Monthly Archives: February 2012

Thank you, Hong Kong Airlines!! No more dolphin cargo!

Posted on February 29, 2012 by | 2 Comments

At the risk of jumping the gun, I understand from my dolphin contacts at Save Misty the Dolphin that Hong Kong Airlines has agreed to stop shipment of dolphins.  And will never again ship these magnificent animals, who deserve our respect, not our disdain, and certainly not our ownership.

So, thank you, Hong Kong Airlines, for having gone through lots of conversations and emails, Facebook and blog posts and Twitter Tweets – and emerged a hero, a leader in this global economy at no small cost.  The shipment of the dolphins came at a ticket price of six figures, from what I understand.  When a company demonstrates that it values life over dollars, and that dollars gained by yesterday’s ethics and morals is not worth that cost.  Well.  It gives me faith.  That people will do the right thing if they know what that is.

And thank you, Save Misty the Dolphin, for being there.  For coordinating with Sea Shepherd, Sea Shepherd Hong Kong, and Save Japan Dolphins to create a petition and a groundswell to reach out to Hong Kong Airlines to tell them how this shipment was tainted with blood.

I don’t have all the facts now.  I’m too excited today.  I can’t even look for any more links.  I think I’ve gotten all the big ones I need in here.  If I left someone out, just know that this little blog ain’t what counts.  It’s what you did that matters.  For more of those pesky facts.

The last day of the Taiji hunt, and Hong Kong Airlines agrees not to ship dolphins.

This is a very good day.

For More Information:

Hong Kong Airlines Says No More Flying Dolphins

Hong Kong Airlines Grounds Plan to Ship Kidnapped Dolphins

No more flying dolphins on Hong Kong Airlines

Sea Shepherd Shows Hong Kong Airlines the Direct Action Tactic

 

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The Intelligence of Dolphins – can we not study it?

Posted on February 21, 2012 by | Leave a comment

A thoughtful abstract, entitled The Ethical Implications of Dolphin Intelligence: Dolphins as Nonhuman Persons, was presented recently at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

It pointed out that as science reveals new information during the conduct of research, this new information not uncommonly requires that we rethink old assumptions.  Those old assumptions are often ethical ones.

Our knowledge now about dolphin intelligence requires that we no longer cling to an outdated perception of dolphins as performers for children.  The ruse that aquariums use to justify the continued existence of these shows is that it forwards our learning about them.

I have one thing to say about that.  Bullfeathers!  And will again quote Jacques Cousteau, who knew a thing or two about marine life:

Jacques Coustea marine land dolphin can be considered normal

- Jaques Cousteau, from Marine Captivity Facts. Cousteau knew this without all the recent studies. Anyone who is paying attention knows this. Ric O'Barry knew this and stopped being a dolphin trainer and became a dolphin rescuer.

We now know enough to know that we are polluting their environment with chemical and noise pollution (Georgia’s wild dolphins have among the highest PCB levels ever reported in marine mammals), and that we should focus our research on how to reverse that.  We do not need to study the dolphins to know what is right.  Right now.  Leave them alone.  Focus your research on something that minimizes the human footprint on this planet, please.  Start making life better for them.  Not worse.  Especially now that we are on the threshold of a breakthrough in humanity that recognizes the inalienable rights of these highly intelligent creatures.

Maybe we need to study the physiology of human ethics – here’s an abstract for ya: The Mechanism Behind Humans’ Avoidance of the Ethical Realization of its Shallowness and Selfishness – until we get that one right.

To read the abstract, The Ethical Implications of Dolphin Intelligence: Dolphins as Nonhuman Persons, by Thomas I. White, Loyola Marymount University, Redondo Beach, California

 

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Yerkes demonstrates research without morality

Posted on February 21, 2012 by | 4 Comments

Dr. Frans de Waal, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory University demonstrate research without morality.

The audience demonstrates humanity without morality.

