Brain size vs. structure as a measure of intelligence That homo sapiens should be more intelligent than tursiops truncatus (the common bottlenose dolphin) is not immediately obvious from this image. We’ve known for a long time that dolphins, with their very large brains, are indeed highly intelligent. But it’s not only size but also brain structure that suggests that this should be so. Size matters of course, but it isn’t everything. Bird’s brains are relatively small, yet some species demonstrate a surprising level intelligence. African gray parrots are easily among the smartest animals on Earth, for example. Sheep and sheepdogs...
Are those selected for a life in captivity the lucky ones?
Holding pens for captured dolphins, Taiji, Japan. At any given moment, hundreds who’ve had their freedom stolen await their sale to marine parks around the world. Photo Credit: LIA/Dolphin Project To a dolphin, captivity is a living hell. That they are somehow ‘luckier’ than those killed outright is debatable. Every year, hundreds of dolphins are unfortunate enough to find themselves trapped behind the netting in Taiji, Japan’s infamous cove. What happens next is largely dependent on which species they happen to be. Marine parks and aquariums around the world have a strong preference for one species in particular, that being...
Protecting our Polar Ice
If we continue to let the ice caps melt, rising sea levels may not be what threatens us most.Photo: National Geographic nationalgeographic.com We hear a lot about the effects of climate change on global sea levels. How much and how fast, what the impact on our coastal regions is likely to be, and so forth. Is the threat real? Yes, very much so. We should be concerned and act accordingly. But as is so often the case, the effects that most obviously come to mind don’t necessarily paint a complete picture. Rising seas are the result of two primary factors...
Doing What We Believe We Need to Do
For forty thousand generations, we’ve done what we believed we needed to do to ensure our own survival. It’s been said that a society has the ethics it can afford. That may be true in some sense, but we think that we need to be very careful about defining those things we deem as necessary, versus those we’ve always done and, at least at some level, simply wish to keep on doing. We’ve always done what we believed we needed to do to ensure our survival. Some of these we can be exceedingly grateful we’ll never have to do again,...
Seafood Traceability
Is it? The Earth Island Institute isn’t prepared to guarantee that no dolphins died for products bearing this label. Creating the illusion that we’re doing it right Poor seafood labeling laws can do a great deal of damage in that they create the illusion among the public that all is well. A destructive and entirely unaccountable fishing industry also welcomes the cover they provide. We need comprehensive, effective labeling laws and traceability. The issue largely centers around ‘bycatch’. Consider that at present non-target species captured by fishing vessels amount to 38 million tonnes per year. Most of this, dead or...
What Matters Most?
All of our fellow creatures deserve to be treated with respect, both those who look like us, and those who don’tPhoto Credit: Popular Science How do you decide which issue you should fight for? First off, you’ll probably know what it is when it feels like it’s chosen you, and not the other way around. If you’re like so many others who’ve come before you, at some point you’ll feel like you must do something about whatever it is that’s ignited a passion inside you. You may not have seen it coming,, but you’ll know when it’s arrived. Later, you...
Whaling vs Farming – Not the Same Thing
We can debate the injustices of factory farming all we like (and we should), but it doesn’t rise to the level of horror of this.Photo Credit: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Whaling’s supporters believe they’ve got an argument that’s a sure winner, with simple math making their case irrefutable. It invariably goes something like this. How can killing a few hundred whales and dolphins compare with the fact that we kill literally billions of animals every year to feed ourselves. The implication is that anyone who continues to eat meat is an obvious hypocrite. We can raise the obvious objections. The...
A Declaration of Cetacean Rights
The Helsinki Group – Speaking up for Cetaceans It’s time to give traction to a critically important initiative A few years ago, back in 2010, we finally got around to recognizing that perhaps we are not the only species deserving of legally recognized rights. A conference at the Collegium for Advanced Studies in the University of Helsinki, Finland, produced the world’s first Declaration on the Rights of Cetaceans. Since then, only one country – India – has granted personhood rights to dolphins. A few, including Canada, are flirting with the idea of awarding legal standing to a number of key...
Keeping a new brand of evil out of the world
These shy, solitary creatures will suffer tremendously if people are allowed to farm them. Photo Credit: National Geographic Our world has an nearly endless supply of stuff we know we’d be better off without. We brand many of them as ‘necessary evils’, because they’ve long served some other purpose. Such as feeding people. If in some sense we’ve come to rely on them, these unsavory and distasteful practiced can become firmly established. Getting rid of them might require significant new innovation, or perhaps our culture eventually evolves to the point that its continuation is completely unpalatable. These things take time....
Seeking Justice for Kiska
The tragedy of a life stolen, but we still have a chance to do the right thing I was saddened to hear the news of Kiska’s passing this week, but also a little relieved. Her life has been one marked with misery for many years – the last 12 of them completely alone. Her kind is highly intelligent and social, and for a being of this nature, the despair imposed by her situation must at times have felt unbearable. She was widely known as “the world’s loneliest orca”, and with good reason. She has not known the company of another...