Skip to content
All news
  • All news
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Corporates
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Green Whale
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Scottish Dolphin Centre
  • Stop whaling
  • Stranding
  • Whale watching
Amazon river dolphins leaping

Endangered river dolphins die in Amazon drought

Over 100 endangered pink river dolphins have died in an area of the Amazon over...
Fin whale

Short and cruel hunt season ends in Iceland

The shortened Icelandic fin whale hunts season has finished with a final total of 23...
Bottlenose dolphins breaching

Landmark report reveals UK wildlife’s devastating decline

With whales and dolphins already facing many threats, a landmark report released this week reveals...
Dolphins with oil rig

Go ahead for new UK oil and gas exploration threatens whales and dolphins

Permission has been granted for the development of the UK's biggest untapped oilfield off Shetland,...

Step in the right direction for Black Sea dolphins

Our team has recently returned from the latest Conference (large meeting) of Parties (member countries) to CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species which ended earlier this month in Johannesburg. The largest one ever, the meeting heralded increased protection from trade for several sharks species, pangolins (the only mammal with scales!), parrots and macaques. It also sought to address the continued trade in wild-caught bottlenose dolphins from the Black Sea. At the meeting, Ukraine proposed that a DNA database of all the Black Sea bottlenose dolphins in captivity should be established, which traders would have to use to prove an individual was born in captivity and not captured from the wild. Commercial trade is prohibited in wild-caught Black Sea bottlenose dolphins.

While there was significant support for the proposal from the countries attending the meeting, it was only a revised version that was adopted at the meeting and it does not now go as far as we had hoped. Primarily, instead of the establishment of an international CITES-wide database, it encourages the development of databases on a national or regional basis, which would then report to CITES, therefore lacking the international support that this initiative may need. Nevertheless, we remain hopeful that this is still a step in the right direction to ending the trade in wild-caught dolphins and committed to helping end the commercial trade in Black Sea and all dolphins targeted for a life in captivity.