JUUstice Washington

A Unitarian Universalist State Action Network

Federal court won’t reopen case of captive orca Lolita

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Activist groups have lost the latest battle in a decades long fight to free an orca named Lolita from the Miami Seaquarium.

The Miami Herald reports a federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected a petition to reopen a lawsuit over Seaquarium’s treatment of Lolita.

The decision says that, at around 51, Lolita’s age makes the case “unique,” but there’s no threat of serious harm that could trigger a federal animal welfare law violation. The court also couldn’t identify a “realistic means” to return her to the wild without being harmed.

 

BEING FRANK: TO HELP ORCAS, EAT CHINOOK

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From the Northwest Treaty Tribes:  Don’t stop eating or serving chinook salmon if you want to help recover Southern Resident Killer Whales.

It might make you feel better for a while, but it accomplishes little and makes recovering chinook even harder, by devastating the livelihoods of fishermen and their families who care most about salmon recovery.  Read more here.

‘Our relatives are calling for help’ – Northwest Tribes stand up for dying Orcas

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J-35 or Tahlequah, was a young orca mother who pushed the lifeless body of her newborn calf in front of her for 17 days

To researchers she is J-35. To the Native people of the Salish Sea she is Tahlequah, the young orca mother who pushed the lifeless body of her newborn calf in front of her for 17 days. The birth and death of the baby on July 24 coincided with this year’s Tribal Canoe Journey, the Paddle to Puyallup, and many took Tahlequah’s extended public grieving period as a sign to coastal Native people that their relatives from under the water were calling for help.  Click here to read more.

 

Angry at plight of southern-resident orcas, speakers rebuke NOAA in public meetings

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Mon., Sept. 17, 2018, 8:30 a.m.

Samish Nation member Leslie Eastwood, center, raises her arms with others at Deception Pass Park’s Bowman Bay on Sunday after completing a love song performed for those gathering for a vigil to remember the dead baby orca and her mother, Tahlequah, as well as the plight of other orcas. The Samish Nation hosted the two-day event, where food, song and dance were part of an ongoing ceremony. (Ken Lambert / Seattle Times)

Samish Nation member Leslie Eastwood, center, raises her arms with others at Deception Pass Park’s Bowman Bay on Sunday after completing a love song performed for those gathering for a vigil to remember the dead baby orca and her mother, Tahlequah, as well as the plight of other orcas. The Samish Nation hosted the two-day event, where food, song and dance were part of an ongoing ceremony. (Ken Lambert / Seattle Times)Scores of local residents condemned the federal agency in charge of protecting local killer whales in two packed public meetings over the weekend, highlighting growing frustration after the deaths of three of the animals this summer.

The endangered southern resident killer whales, of which just 74 remain, aren’t getting the help they need from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, speakers said at a Saturday meeting in Friday Harbor and another the following day in Seattle. The agency has also not been transparent in its efforts to bring the mammals back from the brink of extinction, they added.

Click here to read more.