Posts Tagged ‘Orca’
Bringing 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 MoreInfamous ‘whale jail’ now empty
Reports from Russia suggest the notorious whale jail in Srednyaya bay in Far East Russia is now, finally, empty of whales. The 11 orcas and 87 belugas were initially captured last year for sale to Chinese marine park facilities and were placed into a collection of small sea pens in waters near Nakhodka that became…
Read MoreMore Success! WDC’s negotiations with travel giant TripAdvisor pay off
Online travel giant, TripAdvisor is to stop the promotion of whale and dolphin captivity shows, a move that follows many months of positive dialogue between the company and WDC. The news is the latest success for WDC’s tour operators campaign, which has targeted big travel industry names and challenged them to stop promoting this kind…
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 MoreCalling all science, technology, engineering and mathematics fans!
To celebrate World Oceans Day today, WDC’s partners Mercury Learning have released another of their hugely popular STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics book bundles in support of our work to keep whales and dolphins safe and free. The bundle includes a range of STEM-themed eBooks including titles on 3D printing and particle physics worth…
Read MoreScientists offer help to Putin to help free captured whales
A group of scientists representing a range of international organisations, including WDC, have written to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin expressing concerns about the welfare of 87 belugas and 10 orcas currently held in a facility in Srednyaya Bay in Nakhodka, Russia. All were captured last year for sale to Chinese theme parks and dolphinaria,…
Read MoreNorwegian orca Morgan gives birth at Loro Parque
Tenerife, Spain – Wild-caught Norwegian orca Morgan, now held at Loro Parque in the Canary Islands, Spain, gave birth on September 22nd to her first calf. The park announced Morgan’s pregnancy in December 2017, just weeks after SeaWorld ended their association with Loro Parque, essentially abandoning the six orcas that had previously been included in…
Read MoreNoise pollution chronically stresses whales and dolphins
Whales and dolphins depend on sound to stay together in their family groups and whales used to be able to go on large hunting expedition to find their food, calling each other when they found it. However, according to a new study underwater noise pollution means they can only hear each other for around 10…
Read More50 shades of grey – watching orcas in Scotland
Every year, people gather on cliff tops in the north of Scotland to watch out for orcas, some of whom come down from their winter herring-hunting grounds in Iceland on the look out for seals in the early Scottish summer. Run by the Sea Watch Foundation and supported by WDC, we call this event Orca…
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