Three decades on from UK’s last dolphin show, what needs to change?
The UK hasn’t had captive whales and dolphins on display for 30 years, but it’s not illegal in the UK to keep whales and dolphins in tanks, UK holidaymakers still visit dolphin shows when they are abroad, and UK tour operators still sell tickets. Where do we go from here? Exactly 30 years ago today,…
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Watching whales and dolphins in the wild can be life changing
Whales and dolphins are too intelligent, too large and too mobile to ever thrive in a tank. Like us, when they are confined and their choices are taken away, their mental health suffers. Our Dark Side Of Captivity campaign has been uncovering the disturbing truth behind the glamour of the whale and dolphin shows and…
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Real stories from the dark side of captivity
Since we launched our campaign, we’ve been talking a lot about what a dark place captivity is for whales and dolphins. But no matter how many social media posts you ‘like’, or even how many scientific papers you read, nothing brings it home more than witnessing the impact captivity has had on the mental health…
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Uncovering the dark side of captivity
Last week we launched our major new campaign to reveal and uncover the dark side of captivity, and call on tourism giant TUI, and the rest of the travel industry, to commit to an ethical phase out of captivity. There are two sides to captivity: the show that the audience enjoys, and the dark side:…
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Talking to TUI – will they stop supporting whale and dolphin captivity?
Last Thursday I travelled to Berlin for a long-anticipated meeting with TUI senior executives. I was there to hand over our petition, signed by more than 20,000 of you, and to address TUI’s ongoing promotion of captive whale and dolphin shows. I wasn’t entirely sure what reception I would get but was surprised by how…
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The whales and dolphins trapped in never-ending lockdown – hearing their stories
Every whale and dolphin in captivity is an individual with a life history and around 3,600 whales and dolphins are held in concrete tanks around the world. This means there are 3,600 stories to tell. While researching case studies for our Lockdown never ends campaign I remembered just how traumatic and cruel these stories can…
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