Program Term Archive
Marine Wildlife
ORCA Act Reintroduced
Marine WildlifeRepresentative Adam Schiff (D-CA) reintroduced the Orca Responsibility and Care Advancement (ORCA) Act (HR 1584), in March 2017. The original bill—introduced in November 2015—was quite simple: It would have amended the...
A Plastic Ocean
Marine WildlifeA beached Bryde’s whale writhes in distress, then slowly grows still. It is death by plastic: The whale’s stomach is tightly packed with bags and other plastic debris that must...
Other Minds
Marine WildlifeIn this compelling work, distinguished philosopher of science and scuba diver Peter Godfrey-Smith writes of his experiences studying the minds of cephalopods, particularly octopuses and cuttlefish, and the minds of...
AWI Calls for Mexican Shrimp Boycott on Behalf of Vaquita
Marine WildlifeMexico implemented a two-year ban on gillnets in April 2015 throughout the Upper Gulf of California to reduce vaquita deaths. Despite this, three of the tiny porpoises were found dead...
Cownose Rays Get Reprieve
Marine WildlifeMaryland has placed a two-year moratorium on killing contests targeting cownose rays. The new law also directs the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to create a fishery management plan for...
Iceland Ices Fin Whaling Another Year
Marine WildlifeFor the second year in a row, Kristján Loftsson, CEO of the Icelandic whaling company Hvalur, stated that there will likely be no commercial fin whale hunt this summer. For...
Russia-China Orca Trade Expands
Marine WildlifeIn 2012, the animal protection community was shocked to learn that an orca (later named Narnia) had been captured in the Sea of Okhotsk, Russia. This was a huge step...
St. Lucia to Decide on Dolphinarium
Marine WildlifeIn the early 2000s, every time animal advocates turned around, it seemed there was a new proposal for a dolphinarium in the Caribbean. We fought every one—some were halted; others...
Virgin Holidays Takes Another Step Forward
Marine WildlifeIn 2014, AWI was invited by Virgin Holidays—one of the world’s biggest tourism companies—to take part in a stakeholder process through which Virgin intended to fine tune its policy on...
WTO Rules Against Dolphin-Safe Tuna Label (Again)
Marine WildlifeOn April 25, a World Trade Organization arbitrator ruled that Mexico can pursue retaliatory measures against the United States for the $163 million a year Mexico claims to lose because...