Watch the audience laugh throughout, apparently not understanding that these animals live their lives in captivity just so Dr. de Waal and his colleagues can put together a study where they exercise control over animals, withholding and rewarding with food, for no real benefit.

We did not learn anything from these animals in captivity that we didn’t already know.  Even scientists acknowledge that research on chimpanzees is not necessary.

Dr. de Waal learned how to tell a joke at the expense of animals.

Shame on you.

I don’t believe that I saw Dr. de Waal yawn.

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Aquariums teach that dolphin ownership is ok

Posted on February 20, 2012 by | 2 Comments

Going to the Georgia Aquarium and other dolphin-owning aquariums and swim-with parks teaches children that they can buy a dolphin when they get rich.  Out of the mouth of babes.

But first, it teaches them to want to own a dolphin.  I believe that the child in the following video says, “when I get rich, I’m gonna buy a dolphin and keep it at my house.”  And we’re not talking toddler here.

A video taken through the glass into the dolphin tank at The Georgia Aquarium.

Children do love them.  We shouldn’t teach them to translate this love into a desire for ownership.  This is a teaching moment for parents.  A moment for parents to choose what to teach.

To teach them to love the dolphins enough

  • to let dolphins have the life they were born to, swimming freely with their families in the ocean, or
  • to force them into a life of enslavement, ripped from true “families”, in a small concrete tub, with a glass through which we can see them while we hold them in captivity.

Which worldview are you teaching your children? Your friends?  Yourself?  Are you accepting a worldview, rooted in the past, a day not so long ago, when we did not know what we know today?  When we didn’t know – back when we started capturing them in greater numbers in the 1950s – that they were as intelligent as they are?  When we didn’t have the information or the sensibilities that we have in 2012.  When we didn’t have the awareness that we have, now, in 2012.

The awareness that our children will, when grown, recognize was long-overdue in 2012.  Long overdue.

Make the right choice today.  Make yourself and children proud of the tomorrow you are building.  Don’t go to the dolphin show.

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Shark Dreams

Posted on February 20, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Last night I dreamed that I was in school again.  Perhaps like many of those seemingly anxiety-related dreams where you find yourself back in school.  For me, it is often not in the same buildings, in fact, most often different than the ones I actually attended.  Those dreams where I go to a class, it is almost finals, everyone thinks I really know the shit, but I don’t even know the freaking class title.  Some of you know exactly what I mean.

But this morning’s dream was not about law school.  And I’m not certain yet whether it was anxiety-related or just my brain-at-rest bringing me new ideas.  That’s also something some of you recognize.  Some of your ideas do come to you during brain “down-time,” when you aren’t actually trying to think new thoughts.

So this morning’s dream.  I was in a class, or more precisely, on a field trip where we were studying sharks.  The shark we were observing was a captive one.  In a pool.  And the instructor was proceeding to place wax on its skin for some reason.  I immediately began to doubt whether the research had any real merit, other than to support the notion that we could perform that particular experiment.  Put wax on a shark’s skin.

As the instructor proceeded and the students watched, the shark was being visibly affected by the experiment.

White Shark reef informed consent

White Shark, Photo by Dr. Dwayne Meadows

The shark’s shape began to be impacted.  Its spine became the slightest bit deformed.  The shark began to exhibit symptoms a bit like scoliosis.

I objected to the experiment and inquired, what was the purpose of the experiment?  The instructor replied that I and the other students had signed an “Informed Consent” prior to entering the class, the pool.  It seemed an odd response to an inquiry about the purpose of the study.

The instructor explained that the “Informed Consent” that I had signed was not just my agreeing that, were I harmed during the exercise, I would hold the institution harmless; that I was taking responsibility for my own safety in this research endeavor.  No, the “Informed Consent” that I had signed went further than that.  In it, I also agreed that there may not be any benefit to be derived from the experiment, and that I accepted that as a premise before entering the pool.

This came as a surprise, as it would to most, since this “lack of benefit” clause is not typical of the “Informed Consents” that I had previously signed.  At least as far as I knew.  But I also reflected that I, as many others, rarely read those before signing, especially after the first paragraph or two.

In the dream, I returned to the shark, removed the wax, and went underwater to look at him face-to-face.  We touched noses.  He knew.  I awoke.

So this morning, I find myself thinking about “Informed Consents.”  More to follow.  I hope it will be interesting.  I know it will to some.

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Marineland’s Nellie keeps on ticking, at almost 59 years, a dolphin in captivity

Posted on February 18, 2012 by | 2 Comments

So sad that Nellie the dolphin has lived the last 59 years, since February 27, 19stinking53 in captivity.  1953.

Have you lived in one room of one house all that time?  Were you even born in 1953?  I wasn’t.  Have you lived even your mere 21 or 25 or 35 years in one room of one house?

Can you think that thought?  Imagine that image?  59 years.

Nellie doesn’t have to try.  She has absolutely no choice.

To those of you who don’t think that Nellie should have a choice, I say, shame.

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Dolphin captivity is not cool: wild-caught dolphins in the United States

Posted on February 18, 2012 by | Leave a comment

According to Ceta-base (marvelous database), there are 39 facilities (including the U.S. Navy) in the United States that maintain captive dolphins.  After this morning’s only-1/3-cup-of-coffee-full effort to count the number of wild-caught dolphins,

There are more than 100 wild-caught (not counting wild-rescued) dolphins held in captivity in the United States, only counting the facilities on this list.

SeaWorld dolphin captivity

Disgusting excuse for a human "vacation"

I have more adding to do, and again, I did not include the “rescued” dolphins, but this should be enough for now.

