How has the world changed for whale and dolphin protection?
A veteran conservationist looks back… I’m Dr Mike Bossley and I’ve been engaged in research, conservation and education for the past 50 years. I’ve worked with and for WDC, Whale and Dolphin Conservation for about 25 of those years, having headed-up Greenpeace Australia in the late 1970s and early 80s. Although technically semi-retired, here I…
Read MoreBeluga sanctuary update
Update: 1st July 2020 We have been working to relocate belugas, Little Grey and Little White from their landside care facilities to their sea sanctuary care pools at Klettsvik Bay this week – which we had planned for Friday. However, our vets have confirmed that both Little Grey and Little White have a very mild…
Read MoreHow we’re helping to keep orcas safe from capture in Russia
In 1999, we helped open up whale research in Russia, building a photo-ID catalogue of orcas as well as a Russian team to study them. We called this the Far East Russia Orca Project, or FEROP, and it’s still going strong today. FEROP has trained a generation of young students in photo-ID, acoustic recording and…
Read MoreLife in lockdown – is this what captivity for whales and dolphins is like?
I’m stuck at home with my immediate family, trying to get used to a new routine of work shifts and home schooling, limited exercise and the constant threat of boredom. I worry about the lack of supermarket delivery slots for vulnerable people, how long this is all going to go on and about wider family…
Read MoreHow we’re protecting whales and dolphins across borders
It’s all very well individual nations putting their own conservation plans into action, but what about species, like whales, dolphins and porpoises, that don’t just stay in one country – how do we protect them? Last week I told you that I was at a meeting of the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species (or…
Read MoreConservation in action – working on an international stage to protect whales and dolphins
Unlike us humans, whales, dolphins and porpoises don’t entertain the concept of borders. For them it’s not the artificial construct of imaginary barriers that prevents them from living their life as they please, for them it’s all just one big connected ocean (or river). For those species that migrate, whether it’s a journey from one…
Read MoreBringing home the misery of orca captivity
Emma Stallworthy and Caroline Willis spent much of 2019 as residential volunteers at our Scottish Dolphin Centre. Part of their role was to run the centre’s events programme and in this guest blog, they explain how they came up with an event to help visitors understand the cruel confinement of captivity. Volunteering at Whale and…
Read MoreVirgin Holidays drop SeaWorld – thanks for doing the right thing
As a campaigning organisation it can sometimes be frustrating to see the cogs of change grinding so slowly. I certainly feel it and I’m sure you do too. Back in 2014, WDC launched a high profile campaign calling on Richard Branson, as a founder of the Virgin brand and someone who has a stated interest…
Read MoreNew baby offers hope for endangered orca community
On the morning of 30 May, off Tofino, British Columbia, Canada, an orca calf, complete with fresh foetal folds and typical orange (instead of white) patches, surfaced between two mature females from the critically endangered Southern Resident orca community. We all felt such joy when this new baby was seen swimming with two adult females…
Read MoreHow you fly two beluga whales home to the ocean
Ahead of the relocation of Little White and Little Grey to the world’s first open water sanctuary for belugas, we gave international media the opportunity to discover how this epic 6,000-mile journey will be delivered to plan, and speak to some of the expert team involved in making this as comfortable a journey as possible…
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