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

Dolphins on display: How UK's 'Seaworlds' sunk

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-35832175?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_england&ns_source=facebook&ns_linkname=english_regions

Dominance and Control and SeaWorld: The Paradigm Shifts
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2016/03/dominance-and-control-and-seaworld.html?spref=tw

Update on Tilikum from SeaWorld
.March 19, 2016 - A lot of fans have been asking about the status of SeaWorld Orlando’s killer whale Tilikum. We went down and spoke with Director of Animal Training Kelly Flaherty-Clark to get the latest scoop on how he’s doing. Here’s what she had to say:

“We’re continuing to work with the veterinary and animal care teams to treat Tilikum’s illness. His energy level and appetite have both improved since he started this course of treatment, and that is positive. In the last several days, Tilikum has increased engagement with his trainers and also with the other whales in the facility that are often showing interest in him. We understand that he is very ill and will have good days and bad, but our team is cautiously optimistic about his response to treatment thus far."

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/dolphin-sex-abuse-whistleblower-calls-out-aquarium-for-jerking-off-sea-mammals

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10153857560915932&substory_index=0&id=155430570931

TRACKING TILIKUM: NEW RESEARCH SHEDS LIGHT ON WHALE’S LIFE IN ICELAND

14 MARCH, 2016 BLOGCAPTIVITY INDUSTRY

https://dolphinproject.net/blog/post/tracking-tilikum/

Sickening but unsurprising!

SeaWorld Used Invasive Breeding Drugs on Female Orcas

03/22/2016 03:02 pm ET | Updated 21 hours ago
Mark J. Palmer
Associate Director, International Marine Mammal Project, Earth Island Institute

SeaWorld has announced an end to the forced breeding of their captive orcas. The International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP)’s many lawsuits and research were clearly part of their motivation to end breeding, taking advantage of the “Blackfish Effect” from the documentary that opened the facts of captivity to the world. Many other organizations and individuals worked tirelessly for years to end the cruel keeping of intelligent, social, and wide-ranging orcas in small concrete tanks. If it “takes a village” to raise a child, it takes a lot more of the community nationwide to succeed in showing SeaWorld’s leaders the errors of their way.

IMMP has just uncovered the extent of manipulation of female orcas for the artificial breeding program that SeaWorld is finally ending.

See rest of article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-j-palmer/seaworld-used-invasive-br_b_9519378.html

5 REASONS NOT TO BELIEVE THE SEAWORLD HYPE
Mar 23, 2016 | PAUL WATSON, FOUNDER, SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY, AND DAVID PHILLIPS, DIRECTOR, IMMP

http://savedolphins.eii.org/news/entry/5-reasons-not-to-believe-seaworld-hype#.VvMAmAXWfVQ.facebook

Both Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Earth Island Institute's International Marine Mammal Project have worked for decades to protect dolphins and whales and to stop the trade and captive display of cetaceans around the world.

Our two organizations are in full agreement that SeaWorld’s new announcement is not nearly good enough.

Here are five reasons why we’re not buying the hype and are instead redoubling our efforts to see that SeaWorld’s concrete tanks are permanently emptied.

1. Decades of Orca Abuse Lie Ahead At SeaWorld

While orca breeding may be stopped, SeaWorld intends to keep the 28 orca whales on public display for the rest of their lives. With a new calf on the way from currently pregnant female orca “Takara” along with other young orcas, SeaWorld will likely be able to milk this “last generation” of orcas for 30 years. It could be even more if there is “accidental” breeding.

We cannot condone a plan that allows the physical and mental abuse of these orcas to continue.

2. Turning Their Backs On Relocation of Captive Orcas to Sea Pen Sanctuaries

SeaWorld has refused to even consider the relocation of its captive orca whales to sea pen sanctuaries. Sanctuaries can be created to offer orcas a safe environment where they can swim in natural seawater free of the stress, boredom, drugs, hormones, and lives of misery in concrete tanks.

