It’s been nearly 9 years since The Cove brought the story of dolphin massacres in Taiji, Japan, and the issue of captive cetaceans before the eyes of millions of people around the world. The film shows viewers the images of fishers corralling dozens of thrashing and squealing dolphins into nets set up in Japan’s sheltered […]
Taiji is still in darkness when a dozen men gather at the quayside and warm themselves over a brazier. While the rest of the town sleeps, they sip from cans of hot coffee, smoke cigarettes and talk in hushed tones. As soon as the sun edges above the peninsula, they take to their boats, steering […]
Even before construction began on the swim-with-the-dolphins tourist attraction Dolphinaris Arizona, animal advocates were concerned that it was a bad idea. More than 172,000 people have signed a Care2 petition urging the Dolphinaris company not to open the marine park in Scottsdale, where triple-digit summer temperatures can climb over 120 degrees. As the nonprofit Animal […]
Mexico City has just banned keeping dolphins in captivity, and advocates are hoping the rest of the country will soon follow in putting an end to dolphin confinement and exploitation. The Mexico City Congress, which recognized that dolphins are sentient beings who suffer in captivity, just passed a law that bans the use of dolphins […]
In a historic victory for whales and dolphins, France just passed legislation that animal advocates hope will ultimately bring their captivity to an end. The new legislation bans captivity of whales, dolphins and porpoises, with exceptions for bottlenose dolphins and orcas who are already being held in aquariums, including those at Marineland Antibes, but it […]
Animal rights activists have claimed a significant victory in its battle to end Japan’s dolphin slaughter after a court ruled that an aquarium in Taiji – where hundreds of dolphins are killed every year – acted illegally when it refused entry to an Australian campaigner. The court in Wakayama, western Japan, on Friday awarded 110,000 […]
We live in an age of mass extinctions and increasing degradation of our planet. Rewilding – the return of land to a wild state and the reintroduction of animals and plants that once lived there – is one way we can restore the balance in nature. And in ourselves. From his home in Oxford, England, […]
The recent arrest of 14 volunteers working to stop whaling in the North Atlantic Ocean’s Faroe Islands has focused a spotlight once again on a local tradition stretching back over a thousand years. Six of the protesters were found guilty this week of interfering with the grindadráp, or grind, as these drive hunts are called, […]
The controversial six-month dolphin hunting season began on Monday in the infamous town of Taiji, but bad weather would delay any killing, a local official told AFP. The annual catch, in which people from the southwestern town corral hundreds of dolphins into a secluded bay and butcher them, was thrust into the global spotlight in […]
Fishermen in Japan began slaughtering hundreds of bottlenose dolphins early on Tuesday morning, campaigners said, despite mounting international calls for the animals to be spared. Members of the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd who are monitoring the annual cull in Taiji, on Japan’s Pacific coast, said local fishermen had started killing an estimated 250 dolphins […]
On Friday, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said a pod of more than 250 dolphins including babies, juveniles and a rare albino calf had been driven into a cove in Taiji, south-east Japan. Taiji is renowned for its dolphin-hunting traditions, shooting to prominence after the release of the 2009 Oscar-winning documentary The Cove. The town […]
More than 1,000 migratory bottlenose dolphins have died from a measles-like virus along the US eastern seaboard in 2013 and the epidemic shows no sign of abating, a marine biologist said on Monday. The death toll exceeds the 740 dolphins killed during the last big outbreak of the then unknown virus in 1987-88. “It is […]
A dolphin swimming through the world’s oceans after fish, and a bat flying through the air with its membranous wings to catch insects or eat fruit: at first glance, it looks like no two creatures could be more different. But it turns out they share a superpower – they hunt prey by emitting high-pitched sounds […]
