#pro cap

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

Federal government denies Marineland request to export belugas | CBC News

The federal department of fisheries and oceans has denied permit requests from Marineland Canada to export its 30 beluga whales. Chimelong O

If I had a penny for every time a place called Marineland went bankrupt and had the transfer of their whales to better facilities blocked by activists and moral grandstanding politicians I’d have two pennies.

Which isn’t a lot of pennies but it’s weird that it’s happened twice.

But in all seriousness this is a very very bad situation.

Today the Minister of Fisheries, Joanna Thompson said: “Like many of you, I am angered that these whales have lived a life of captivity and as a result their health has deteriorated," she said. "Canadians expect me to act in the best interest of the whales. Under difficult circumstances with regrettable outcomes, that is what I have done."

That “regrettable outcome” she’s describing is the euthanasia of 30 healthy beluga whales. Because she doesn’t want them going to significantly better facilities in China because they will be performing in shows there.

This is not a welfare or science based decision. This is an ideological, “better dead than fed” mentality that will see the deaths of healthy animals. At what point do we call this a death cult??

We know there’s no sanctuary for them, we know that putting them in the ocean would be stressful for them. So why are we keeping them in yet another deteriorating habitat??? This is just insanity.

Please contact Joanne Thompson to encourage her to reconsider this position- especially if you are Canadian. I don’t know if I can have much sway as someone living in Australia but I just cannot let this go unnoticed.

Credit to Bruck Labs for the graphic and this caption:

“Tell DFO Director Joanna Thompson to grant Export Permits to Relocate Marineland’s Remaining Belugas!

Canada’s federal government has denied Marineland’s request to export 30 beluga whales to the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China. This denial effectively prevents the only currently proposed plan for relocation.

In 2024 Marineland Canada largely ceased operations, shutting its doors to the public. The facility’s revenue streams have evaporated, making it increasingly difficult to maintain care, feed the animals, and retain staff. Without a viable means to support the whales in Canada, Marineland’s owners have suggested that bankruptcy or forced liquidation may follow, which may lead to the euthanasia of 30 beluga whales

In her announcement, Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson said she “could not in good conscience approve the export,” arguing that granting the permit would mean a “continued life in captivity … a return to public entertainment.” We must ask ourselves, would the animals participating in an educational show that highlights the need for conservation and good welfare science be bad? Marine Mammal Scientists have already committed to working with whoever gets these animals to ensure that any public presentation includes the best most up to date research on their biology, behavior, conservation, and welfare. Surely this alternative beats killing these amazing animals.

While her emotional appeal to “look into the whales’ eyes” underscores her sympathy, policy decisions of this scale should rest on science, welfare standards, and long-term planning- not sentiment alone.

It is sometimes suggested that these belugas could be “freed into the ocean,” but that is not a realistic option. Belugas held in long-term managed care lose essential survival skills and are unlikely to survive on their own in the wild (this point is supported by many marine mammal experts)

Some supporters advocate for a beluga sanctuary in Nova Scotia. That sanctuary is not yet operational and cannot currently accept these whales. They lack local permissions to build their sea pen and multiple academic sources have raised serious concerns with their plans, given the failure of similar projects: see Bruck (2014), The Cetacean Sanctuary: A Sea of Unknowns, and Almunia & Canchal (2025), Cetacean Sanctuaries: Do They Guarantee Better Welfare?, these works argue that creating and operating effective sanctuaries for large whales is complex, uncertain, and potentially dangerous to the health and welfare of these amazing animals.

Therefore, the only option is to allow the animals to go to an accredited facility with strong welfare standards. This is their only remaining hope for continued life in proper care with access to veterinary support, nutrition, appropriate social structures, and effectively managed habitats.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Write to Fisheries Minister Joanna Thompson: [email protected]

- Urge her to reconsider and approve export permits under the Fisheries Act for safe, accredited relocation.

- Emphasize that refusing all exports condemns the whales to remain in a facility without funds to support adequate care.

- Remind her that no whale sanctuary (under the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries standards) has ever been successful in keeping belugas with animals housed this way repeatedly needing to return to tanks due to stress (Bruck, 2024; Almunia and Canchal, 2025).

