AWI Quarterly Articles | Marine Wildlife

On June 22, 2016, Georgia Aquarium announced it would no longer seek to acquire dolphins or beluga whales from the wild for its exhibits. While an important step forward, the announcement came only after the...

For the first time in a decade, a new captive dolphin attraction has been built in the United States from the ground up, this time in Arizona. Dolphinaris, where customers pay to swim with dolphins...

In 2013, the Korean Animal Welfare Association (KAWA), local scientists, and government officials planned the release of five captive bottlenose dolphins—named Je-dol, Sampal, Chunsam, Taesan, and Boksoon—who had been illegally captured from a population living...

In March 2014, California Assemblymember Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica) introduced into the California Assembly AB 2140—a bill to prohibit the breeding of captive orcas and their use in theatrical shows in the state and require...

On July 24, Mexico committed to permanently banning all gillnet fishing within the Gulf of Mexico habitat of the critically endangered vaquita porpoise. Details, including enforcement mechanisms, have yet to be announced, however.

At a time when thousands of whales were being slaughtered each year, the release of the album Songs of the Humpback Whale in 1970 sparked a movement that eventually led to one of the great...

As a child, I enjoyed standing in the shallow water of creeks, lakes, rivers, and the ocean watching fish. Later, as a scuba diver, I plunged deeper, observing the behavior and interactions of a wide...

For over a decade, AWI has provided an online database of restaurants in the United States that continue to serve shark fin soup. The goal is to help people avoid such establishments and to call...

The National Aquarium in Baltimore announced in June that it plans to move its colony of eight dolphins from its indoor amphitheater pool to a seaside dolphin sanctuary—the nation’s first. The aquarium publicly stated two...

Outbreaks of algae may once again be taking a heavy toll on the West Indian manatee population in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon. Since May, nine manatee carcasses have been found, all bearing signs of gastric...