The effort to bring the orca whale Keiko to a sea pen and netted-off bay in Iceland proved that this can be done successfully. There is not a single orca at any of SeaWorld’s facilities that wouldn’t benefit from relocation to a sanctuary.

SeaWorld’s claims that the only safe environment for orcas is keeping them in their concrete tanks is a transparent ploy to continue making every last dollar they can off the misery of captive orcas.

3. The SeaWorld Dolphin Sellout

While watching its stock rebound and media criticism wane, SeaWorld is hard at work expanding its abusive captive dolphin program. This year in San Antonio, SeaWorld will open the largest single capital investment in its 27-year history. It will double the size of the existing dolphin pool, adding more captive dolphins, and for the first time ever at this facility, allowing paying customers to swim with the dolphins.

For dolphins, it’s business as usual at SeaWorld.

4. Rewarding The Taiji Dolphin Killers

By expanding rather than ending its dolphin captive breeding, display, and swim-with-dolphins programs, SeaWorld is sending a big green light to the world captivity industry that there is no need to cease the breeding and display of dolphins.

SeaWorld is the dominant player in the world marine mammal captivity industry. By leaving dolphins out of their new “conservation” plan, SeaWorld sends a signal around the world that keeping dolphins in captivity it fine. This will be welcome news to the Taiji dolphin hunters as they keep up their capture and sale of dolphins to captive facilities in Japan, China, and Dubai and elsewhere.

5. SeaWorld Has Never Been A Caring Place for Dolphins and Whales -- And It Isn’t Now

We’re not buying into the illusion being created that SeaWorld is now a humane institution when it clearly is not. Does anyone truly believe this is about a new awakening of concern for orcas, rather than a desperate attempt to reverse the plummeting attendance, profit loss, and plunging stock price?

You can’t keep 28 orcas in misery for decades, expand your captive dolphin program, and refuse any prospects for orca relocation to humane seaside sanctuaries and expect to gain public support.

We're not fooled about what SeaWorld is up to and you shouldn’t be either. Don’t reward them by going to SeaWorld or letting up on your pressure. We’re sticking with our campaigns to empty the tanks.

WATCH EPISODES OF BLOOD DOLPHIN$
Blood Dolphin$ is a 2010 three-part miniseries from Animal Planet, continuing Ric’s journey advocating for dolphins across the world.
Activist Ric O’Barry first shocked the world by exposing Japan’s annual slaughter of thousands of dolphins when he made the Academy-Award winning documentary, The Cove. Now, O’Barry returns to Japan with his filmmaker son, Lincoln O’Barry, appalled to discover that even with the worldwide attention The Cove garnered, the brutal dolphin hunting continues.

First, the O’Barry’s return to Taiji, Japan — site of The Cove — and then head to the Solomon Islands, where they try to put a stop to a lucrative and inhumane captive dolphin trade.

“The most important thing I can do…that my son can do…is show the world through projects like Blood Dolphin$ just how threatened dolphins are so we can all do something about it,” Ric O’Barry

Watch the trailer here

https://dolphinproject.net/media/watch-episodes-of-blood-dolphin/

Watch them now for free on Video on Demand!

Ep 1 Return To Taiji
Ric and Lincoln O’Barry use the power of international outrage to attempt to stop dolphin hunting; the hunt is delayed, but a phone call brings the team rushing back.

Ep 2 The Solomon’s Mission
Ric and Lincoln go on a mission to the Solomon Islands to protect dolphins.

Ep 3 Saving The Solomons
Ric and Lincoln’s mission to the Solomon Islands continues; they must confirm the true intentions of a former dolphin dealer; they make inroads with the indigenous people still involved in dolphin hunting.

Beloved Sea Lion Franco Dies
http://stthomassource.com/content/news/local-news/2016/03/26/beloved-sea-lion-franco-dies

I was saddened to read of Franco, the Sea Lion's death but by no means surprised. While Mr. Keller, Coral Worlds curator, says they live longer in captivity, and only 12 - 18 years in the wild, he's mistaken. They can live up to 30 years in the wild according to National Geographic.

