So what happens when a corporation which is synonymous with dolphin and whale captivity goes to Twitter to speak out against dolphin hunts happening in Taiji, Japan?
Well, the results are not what Sea World probably expected.
Head below the crashing orange wave for some karmic retribution and some bonus pics of dolphins and whales living in the wild, where they belong.
For those not familiar with the Taiji dolphin drives, they're annual drives by local fishermen in Taiji, Japan. The fishermen drive dolphins into a cove where they select several dolphins out of the pod and capture them so they can sell them to the aquarium industry. A few years ago there was a documentary on this called The Cove. The remaining dolphins are either slaughtered or released. The annual drives start September and go through February and over the course of that time several hundreds of dolphins are slaughtered while numerous others are captured and sold off. Last year Taiji got a bit of notoriety after a super pod of over 200 dolphins were herded into the cove and over the course of several agonizing days were either captured or killed. This pod included two very rare albino dolphins. The mother albino died while the baby albino, named Angel, was captured and eventually placed in a tank at the Taiji aquarium. Thanks to Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and several other notable celebrities as well as the Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians and the Dolphin Project the news got out into the MSM about the hunts and Angel in particular.
Several of the Taiji dolphins over the years have been sold off to various aquariums and parks around the world, including to Sea World. Each dolphin costs several hundred thousands of dollars depending on how trainable they are and how rare. This cost is added to the cost of transport, training, feeding and care. Yet despite the high price, Sea World and others continue to buy captured dolphins. If there was no market for these captured dolphins, there would be no hunts, as the money made off the sale of dolphin meat does not make enough of a profit to justify the cost of the hunts. Especially considering the health concerns associated with consumption of dolphin meat. So it was a bit ironic to see the corporation so associated with dolphin captivity, tweeting to speak out against the dolphin drives in Taiji, Japan. The responses speak for themselves.
BSerwithautism @carriewetty Sep 14
@SeaWorld more than you. #EmptyTheTanks
Tom Cureton @tom_cureton Sep 14
@EmptyThe_Tanks @SeaWorld they're hypocritical scum
Jo Lambert @Jo_RW_lambert Sep 14
@SeaWorld it's because marine parks pay for captive dolphins that makes the hunts profitable. No parks, no captive dolphins, no killing cove
Louise @MissBrightside9 Sep 14
.@SeaWorld - you are a joke - the drives started because of demand from marine parks - which you started - end the captivity, end the hunts.
sally twinkle @sallytwinkles Sep 14
@SeaWorld how hypocritical..... Where do your dolphins come from??? Texas Seaworld is planning to import a TAji Dolphin #HateSeaWorld
Louise @loubylou8 Sep 14
@MissBrightside9 @SeaWorld Encourage ppl to watch #TheCove, let them see how YOU are responsible for the dolphin drive hunts! #tweet4taiji
BlackfishGirl @BlackfishGirl Sep 15
@SeaWorld Loved #Blackfish?Watch Whale of a Business & find out how @Seaworld were involved in Japanese hunts https://www.youtube.com/... … #taiji
Blackfish BTW was another documentary on the orca Tilikum currently being held captive by Sea World Orlando.
Louise @MissBrightside9 Sep 15
.@SeaWorld Those wild caught beluga calves you are trying to import - how did they get captured? Did they volunteer and jump into the nets?
princess meggan ✌️ @Meggggan_ Sep 15
@SeaWorld Hypocritical, the hunts are only still viable because of an industry you helped create
Sea World is in full CYA mode and has been ever since the Documentary Blackfish has come out. You can see more for yourself on
Twitter as they try to distance themselves from something they're in part responsible for. The word is getting out and they're being hit where it hurts. Even their stock price has seen a sharp drop of over 40% since it's 52 week high and shareholders are now suing the company over losses related to Blackfish, claiming the company lied about the treatment of the animals at their parks and misled investors about the causes for decline in attendance. Sea World IS culpable for the slaughter in Taiji and no amount of tweets will erase their complicity.
Earlier today the first slaughters of the season were reported in Taiji. They're expected to go on for another five months.
If you feel as outraged as many do over the dolphin capture and slaughter you can head over to seashepherd.org or dolphinproject.org. Sea Shepherd has a live stream and daily updates on the happenings at the cove in Taiji.
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Now for some photos from Cape May, NJ this past weekend with Sea Shepherd Philadelphia. It was a beautiful Sunday for a dolphin and whale watch and we were not disappointed.
The dolphins greeted us as we sailed out and swam along our side for a while. Unfortunately, the humpback whale we spotted was a bit shier. If I find some photos of it I'll update.