Dr. Jane Goodall In a letter to the French Government on February 29th, 2024, Dr. Jane Goodall strongly endorsed the Whale Sanctuary Project’s proposal for the retirement and relocation of the orcas Wikie, Inouk and Keijo from Marineland Antibes, a marine theme park in the south of France, to the sanctuary we are establishing in Nova Scotia. The death of Inouk, just a month later on March 28th, only underscores the urgency of transferring Wikie and Keijo to the sanctuary. Since the beginning of this year, the Whale Sanctuary Project has been in discussion with the French government about the ..read more

Once again, we must note the premature passing of an orca at a marine entertainment park: today it is Inouk at Marineland Antibes. We heard, this morning, that Inouk, one of the three surviving orcas at Marineland Antibes, has passed away. Our hearts and our thoughts go out to his sister Wikie and to his nephew Keijo. They are a family that has already suffered greatly in captivity, and today they can only be in ever-deeper distress. Inouk was born at Marineland Antibes in February 1999. His mother, Sharkane, and his father, Kim 2, had been captured in Icelandic waters. Both of his parents die ..read more

Update, March 28, 2024: We have heard this morning from people in Antibes that Inouk has died in his tank at Marineland Antibes. Our hearts and thoughts go out to his sister Wikie and to his nephew Keijo. They are, once again, a family in ever-deeper distress. In response to the urgent need of three orcas held in Marineland Antibes, a French marine entertainment park, the Whale Sanctuary Project has developed an accelerated plan that would bring the whales to the sanctuary we are establishing in Nova Scotia in early 2025. The three whales Wikie, Inouk & Keijo are a genetic family – a mothe ..read more

By Dr. Lori Marino Last week, the world lost a visionary advocate for the animals. Steven M. Wise, the founder of the Nonhuman Rights Project, was a groundbreaking legal scholar whose historic cases on behalf of captive chimpanzees and elephants have changed the face of legal advocacy. Steve’s work gained worldwide attention in 2013 when he filed a series of first-ever lawsuits on behalf of nonhuman animals (in this case captive chimpanzees), arguing that as cognitively complex, autonomous beings, they should be recognized as “legal persons” with the fundamental right to bodily liberty. Thanks ..read more

The Strengthening Welfare in Marine Settings (SWIMS) Act would end the future capture and breeding of whales for public display. In a significant move toward marine conservation and animal welfare, the SWIMS Act has been reintroduced to the United States Congress by Representatives Adam Schiff, Ron Wyden, Jared Huffman and Suzan DelBene. This legislation aims to put an end to the future capture and breeding of whales for public display. Over the last 15 years, public opinion has changed considerably regarding keeping whales in concrete tanks for the purposes of entertainment. The reintroductio ..read more

A fully cooperative effort among staff and management of all parties is key to a successful outcome for Inouk, Wikie and Keijo. A joint press release to French media from One Voice and the Whale Sanctuary Project, February 1st, 2024. The French animal defender organization One Voice and the Whale Sanctuary Project, a U.S. non-profit organization, have agreed to work together toward Inouk, Wikie and Keijo, the three orcas at Marineland Antibes, being retired from commercial display and transferred to a coastal sanctuary in Nova Scotia, Canada. The agreement comes in the wake of the judicial cou ..read more

It is just three weeks since we posted a story about the contrasting lives and circumstances of two newborn orca calves. One was born to Naya, an orca confined to a tank at the Moskvarium in Russia; the other (J-60) was born in the wild to a mother who, according to the Center for Whale Research, is most likely to be J-42 or J-46. The J pod is an extended family group of 25 whales who live and travel together off the coast of Washington State as part of a yet larger community known as the Southern Resident Orcas. Three days ago, we heard that Naya’s calf had died at the Moskvarium, and now it ..read more

In April 2019, reports began circulating about a solitary beluga whale who had shown up off the coast of Norway and was frequently approaching fishing boats. He was wearing a leather harness with a camera mount and with the words “Equipment St. Petersburg” on the buckle. So, it seemed likely that the whale was a military conscript from the Russian navy who had somehow gone AWOL. (To this day, the Russian military has never commented.) Photo of Hvaldimir with his harness by Jorgen Ree Wiig, Sea Surveillance Service When one of the fishermen got into the water, the 14-foot, 2,700-pound whale a ..read more

“It’s a boy!” newspapers on the West Coast exclaimed when photos from biologist Maya Sears, taken in the Salish Sea, off the coast of Seattle, showed a baby orca, no more than two or three days old and still carrying around his umbilical cord. Officially designated J-60, the newest member of the J pod of the Southern Resident orcas will soon receive a proper name courtesy of the Whale Museum on San Juan Island, which gathers votes from the local whale lovers. Photo of J-60 by Maya Sears under NMFS Permit 27052 Scientists are celebrating the news of the birth cautiously: Many baby orcas do no ..read more

This week, we received the sad news that David Reuben, one of our most generous and committed supporters, has passed away after a long illness. David was a dedicated animal advocate who supported many efforts. He was passionate about elephants and was a longtime supporter of the Performing Animals Welfare Society and the executive producer of the beautiful 2012 documentary How I Became an Elephant about the ongoing movement to save Asian elephants. He gave a better life to donkeys in India and to dogs in rural North Carolina through his gifts to PETA. He championed the cause of animals in biom ..read more