Seaworld's Collaboration in the Wild Caught Industry, leading right back to Taiji.

Although Seaworld recently condemned the Taiji drive hunt, they still have an involvement with the hunts and Aquariums that fund the hunts.What did Seaworld spokesman Fred Jacobs have to say about their involvement? SeaWorld did not stop purchasing dolphins from Drives in Japan on moral or ethical grounds. Spokesman Fred Jacobs: 'We stopped [buying] and have not resumed, not because we are ashamed, but it was not something that we cared to be involved with any more.' And the reason they say they cannot condemn other parks "We do not want to be accused of being disingenuous," Jacobs explained. "If we go to an aquarium in China and say 'You guys should not be involved,' the first thing out of their mouths will be, 'Well, you did it,' and we cannot argue that point." See full interview here

Further evidence is below On August 27, 2012, SeaWorld LLC quietly applied for a permit to import the 6-year-old Pacific White-sided dolphin named Kirara for public display at SeaWorld San Antonio. Kirara was born on May 3rd, 2006 in Kamogawa Seaworld in Japan. HERE

Last year SeaWorld San Diego took a Pilot whale named Argo from the same park. The animal stranded itself in January 2004 he was however not a drive hunt cetacean. Argo was, according to local news agencies, transported by a FedEx plane. The Pilot whale transport took a horrendous 20 hours from pool to pool. The estimated time for Kirara is 22 hours. Argo in that blue container for 20 hours

John Hall PhD., former marine biologist at SeaWorld in the documentary, Fall from Freedom ' Starting in the early 80s SeaWorld, which had developed a business relationship, and a professional relationship with the Kamogawa Seaworld in Japan, had learned that it might be possible to enter into a business arrangement with the Iki Island fishermen who had largely phased out the drive fisheries because of the negative worldwide publicity in the late 70s, to start selectively driving dolphins including False killer whales into shallow water where SeaWorld, and other oceanaria including Marine World, could select the beautiful few...and then allow the fishermen to slaughter the remaining whales. SeaWorld obtained permits from the fishery service to import 6 False Killer whales in the late 1980s. They sent a capture team to Iki Island, Japan and caught 12 False Killer whales.' 6 came to the US and 6 were stored in Kamogawa later to be transferred to Harderwijk in exchange for Gudrun. Although Brad Andrews denied any knowledge of this transaction, board passes for Brad Andrews, Jim Antrim, Lanny Cornell and Jim McBain and also a cost summary shows the same again. When PBS interviewed Brad Andrews and Jim McBain, they denied all knowledge of the deal, bare faced lying to the reporter. The transcript can be seen here

SeaWorld is an example for the greedy everywhere showing that money can be made from exploiting marine mammals. Through business relations and strategic investments, they encourage and help fund foreign parks to do the same. In the summer of 2011 for instance, SeaWorld bought sperm from Kshamenk, prisoner in the Argentinean theme park Mundo Marino. The money SeaWorld paid Mundo Marino will no doubt help keep that park afloat, ensuring Kshamenk's continuous illegal enslavement.

SeaWorld Orlando supplied Ocean Park in Hong Kong, China with California sea lions and Harbor seals. Ocean Park HK buys dolphins from Taiji ''Fourteen sea lions, eight harbor seals and one grey seal will make their new home at Pacific Pier. Most of the California sea lions and all of the harbor seals arrived from Sea World in Florida in the United States last summer, while four of the sea lions were born at Ocean Park. The Florida-born animals were transported to Hong Kong by Cathay Pacific.'' Full announcement here

The US Marine Mammal Inventory Report (MMIR) records the Miami Seaquarium, Sea Life Park Hawaii, Indianapolis Zoo, Sea World Inc. and the US Navy as having imported live cetaceans from Japan in the past. In 1993, Six Flags (then Marine World Africa USA) applied for a permit to import 4 False Killer whales from the slaughter on Iki Island. The park justified their application by saying that the purchase of the dolphins was a 'humane act that saved four animals from certain death,' an excuse used by SeaWorld in the past and recently by Ocean Adventure Park in the Philippines. Some came from the drive fishery in Japan where they were literally hours away from being slaughtered.' The Marine World Africa USA permit was denied because of the link to the slaughter and no new permit for wild captured animals was filed until 2012's Georgia Aquarium application for 18 Russian Belugas.

Georgia Aquarium made clear that there is still no objection on the part of US marine parks to rob the wild of cetaceans, when they requested permission to import 18 Belugas from Russia. The cetaceans were captured from Russia's Sea of Okhotsk between 2006 and 2011 and are currently living in pens at the Utrish Marine Mammal Research Station on Russia's Black Sea Coast. Some of the belugas were destined for display at Georgia Aquarium's partner facilities on breeding loans, including SeaWorld of Florida, SeaWorld of Texas, SeaWorld of California and Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

As you can see here from the revised transport plan given to NOAA, those Belugas were going no where near Georgia Aquarium and were being flown directly into Seaworld parks.

The permit was denied, but Georgia Aquarium is fighting the decision in court. The Belugas remain in floating cages, waiting to see if Georgia Aquarium win their appeal As if more proof is needed of the interconnectedness of the slave trade in dolphins and other cetaceans, two Russian Belugas suddenly showed up in Taiji in February last year.

