Marine conservation is an issue that affects everyone. Whether you live on the coast or are far from it, the oceans are essential to all life on Earth.
Thankfully, there are many individuals and organizations who are dedicated to protecting and preserving the ocean and everything in it.
From training dogs to track endangered species to fighting for the freedom of captive whales, here are some of the biggest newsmakers today:
Louie Psihoyos
Who he is
Executive Director of the Oceanic Preservation Society.
Why his name might sound familiar
He directed The Cove.
How he’s making waves
SeaWorld faced months of criticism and backlash following the release of Blackfish. In response, they placed full-page ads in newspapers across the United States defending their treatment of captive killer whales.
Louis Psihoyos didn’t take these ads lightly. He wrote an open letter to the marine park, stating the “truth is in the facts.” From the capturing of wild whales to the severing of family bonds, the letter presents a chilling picture of the true experience of captive whales.
Learn more:
Samuel Wasser
Who he is
Director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington.
Why his name might sound familiar
He’s a pioneer of non-invasive wildlife monitoring methods.
How he’s making waves
He uses dogs to track endangered species, including orcas in the Pacific Northwest. The dogs are specially trained to detect animal scat (feces). One dog in particular, named Tucker, can smell scat from orcas up to a mile away.
Once Wasser and his team have a scat sample from the whales, they extract DNA. From this, they can identify individual animals, gender, eating habits and important stress levels. They can also detect pregnancy data, all major chemical toxins from oil products, flame retardants, pesticides and industrial pollution.
Learn more:
Center for Conservation Biology
Ken Balcomb
Who he is
Executive Director / Principal Investigator at the Center for Whale Research.
Why his name might sound familiar
He’s a leading whale scientist and former naval officer who’s been campaigning to end sonar testing in marine mammal habitats, including right here in the Pacific Northwest.
How he’s making waves
On February 11, 2012, a bloodied and bruised orca carcass washed up just north of Long Beach, Washington. It was determined that the 12-foot-long whale had died of massive blunt force trauma.
The Royal Canadian Navy had been conducting sonar and explosives activity in the area days before the whale was discovered. Although they were cleared of any wrongdoing, Balcomb isn’t convinced. He’s sure the orca died from an explosion, most likely from these military testing activities.
He’s concerned about this type of activity and sonar in such a critical habitat, and is calling on the National Marine Fisheries Service to reopen its investigation.
Learn more:
Dr. Ingrid Visser
Who she is
Founder and Principal Scientist of Orca Research Trust.
Why her name might sound familiar
She was featured in the recent documentary, A Day in the Life of Lolita, the Performing Orca
How she’s making waves
Ingrid Visser is playing a crucial role in the fight to free Morgan, a young female orca who was taken from the wild in June 2012.
Morgan was found dramatically underweight, but otherwise not ill. She was “rescued” by a Dutch marine park on the condition that she be released back into the wild after rehabilitation. However, that did not happen. Morgan was instead kept at the park, where she was bullied, attacked, harassed and forced to perform.
Morgan is now at a Spanish marine park, but Visser and the Free Morgan Foundation are still fighting to reunite Morgan with her family in Norway.
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Brian Riddell
Who he is
President and CEO of the Pacific Salmon Foundation.
Why his name might sound familiar
As an internationally recognized fisheries scientist, Riddell is a sought-after speaker and is frequently contacted by news media for comment on salmon and water management issues.
How he’s making waves
Did you know that more than 130 species, including Southern Resident Killer Whales, depend on salmon for survival? Riddell, who has a doctorate in salmon biology and genetics, works alongside Pacific Salmon Foundation staff and volunteers to conserve and rebuild wild Pacific salmon populations in British Columbia and the Yukon Territory.
Learn more:
Howard Garrett
Who he is
Co-founder and Director of Orca Network.
Why his name might sound familiar
He launched the Lolita Campaign, a fight to return Lolita, the last survivor of the orcas captured from the Southern Resident community, from Miami to her home waters in Puget Sound.
