Stop tour operators supporting whale and dolphin captivity
What's the problem?
Every year, hundreds of thousands of tourists visit facilities holding whales and dolphins in captivity. These facilities range from glitzy theme parks to seaside pools offering the chance to kiss, touch and swim with dolphins. The standard of welfare varies from location to location but the scientific evidence is conclusive. Keeping whales and dolphins in captivity is cruel.
One of our long-term goals is to persuade the travel industry to stop promoting these 'attractions' to their customers.
What change do we want to see?
We need all UK tour operators, airlines and cruise companies to stop selling trips to 'attractions' featuring captive whales or dolphins.
Together we need to:
- Stop holiday companies promoting SeaWorld and other places holding whales and dolphins captive to 'entertain' humans.
- Persuade tour operators and cruise companies to stop offering their customers trips to swim with captive dolphins.
- Ensure travel industry authorities like ABTA hold their members to account and make sure they adhere to guidelines and stop promoting whale and dolphin captivity.
The story so far
We've targeted some of the biggest players in the travel industry and are making progress.
We are calling on Carnival, the world's biggest cruise company, to stop selling 'shore excursions' to swim with captive dolphins. We presented a petition to Carnival when we met with senior executives to discuss our campaign.
We are talking to Thomas Cook as they audit all the whale and dolphin 'attractions' on their books. They are the first UK holiday company to drop facilities for failing to meet welfare standards. We believe it's important to work with the travel industry.
British Airways refuses to listen to us and 304,996 people who signed our petition asking them to stop selling tickets to SeaWorld. We presented them with scientific evidence that orcas are not suited to captivity but they chose to ignore it...and you!
We asked Richard Branson to stop Virgin Holidays selling trips to SeaWorld and our campaign went viral. Sir Richard listened and days later instructed Virgin Holidays to stop sending customers to theme parks that take whales and dolphins from the wild.
Follow our latest campaign
We're asking Carnival to stop exploiting dolphins
Dolphins should not be held captive to be kissed by tourists every day. Dolphins should be free to live with their families making their own choices about how they spend their days.
Carnival is the largest cruise operator in the world. It owns big names like P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Cunard and others. You may have signed our petition asking Carnival to end its support for these cruel 'attractions'. We presented this petition to senior Carnival executives at a meeting at their headquarters in Miami. This was a great opportunity to provide them with information about how swim-with-dolphins facilities are bad for the dolphins held captive and forced to interact with tourists, as well as for the environment and the wild dolphin populations left behind. We also talked with them about sanctuaries as the long term solution for the captivity industry and asked for their support.
We're not going to win this one overnight and our approach is one of evolution, rather than revolution. With your support, we will continue our dialogue with them.
If Carnival takes a stand, others may follow. So we've asked Carnival to show us they're the leader they claim to be. It's time to stop profiting from dolphin exploitation.
Ending the demand: we've achieved a lot together
Virgin Holidays agreed to stop selling holidays to marine parks that take whales or dolphin from the wild.
Thomas Cook has dropped 'attractions' that don’t meet minimum welfare standards.
TripAdvisor will no longer sell tickets to facilities offering contact with captive, wild or endangered whales or dolphins.