The unfortunate fact is that marine mammals do not die of old age in captivity nor do they die from a "scuffle." Aggression is often the result of the tight confines the marine mammals are kept in captivity in places such as Coral World and in which the aggressed upon individual has no means of escape.

In the wild there's a hierarchy that is upheld as well as places to retreat.

In captivity, when one Sea Lion is praised over another and rewarded for his unnatural performance and behavior, while food is withheld from another one that hasn't performed to the trainer's liking, aggressive behavior is the result as is death of one. This is fact.

I'd be very interested in the findings of the necropsy report.

Was poor Franco the one with all the rotted out teeth, I wonder?
80-90% of all bacterial infections in mammals come from their mouth.
This is how most cetaceans die as well. That and poor water quality from all the bacteria that enters their mucous membrane causing systemic and systematic infections.

When you have the ongoing issues with water quality that exists in Water Bay which is regularly tested as being unacceptable for swimming due to high levels of enterococci bacteria, one has to wonder what kind of effects that has to have on the Sea Lions having that quality of water pumped into their small fiberglass tank.

I won't even get into how very unacceptable it would be for dolphins being in that bay 24/7/365.

While I mourn this animal's death, he is free, at last.
Marine mammals do not die of old age in captivity. They suffer tragic, horrific and horrendous deaths. Never be satisfied until there are no more marine mammals, whether they be Orcas, Dolphins, Beluga Whales or Sea Lions in cruel, sterile, stressful captivity on exhibit for the sake of greed and profit.

Don't support these places whether they be SeaWorld or Coral World.

SEAWORLD USED INVASIVE BREEDING DRUGS ON FEMALE ORCAS

Mar 21, 2016

http://savedolphins.eii.org/news/entry/seaworld-used-invasive-breeding-drugs-on-female-orcas

SeaWorld has announced an end to the forced breeding of their captive orcas. The International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP)'s several lawsuits and research were clearly part of their motivation to end breeding, taking advantage of the “Blackfish Effect” from the documentary that opened the facts of captivity to the world. Many other organizations and individuals worked tirelessly for years to end the cruel keeping of intelligent, social, and wide-ranging orcas in small concrete tanks. If it “takes a village” to raise a child, it takes a lot more of the community nationwide to succeed in showing SeaWorld’s leaders the errors of their way.

IMMP has just uncovered the extent of manipulation of female orcas for the artificial breeding program that SeaWorld is finally ending.

A few years back, SeaWorld commissioned a study using invasive research on female captive orcas to determine how to manipulate their reproductive cycles. The objective was to boost the number of babies by reducing the time between pregnancies through artificial insemination and drugs. Ultimately, such intervention produced more orca babies born to perform in SeaWorld’s three parks. This practice benefited the bottom line at the expense of these highly intelligent and sentient apex predators.

SeaWorld, in response to last fall’s amendment to a permit by the California Coastal Commission that would ban breeding of captive orcas in their San Diego park, claimed at that time that orcas have a “right to breed.”

But SeaWorld was abusing such rights themselves by making baby factories out of their orcas and dolphins using the drug altrenogest, a synthetic progesterone analog, according to the research, which is used routinely in domestic horses and pigs to boost production of young.

The evidence for this invasive research on female orcas is contained in a scientific paper touted by SeaWorld as an example of its contribution to the science of orcas. The article is "Reproductive Physiology and Development of Artificial Insemination Technology in Killer Whales (Orcinus orca)" from the scientific journal Biology of Reproduction, August 1, 2004 vol. 71 no. 2 650-660.

SeaWorld lists this particular paper here on its website, ironically called “SeaWorld Cares”.

The scientific paper states: “This project was funded by SeaWorld Corporation and is a SeaWorld Technical contribution no. 2004-01-T.” The lead author is listed as based at SeaWorld San Antonio in Texas.

