Online travel company Expedia has stopped selling holidays that include performances from captive whales or dolphins. Campaign groups such as World Animal Protection have been calling for travel firms to stop selling captive marine mammal experiences as part of holiday packages for years and hope that other travel firms including TUI, Jet2holidays and Travel Republic will now follow suit.

Expedia joins Virgin Holidays and TripAdvisor, which stopped selling tickets for captive cetacean performances in 2019, and Dutch travel association ANVR and South Africa’s SATSA, which both say it is unacceptable for member organisations to participate in captive cetacean entertainment. A handful of countries have also made it illegal for whales and dolphins to be held in captivity. 

But tourist attractions involving captive cetaceans remain far too popular. At least 2,360 cetaceans are currently being held in captivity worldwide, around 2,000 of which are dolphins, 227 are beluga whales and 53 are orcas (killer whales). Cetaceans and other marine mammals are bought and sold internationally, forcing some into enduring long journeys from one prison to another across the world, as illustrated in a court case in the Netherlands this week.

A Dutch judge halted the export of eight dolphins, two walruses and two sea lions to an amusement park in China after an emergency request from animal activist groups. Sea Shepherd and House of Animals took the Dutch amusement park Dolfinarium to court to stop the export of the animals to a new theme park being built in China called Hainan Ocean Paradise, based on concerns about the stress of the journey and that the animals would likely be made to perform tricks in China. The judge ruled that the Dolfinarium cannot use its export licenses until the court case is resolved.

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Not that the animals are much better off staying in the Dolfinarium, which has been told by the advertising watchdog of the Netherlands to stop using the slogan ‘Discover, Experience and Protect’ in its promotional material. NGO Whale and Dolphin Conservation reports that the Dolfinarium “had been using the wording to help sell tickets and so implying that sales helped protect the dolphins it holds and in the wild. However, following a complaint by a local animal welfare group, the advertising commission agreed that there is nothing to show that the facility is actively contributing to the protection of the dolphins in its tanks.”

Of course, cruelty towards cetaceans does not occur only in the barren tanks of amusement parks, and some anti-whaling campaigners are calling on travel companies to stop holidays to the Faroe Islands until whale and dolphin hunts there are banned. There was a huge public outcry two months ago when a record 1428 Atlantic white sided dolphins were brutally slaughtered on Faroese beaches as part of the annual dolphin and whale hunt ‘grindadráp’, known as the grind. Hundreds of pilot and minke whales have also been slaughtered during this year’s grind. Some campaigners are pressing Expedia to suspend holidays to the Faroe Islands, while Whale and Dolphin Conservation are targeting cruise companies that sail there. So far two German cruise companies have agreed to no longer stop at the Faroe Islands.

Claire Hamlett is a freelance journalist, writer and regular contributor at Surge. Based in Oxford, UK, Claire tells stories that challenge systemic exploitation of and disregard for animals and the environment and that point to a better way of doing things.

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