They were part of an exchange with four Taiji caught Bottlenose dolphins. Vladimir Putin welcomes the Taiji Dolphins

We all know about Narnia and Nord the wild caught Russian orcas, and Yulia Frolova said ''orcas have already started learning the tricks of eight under the guidance of coaches. - The program is currently being developed,'' - she said. - ''Will jumping, cascades, perhaps using some props. With animals have Russian coaches, and they are consulted in the American company SeaWorld, which has in this matter considerable experience.'' See here

Dolphinarium Harderwijk is the Dutch park that refused to release the semi-stranded Orca Morgan back to the wild, but in stead trafficked her to the Canary Islands. Harderwijk and Loro Parque decided to use ULS Airlines Cargo for this purpose. ULS Airlines has a history in the dolphin slave trade. They are based in Istanbul, Turkey and have shipped wild-caught dolphins out of Taiji in 2010 and the Solomon Islands in 2009. The other Orcas at Loro Parque are owned by SeaWorld. Brad Andrews, Executive VP for Zoological Operations at SeaWorld, was present when Morgan arrived. Morgan is now listed on Seaworld's animal inventory. The court said she would go to Loro Parque it said nothing of her belonging to Seaworld.

As for Seaworld today , we saw Fred Jacobs statement at the beginning, and to date they have never published a petition, any awareness or anything what so ever to do with the Taiji drive hunt, nor has any of their fan site. They deny any involvement in any of the Taiji drives, but that is purely because their Taiji dolphins are now dead. They do however STILL have dolphins caught from Mexican waters that were caught like this and other cetaceans they took from our oceans

Wild dolphin being caught and trained for captivity.

click to play video

Bottlenose dolphins, Gracie, Crunch, Cometta, Kohole, Cascade Stranded and kept - Toby

Commersons dolphins Juan and Betsy Pilot whales, Bubbles and 9lives and Argo was a strand Belugas Ferdinand and Allua Killer whale Corky 2, Kasatka and Ulises Dead in the tanks majority of which were wild caught or babies 2 amazon river dolphins 73 bottlenose have died, 22 commersons have died, 16 common dolphins have died, 6 Taiji false killer whales died, 21 false killer whales have died, 2 Rissos have died, 23 white sided have died 18 Belugas have died 18 killer whales have died Discovery Cove Bottlenose dolphins Cindy, Capricorn, Lester, Dixie, Akai, Jenny, 14 dolphins have died Seaworld Orlando Bottlenose - Lily Pilot whales - Fredi, Piper, Ace, Ava - stranded and kept Killer whales Katina and Tilikum 99 dolphins and small whales died, 16 pilot whales died, 16 pygmy sperm whales have died, 3 Belugas have died, 14 orcas have died Seaworld San Antonio Bottlenose dolphins Notchfin, Punta, Kai, Gilly, Patty, Alice, Donley stranded and kept Whitesided dolphin Betty Belugas Natasha, Crissy, Martha, Imaq 12 orcas have died, 18 Belugas have died, 22 bottlenose have died, 6 whitesided have died the majority SeaWorld is not the only place not keeping their distance from those associating with the drive hunt. The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums' (WAZA) very own statement reads: 'WAZA has worked with the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA) and the Port of Nagoya Aquarium, to establish a new, transitional approach to the capture of dolphins as part of a tradition of Japanese inshore fishery. At this time it has been officially confirmed that during September dolphins will be collected for aquaria, the only species taken will be the Bottlenose dolphin, and the method employed will be 'herding'. No dolphins will be taken for human consumption during September, and all surplus animals will be released.' No matter what their rationalization is, WAZA is supporting the wild capture of dolphins in Taiji

During September 2014

16th Risso's dolphins were caught and killed 17th Risso's dolphins were caught, 4 killed 4 babies dumped at sea 18th Risso's dolphins 10 caught 10 killed 20th Rissos 1 taken for captivity, rest slaughtered 26th to the 28th pilot whales were in the cove. 2 taken captive, 12 driven back out 11 slaughtered.

WAZA's statement and agreement with the Taiji fishermen means absolutely NOTHING

The International Marine Animal Trainer's Association (IMATA) cozied up further with Taiji in its latest drive 'fisheries' statement: 'While some oppose the collection of animals from drive fisheries for live sale, the practice is lawful in countries where some IMATA members live and work. Any individual who believes in IMATA's mission and who supports its goals is welcomed into the membership. This includes extending membership to individuals who work for organizations that acquire dolphins from a drive fishery. A caregiver is welcomed by IMATA even if s/he participates in the selection and collection of live animals on the premise that those animals will benefit as s/he is exposed to the most current best practices in animal care and training. It shall come as no surprise that IMATA held its 2012 annual conference at Ocean Park HK, a buyer of Taiji dolphins. The above statement from IMATA backs their trainer selecting dolphins, and they also back Ocean Park who are Taiji buyers.This female Whale Museum trainer wrestles to sex this dolphin, no other trainer on the planet takes part in drive hunts like this!

Wild dolphin being caught and trained for captivity.

So as you can see as much as Seaworld protest their innocence in the wild caught industry they still have a hand in wild caught tanks around the world, they still have wild caught cetaceans in their tanks and despite the restaurant quality fish, the top vet care, the so called dental care, the regular medical check ups they are still responsible for the deaths of many many wild caught cetaceans who might have still been swimming in our oceans had it not been for Seaworld and the fans wanting to see them.

This is just one of many reasons people protest Seaworld and urge their fans to NOT BUY A TICKET