2. Call her office: [phone] (St. John’s, Newfoundland)

- Leave a clear message: the lives of these 30 belugas are at stake.

3. Email DFO Headquarters: [email protected]

- Copy the minister’s office, and underscore that the decision should follow scientific welfare criteria, not purely emotional reaction.

Together, we can make sure these belugas are not forgotten - and that they have a chance at a dignified life in a proper zoological environment!

[orcinus-veterinarius]

do you genuinely support seaworld? because if you do, then that is genuinely disapointing to me as i loved your content. dolphins (esp bottlenoses) are incredibly intelligent creatures with their own languages and cultures, can experience emotion in the same ways we do, and display self awareness on nearly the same level as us. there's no situation in which they should be kept in and bred in captivity, and dolphins that cannot live in the wild deserve to go to sanctuaries that are able to provide actual proper living space, respect, and care for them. they are real, living creatures, with their own personalities and identities. they shouldnt be abused and exploited for profit. it's inherently cruel, even if you personally dont view them as their own people as some (like me) do.

I'm sorry that you're disappointed. I thought I had been clear about my opinions on here but yes, I do support SeaWorld, just like I support every other AZA-accredited zoo and aquarium. I support their veterinarians and veterinary staff, people I've actually met or who have worked closely with many of my colleagues and mentors. I support their rescue teams, which have responded to over 40,000 individual marine animals in distress, and are currently one of only half a dozen facilities equipped to handle the Florida manatee unusual mortality event. I support their husbandry and training staff, folks who've made a career out of caring for animals and, like the trainers I currently work with, tirelessly advocating for their needs. I support their contributions to marine research, both through the parks and the independent Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute. I support the connection to the marine world that they provide children (and adults) like myself years ago, gifting them with a lifelong love for the ocean and its life.

At the moment, I'm completing a residential internship program with the medical team at a small marine park (not SeaWorld, but similar in many ways) as a complement to my ongoing education as a DVM student. I see and work with dolphins every day. You’re right, they are extremely intelligent. Each one is an individual, with his or her own distinct personality, likes and dislikes, best friends (human and dolphin), and favorite activities. Perhaps they are “people” in their own way, although from a scientific perspective I can’t anthropomorphize them to that extent. Their trainers are more intimately familiar with the dolphins’ moods and needs than the vast majority of people are with their own pets (speaking as a 7-year veteran of general practice and emergency vet hospitals), and every second of their work day revolves around the animals, be it enrichment, training, husbandry, diet prep, habitat maintenance or, yes, public presentations. Each dolphin has a specialized care plan, made for them by their own full-time veterinarian, to ensure they are always in peak body condition. They receive a full routine medical work-up (complete with bloodwork, fecal, urine, gastric, and chuff cytology) multiple time a year, far beyond what any domestic animal receives. Their diet consists of a wide variety of human-grade seafood, with each individual fish (hundreds of pounds a day) hand-checked by a trainer to ensure it has no defects. They are never, ever forced to participate in a session and usually happily do so, because exercising their minds and bodies is enriching for them. If not, no big deal, they will still get all the food they need. 

About half of our dolphins are rescues, deemed non-releasable by the federal government (not the team who rehabbed them, or even the “higher ups” in aquarium/marine park management). These dolphins stranded when they were babies, too young to have learned what they needed from their mothers, or suffering from disabilites or chronic health conditions that would make survival in the wild impossible. Without “captivity,” they would be dead. Instead, I get to see them thrive every day, bonding with their trainers, playing with their dolphin friends, exploring their enrichment, and inspiring everyone who meets them. I’m sorry but no, I will never say these dolphins should be put to death or left to suffer an excrutiating fate in the wild. Not when I’ve seen the life they get to live instead.

An accredited “dolphin sanctaury” like you suggest, run by people with the proper training, resources, and (extensive) funding to care for these complex animals, does not exist. And if one did, it would be no different than any other accredited facility (many of which are “sea pen” habitats, which have their own pros and cons versus a traditional “tank” habitat) that is already open. There would still be training for husbandry, exercise, and enrichment. There would still be hand-fed diets. There would still be (nearly constant!) breeding behavior, just without any babies. And there would still be barriers keeping them from leaving although fun fact, the US Navy uses trained dolphins in open ocean missions and they always return to their human caregivers. The only thing missing would be the educational, inspirational experience aquariums give the public. 

