I remember when I was 7 I went to Sea World, saw the show with Shamu and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Then when I was 13, I turned on the TV and the news reported that at the Ohio Sea World, one of the orcas had gone "crazy" and attacked its trained. The orca hadn't gone crazy, it had become sane again, resorting to its normal survival instincts. When I was 14 I first saw one lonely orca off the shore of North Carolina. It was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen in my entire life. I thought about how far away I was from it and how big it was and it seemed like the entire ocean wasn't enough space for this whale. When I was 16 I went to Alaska and saw a pod of orcas and determined that no whale should be kept in a tank for any reason other than science, and even then, a whale the size of an orca is pushing it. 

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) reports that, "The public should be aware that many facilities, especially in developing countries, capture their dolphins directly from the wild. Dolphins suffer terrible trauma and the animals left behind may never recover from the loss of these members of their community." -Naomi Rose Ph.D. 

Many of the facilities in North America and Europe have shut down but more and more open in the Caribbean and in Asia. In Japan, they have brutal drive fisheries. A drive fishery is when fishermen take out several small motorized boats to locate a pod of bottlenose dolphins, Risso's dolphins, or false killer whales. Once the fishermen locate a pod, they begin herding the animals toward shore, using the noise of the boats' engines and the banging of pipes underwater. There are some reports that they also use underwater explosives. The fishermen either drive the animals onto the shore or trap them in a bay. 

The way these animals are captured and treated is cruel. These creatures deserve respect and dignity and need space. Their natural habitat is huge for a reason, they need the space. Here are some of the report's main findings:

• Annual mortality rates for captive orcas are three times higher as for their wild counterparts. 
• Fewer than 5 to 10 percent of zoos and aquaria are involved in substantial conservation programs. Simply exhibiting wildlife is not considered conservation. (If you want to go to a great zoo that does a LOT of conservation work, go to the Brookfield Zoo right outside of Chicago, IL.)
• Dolphin sea pen enclosures in Asia and the Caribbean are considered to be at extreme risk from hurricanes and tsunamis. Their construction also degrades coastal habitat, destroying mangroves and damaging coral reefs. 
• Swim-with-the-dolphins attractions are proliferating throughout the Caribbean and Asia. These facilities are largely unregulated- even in the U.S., the swim-with regulations have been suspended since 1999- and most of the newest ones are being stocked with wild-caught dolphins from unstudied populations.
• Injuries in interactive encounters (whether swim-with attractions, petting pools or the like) occur far more frequently than officially reported. 

Try to help the dolphins and the whales. Visit www.hsus.org today and learn how you can make a difference.