Posts by Courtney Vail
Entitlement and the Georgia Aquarium: Hearing reveals the privilege of Public Display Industry
In the ongoing lawsuit entangling Georgia Aquarium, Inc., the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and a coalition of environmental and animal protection organizations that includes WDC, a hearing was held in the federal district court in Atlanta on August 14th. This hearing addressed the merits of legal proceedings initiated by Georgia Aquarium upon the…
Read MoreDolphin SMART recognizes another Florida business
WDC and program partners welcome Coastal Kayak Charters of St. Pete Beach, Florida to Dolphin SMART – a unique voluntary wild dolphin conservation and stewardship program. Dolphin SMART recognizes businesses that responsibly advertise and view wild dolphins and educate their patrons on dolphin conservation. Coastal Kayak Charters transports guests and kayaks by boat to explore…
Read MoreSentencing for Texas Dolphin Crime Announced
On Wednesday, June 3rd, a Texas court sentenced two brothers charged with the killing of a bottlenose dolphin found dead from a hunting arrow wound near the Louisiana border in the Gulf of Mexico. Although the perpetrators, who pled guilty to the July 2014 killing incident in February of this year, each faced up to one…
Read MoreWDC welcomes two new Florida businesses to Dolphin SMART
WDC, one of the founding partners of the Dolphin SMART program, welcomes two new Florida businesses to the voluntary outreach program. Odyssey Cruises and Captain Dennis Wilson Charters in Tarpon Springs join 16 other Dolphin SMART participating operators in the program designed to promote the conservation of dolphins in coastal waterways through responsible viewing and…
Read MoreJAZA decides to comply with WAZA’s Code of Ethics. What next?
News broke today that the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA), after a board meeting and vote of its membership, would respond to the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ (WAZA) recent suspension by announcing that it would comply with WAZA’s ethical mandates to no longer procure live dolphins from the dolphin drive hunts…
Read MoreWAZA’s Rebuke: JAZA penalized for continuing association with dolphin drive hunts in Japan
In response to international pressure that has intensified over the past several years as aquaria affiliated with the Japan Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA) continue to take dolphins from the brutal dolphin drive hunts in Taiji, Japan to stock their facilities, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) finally suspended JAZA from official…
Read MoreBusiness as Usual in Taiji?
Another drive hunt season has come to an end in the coastal whaling town of Taiji, Japan. Looking at the numbers of dolphins killed this season, there has been much speculation about what the trends might be telling us. With a preliminary and unofficial count, it appears that fewer dolphins than last season were rounded…
Read MoreCourt Update: Importing Wild Beluga Whales for Captivity
On March 16, 2015, WDC, along with the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Cetacean Society International (CSI), and Earth Island Institute (EII) filed their joint response to Georgia Aquarium, Inc., in the case of Georgia Aquarium, Inc. v. Pritzker—a lawsuit Georgia Aquarium filed to overturn a decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to deny…
Read MoreWDC reward provided in successful prosecution of dolphin crime
The US Department of Justice recently announced the successful prosecution of two perpetrators of a dolphin crime involving the shooting of bottlenose dolphins with a hunting bow. The incident involved brothers who shot at two dolphins who had stranded near Orangefield, Texas with a compound bow in July 2014. One dolphin was fatally wounded, and…
Read MoreNanuq: The most recent casualty of captivity
SeaWorld has announced that one of its male beluga whales, on breeding loan to its parks from Vancouver Aquarium since 1997, died on Thursday, February 19th. The cause of death has not been reported for Nanuq, an approximately 32-year-old beluga originally captured from the waters of the Hudson Bay, but the Orlando park reported that…
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