But don’t take my word for it. Last year, the Cetacean Welfare Study was published, the result of years of work by 43 different AZA and/or AMMPA-accredited institutes. It’s a collection of studies, the first of their kind, surveying the factors affecting welfare in managed cetaceans (mainly bottlenose dolphins but also Pacific white-sided dolphins and beluga whales), and oftentimes, it’s not what the general public might think. Both SeaWorld and my park were part of it.

Thanks for hearing me out. I don’t expect you to suddenly agree with me, but I hope you’ll try to understand. If you want to hear more of what I’ve said on this topic, please look at my #seaworld and #cetaceans tag.

[abyssaldreaming]

Just seen a person call seaworld evil because one of the dolphins showed stereotypical behaviours (repetitive behaviours that have a variety of causes and is hard to manage/stop once it starts) and then call a video of a horse showing stereotypical behaviour (stable weaving specifically) cute and claiming the horse was dancing.

The hypocrisy is real in the anti-cap fandom

[whaleexpertsanonymous]

(Un)friendly reminder that pro caps can be just as nutty as antis.

[orcinus-ocean]

Debunking common myths used against zoos and dolphinariums.

Boy, do I (and you) have some reading to do!

[the-citrus-scale]

In Defense Of... Steve Rogers’ Happy Ending

written by @the-galaxy-collector

People have a lot of opinions about Endgame. Like A. LOT. The one I’m concerned about for this article is Steve Rogers and his happy ending. I’ll try to address all the problems people have with it, but I’m sure I’ll leave something out because I don’t have that kinda time. No one does. However, just to get it out of the way, I am in favor of the ending of Phase Three, so if you aren’t, this may not be the place for you. You are entitled to your opinions, though, so if you have any and can be a respectful member of fandom, I am more than willing to listen to all the ways you think I’m wrong. I’m not, but I’ll listen.

Before I actually start, let me say that I do not approve of most of what has gone on in the MCU. I think the writing is irredeemable, at this point, but that’s another article.

So, let’s do this.

The first thing people seem to take issue with is the time travel nonsense. It hurts your brain. It does for me too, but I’ve also written whole time travel novels, so go with me on this for a second. Yes, I want to play the ‘What If’ game. Sue me.

Now, Steve goes to the Ancient One™, and after she gets the Time Stone back, she turns to him and says, “You might wanna go hang out with Peggy Carter. Turns out you’ve been her baby daddy this whole time. If you don’t, all the other stuff won’t happen and then we’ll be right back in this mess”. If you watched Timeless you’ll know that even when you wanna tell someone what horrible things are gonna happen, you can’t if you want to wrap up the timeline. It’s completely plausible that Steve going back in the past and having kids with Peggy (and yes, that’s been confirmed by Marvel), makes everything else happen. If he doesn’t live his life with her, everything else doesn’t happen either. He’s just closing a time loop. Doctor Strange says there’s only one scenario in which they win, so if Steve changes, even a second, including his future/past self, he screws all of it up. It’s possible he had to go back and be with Peggy or Thanos would win.

Which leads into the second major argument: StEvE iS OOC. This one seems so painfully obvious to me, I almost didn’t want to bring this up. It’s just ridiculous. Steve promises Peggy a dance. He has the ability to go back and give it to her. Until we found out about him marrying her, that’s all it was and no one could even accept that. Steve Rogers keeps his promises. Why are you even surprised? The whole Bucky thing is a separate argument, as far as I’m concerned, so we’ll just deal with his OOC-ness here and call it a day. He was not OOC. Done.

Now, onto the second half of that. Steve didn’t abandon anyone. Bucky isn’t a little kid. He isn’t hopeless without his Stevie Poo, okay? He has Sam, for one thing, a guy literally trained to deal with soldiers with extreme PTSD. He has support, and it isn’t Steve’s job to give up everything to be his emotional support penis or whatever. He desperately needs to figure out who he is without Steve and without his trauma. He can’t do that with how unhealthy and co-dependent their relationship has become. Let’s be real. He was doing a really good job of doing just that before Infinity War, which is why he’s cool with the way things play out. He’ll be okay.

