No more captive dolphins or whales for the Vancouver Aquarium

Yesterday the Vancouver Aquarium announced that it is giving up its fight to keep dolphins and whales in captivity. Canada is now only one marine park away from being free of captive dolphins and whales! And it’s because of thousands of voices like ours, who spoke up on behalf of those who are unable to! Now only Marineland Canada in Ontario has captive dolphins and whales.

In May 2017, the Vancouver Park Board, voted to prevent the aquarium from bringing in any new whales and dolphins, after commissioners said they were concerned about the ethics of keeping the animals in captivity. At this time there were only 3 cetaceans left at the facility: Helen (a pacific white sided dolphin), Chester (a false killer whale) and Daisy (a harbour porpoise). Helen, Chester and Daisy were allowed to remain at the facility but were no longer a part of the shows.

Since the park board vote in 2017, two of the aquarium’s three remaining cetaceans have died, Chester and Daisy, leaving only Helen, the pacific white sided dolphin.

Helen, a pacific white sided dolphin, the only remaining captive cetacean at the Vancouver Aquarium

Helen was purchased from Enoshima Aquarium in Japan, a facility known for sourcing it’s captive cetaceans from the infamous Dolphin Drive hunt in Taiji. Helen’s fate has yet to be decided. According to CEO John Nightingale there are two available options: transporting her to a new facility or bringing in a companion animal, which means defying the park board. Neither of these choices are ideal.

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4 Blue! #tweet4taiji

If you are familiar with the Cove Guardian campaign in Taiji, then you already know that a Blue day is one the best things to experience as a Cove Guardian and one of the best days for dolphins passing by the waters in Taiji.

I was lucky enough to experience four Blue Cove days in a row, during my time in Taiji. Two of these days the 12 banger boats did leave Taiji harbor to hunt for dolphins, but on these days they were unable to find or successfully drive in any dolphins! These are the best days … seeing the boats come back to harbor one by one without any dolphins is truly a great feeling! What better to do when the boats come back, then to greet them in Taiji harbor with the Sea Shepherd flag. It is our way of letting them know we are not going anywhere and we will not stop until the slaughter ends! Besides a Blue day means no murdering or stealing of wild and free dolphins!

Proudly holding the flag in Taiji Harbor on a Blue Cove Day

My Cove Sisters, Jade, Michelle, Dorian, Fran and I, proudly waving the flag as a banger boat (in the background) returns to harbor empty handed!

The two other Blue Cove days experienced were the result of rain and bad weather altogether. With rough seas and wind, the boats did not leave Taiji harbor for two consecutive days. While these Blue days are still great to experience, the unfortunate part of the bad weather is the many captive dolphins in Taiji Harbor and Dolphin Base who have no escape from the wind and rough seas. These dolphins need to use the majority of their strength and energy to fight the rough current and waves, to keep from being tossed around into the sides of their sea pens.

Rough seas and high winds kept the banger boats in port today

We also clean up litter & debris on the beach while numerous police watch and video Cove Guardians

I took this video at Dolphin Base, in the pouring rain, while checking in on the captives. This should give you a sense of what the dolphins have to compete with during rough weather and having no escape from the floating sea prison. During my time in Taiji, Dolphin Base held, several bottlenose dolphins, false killer whales and several pacific white sided dolphins.

For the dolphins!

Mel

Proudly standing on the rocks of the infamous Cove

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The Cove Runs Red: First Slaughter of the Season #tweet4taiji

Yesterday morning before sunrise the dolphin killers of Taiji were already in the water herding a family of Pilot Whales toward the shore of the killing cove for slaughter. In the end a total of 18 Pilot Whales were slaughtered. These were the largest adult whales, since the juveniles and babies are not large enough and not worthy of the quota. After several hours of witnessing in horror and lingering in the bloody water of the Cove next to their murdered family members these juveniles were driven back out to sea. Being left to fend for themselves, the likelihood of these young Pilot Whales surviving is slim.

The pod begins to panic as their family members are pushed towards the shore of the killing cove.

The monarch female pilot whale (largest of the pod) struggled for over an hour under the tarps, as other juvenile whales continued to linger at her side.

The killers tie ropes around the whales flukes to drag the to the shore of the killing cove.

The trauma of the slaughter was simply too much for this Pilot Whale to bear as it continued to barely swim on its back after witnessing the slaughter of it’s family.

Juvenile lingers beside it’s dying mother in the killing cove.

Blood begins to seep out of the killing cove as the remaining pod is forced to swim in the bloody water of their family members.

The remaining pod of juveniles and babies were left to fend for themselves and driven back out to sea

As the killing and kidnapping season has only begun in Taiji, it is vital to note the potential number of lives that could be taken from the waters off of the coast of Taiji by both killers and trainers alike. The 2013-2014 season quota is as follows: