announced this summer for their dolphin displays. The aquarium is home to the rehabilitated dolphins Winter and Hope, made famous in the "Dolphin Tale" movies, and their interactions with their trainers will remain public, though "we don't do the big Broadway-type shows," said CEO David Yates.

Yates wanted to be clear, though, that he wasn't condemning choreographed dolphin performances. "We're not passing judgment on everybody else, we're just saying what we do," he said.

Last summer, Orlando-based SeaWorld said it would build larger environments for its killer whales. The announcement came amid falling earnings and park attendance and after the public criticism that followed "Blackfish," the 2013 documentary that argued that keeping marine mammals in captivity is inhumane.

While those in the industry call "Blackfish" and "The Cove" propaganda, O'Barry said they helped shift public opinion and push his work out from under the personal guilt he felt over his role in building the public's love for dolphins doing tricks.

"I helped create that mess," he said. "I was doing what I could to stop it, and I was coming from a place of guilt, but not anymore."

Stand Against Taiji’s Dolphin Slaughter and Cetacean Captivity This Weekend

Jessica Ramos
Jan 16, 2015

With a little over 40 days left, there’s finally an end in sight to Taiji’s 6 month long dolphin hunting season. In the meantime, activists in London are preparing for a major protest on January 17 to end the dolphin slaughter practice for good.

Taiji Dolphin Hunting Refresher

In case you aren’t familiar with the plight of Taiji’s dolphins or just need a refresher, here’s a quick overview. Every year, in a small Japanese town named Taiji, dolphins are hunted for two main reasons: 1) to be sold as mercury-filled dolphin meat; or 2) to be captured for a sad life in captivity.

Cetacean captivity is really what funds Taiji slaughter. As David Kirby, the same seasoned investigative journalist who authored Death at SeaWorld: Shamu and the Dark Side of Killer Whales in Captivity explains in TakePart, “Taiji fishermen can earn $150,000 or more from selling a single live animal, while one butchered for meat fetches only $500 to $600, an economic reality that keeps the drives in business.” Taiji’s dolphin slaughters are one of the strongest cases against cetacean captivity. All over the world, “105 facilities in about 20 countries import or display dolphins obtained from Taiji.”

The slaughter is an inhumane injustice against non-human persons. Dolphins that aren’t the right species, trainable enough, attractive enough or unique enough will be driven into Taiji’s cove. There the dolphins are mercilessly slaughtered out of the public eye, and the cove waters will run red with dolphin blood. Dolphin pods, or families, will be driven into the cove, and baby dolphins will have to witness their entire families slaughtered in front of them before they’re tossed back in the ocean where they’ll surely die without their mother’s guidance. “The Cove,” an award-winning documentary, brought international attention and outrage to Taiji’s dolphin slaughter; it’s impossible to forget the dolphins’ shrieks.

The Latest Cove Report

The Dolphin Project, led by Ric O’ Barry, a star of “The Cove” and one of the main Flipper trainers who now stands against captivity, has been on the front lines of the dolphin slaughter since the season started. The dolphin activists are there to document and raise awareness, but they can’t interfere with the hunt. The Dolphin Project has recently released a report documenting the dolphin hunting season from September 2014 to December 2014, and here are a few report highlights:

– Season Totals, Year to Date (Sept. 1 through end of December 2014):

367 dolphins slaughtered (Risso’s dolphins, pilot whales, striped dolphins, bottlenose dolphins and one spotted dolphin). Compared to last season’s 406 slaughtered dolphins within the same time frame.
33 dolphins caught live for captivity (Spotted dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, Risso’s dolphins and pilot whales). Compared to last season’s 68 caught for captivity within the same time frame.
85 dolphins were released (mostly juvenile Risso’s dolphins and pilot whales, which face long odds against survival without the rest of the pod). Compared to last season’s 234 released dolphins within the same time frame.
– When the Save Japan Dolphins Campaign began in 2004, around 1,600 dolphins were killed.

– Japan Fisheries Agency gives the hunters a quota of 1,938 dolphins.

– The hunters don’t release the younger dolphins out of compassion. Younger and smaller dolphins would count against their quota, so they’ll usually opt to slaughter the more mature and bigger dolphins.

