Posts by Philippa Brakes
San Francisco recognises whales’ and dolphins’ right to freedom
Reports are emerging of a landmark resolution passed this week by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors recognising whales’ and dolphins’ right to freedom from captivity. According to reports the resolution states that whales and dolphins deserve ‘to be free of captivity, and to remain unrestricted in their natural environment’. The resolution was championed by…
Read MoreSo what’s the point of all this science?
Renowned philosopher Professor Thomas I White has been an advocate for recognising the rights of whales and dolphins for over two decades. He outlines his manifesto for recognising the personhood status of whales and dolphins in his Primer on Non-human Personhood and Cetacean Rights. Simply, he argues that the supporting scientific evidence now demonstrates that,…
Read MoreDolphins learning
Evidence is mounting rapidly for the social transmission of certain behaviours within some mammal populations. Dolphins are no exception and their ability to learn from others within their social groups may be an important factor when it comes to adapting to human induced change within their environments. But what does ‘social transmission’ of behaviours actually…
Read More20th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals Part 1
Wind, Whales, and Dolphins – the conservation impacts of marine renewables The 20th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals is taking place this week in Dunedin, New Zealand. This is the largest international conference focused on marine mammals and WDC is there to present our conservation work to the world. “Many difficult and…
Read MoreDarwin’s cognitive continuum
Recent media stories about ‘dumb dolphins’ (apparently taken out of context) require some antidote and here’s just the thing. Pour yourself a coffee, settle back and listen to this podcast, which features some of the famous names in chimpanzee, dolphin, parrot, prairie dog and wolf research, to name just a few. The discussion ranges from…
Read MoreJudgment Day for Scientific Whaling
Guest blog by Mike Donoghue, former advisor to the New Zealand government. Much is at stake in the International Court of Justice case between Australia and Japan on Japan’s ‘research whaling’ programme in the Antarctic – JARPA II – which for the past 25 years has been the only remaining large-scale whaling operation in the…
Read MoreIs a dolphin a person?
Professor Thomas I White, philosopher from Loyola Marymount University California, argues in his Primer on Non-human Personhood and Cetacean Rights that dolphins qualify as non-human persons. According to White this matters because persons have what philosophers refer to a ‘moral standing’, which means they are entitled to be treated in certain ways. More than just…
Read MoreWhales: ‘interchangeable parts of the species machine’?
If you read nothing else this week, read this fantastic article by Brandon Keim on ‘Being a Sandpiper’. Keim explores some of the history and effects of taxonomy and behaviourism and how these have shaped modern perspectives on other species.
Read MoreAustralia’s motivation: Japan attacks
Whilst Australia’s motivation for bringing the case on Japanese Scientific Whaling to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) may be the result of domestic public pressure, the Government of Japan seems to have a more sceptical perspective. Presenting their oral arguments to the court Japan argued that: ‘Another aspect of the case pertains to confining the…
Read MoreWhy is Australia v Japan such a special case?
The history of contentious cases at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is long, dating back to 1947. The ICJ was founded just a few years earlier in 1945 and is the principle judicial organ of the United Nations. A contentious case is one in which there is a legal dispute between countries (as opposed to a…
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