Center for Whale Research

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Will The Present Administration Act In Behalf Of Orcas And Salmon?

Read Howard Garrett's series on how dams on the Snake/Columbia Rivers impact southern resident orcas.

Part one: We Can Replace 1000 Megawatts. We Can't Replace Salmon And Orcas.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Have A Heart SeaWorld, And Let Corky Go Home

It is time to bring the captives home, read more on our Seattle P.I. blogsite!

Corky (Courtesy OrcaNetwork and OrcaLab)

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Commercial Fisheries, Salmon, and Orcas

Commercial fisherman Robert Sudar shares insight into the fisheries dilemma. (Click here for full article.)

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Where Do Orcas Find Drinking Water?

Orcas are beautifully adapted to life in the marine environment, but unlike fish, they are not able to meet their water needs by drinking seawater. Find out how they meet their needs here.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Swim With Orcas

Click here to see what it is like to swim among these whales in the frigid waters of Norway!

Monday, November 16, 2009

New Orca Calf 11/11/09

New Baby!

Please check the website's news page for more information on J pod's new addition!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Vote For Orcas and Salmon

Photo by Stewart Macintyre

Please consider the orcas if you have yet to vote. I-1033

Some Background Information on the Orca Captivity Issue from Howard Garrett

"In 1965 a young male orca was captured in the town of Namu, BC. He was sold to Ted Griffin and towed in a pen to Seattle, where he was promoted extensively and made into a worldwide celebrity. Namu died after 11 months of captivity, but by then Sea World had captured their first Shamu from Puget Sound and the revenues from killer whale shows started a stampede to capture and sell orcas from Washington.

For ten years the captures were led by Don Goldsberry and Ted Griffin, who became public enemies after they tried to violently obstruct news coverage of their operations. They caught over 100 in that time, but claimed there were plenty of orcas here so the captures would make little difference on a population level. There was no science to dispute that until the mid-1970's when Canada and the US contracted with marine biologists Mike Bigg and Ken Balcomb, respectively, to conduct a survey to find out how many orcas there were in Washington and BC. They found only a few hundred, mostly north of Vancouver Island, meaning the captures had removed about a third of those resident to Washington waters.

Goldsberry, Griffin, Sea World, and the marine park industry in general disputed the scientists' findings and methods because they didn't like the results, and thus began a deep animosity toward field researchers on the part of the marine park industry. That dislike and disregard for the natural history of orcas that Bigg and Balcomb and many others revealed over the years became part of the marine park culture and continues to this day. The longevity of orcas, for example, was known from field research to be many decades longer than what marine parks told the public in their educational materials.

Needless to say, any organization that criticizes the captivity industry or that attempts to rehab, retire or release captives receives special scorn from the industry (which includes many people on Keiko's care team)."

"... and that's unfortunate because there could be some areas of agreement and cooperation if we could trust one another's information. But for those within the industry survival of the business is often more important than survival of the orcas, so rather than defend against these innuendos, unless there are disputed facts I'll try to give the background for the argument and leave it at that." From Comments by Howard Garrett