  1. U.S. Navy has 32 wild-caught dolphins (who also, like the Georgia Aquarium, likes to compare dolphins and dogs), 53560 Hull Street, San Diego, CA 92152-5001 Tel: (619) 553-2717
  2. The Georgia Aquarium has 1 wild-caught dolphin (unless you include the other facility they own, Marineland), 225 Baker Street, Atlanta, GA 30313 Tel: (404) 581-4000
  3. Marineland has 4 wild-caught dolphins, including Nellie, who has survived almost 59 years in captivity, a Georgia Aquarium company, 9600 Oceanshore Boulevard, St. Augustine, FL 32080 Tel: (904) 471-1111 or (877) 933-3402 Fax: (904) 460-1330
  4. Dolphin Quest has 4 wild-caught dolphins, 425 Waikoloa Beach Drive, Waikoloa, HI 96738, Tel: 808.886.2875 Fax: 808.886.7030
  5. Indianapolis Zoo has 4 wild-caught dolphins, 1200 West Washington Street, Indianapolis, IN 46222 Tel: (317) 630-2001
  6. SeaWorld Orlando has 4 wild-caught dolphins, 7007 Sea World Drive, Orlando, FL 32821 Tel: (888) 800-5447
  7. SeaWorld San Diego has 4 wild-caught dolphins, 500 SeaWorld Drive, San Diego, CA 92109 Tel: (800) 25-SHAMU (74268) Tell me THAT’S not disgusting!
  8. Brookfield Zoo has 2 wild-caught dolphins, c/o Chicago Zoological Society, 3300 Golf Road, Brookfield, IL 60513 Tel: (708) 688-8000
  9. Miami Seaquarium has 3 wild-caught dolphins, 4400 Rickenbacker Causeway, Key Biscayne, FL 33149 Tel: (305) 361-5705
  10. Mirage Hotel has 2 wild-caught dolphins, 3400 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, Nevada 89109 Tel: (702) 791-7111  (that’s a great place for a dolphin tank)
  11. Long Marine Laboratory has 2 wild-caught dolphins, 100 Shaffer Rd., Santa Cruz, CA 95060 Tel: (831) 459-2883 Fax: (831) 459-3383
  12. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom has 4 wild-caught dolphins, 1001 Fairgrounds Dr., Vallejo, CA 94589  Tel: (707) 644-4000
  13. Discovery Cove has 7 wild-caught dolphins (A SeaWorld Company), 6000 Discovery Cove Way, Orlando, FL 32821 Tel: 1-877-557-7404
  14. Dolphin Connection has 1 wild-caught dolphin, 61 Hawk’s Cay Boulevard, Duck Key, Fl 33050  Tel: 1-888-251-3674
  15. Dolphins Plus has 4 wild-caught dolphins, 31 Corrine Pl., Key Largo, FL, 33037 Tel: (866) 860-7946
  16. Theater of the Sea has 4 wild-caught dolphins, 84721 Overseas Hwy,Islamorada, FL 33036 Tel: 305.664.2431 Fax: 305.664.8162
  17. John G. Shedd Aquarium has 4 wild-caught dolphins, 1200 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605 Tel: (312) 939-2438
  18. SeaWorld of Texas has 4 wild-caught dolphins, 10500 SeaWorld Drive, San Antonio, TX 78251 Tel: (800) 700-7786
  19. Sea Life Park, Oahu, has 8 wild-caught dolphins, 41-202 Kalanianaole Highway #7, Waimanalo, Hawaii 96795 USA Tel:(808) 259-2500
  20. The Institute for Marine Mammal “Studies” has 2 wild-caught dolphins, P.O. Box 207 Gulfport, MS 39502 Tel: 228-896-9182 Fax: 228-896-9183
  21. Dolphin “Research” Center, where you can swim with dolphins and have “as well as other fun chances to touch a dolphin”, has 3 wild-caught dolphins, 58901 Overseas Highway, Grassy Key, FL 33050-6019 Tel:(305) 289-1121 Fax:(305) 743-7627
  22. Minnesota Zoo has 1 wild-caught dolphin, 13000 Zoo Boulevard, Apple Valley, MN 55124 Tel: (952) 431-9200 (800) 366-7811
  23. Gulf World has 2 wild-caught dolphins, 15412 Front Beach Road, Panama City, FL 32413 Tel: (850) 234-5271 Fax: (850) 235-8957

C’mon folks.  Keep those cards, letters and calls coming.  Tell them that

  • you will not visit their facility,
  • you would like to see their research or library of others’ research on retraining dolphins for release to the wild (seriously – it is high time that we ask them to demonstrate that they have or are seeking knowledge about this), and
  • you just signed a pledge not to go see a dolphin show

Namaste.

Dolphin captivity

Wouldn't it be grand if we restored them to freedom?

 

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Ringling Beats Animals

Posted on February 14, 2012 by | Leave a comment

That was a video from nearly a year ago, and on the work to protect elephants goes despite a bullhook ban being made law in Fulton County, Georgia.

On February 15 through 20, 2012, come show Ringling and its team of lawyers that the bullhook ban in Fulton County, Georgia isn’t a mere annoyance; it’s the law.

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Nine ways you may be sabotaging dolphin and whale freedom

Posted on February 12, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Sometimes it helps to look at something from another angle.  Instead of thinking, as we usually do, “what can I do to make dolphin and whale freedom a reality?” how about a question posed in the opposite sense:

What can I do to ensure that dolphins and whales continue to be

    • hunted
    • captured
    • slaughtered
    • bred in captivity
    • held in captivity forever

Well, I’ve listed nine ways you can make that happen:  nine ways you will help ensure that dolphins and whales are never, ever, ever, ever freed from captivity and are continued to be hunted and slaughtered.

Once you’ve read through the list, I invite you to “not do” the items on the list.  It requires thinking through a double negative (something especially challenging for me).  That is, don’t not make a phone call to the Japanese Embassy (in other words, DO call the Japanese Embassy).  To make it a little more inviting to walk through the double negatives, I’ve made it a contest, with prizes.

