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Southern Resident whales

Ambitious plan to free captive orca Lolita announced

The new owner of the Miami Seaquarium in the US has announced that it is...

Trade sanctions announced after Mexico fails to protect near extinct porpoise

The international body behind the treaty that protects endangered plants and animals from the threats...

WDC exposes failure of Government scheme to protect whales and dolphins from net deaths

Following our investigations, we have revealed that a UK Government scheme to protect whales and...

First cases of bird flu in dolphins discovered in the UK

The UK Government has announced that two dolphins and a harbour porpoise have died from...

SeaWorld fined for second time over safety issues

The US government’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has fined SeaWorld for a second time for failing to meet strict safety standards. This latest financial penalty relates to worker safety violations and the continuing close and dangerous contact with orcas by trainers during performances.

SeaWorld continues to fight an initial fine from OSHA which followed the death of trainer Dawn Brancheau in February 2010.

In both cases OSHA has demanded that SeaWorld provide physical barriers (or equivalent) or greater protection for trainers working with orcas (also known as killer whales), or prohibit the trainers from working in close proximity to them altogether. As a result, the trainers are no longer swimming in the water with the whales, but SeaWorld seems to have ignored every other safety request by OSHA since the legal action began nearly three years ago.

Read our blog for more on this story

About George Berry

George is a member of WDC's Communications team and website coordinator.