Sharks and Barks: Texas Two-Step for Animals
Two bills recently signed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott mean good news for animals. HB 1579 prohibits buying and selling shark fins in the state, and makes Texas the 10th state to institute such a...
Please see the below articles about Marine Wildlife from past editions of the AWI Quarterly.
World Association of Zoos and Aquariums Cuts Ties to Taiji Dolphin Slaughter
Each year, from roughly September through April, more than a thousand dolphins are removed from the wild during the unspeakably cruel Taiji, Japan, dolphin drive hunts. Most are herded into the shallows and violently slaughtered...
Beneath the Surface
John Hargrove was the first of several former orca trainers to appear in Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s documentary Blackfish. A 14-year veteran of SeaWorld, he was a top trainer there until August 2012. Hargrove was working at...
Family is Everything
On April 18, Dr. Naomi Rose gave a talk on captive orcas at TedX Bend in Oregon. She focused on the idea that family is everything to orcas and that captivity destroys their family-oriented social...
US Tribe's Quest to Kill Whales Moves Closer to Reality
In March of this year, as noted on page 2, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issued a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) on the Makah Tribe’s proposed hunt of gray whales—the first step toward...
AWI and Allies Win Big Victory on Behalf of Marine Animals
A federal judge ruled on March 31 that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) acted illegally in approving US Navy testing and training activities that threaten widespread harm to marine life in a vast region...
New Coalition Seeks End of Orca Captivity in EU
Dr. Naomi Rose of AWI attended the launch of a new coalition called Dolphinaria-Free Europe (DFE), on March 4, at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. Comprised of more than a dozen nonprofit animal charities...
AWI Staff Helps Stem Trash Tide Along DC River
We pour a lot of plastic into the world’s oceans—directly and through the myriad waterways that spill into the seas. A pioneering study published in Science in February estimated that, in 2010 alone, we dumped...
New York Tones Down Mute Swan Eradication Plan
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) released a revised wild mute swan management plan in which it backs away (somewhat) from its initial proposal to eradicate all 2,200 mute swans, a nonnative...
Gray Whales Under Hunting Threat
In May 1999, whalers from the Makah Tribe in northwestern Washington state killed a gray whale—something they had not done since the 1920s. Even the few tribal elders who could remember the last kill did...