Quick recap – Any given person (whether a policy maker, influencer, or anyone else for that matter) falls into one, and only one, of these six groups:

1. Active change makers advocating for the safety and freedom of cetaceans
2. Their supporters (donors, volunteers, spokespersons)
3. Those who, like those in the above two groups, are aware and informed, not necessarily supporters, but also not potential patrons of dolphin shows

Vs.

• The casually indifferent
• The cetacean captivity industry and various enabling industries

Sitting in the middle is by far the largest group, i.e.

• The rest of the general public.  Potential patrons, but also potential supporters for our side.  

There are the active change-makers [1].  The Ric O’Barrys and the Sea Shepherds.  The scientists, researchers, certain politicians, etc.  A small group of people relative to the entire population (though there are quite a few of us now).  Deep knowledge, well-informed, sometimes influential, and notably a large degree of consensus on many issues relating to the welfare of cetaceans, most of the time. 

The next groups are those who are relatively well-informed and have a significant degree of awareness, and know that captivity is cruel, shortens lives, and necessarily means the infliction of great harm on fellow, thinking beings. A great many of these people – supporters [2] – make donations, shop for merchandise at our stores, volunteer their time and – importantly – raise their voices on our behalf when the welfare of whales and dolphins is the topic of conversation.  

Others will not necessarily take these steps, preferring to use their resources elsewhere, but that’s fine too. The reason I say that is because this group represents a terribly important base for our cause.  While not actively supporting us, it is nevertheless the case that people in this group would never (or never again) consider purchasing a ticket to a dolphin show or swim-with-dolphins program.  Let’s simply call this group the aware and well-informed [3].     

At the opposite end of the spectrum is the group that profits directly from captivity.  The SeaWorlds, Lora Parques, and Marinelands.  The captivity industry [5].  It is also the drive hunters of Taiji, IMATA, and the owners of the ‘whale prison’ at Srednyaya Bay in Russia.   Their supporters, for the most part, ARE NOT from among the well-informed.  In truth, if group #3 grows too large, #5 is done.

Which brings us to the casually indifferent [4].  We know this group exists, though it pains me to admit it.  We’ve seen the video of vacationers in the Canary Islands  casually strolling by, apparently unconcerned by an orca’s obvious distress.  (Morgan, an orca mother, was grieving for a calf that had been taken away from her, to be socialized primarily by human trainers).  She was displaying behaviour that should indicate extraordinary anguish even to the most casual observer.  It did not appear to resonate with these particular passers-by.  Also, we know that there is a certain segment of our population which will worry more about its material comforts, and will choose to devote little attention to disturbing moral questions.  And, like anybody else, they can be tourists, travellers, people with disposable/discretionary income.  

This group of people may be the one with the greatest potential to do harm, but in the end I don’t believe there will be enough of them to matter.  I have more faith in my fellow humans that that.

Essentially, it is the relative sizes of groups [2] and [3] vs. group [4], which will largely determine the difficulty of our task in the years ahead.  Which brings us to our final grouping.

The vast majority of people in the world today don’t fit into any of the groups mentioned so far.  They are the members of the general public [6], going about their business, unaware of the injustices and extraordinary lack of compassion taking place behind the scenes.  I myself was one such person, not so many years ago.  These people have not yet been confronted with some pretty grim realities, and they purchase most of the tickets to the shows. This is our main “target demographic”, if you will.  This is where we, the activists and supporters, need to focus our attention.  Remember that to SeaWorld, these are potential patrons.  But to us these are potential supporters.  And if we at least succeed in taking them out of the seats at aquariums around the world, we will have done our jobs.  

It is the degree to which [6] moves one direction or the other as the general awareness level is raised, that will be the critical factor.  Again, my bet is that they move into [3] primarily, then [2], and least of all into [4].  I believe it will prove to be ‘least of all by far’.  We just need to raise the signal strength, and human nature will do the rest.

As time passes, we should have an increasingly clearer picture of the relative percentages – how many end up in one group or another.  Again, my belief, based on experience, is that a large majority will not remain indifferent to the knowledge that captivity means exploitation, and enormous suffering by a fellow sentient being.  I hope that I am proven right as the data comes in over time.   It will dictate how long we will have to remain in this fight.  One tremendous positive is that when it comes to younger demographics, it is far more likely that an increase in awareness results in a personal commitment to never buy a ticket.

The industry cannot sustain itself with well-informed supporters.  It is utterly dependent on the unwitting spending their money to be entertained, or perhaps hoping to learn something about an exotic and magnificent creature (as I did, fewer years ago than I care to think).  Knowledge (Blackfish, The Cove, Long Gone Wild) changes everything.  This is the most effective tool we have at our disposal.

Further – and this is really helpful – when a person crosses over from group [6] into one of groups [1],[2] or [3], they do not cross back.  This is essentially a hard barrier, through which traffic passes only one way.  

So we need to shrink the size of the pool of potential ticket-buyers, as quickly as possible!  We’ll look at some of the implications of this in my next post.

For The Orca’s Voice, 

Phil, and the CCA Team