Posts by Rob Lott
Orca Watch Scotland 2019 – the results are in!
Orca Watch 2019 really had it all this year – wind, rain, some stunning sunsets and lots of orca activity. The event kicked off with a wonderful fundraising evening of talks and video presentations before we all settled down for a week of serious scanning at Duncansby lighthouse watching the ever-shifting waters of the Pentland…
Read MoreLooking out for orcas from the Scottish north coast – Orca Watch 2019
Orca Watch week is now in its eighth year and is run by the Sea Watch Foundation in partnership with Whale and Dolphin Conservation. I’ve been involved for the last five years and have seen the event go from strength to strength. It’s a wonderful week celebrating all things orca including talks and video presentations,…
Read MoreOrca Morgan gives birth at theme park, Loro Parque
On the morning of Saturday, September 22nd, Morgan gave birth. An orca being born should be a happy event, but no one is celebrating, except perhaps those that will make money from exploiting this new little calf. Let’s explore why this not good news. In November 2011, a wild orca from Norway was shipped to…
Read MoreWill Carnival follow Thomas Cook and drop cruel dolphin ‘attractions’?
You may remember that at the end of June, WDC was invited to Miami to present to senior executives at the Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest cruise company. We used the opportunity to highlight the serious welfare concerns we have for the dolphins that are made to perform for cruise ship passengers in various ‘swim-with’…
Read More50 shades of grey – watching orcas in Scotland
Every year, people gather on cliff tops in the north of Scotland to watch out for orcas, some of whom come down from their winter herring-hunting grounds in Iceland on the look out for seals in the early Scottish summer. Run by the Sea Watch Foundation and supported by WDC, we call this event Orca…
Read MoreWhy Carnival needs to stop exploiting dolphins
Would you believe that more than 550 dolphins are held captive in 68 facilities across Mexico and the Caribbean? These dolphins are imprisoned primarily to amuse cruise ship passengers on ‘shore excursions’. Every day, hundreds of tourists disembark the cruise ships and pour into dolphin theme parks to hug, kiss and swim with the captive…
Read MoreOrca Watch Week: an update.
At the end of May WDC, its Shorewatch volunteers and our friends at the Sea Watch Foundation attended the annual Orca Watch week in Caithness, Scotland. Now in its 6th year the project was the idea of local legend and Sea Watch Coordinator, Colin Bird, who was keen to measure what effect the installation of underwater…
Read MoreCaithness Orca Watch week
WDC is once again participating in the annual Caithness Orca Watch week off the north coast of Scotland. Organised by the SeaWatch Foundation, the event is now in its 6th year and yesterday got off to a cracking start. Throughout the day there were hundreds of dedicated orca watchers up on the cliffs at Duncansby…
Read MoreWDC's tour operator campaign – an update.
Our advice has always been simple and has always been the same: PLEASE, DON’T BUY A TICKET to any marine park that holds whales and dolphins in captivity. An obvious target for our message in the UK is the travel industry; the hundreds of tour operators and travel agents who, through business partnerships with parks…
Read MoreShocking news on the UK's only resident pod of orcas
In the first few days of 2016 came the depressing news that a female orca had been found washed ashore dead on the Hebridean island of Tiree off the west coast of Scotland. She was identified as Lulu, a member of the dwindling West Coast Community orca pod. Her death must have been excruciating as…
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