Three of SeaWorld’s female orcas were used in this research study, which the authors termed: “…the first successful conceptions, resulting in live offspring, using artificial insemination in any cetacean species.”

Not just female orcas are subjected to this invasive forced breeding. Such use of artificial hormones to help induce pregnancy, according to the paper, has also been done with Pacific white-sided and bottlenose dolphins at SeaWorld.

Former SeaWorld orca trainer John Hargrove, who appeared in “Blackfish”, objected to the breeding of orca females at SeaWorld at an age younger than natural breeding occurring in wild orcas. Many such artificial breeding efforts in captivity result in still-born babies or weak orcas that die within a few months of birth.

We now know that SeaWorld gives medication to orcas repeatedly to reduce stress and to control stress-related diseases. Drugs routinely administered include antibiotics, antacids, and sometimes antidepressants and anti-psychotics.

The reasons such drugs are needed is that orcas do not do well in captivity. IMMP and other organizations and scientists have urged SeaWorld to retire their orcas to sea pens in the ocean, where more natural and larger environmental conditions can prevail while the orcas are still under care of humans.

While SeaWorld claims they will no longer conduct invasive artificial insemination, the question still remains: Why did they follow this destructive, immoral path in the first place? And what about the use of such practices on dolphins, belugas, and pilot whales under SeaWorld’s care?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-m-roberts/inch-by-inch-progress-for_b_9557266.html

http://www.seaworldofhurt.com/seaworlds-new-commercial-told-truth/

The Irony of SeaWorld’s “Sea Cage” Propaganda
Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Guest blogger Steve Huxter
http://www.oceanadvocatenews.com/#!The-Irony-of-SeaWorld’s-“Sea-Cage”-Propaganda/c1nni/56fc5e0a0cf2c25af4c8642f

SeaWorld Explains Why It Stopped Breeding Orcas
By Ameena SchellingApr. 01, 2016

SeaWorld has admitted what's behind its recent decision to stop breeding orcas, and it's not welfare. It's money.

Earlier this month, SeaWorld announced that it would stop breeding orcas, making the two dozen in its care the company's last generation of captive whales. The decision was praised as an overdue step forward for the company, but many questioned whether this was a true change of heart for the embattled company or just a response to several years of troubled stock prices and profits.

SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby cleared that right up during a webcast with the public on Wednesday.

"We understand some customers are upset and you may feel betrayed, but in a simple way, the data and trends showed it was either a SeaWorld without whales or a world without SeaWorld," he said. "We are an organization that needs to have cash flow to [succeed] and unfortunately, the trends were not in our favor."

Yes, Manby used "unfortunately" to describe SeaWorld's decision to end its breeding program.

Of course, SeaWorld's a profit-driven company — not an animal rescue group — so it's not unexpected that the company would be driven by its stockholders' welfare over that of its whales. But Manby's admission is a reminder that the company's PR team seems to be running the show, and that it seems to be the same old SeaWorld behind the scenes.

SeaWorld's already made that clear in the days since the breeding ban. When people responded to its apparently humane decision by wondering whether SeaWorld would relocate the remaining orcas to sea sanctuaries — the logical next step if SeaWorld were truly committed to animal welfare — the company released a statement decrying sea sanctuaries as a "death sentence" for its whales.

Among other things, SeaWorld said that sea sanctuaries would be even worse than dropping the captive-bred orcas into the middle of the ocean alone — a claim one marine biologist described as "ludicrous" — and said that they'd be at risk of "hurricanes." The company seemed to forget that the U.S. Navy successfully keeps dolphins in sea pens just down the coast from SeaWorld San Diego.

And on Friday, SeaWorld seized a PR opportunity to sign its name to a Humane Society of the United States letter calling on the White House to take action against Japan's commercial whaling activities — while ignoring the fact that its own tanks are filled with overcrowded orcas and dolphins who have reportedly ripped strips of skin off each other, attacked one another and even killed each other.

Of course, any decisions that are good for animals should be welcomed, regardless of the reason behind them. But it's important to remember that, as SeaWorld rolls out its new conservation-minded PR plan, there's a big difference between talking about how many animals you save and actually doing something for the animals already in your care.

