We are the Canadian Cetacean Alliance

Welcome to our readers!  We are the CCA.

If you’re here, and if raising the profile of issues that impact the welfare and wellbeing of whales and dolphins matters to you, you are one of us.  If you want to grow your knowledge of these issues, and to join in the conversation, consider yourself a member of the alliance!  We are based in Canada, but we are a diverse group of people, from anywhere and everywhere.  We are a voice for the magnificent, incredible beings with whom we share this beautiful planet.

This blog, and indeed our entire organization, is really about two things.  Compassion.  And Justice.  We believe that cetaceans are extraordinary creatures – for their social intelligence, their cognitive skills, and their ability to experience the world in complex terms we humans would recognize as familiar.  They are worthy of all the admiration and respect we are capable of giving them.  When we open our eyes (and our hearts) to the whale’s or dolphin’s experience, and when we listen to what our own science tells us about them, we can only conclude that they have a right to live safe from interference from us, and with the liberty to determine the course of their own lives.  Our moral frontier must extend sufficiently to include them.

How we get there is not going to be something we’ll always agree upon.  Strategy, tactics, indeed how much patience and understanding, vs. how much anger and vitriol is appropriate to insert into our discourse – these things will often be contentious.  But from CCA’s perspective, there are a small number of guidelines we’d like you to live by.  Be respectful.  Ask yourself what it is that you don’t know, and what any given exchange might be able to teach you.  Be prepared to be surprised at the source of some of the things you’re going to learn. 

Be inclusive, 100%.  Anyone willing to engage on these same terms deserves to be heard.  But at the same time, insist on these same considerations from the people you engage with.  Your time is too valuable, and there is much that we need to get done to raise awareness on a global level.

We do not endorse any particular political party or ideology, though it’s certainly true that individual politicians, of various parties, sometimes earn a loud shout-out or praise from us.  

We will frequently endorse an opinion, a policy or a program of other organizations working for the welfare of whales and dolphins, but we do not grant our unreserved backing to anyone.  We’ll let those organizations speak for themselves.  Including the really good ones (of which there are, fortunately, quite a few).

CCA’s purpose is to raise the profile of issues that impact whales and dolphins – using dialogue and co-operative ventures with others to help nurture an increasingly aware and well informed public that demands fair and compassionate treatment of other sentient species.  To use an example to highlight our approach to this, note that we do not denigrate the patrons of dolphin shows or swim-with-dolphin events.  It is our belief that such patronage is due to a lack of awareness of the awful realities underlying the captivity industry.  People seek an experience with animals they intuitively know to be special in some way.  The large majority of them would not be indifferent to the suffering experienced by captive cetaceans.  

Our antagonism towards those who profit from what can only be characterized as exploitation, and the infliction of enormous harm on fellow sentient beings, is of course another matter.  Our position is that it is appropriate to direct our harshest  criticism towards the captivity industry, and their sophisticated PR teams, who deceive and mislead the public in order to sustain their activities.  And this applies to anyone prepared to profit from the hunting of cetaceans, be it legal commercial hunts or an illegal one.

It is your voice that is going to create change.  Your knowledge and understanding, and your ability to articulate the facts.  If you’re reading this, and you care about the welfare of whales and dolphins, consider yourself a part of CCA.  Your opinion matters and needs to be heard.  

The CCA Team