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UN adopts High Seas Treaty to protect the ocean

At the UN 'High Seas Treaty' negotiations in New York, a historic vote for the...

Hopes raised for whale and dolphin protection after last minute landmark nature agreement

WDC's Ed Goodall (far right) at COP15 with Thérèse Coffey (centre) UK Secretary of State...

WDC orca champion picks up award

Beatrice Whishart MSP picks up her Nature Champion award The Scottish Environment LINK, an organisation...

Large number of dolphins moved to Abu Dhabi marine park

Up to 24 captive bottlenose dolphins have reportedly been sent to a new SeaWorld theme...

Federal appeals court rejects petition to reopen case for captive-held orca Tokitae

In disappointing news, a Federal appeals court has rejected a petition from conservation groups to reopen a lawsuit over the Miami Seaquarium’s treatment of Tokitae (also called Lolita), the last surviving Southern Resident orca held in captivity.  This is a blow to the latest court effort to free Tokitae from the Seaquarium and retire her to a sea sanctuary in her home waters of Washington State.  The groups involved, including Orca Network and Washington’s Lummi Nation, have vowed that the fight for her freedom will continue until Tokitae returns home.

Tokitae was taken from her family, L pod of the critically endangered Southern Resident orca population, in the infamous Penn Cove capture of 1970, when more than 80 individual orcas were rounded up.  Seven young whales were taken and sold to marine parks around the world, and as many as five orcas drowned during the capture.  Tokitae is the only orca surviving from that horrific day, and the last Southern Resident orca in captivity.

 

Your support helps WDC end captivity for whales and dolphins everywhere, and protect and recover Tokitae’s family, the Southern Resident orcas.