Because, right now, there are still dozens of animals SeaWorld's fighting to keep in its tanks — and things aren't getting any better for them.

OP ED: IS IT OKAY TO GO BACK TO SEAWORLD?
31 MARCH, 2016 BLOGCAMPAIGNSCAPTIVITY INDUSTRY
It’s all about the turnstile
~ by Ric O’Barry, Founder/Director of Dolphin Project

SeaWorld and their new partner, The Humane Society of the United States* (HSUS), recently announced the end of SeaWorld’s captive breeding (actually inbreeding) program for orcas. We welcome that. It’s good news.
* Not to be confused with your local humane society.

But there’s some bad news, too: all other species of dolphin are excluded from the breeding ban.

Captive breeding for the vast majority of dolphins in the various SeaWorld amusement parks will not be phased out. They say, “it could happen,” but I’m not buying pie in the sky or the old carrot and stick trick. Let’s stick with what we know and what is real: sperm on demand and artificial insemination will continue for the majority of SeaWorld’s dolphins, now, with the blessing of HSUS.

SeaWorld also announced a change in the orca shows. No more “theatrical orca shows” in favor of “orca exhibits” that “highlight the whales’ natural behaviors.” That part of the deal is just corporate spin.

Most of the surviving orcas at SeaWorld were born in an unnatural, artificial, concrete, glass and steel environment. These particular orcas are, in some way, freaks that SeaWorld created for our amusement – and for their own corporate profit. They do not represent orcas in nature by any stretch of the imagination. The only way that captive-born dolphins (including orcas, which are the largest species of dolphin) could serve to educate the public to something of value is if they are identified for what they really are: victims.

SeaWorld would actually have to tell their audiences the truth: keeping orcas and other dolphins in captivity is wrong. Including stillbirths, 20 orcas and 133 dolphins have died at SeaWorld in the last 24 years. These mammals are not ambassadors. They never were, and never could be.

Captivity was a bad idea from the very beginning. It all started at Marine Studios in St. Augustine, Florida in 1938. The dolphin captivity industry should have admitted decades ago that it was a failed experiment, a miserable and misguided undertaking.

I wonder if the new orca exhibit, endorsed by HSUS, will include the tragic history of SeaWorld’s orcas? Will SeaWorld and HSUS tell the public where their first orcas came from? Will the new redesigned orca exhibit serve to educate the public to the many reasons why captivity is wrong?

Good education is based on truth, not corporate spin backed by a touch of greenwashing.

I intend to be there on the opening day of this rollout, and record what “SeaWorld Cares” calls their “…new, inspiring, natural orca encounters.” Perhaps I’ll live stream so that you can bear witness to this, too. No point in us all buying a ticket.

And herein lies the big problem: Now that SeaWorld has the blessing of HSUS, the public will assume it’s okay to buy a ticket to SeaWorld. After all, HSUS is the largest animal welfare group in the world, boasting over 11 million supporters. This massive membership now has the green light to buy a ticket and file through SeaWorld’s turnstiles, and they probably won’t go alone, likely opting to bring along friends and family members. Now we’re talking a potential hundred million new customers for the park. Assuming they each drop about $100.00 for a ticket, food and souvenirs, well, you can imagine what kind of serious money SeaWorld stands to rake in.

It gets better (for SeaWorld, not for the dolphins). These 11 million HSUS members are now free to buy stock in SeaWorld without having to feel guilty or being politically incorrect. Partners are partners, right? And those same friends and family members will likely want in on the action, too. I predict a huge windfall for those who bought stock in SeaWorld, especially the HSUS/SeaWorld insiders who knew about this partnership three months before they announced the new deal. (SeaWorld’s stock has been climbing since their initial announcement on March 17.)

The big losers are the orcas, and all of the other dolphins at SeaWorld, including Busch Gardens, Discovery Cove and the various amusement parks owned by the multi-billion dollar corporation. Truth is, the new deal is actually going to be the same old song and dance, with a different set of words.

