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© Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute, taken under NOAA permit #26919. Funded by United States Army Corps of Engineers

Birth announcement! First right whale calf of the 2024 calving season spotted

November 29, 2023 - On November 28th, researchers from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute...
© Peter Flood

Two New England-based nonprofits awarded nearly $400k federal grant

© Peter Flood November 20, 2023 - Contact: Jake O'Neill, Conservation Law Foundation, (617) 850-1709,...
Right whale - Regina WDC

North Atlantic right whale population has stabilized

WDC attends Ropeless Consortium and North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium WDC was in Canada this...
Moana, Marineland France

Orca Moana dies suddenly at Marineland

Twelve-year old orca, Moana has died suddenly at the Marineland Antibes theme park facility in...

Step in the right direction for Black Sea dolphins

Our team has recently returned from the latest Conference (large meeting) of Parties (member countries) to CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species which ended earlier this month in Johannesburg. The largest one ever, the meeting heralded increased protection from trade for several sharks species, pangolins (the only mammal with scales!), parrots and macaques. It also sought to address the continued trade in wild-caught bottlenose dolphins from the Black Sea. At the meeting, Ukraine proposed that a DNA database of all the Black Sea bottlenose dolphins in captivity should be established, which traders would have to use to prove an individual was born in captivity and not captured from the wild. Commercial trade is prohibited in wild-caught Black Sea bottlenose dolphins.

While there was significant support for the proposal from the countries attending the meeting, it was only a revised version that was adopted at the meeting and it does not now go as far as we had hoped. Primarily, instead of the establishment of an international CITES-wide database, it encourages the development of databases on a national or regional basis, which would then report to CITES, therefore lacking the international support that this initiative may need. Nevertheless, we remain hopeful that this is still a step in the right direction to ending the trade in wild-caught dolphins and committed to helping end the commercial trade in Black Sea and all dolphins targeted for a life in captivity.