How he’s making waves
Like Ken Balcomb, Garrett is questioning the inquiry into the killer whale carcass that washed up on the shores of Long Beach, Washington. He too believes the whale died from an explosion, and fears the results could lead to similar incidents in the future.
Learn more:
Patrick Ramage
Who he is
Whale Programme Director at the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
Why his name might sound familiar
Ramage has worked on international environmental issues for more than two decades and is a frequently quoted conservation advocate.
How he’s making waves
Ramage and his team recently released a 3-part YouTube series that follows Song of the Whale, a one-of-a-kind conservation research vessel custom built for IFAW. The videos give viewers an unforgettable inside look at the world-class whale research conducted by this great organization.
Learn more:
International Fund for Animal Welfare
John Calambokidis
Who he is
Senior Research Biologist and one of the founders of Cascadia Research, a non-profit organization that focuses on whale and dolphin populations along the west coast of North America and in Hawaii.
Why his name might sound familiar
His work has been covered by the Discovery Channel and has been featured in National Geographic TV specials.
How he’s making waves
Humans killed over 300,000 blue whales in the 20th century. Numbers have slowly recovered off the coast of California, but they are still a critically endangered species.
Calambokidis has been studying blue whales for over 20 years, and works tirelessly to protect their habitat. He’s particularly concerned about the effects of ship strikes on these gentle giants and conducts tagging studies to address this fatal issue.
Learn more:
Watch his blue whale conservation video
Christopher Porter
Who he is
A controversial dolphin trader and trainer who had a big change of heart.
Why his name might sound familiar
He trained Tilikum the whale when he was at Sealand in Victoria BC, and later became Vancouver Aquarium’s head trainer.
How he’s making waves
Between 2003 and 2009, Christopher Porter was the biggest dolphin exporter in the world. He ran a resort business in the Solomon Islands that was funded by the sale of dolphins, and sold more than 83 dolphins worldwide.
But in 2010, the drowning of SeaWorld Orlando trainer Dawn Brancheur shook him to the core. She was killed by Tilikum, the orca he trained in the ‘90s. And then, after watching The Cove, he quit the dolphin trade for good.
Porter is now the founder of Free-the-Pod, a campaign aiming to release captive dolphins back into the wild.
Learn more:
Ric O’Barry
Who he is:
Dolphin trainer-turned-marine activist.
Why his name might sound familiar
He was featured in The Cove. He also trained Flipper.
How he’s making waves
In the 1960s, O’Barry helped capture and train dolphins for the popular TV show, Flipper. But after watching Flipper take her own life and die in his arms, he decided to dedicate his life to saving porpoises and whales.
On March 28, 2014, O’Barry and other dolphin advocates from around the world are planning a huge demonstration at The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) headquarters in Switzerland. The demonstrators are demanding WAZA cut ties with the cruel dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan, and end the captive dolphin industry once and for all.
Alexandra Morton
Who she is
Canadian-American marine biologist and advocate for wild salmon.
Why her name might sound familiar
Her battles with the salmon farming industry have thrust her into the international spotlight.
How she’s making waves
Morton strongly believes that the invasion of foreign-owned, industrial-scale fish farms, with their exotic Atlantic salmon, have destabilized the British Columbia coast.
To fight back, she created Salmon Confidential, a documentary about the government cover-up of what is killing BC’s wild salmon. The film documents her journey as she attempts to overcome government and industry roadblocks thrown in her path and works to bring critical information to the public in time to save BC’s wild salmon.
Learn more:
Watch Salmon Confidential online
Paul Watson
Who he is
Founder of Sea Shepherd, an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization.
Why his name might sound familiar
Watson has been at the helm of Sea Shepherd for over 35 years, and starred on Animal Planet’s Whale Wars.
Why he’s making waves
Sea Shepherd operates four ships and conducts its operations worldwide, but some of their most recent successes have been in Guatemala. Together with officials from Guatemala’s Navy and Department of Fisheries, they’ve successfully halted several large-scale poaching operations in Guatemalan waters.
Learn more:
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