SeaWorld’s announcement included a 50 million dollar budget to “save the whales,” along with other critters. In a webcast on March 30, the corporation stated an intention to position itself as the number one rescue organization in the world, and establish global rescue centers, whether they build or partner with other organizations. With fifty million bucks, why not start by saving the whales in their own tanks, and create an orca sanctuary? Actually, they could create a sanctuary without the fifty million. SeaWorld has billions in the bank. Their partner, HSUS, has millions in their savings account. They raked almost 20 million last year. These are two very rich corporations.

Desperation makes for strange bedfellows.

Joel Manby, the new CEO of SeaWorld, is a very clever businessman. The former car salesman is trying to sell us a lemon. He most likely thought that by partnering with HSUS, all of the activists would stop protesting. Boy, did he get that wrong. The real activists are abolitionists. They will not compromise. I’m one of them. Dolphin Project will continue our campaign to educate the public in the hope that each and every person will take the pledge to not buy a ticket to a dolphin show – any dolphin show.

The main point I want to stress is, please don’t be fooled by slick, marketing videos featuring Joel Manby and President/CEO of HSUS, Wayne Pacelle. They will try to convince the public that dolphins cannot be retired in a coastal sanctuary environment. I’m not talking about a so-called seapen or floating cage but rather, a large bay, lagoon or cove. There are hundreds of them available on government land, and in fact, we the people own them. We may be able to use them free of charge. It’s a matter of fencing off the mouth of a cove, for example, then building a medical pen, fish preparation house and all the usual infrastructure. Ideally, we should establish several of these in strategic locations around the world where dolphins are languishing in concrete tanks.

Manby and Pacelle say it’s dangerous for the orcas to be moved from behind their turnstiles, but they provide no peer-reviewed scientific documentation to substantiate their claim.

The reason? Because this is a partnership of marketing, not dolphin welfare.

I have been involved in the dolphin captivity issue for more than 56 years. I spent the first ten helping to build up the dolphin captivity industry, and the last 46 trying to tear it down. This body of work has consumed most of my life, and unlike Manby and Pacelle, I know from years of personal experience what I am talking about. I captured and trained more than a hundred dolphins, including the dolphins collectively known as the television star, “Flipper.” I trained Hugo, the first orca held in captivity east of the Mississippi River. I also worked with manatees, seals, sea lions and otters.

Coastal dolphin sanctuaries will not be as slick or as profitable as SeaWorld’s Shamu Stadium, but they have the potential to make money. P.T. Barnum, founder of Barnum & Bailey Circus said it best, “Build it and they will come.”

Turnstiles

Dolphin sanctuaries are for all dolphins. Size doesn’t matter, and we don’t play favorites. All dolphins are deserving of a proper retirement. On that note, as SeaWorld has indeed acknowledged that orca shows are no longer in public favor, then why punish their remaining animals by forcing them to live out the rest of their lives in concrete tanks? Why isn’t their allegiance to the animals which have made them billions in profit?

The SeaWorld / HSUS Paradox

And this, folks, is what I call the SeaWorld/HSUS paradox. Manby and Pacelle want the public to buy stock, buy a ticket and return to SeaWorld’s stadiums. In fact, their San Antonio park is set to unveil Discovery Point™ in May, 2016, which will feature a swim-with-the-dolphins program. Manby has also recently announced progress in SeaWorld’s global expansion plans, saying the company had “moved to the next phase of our international development strategy.”*
*Source: Attractions Management

It’s all about money, members and goals of the highest abstraction.

The bottom line is; the surviving orcas should not remain locked up in concrete tanks. It’s easy to do the right thing. Build a sanctuary. Then move your turnstiles there. Profits can still be made by embracing this new and progressive business model, and the dolphins can retire in peace and dignity.

So is it okay to go back to SeaWorld again? I say, no. Not until an exit strategy for all dolphins is committed to by both parties. In the absence of this, it’s just business as usual – and a cruel one at that.