A contest!! Yea!!!!

Dolphin swimming free captivity blog

Striped dolphin: species lost to us yesterday in Taiji, Japan in The Cove. "Like" Save Misty the Dolphin on Facebook for updates on events in Taiji.

The Prize:  The winner will win a copy of The Cove AND When Dolphins Cry AND A Fall from Freedom.  The next two runners-up will get either The Cove, When Dolphins Cry or A Fall from Freedom (winner’s choice).

The Terms and Conditions:  Over the next week, that is, by Sunday, February 19, 2012, 5:00 pm EST (US), don’t do as many items on the following list as you can.  Each item counts as a point.  Write a comment on this blog documenting what you did and when you did it, and sum up your points.  But I must ask you to make it easy for me.  If you should write more than one comment, sum up the total points of all your activities and points in your last comment (so that I don’t have to go back and actually do The New Math – as it was called in my youth – risking that I might add incorrectly).  I will determine the winners over the next few days.  Then look for a final comment here announcing the winners on February 26, 2012.  If my instructions aren’t clear, just put your question in a comment, and I’ll try to do better.

So this week, let’s not sabotage dolphin freedom!  Don’t not make some phone calls (that is, DO make calls).  Don’t not send letters directly to aquariums (that is, DO write letters to the aquariums), telling them that you will not come to their aquarium until they agree to close their dolphin and whale captivity programs and begin a rehabilitation program to release the dolphins and whales back to the wild.

GOOD LUCK on “not” doing the items on the following list!!

  1. Not making phone calls or writing to Japanese Embassies, Dolphin Base, Dolphin Resort
    1. Contact info, courtesy of Save Misty the Dolphin
  2. Not participating in organized contact campaigns, like Red Envelope on July 1 and 2, 2012, (follow @Letter4Dolphins on Twitter) or Dolphin Hour, every Friday at 4:00 pm EST US (follow @DolphinHour on Twitter)
  3. Not writing to the aquariums directly (thanks to Elaine for pointing this one out).  Here are just a few.
    1. The Georgia Aquarium, 225 Baker Street, Atlanta, GA 30313 Tel: (404) 581-4000
    2. Dolphin Quest, 425 Waikoloa Beach Drive, Waikoloa, HI 96738, Tel: 808.886.2875 Fax: 808.886.7030
    3. Indianapolis Zoo, 1200 West Washington Street, Indianapolis, IN 46222 Tel: (317) 630-2001
    4. SeaWorld Orlando, 7007 Sea World Drive, Orlando, FL 32821 Tel: (888) 800-5447
    5. SeaWorld San Diego, 500 SeaWorld Drive, San Diego, CA 92109 Tel: (800) 25-SHAMU (74268) Tell me THAT’S not disgusting!
    6. Brookfield Zoo, c/o Chicago Zoological Society, 3300 Golf Road, Brookfield, IL 60513 Tel: (708) 688-8000
    7. Marineland, 9600 Oceanshore Boulevard, St. Augustine, FL 32080 Tel: (904) 471-1111 or (877) 933-3402 Fax: (904) 460-1330  Hidden Bonus Point for writing the total number of living and deceased dolphins from Marineland
    8. Miami Seaquarium, 4400 Rickenbacker Causeway, Key Biscayne, FL 33149 Tel: (305) 361-5705
    9. Mirage Hotel, 3400 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, Nevada 89109 Tel: (702) 791-7111  (that’s a great place for a dolphin tank)
  4. Not talking to your friends about captivity.
    1. Sources: Don’t read more blogs and talk about blog posts
    2. Don’t do readings of blog posts at local coffee-houses (This one is my particular favorite, and worth five points, because there are opportunities like this on our home-based front lines.)
    3. Here are some great blogs to not not not read (I’ve gotten myself all confused with the double negative, so I just decided to quadruple it and see if it were any clearer):
      1. Save Japan Dolphins, Cyber Whale Warrior, Champions of the Seas, Save Misty the Dolphin, Champions for Cetaceans, Freedom for Marine Mammals, A Family Standing up for What They Believe In, My Attempt to Help & Your Choice to Read About It, Swimming Free,
  5. Not sharing out online links to A Fall from Freedom, The Cove, and When Dolphins Cry
  6. Not buying an extra copy or two of dolphin videos and sharing them with someone
    1. The Cove
    2. When Dolphins Cry
    3. A Fall From Freedom
  7. Not reading Ceta-base from cover to cover (it’s fascinating, by the way).
  8. Not hosting a screening of The Cove, A Fall from Freedom, or When Dolphins Cry in your home. This one has a sliding scale of points, depending on how many people attend and sign a pledge not to go to the dolphin show.  One point per attendee, plus one point for each who signs the online pledge at your screening.
  9. Not utilizing social media to share out all of the above information about dolphin capture, captivity, and slaughter
    1. In Facebook it’s called “Share”
    2. In Twitter it’s called “Tweet”
    3. In Google+ it’s called . . . what is it called?
    4. Then there’s Twit-Longer, Pinterest, and more

