Lockdown never ends– why TUI needs to stop supporting whale and dolphin captivity and how you can help
As Covid restrictions lift and we can move more freely, travel is just a distant memory for many captive whales and dolphins. But the world’s biggest tour operator still supports this cruel industry. Join our major new campaign calling on TUI to stop supporting tourism that exploits whales and dolphins.

Sign our petition. Call on TUI to help end lockdown for whales and dolphins.
I’ve been lucky enough to see whales and dolphins in the wild. One of my most memorable encounters was standing on the observation deck at OrcaLab in British Columbia, Canada tingling with awe and exhilaration as adoption orca Fife passed with his family, their tall fins cutting silently through the water, their blows loud, travelling together with a common purpose. We’d heard them coming long before we saw them, the underwater microphones picking up their chatter as they communicated with one another in a dialect unique to their family making them instantly recognisable to the staff and volunteers at OrcaLab. I’ll never forget it.
But not all of Fife’s family were with him that day. His oldest sister, Corky, was stolen from them and from her vast Pacific Northwest home on 11th December 1969. She was sold into captivity and she’s been confined to a tank ever since, making her the longest serving orca prisoner in the world. She’s held at SeaWorld San Diego, unable to travel further than the side of the pool while TUI sells tickets to human travellers to go and look at her.

For whales and dolphins like Corky, lockdown never ends.
There are around 3,600 whales, dolphins and porpoises in captivity worldwide. This includes more than 3,000 dolphins and around 366 belugas and 57 orcas. Many of them have been taken from families in the wild while others were born in captivity and have never even seen the ocean.
Some of the real whales and dolphins held at 'attractions' supported by TUI:
Captivity is cruel, with severe health consequences
Whales and dolphins are still captured from the wild, kept in tanks that are far too small for their needs and made to perform for our entertainment. But they are inherently social creatures and like us, their mental health suffers when they are denied social contact with other individuals, not to mention the trauma that must be felt by the family they’ve left behind. In the wild, Corky would travel around 100 kilometres a day and dive to depths of 500 metres to find her food. In fact wild orcas can travel up to 225 kilometres a day for 30 or 40 days without rest. At SeaWorld she is held together with nine other orcas and the biggest tank available to them is 106 metres long and 15 metres deep.

The power is in our hands.
Before launching our new campaign, we surveyed the UK public (a nationally representative sample of 2,000 people) and found that 62% of people think it’s unacceptable to keep whales and dolphins in tanks and less than a third think that watching captive whales and dolphins is good entertainment. The tide is changing and by continuing to support cruel, exploitative tourism, the world’s biggest tour operator, TUI, is on the wrong side of history.
We have the choice to say no to trips to these facilities when they are offered by TUI and others as part of a holiday package.
Holiday companies like TUI perpetuate the cruelty of captivity.
Over a quarter (28%) of people in the UK who have visited a facility that displays captive whales and dolphins in the past 10 years said they had done so because it was recommended to them by a holiday company or travel rep, or on a cruise.
With your support, we have campaigned successfully to persuade travel giants such as Virgin Holidays, British Airways and TripAdvisor to cut their ties with whale and dolphin captivity. But TUI continues to help keep the cruel industry alive.
Join us in putting pressure on TUI to show leadership and pledge to only work with attractions that commit to our phase-out model of no performances, no breeding, no captures, no trade, and support for sanctuaries.
Lockdown never ends for whales and dolphins in captivity. It’s time to end this cruel practice. Let’s make this generation of captive whales and dolphins the last.
What can you do?
- Sign our petition
- Share our campaign using the hashtag #LockdownNeverEnds
- Talk to people – if you are offered a trip to a captive facility while on holiday, talk to the rep and your fellow travellers
- Make a donation to help fund our campaign
Please help us today with a donation
Your gift, whether large or small, will help us end lockdown for whales and dolphins.
[shariff]
i did orcas in captivity as a persuasive argument text in year 7 and was disgusted save the whales and dolphins!