#ban baby belugas 2k24

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Five critically endangered northern right whales dead from boat strikes and netting entanglements, and representatives are introducing a bill to Congress to… ban aquarium belugas from breeding.

#ban baby belugas 2k24 #and orcas and… pilot whales and false killer whales? #which aren’t even bred!? #species are going extinct before our eyes but sure let’s attack the organizations actually doing real conservation work #this is the swims act again… it was shot down in 2022 and they’re trying to bring it back #gonna monitor this and draft some letters if necessary #swims act #northern right whale #belugas #whales #conservation

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Hey! I’ve seen some people I follow on insta spreading a post about how to get the SWIMS act passed so naturally I had to go and rant on my stories about it lol. I’m trying to find pro-cap studies and articles about cetacean captivity, but no matter what I type into google it just feeds me PETA bull shit. Do you have any good studies or articles you know of that I could share?

I always recommend the Cetacean Welfare Study (which is actually a collection of studies) as a starting place. It mainly focuses on bottlenose dolphins, since they’re obviously the most well-represented in aquaria, but includes belugas and Pacific white-sided dolphins as well. The SWIMS Act doesn’t target bottlenose or lags (in this iteration at least), so only belugas would really be affected by it.

SeaWorld is the only facility that still has orcas, and they already ended their own breeding program, and pilot whales and pseudorcas are not bred (in fact, there aren’t any pseudorcas left in North American aquariums). So the bill is just… stupid. Performative. It does absolutely nothing to address the issues actually impacting whales in the wild. But it does interfere with the efforts of accredited aquariums like Mystic, Georgia, and Shedd to provide research that will aid endangered wild beluga populations.

Several versions of the bill have already been shot down, and the last time it was presented, the AZA president stated that “opposition will be broad and strong to this SWIMS Act.” I don’t anticipate the act getting much further than it did last time, but I’m going to keep an eye on it.

#I’m tempted to stay just take belugas off and let them have their orca breeding ban #it’ll be worthless and wild whales will still die in fishing gear #but they’ll feel like heroes #swims act #zoos #aquariums #animal welfare #cetaceans #marine mammals #ban baby belugas 2k24 #answered asks #saltair-and-palemoonlight