– “Cryptic kills,” or dolphins lost and injured during the hunt, are not officially counted by Japan Fisheries Agency.

Standing Up for Cetaceans

If you’re moved to stand up for the dolphins and killer whales (who are also dolphins), then this is the perfect opportunity to channel that passion into inspired action. Animal lovers all over the world are standing up and saying no more Taiji dolphin slaughter and no more cetacean captivity this weekend. If you can’t make it to an event, then you can keep the momentum going by doing these five things.

And if you only do one easy thing, then please don’t visit dolphins and killer whales in captivity. I know they’re beautiful and amazing creatures that we love.

Cetaceans only belong to and in the open ocean, not to us.

http://www.care2.com/causes/stand-against-taijis-dolphin-slaughter-and-cetacean-captivity-this-weekend.html?onswipe_redirect=no&oswrr=4#comments

See the Tiny Tank Where This Killer Whale Has Been Confined for 45 Years

Activists campaigning to free the orca Lolita hope video shot by a drone of her Miami enclosure will help their cause.

January 13, 2015 By David Kirby

David Kirby has been a professional journalist for 25 years. His third book, Death at Seaworld, was published in 2012.
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She looks like a goldfish in a bowl, but she’s actually a blackfish in a tank.

A very small tank. See the link below for the drone video footage.

http://www.takepart.com/video/2015/01/13/watch-where-killer-whale-has-been-confined-45-years?cmpid=tpanimals-eml-2015-01-17-whalebeer

A new video has been posted on YouTube, apparently taken by a drone, showing Lolita, a 22-foot-long killer whale, swimming in furious circles in her diminutive pool at the Miami Seaquarium. For decades, opponents of orca captivity have decried the size of Lolita’s tank. But the overhead perspective of the one-minute video puts her living conditions into stark relief.

“It really drives home how tiny her tank is,” Naomi Rose, an orca researcher and a marine mammal scientist at the Animal Welfare Institute, said in an email. “Seeing her logging [resting in place] in it is bad enough, but this bird’s-eye view of her zipping around it at speed is almost worse, as she has to bank and turn so hard so often.”

Andrew Hertz, Seaquarium’s president, criticized the use of the drone to shoot video of Lolita. Doing so, he said in an email, demonstrated “a reckless disregard for the health and safety of our animals, employees and guests.”

As the video shows, Lolita’s home of nearly 45 years is barely bigger than she is. Scientists and activists have consistently complained to the Seaquarium and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service—which enforces the federal Animal Welfare Act—that Lolita’s tight quarters are illegal.

According to AWA regulations, the width of killer whale tanks must be at least 48 feet, twice the length of the average orca. But the distance between the front of Lolita’s pool and the work island where trainers interact with her is only about 35 feet, according to a 1998 complaint filed with the federal government by the Humane Society of the United States.

Beyond the island is the medical pool, expanding the total width of the tank to 60 feet. APHIS said the extension brings the Seaquarium into compliance. But the island is made of solid concrete, blocking Lolita from swimming in a direct line from one side of the tank to the other.

To access the back pool, Lolita must swim through one of two gates abutting the island, and then only if they are opened.

“The two gates at either end of the center island were irrelevant to this requirement,” Rose wrote in a March 2014 letter to federal officials. “When they are opened, they create a larger circumference for the enclosure, but the regulation does not stipulate a minimum circumference for a cetacean enclosure, only a MHD,” or minimum horizontal dimension.

Meanwhile, decades-long efforts to free Lolita from her pool continue, including a march and rally scheduled for Saturday in Miami.

The Washington-based Orca Network has developed a detailed plan for retiring Lolita to a sea pen in Puget Sound, where she was taken from her family in 1970.

Seaquarium has rejected the proposal.

“Any proposal to move Lolita in any way, whether to a sea pen or to the open waters of the Pacific Northwest, would be irresponsibly experimenting with her life,” said Hertz.

Lolita’s supporters hope the new video will influence public opinion.

“It shows me how Lolita keeps herself as physically fit as possible in that tiny tub,” said Howard Garrett of Orca Network. “Somehow she keeps active by doing those exercises. This tells me she is maintaining her mental and physical health.”

Lolita, Garrett added, “must have faith that one day she’ll return home, or she would probably lapse into the despair that has claimed so many captive orca lives.”