Take the Pledge:
https://dolphinproject.net/take-action/take-the-pledge-not-to-buy-a-ticket-to-a-dolphin-show/

(Personally, I'm disgusted and disappointed with HSUS and will no longer support them for aligning with SeaWorld while the Orcas, Dolphins and other marine mammals continue to cruelly suffer in captivity for decades yet to come. ~ Alana)

http://www.inquisitr.com/2950721/seaworld-still-under-pressure-for-orca-sea-pens-hsus-may-agree/

SEAWORLD AS A CONSERVATION DONOR?
12 MAY 2014 - 4:07PM

The first SeaWorld park opened in 1964 but it was another 15 years before they introduced the concept of education, when they were legally mandated to do so - the park's founder even admits that the park was created "strictly as entertainment". A further 15 years passed before SeaWorld made the decision to put something back into conservation and so the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund (SWBGCF) was born. Although technically (and legally), the fund is a separate entity from SeaWorld itself, it's hard not to see the connection between the two!

Interestingly, on the SWBGCF's website they state that "The Fund provides an outlet for park visitors to help protect wildlife and, because SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment provides all administrative and development costs as well as staffing and infrastructure, commits 100 percent of donations to on-the-ground wildlife conservation efforts." – so, in theory, it's the park visitors who fund this fund? If you were a park visitor, you would I’m sure like to think that it's not just you and other paying members of the public who are contributing to conservation in the wild but unfortunately it seems that the public are in fact contributing more than SeaWorld themselves.

In 10 years of operation the SWBGCF claim to have allocated grants of over US$10 million – we thought it was time to delve a little deeper and see exactly what we could find out.

Given the 503 (c)(3) charity status of the fund we were able to take a very close look at their 990's - otherwise known as their tax returns - where we analysed their spends against the headings "contributions, gifts and grants" from 2004 to 2012. (Unfortunately they have not yet filed their returns from 2013 and therefore we were unable to use them in our analysis). The fund's recipients are diverse and there appear to be a number of very worthy projects however it was our intention to try figure out what proportion of the "public's donations" were actually going to the conservation of wild whales, dolphins and porpoises. Unfortunately it was impossible to attribute every individual grant payment to a specific species and in some cases even to a specific organisation and therefore there may be a few omissions when it comes to tallying up the funded cetacean work. However, from our in-depth analysis, we can guarantee you that any omissions certainly do not add up to a substantial amount of money. In fact if anything we may have erred on the side of caution and attributed funds to whale and dolphin conservation that should not "technically" be categorised as such.

For example, some of the largest grants have been given to the University of Florida (up to 2012 this amounted to a total of US$320,000). However given that the University works on a variety of species both in captivity and the wild, we were unable to attribute the funds to any specific species either in captivity or the wild. We do however know that several members of the veterinary department (otherwise known as "aquatic animals health experts") at the University have published several scientific papers that feature on the SeaWorld website – one of the most recent ones described how dolphins are an ideal model on which to study human cervical cancer - and so we gave them the benefit of the doubt and added their grants to the "whale and dolphin" pile. Interestingly, there is an additional link to SeaWorld as it would appears that the associate director of animal health at the College of Veterinary Medicine is himself an ex-SeaWorld employee.

So what did we find out?

In a nutshell, the amount of funds dedicated to whale and dolphin research and conservation is pitiful. A mere 6% of the US$9million plus granted by SWBGCF between 2004 and 2012 (remember we don’t yet have the tax returns from 2013 and therefore have to work with the figures from only nine years worth of grant-giving) has been spent on whales, dolphins and porpoises.

Even then, that 6% includes contributions to research focused on captive individuals held in SeaWorld facilities and undertaken by Hubbs SeaWorld Research Institute. So how much really went to fund research on wild populations of whales and dolphins?