I know that some of this might be hard to get done in one week.  But let’s go for it.

This is what we’re playing for.

Dolphin freedom surfing

Don't do as much as you can on the list and win this for dolphins (and videos for you)

 

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Understanding the pro-caps

Posted on February 10, 2012 by | 2 Comments

I’ve been writing about dolphin captivity and the Georgia Aquarium for around a year now.  It probably seems longer to you.

As a thank you, I thought I’d try to bring you something fresh, something I haven’t reworked half a dozen times.  It’s not as if I mean to.  It’s just a knack I have, this repeating myself thing.  But, in my attempt to reverse that repetitive trend, and give you, dear reader, a new thought, I’ve being doing some thinking, some research, some interviewing.

You’ve written papers before.  Done your research.  You’ve done the assembling of articles and the reading, highlighting, cataloging, indexing and cross-indexing, tabbing in color schemes, getting excited about manila folders and your project outline notebook.  Some of you may not be the word nerd that I am (yes, I’m just a dilettante in the word nerd department; you don’t have to be mean), but lots of you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Most of the time in that process, you just feel like a robot.  Or at least I do.  I feel mostly not up to the task of actually taking the miles and piles of information in  front of me, and distilling it into even one coherent thought, much less a thesis, with supporting evidence.  But there’s nothing to do but to, zombie-like, put my arms straight out in front of me and walk stiff-legged and slow, one article at a time.

But then.

Then comes the breakthrough.

That moment when you find the one nugget.  The one paragraph on one page in one article that acts like a thought sink, and other facts rush in to support that one idea.

Well, I had a moment like that today.  When I found a piece of evidence about the captivity industry that will probably shake you off your foundation.  Well, if you’re like me.  Trying to understand the other’s view in the world of dolphin captivity is something that I can’t say I’ve been truly interested in.  I didn’t really want to understand the perspective of someone who wants to keep dolphins and whales in a small concrete tank and who wants (or, more accurately, needs) to convince people that there is any aspect of that that is not despicable.  I just think they’re too clueless or blinded by the dollar signs to bother with truly trying to engage and understand.  Quite frankly.

But then.

The breakthrough.

I’ll never feel that they are shallow again.  Here is what I found, tucked into a design portfolio of aquarium drawings, clearly a hearkening back to earlier days of the project when brainstorming was the order of the day:

Georgia Aquarium marketing plan back of the envelope

Super Top Secret Plan for Successful Aquarium

Nope.  Not shallow.

Folks, that basin is dry as a bone.  And it’s just as horrid in there as I imagined.  Nope.  No interest in going there.

C’mon, pro-caps.  Have a sense of humor.

And sign a pledge, Just Say No to the Dolphin Show.

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