This past year seems to have flown by, with the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute marking many milestones in our efforts to protect whales and dolphins and their ocean habitats.
Your support has been critical to the efforts we have undertaken, and we thank all of you who are active, signing petitions, passing along and re-posting our blogs and alerts, and generously giving donations to help dolphins and whales.
A few of our major accomplishments this past year:
Won a World Trade Organization ruling, after a ten-year effort, in favor of the strong US Dolphin Safe tuna label standards, which continues prohibiting Mexican tuna industry from trying to fool US consumers with a phony Dolphin Safe logo. The Mexican government has appealed the decision, so we will be at the WTO for a year or two more, but our victory is unlikely to be overturned.
For 27 years, our Dolphin Safe Tuna program now saves the lives of more than 80,000 dolphins annually and includes more than 800 tuna companies worldwide. Our Dolphin Safe standards for tuna include stopping fleets from harming sea turtles and finning sharks.
Produced a key online video refuting the false claims of SeaWorldabout the health and welfare of their captive orcas and continued to advocate for captive orca and dolphin retirement to seaside sanctuaries.
Working closely with the Whale Sanctuary Project, helped develop plans for a cold-water seaside sanctuary to retire captive orcas, belugas and other cold-water dolphin species currently held in small concrete pools and forced to entertain the public. Once completed, the facility will show the value of retiring orcas and dolphins from captivity to live out their lives in a more natural environment, without having to do tricks for their food.
Worked with Japan’s Fukushima Kids Dolphin Camp for child victims of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster to fund their field trip to experience and respect wild dolphins around dolphin-friendly Mikura Island.
Continued our lawsuit against SeaWorld to compel the corporation to tell the truth about how their orcas suffer in captivity, successfully stopping SeaWorld’s several motions to dismiss and entering the discovery phase.
Opposed efforts of Marine Stewardship Council to certify Mexican dolphin-deadly tuna as “sustainable”.
Initiated a campaign to stop Walmart from selling dolphin-deadly tuna from Mexico in their Costa Rican stores.
Led campaign to influence Japan to stop killing whales and dolphins as 2020 Tokyo Olympics approach, requesting International Olympics Committee to ban whale and dolphin products at the Tokyo Olympics.
Helped promote demonstration in San Francisco against Taiji’s dolphin slaughter and publicized other demonstrations against captivity.