What we do know is that from the 6% spent on cetaceans – which works out at approximately US$542,588 – US$320,000 went to the University of Florida (noted above) and US$146,000 went to Hubbs Research Institute (who in addition to studying the captive dolphins at SeaWorld, undertake work on a wild population of bottlenose dolphins in a Florida lagoon although some of the grants were noted as being for work on polar bears and manatees). This therefore leaves only US$76,588 directly attributable to monies spent focusing on “wild” whales and dolphins. And that works out at 14% of the total spent on whales and dolphins and a mere 0.88% of the total spent on ALL their projects.

So in answer to the question of SeaWorld being a conservation donor? It would appear not when it comes to the conservation of wild whales and dolphins.

April 4, 2016
SeaWorld Has Found Their Judas

By Captain Paul Watson, Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

http://www.seashepherd.org/commentary-and-editorials/2016/04/04/seaworld-has-found-their-judas-755

Dolphins Call Each Other By Name
See link.

http://news.discovery.com/animals/whales-dolphins/dolphins-call-each-other-by-name-130219.htm

Bottlenose dolphins call out the specific names of loved ones when they become separated, a study finds.

Other than humans, the dolphins are the only animals known to do this, according to the study, published in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The big difference with bottlenose dolphins is that these communications consist of whistles, not words.

Earlier research found that bottlenose dolphins name themselves, with dolphins having a “signature whistle” that encodes other information. It would be somewhat like a human shouting, “Hey everybody! I’m an adult healthy male named George, and I mean you no harm!”

Photos: Sharks, Marine Mammals Hang in Paradise
The new finding is that bottlenose dolphins also say the names of certain other dolphins.

“Animals produced copies when they were separated from a close associate and this supports our belief that dolphins copy another animal’s signature whistle when they want to reunite with that specific individual,” lead author Stephanie King of the University of St. Andrews Sea Mammal Research Unit told Discovery News.

King and her colleagues collected acoustic data from wild bottlenose dolphins around Sarasota Bay, Fla., from 1984 to 2009. The researchers also intensely studied four captive adult male dolphins housed at The Seas Aquarium, also in Florida.

The captive males are adults that keepers named Calvin, Khyber, Malabar and Ranier.

These bottlenose dolphins, however, as well as all of the wild ones, developed their own signature whistles that serve as names in interactions with other dolphins.

“A dolphin emits its signature whistle to broadcast its identity and announce its presence, allowing animals to identify one another over large distances and for animals to recognize one another and to join up with each other,” King explained. “Dolphin whistles can be detected up to 20 km away (12.4 miles) depending on water depth and whistle frequency.”

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 06, 2016
SeaWorld Slaps Its New Orca Allies In The Face With Latest Lying Ads

http://dneiwert.blogspot.fr/2016/04/seaworld-slaps-its-new-orca-allies-in.html?m=1

SEAWORLD SHOULD SUPPORT SANCTUARIES
6 APRIL 2016 - 9:26AM

http://uk.whales.org/blog/2016/04/seaworld-should-support-sanctuaries

VIDEO: KAYAKING WITH ORCAS
https://dolphinproject.net/blog/post/video-kayaking-with-orcas/

How they all should be, wild and free! ~Alana

SEAWORLD REFUSES ORCA RETIREMENT IN ORDER TO KEEP MAKING MONEY OFF OF THEM

Apr 11, 2016 | BY DAVID PHILLIPS, PRESIDENT, FREE WILLY/KEIKO FOUNDATION
http://savedolphins.eii.org/news/entry/seaworld-refuses-orca-retirement-in-order-to-keep-making-money-off-of-them

https://www.thedodo.com/orca-chin-bleeding-1723172160.html

Once on link, scroll down for article.
Another Orca Gets Beaten Up At SeaWorld
By Ameena Schelling
Apr. 11, 2016

EXPERT TESTIMONY SECURES 12-1 VOTE FOR ORCA PROTECTION ACT
15 APRIL, 2016
https://dolphinproject.net/blog/post/expert-testimony-secures-12-1-vote-for-orca-protection-act/