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Old 24-02-2010, 19:54   #16
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I love whales and respect them for what they are. Huge, beautiful, and highly intelligent creatures. They dont belong in tanks doing circus acts for human entertainment.
It has always amazed me that we can kayak with them and they dont decide to "play" with us. At least I have never heard of an incident.
A grey whale surfaced about 5' from me once and our eyes met for a couple of seconds. An experience I will never forget.
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Old 24-02-2010, 20:06   #17
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One of my favorite websites on this topic: Welcome to the Center for Whale Research

Enjoy!

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Old 24-02-2010, 21:44   #18
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Who knows what they are thinking, but if they really do have a reasonable degree of intelligence, their lives would be no different than putting a human in a tiny jail cell and then told to go do tricks if you want to eat. That type of environment would make any intelligent creature at least partially mentally ill and probably angry at their captors.
Does that sound that different from our lives as humans? Go to the office to work so that we can put money in the bank so we can pay our bills. cant even not pay taxes b/c the government takes them right out of our paycheck before we see them. I guess the main difference is that we have the illusion of free choice. The world is a harsh place. Animals in captivity live much longer than those in the wild. Is it right? Don't know. Is it anymore wrong than genocide, slavery, child abuse, etc?
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Old 24-02-2010, 23:28   #19
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Animals in captivity live much longer than those in the wild.
Not orcas. Their lifespans are reduced by about 1/3 compared to in the wild.

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Old 25-02-2010, 02:09   #20
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I strongly suggest you all watch The Cove - about the Japanese slaughter of dolphins and the relations with the show dolphin industry - The Cove Movie: Welcome. The campaign is spearheaded by the flipper coach..

Since orcas are not considered dangerous in the wild, they probably develop aggressions sitting in a little concrete tank or..?
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Old 25-02-2010, 03:08   #21
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On BBC tv last night was a docu about Luna, a young Orca who lived off Vancouver sound.

I dont often get tearfull but I was watching that last night.
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Old 25-02-2010, 03:37   #22
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I remember this episode from my career in the Navy. It was June 2001 and we were anchored somewhere off the Irish coast, carrying out life boat drills. We had a whole bunch of people swimming around in the water dressed in bright red survival suits. Suddenly the speakers came to life and the bridge called us all onto deck to watch the orca family. Only 15-20 metres from the bright red snack table there were three orcas. Two adults and a calf, or a youngster at least. They were hovering just watching the swimmers for a while before they left. I still kick myself for not having the camera ready.

I know they are highly intelligent creatures and if someone locked me up and made me perform tricks for food I'd sure be pissed as hell (see how I just compared myself to a highly intelligent creature). These animals could kill a person just by sneezing in his general direction. So why don't they? That's actually even more surprising than when they in fact DO hurt someone.

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Old 25-02-2010, 03:40   #23
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I stood outside Windsor safary park in the UK protesting at the inhumane manner that an orca was being kept,joe public was either unaware or to stupid to realise that a creature of that size should not be kept in a pool for the amusement of the public.The protest was sucessfull,the pool was closed down ,unfortunately the dolphins and the orca were simply sold to amusement parks in the USA.

The orca that killed the trainer has killed before,this was its 3rd time.

These magnificent animals should only be observed in the wild,they are not for human amusement in a fish tank no matter how large the tank is.
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Old 25-02-2010, 04:11   #24
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I went whale watching(chasing) once in Newfoundland.Felt guilty for harassing them.Won't go again.

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Old 25-02-2010, 04:24   #25
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I went to the whale watching place in north west Nova Scotia and saw a pod of Pilot whales. At Peggys cove I saw some blue whale vertibrae and they were as big as 50 gall oil barrels.
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Old 25-02-2010, 04:43   #26
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WE had an Orca swimming around us circleing and once even came between the 2 hulls-as we sailed across the Bay of Biscay, I stood on the bow and relized if he wanted to, he could just grab me for a snack, so I got back in the cockpit that lasted about 10 min.
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Old 25-02-2010, 05:00   #27
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While it does seem inhumane to corral an Orca in a large pool for money. I doubt it is all about profit as other have suggested. The education and awareness of a great, great number of people who will never set foot on a boat goes a long way in helping Orcas in the wild. The catch 22 is that if we ban and never support places like this is that we in turn reduce the awareness and funding for what we seek to protect.
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Old 25-02-2010, 05:47   #28
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I'm not endorsing captured whales but we have learned a lot about these creatures while in captivity. Like chimps when they reach a certain age they probably become more aggressive and should be released or relocated. A change of environment will even pep up my dog.

But the loss of one life in such a long while is nothing compared to the deaths with horses, dogs, elephants, camels, limas and other livestock.

We as humans have domain over the animals and should recognize when something is going wrong, especially with such large creatures. Maybe someone did but for the $$$ refused to deal with it.

Just don't forget to remove the electrodes from their brain before releasing them back into the wild!
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Old 25-02-2010, 05:58   #29
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I know they are highly intelligent creatures and if someone locked me up and made me perform tricks for food I'd sure be pissed as hell
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My boss does this daily, and it truly pisses me off.
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Old 25-02-2010, 06:23   #30
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While it does seem inhumane to corral an Orca in a large pool for money. I doubt it is all about profit as other have suggested. The education and awareness of a great, great number of people who will never set foot on a boat goes a long way in helping Orcas in the wild. The catch 22 is that if we ban and never support places like this is that we in turn reduce the awareness and funding for what we seek to protect.
I was going to post something similar.

Locally we have "Durrell". World Famous - apparently, so requires no further description

In recent years they have been complaining of a lack of support for their (very worthy, I am sure) work with endangered species.......and due to lack of support translating into less cash have recently been laying folk off.

Apart from the marketplace having changed locally (not so many tourists) and worldwide with "Durell" not being so unique in operation, they compounded their mistake of being overly worthy in choice of endangered species by also rebranding to simply "Durrell" (in recognition of the Founder Gerald Durrell, one of the early (50's / 60's) conservationists and a widely published author on the subject).

For those who have read so far and are still confused as to what "Durrell" is............it used to be called "Jersey Zoo", albeit it was always about breeding and reintroducing endangered species to the wild, plus education of the public. Back in the 60's quite a novel concept.

When I was a kid they had Lions , some Otters (??) in a glass tank that would follow your finger on the glass. and some talking Parrots and cool stuff like that. Last time I was up their they had moved heavily into reptiles and nocturnal stuff. Lions & Otters long gone

Whilst my experiance as a kid may not have got me fully into the Chimpanzees should have the Vote camp , nonetheless I haven't shot anything large and cool looking So the conservation message was getting accross - but to get folk their in the first place (and then spending money) yer do need to give folks something interesting as well as "worthy".


My bet is that Tarzan and PG Tips have done as much for the conservation of Chimps as any other organisation ..........dancing Orcas and Dolphins perhaps done the same for their wild relatives?
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