Rocky (the survivor);
survived 20 or so years in captivity, before finding freedom in 1991, courtesy of the Morecambe Marineland Dolphin Campaign and the Into the Blue Campaign!
One of the most satisfying campaigns the author was ever privileged to have been involved with!
Freddy (the humorous rascal!);
A wild solitary dolphin that inter-acted with humans off the north-east coast of the UK from the late 1980s to March 1992. When he disappeared he left a trail of broken hearts; including the author's.
Duke (the beautiful);
A dolphin held captive at Marineland in Ontario, Canada. Duke was considered too marked or ugly by his captors to be a regular "star performer". Held in an indoor pool in a warehouse, when not in the show pool.
(Photo courtesy of Cara Sands)
Slaughter ... the body of a minke whale and her baby are dragged up onto the whaling ship Nisshin Maru.
February 2008 Japanese whaling in Antartica
"A nice day out for children in the Faroe Isles".
Hector and Maui dolphins - victims of net entanglement.
photo; Martin Gavet. Unnamed and unknown. One of the inestimable number of dolphins, killed in every ocean of the world by fishing nets
"When whales and dolphins cry for their dead, the oceans are filled with tears"
Photo by Izumi Ishii © ; a reformed dolphin killer, now leading whale and dolphin watching tours at Futo.
A dolphin killed at Futo in Japan in a government sanctioned 'drive fishery.' 'Drive fisheries' exist mainly to provide dolphins to the captivity industry in Japan. There are fifty shows in Japan and a wild dolphin sold into a life of slavery, fetches around £20,000 to fishermen.Those dolphins that aren't selected for purchase by industry personnel are processed into meat and fetch around £100 - 150 to fishermen.
This site is also dedicated to the memory of Betty, Lotty and Sharky, captive dolphins at Flamingo Land in the UK. To Maria, Mavis, Gary and Howard, captive dolphins at West Edmonton Mall in Canada.
All seven dolphins were captured in the 'same' sea area of Florida , at the 'same' young age, at roughly the 'same' time, in the mid 1980s. Sold and transported as slaves to "entertain" in the UK and Canada in front of the 'same' audiences, people who never questioned but merely applauded the 'same' tricks and 'same' animal humiliations, found in any animal circuses.
Cetacea Defence campaigned so very hard to give you back the life that was stolen from you. You were never to feel the ocean currents again, because your "owners" were brutes without compassion.
Allowing dolphins to suffer in captivity, because it makes money for a few should make us hold our collective heads in shame, even if a few have done their utmost to stop it.
AND dedicated to all dolphins and whales that have been victims of human greed and violence AND all the glorious human campaigners past and present who have tried to stop it.
AND finally what is a fantastic painting of the Tasmanian Wolf doing here?
The Wolf became extinct in 1936 and sadly the survival of certain species of whale and dolphin, hangs by a thread; the Vaquita; Indus river dolphin; Maui dolphin; Northern right whale and Blue whale to name just a few, of the critically threatened species in the order of Cetacea.
Trudi Clarke, the artist has agreed to put her talents to canvas and paint a cetacean in celebration of the historic Charter. We, at Cetacea Defence can hardly wait to see what she paints and eventually prints will be available to purchase. In the meantime if you would like to buy one of a limited edition of the Tasmanian Wolf, contact us and we'll put you in contact with Trudi. Look at the painting closely, it is a fine and haunting piece of work (and read the poem to the right of it too!)
The Charter cherishes a love of whales and dolphins and points us in an ethical direction, in relationship with them. We can, with the will, end or much reduce the real threats to them. We must not fail them, for in the past, we have failed to often with other species,like the Tasmanian wolf.
By creating awareness amongst people and their legislators. Cetacea Defence's hope is, the Charter will facilitate in creating laws and also facilitate in education, thus reducing and removing threats to cetaceans. We must not fail, for if we fail and allow species to disappear, what will future generations say of us, a world's treasure and heritage gone forever? Perhaps, how could they; why were they so stupid; what were they doing to allow it to happen.
If this site has inspired you, then take the message of the the whales and dolphins with you in your heart and voice, become an active campaigner for them and help them to live. Contact us.
Can you help in translating this Charter into other languages?
In promoting this Charter so begins the real work!
For the nations of the oceans
Alan Cooper
CETACEA DEFENCE October 2005
Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men for they may act their dream with open eyes and make it possible.
T.E.Lawrence