And we’re never getting Stucky, so stop. I want it too, so don’t call me an anti. There was way too much underlying sexual tension between the two, but it doesn’t matter now. Stucky is not canon. It was never going to be. Marvel and the Russo Brothers are so #nohomo that it makes me sick. Literally nauseous to think about. I mean, why else would they need to play the “only” gay character in the universe? Because giving it to an actual queer person would equal representation, and Marvel is pretty slow on the uptake with that one. They fucked with our sandbox. It was rude. Super effin’ rude. If they had just let it be, it would be one thing. We could have still played with that line of inquiry like we always have, but now it seems like it was demolished. Obliterated. Blown to smithereens. But that’s the beauty of fanfic. Nothing is gone. No one is permanently dead. We do what we want, remember? When did we forget that? They don’t get to decide anything. This is our sandbox.

But that begs the question, why are you all so hellbent on Steve getting effectively fridged for everyone else’s happy ending? Do you not want him to be happy? Do you think the only way for Steve to be Steve is if he’s miserable? Can he only be him if he’s sacrificing everything for literally everyone else? Because that’s not fair. Why are you cool with asking that of him and his character? If it was anyone else, you would have thrown up your hands and been pissed about him dying. But Steve is the martyr. He can never evolve, according to fandom lore. And, frankly, that’s not realistic.

Basically, what I’m saying is that you need to direct your anger at the appropriate source. The writers are lazy, homophobic assholes (yeah, I said it!) who don’t understand how any of this works, but leave Steven Grant Rogers out of it.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[themagicof-orca]

Feb 10, 2019 | BY MARK J. PALMER, INTERNATIONAL MARINE MAMMAL PROJECT

We have just heard that the Russian government has issued a statement indicating that they will likely move soon to release 11 orcas and 87 beluga whales from sea pens, where they have been kept captive in the east coast Bay of Srednyya, south of Vladivostok, since being caught last summer in the Russian Sea of Okhotsk.

Originally, these animals were caught by four Russian companies (that are linked, according to reports) for sale to aquariums in China.  The government declared the permits issued to be illegal and blocked the sale and export to China, and have further denied issuing new permits to capture cetaceans in 2019.

The International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) of Earth Island Institute has been working with Russian conservationists on the problem of captures of wild orcas and beluga whales for captivity for several years.

“Through hard work in Russia and around the world, the illegal captures of orcas and belugas being held in Russia have been stopped and their sale to China cancelled.” stated David Phillips, Director of IMMP.  “Now the final critical step of returning this huge group of orcas and belugas to the ocean is looking likely to proceed.  This would be a spectacular breakthrough, ending a cruel and calamitous capture operation.”

[auntmaylovebot]

This isn’t a pro-tony stark blog!

When I watched the first avengers movie, I couldn’t articulate why I didn’t like Tony Stark when everyone else did. I thought, “maybe it’s because I’m watching this two years after everyone else”, but my feelings weren’t the same for the rest of the characters, only this one. Then I realized: “I just don’t like him”. Okay. That was fine. I don’t have to like him. 

BUT JESUS FUCKING CHRIST?? No one else in this fandom shuts the hell up about him! It’s like they forget that there are other damn characters in this bitch of a universe. He’s absolutely fucking annoying.

In the eyes of the people in the fandom, Tony Stark is a pure angel! He can do no wrong! No, of course he never manufactured weapons that killed people. No, of course he never blackmailed a teenager, of course he never got his “friends” thrown in prison, of course he never how could a pure baby angel do something as evil as that?

Well, he did. And he’s not a baby, he’s almost 50. He’s an adult male, with the ability to hold himself accountable, and yet, he doesn’t. In fact, he does the exact opposite and tries to hold everyone else accountable for something that he did (create Ultron), despite the warnings of another (Bruce).

And they rally around this character, endlessly. All of my streams are a constant flood of “Tony, this” and “Tony, that”. It’s telling of a very real problem that this fandom has with balancing a storyline between characters. I understand having a fave, but your fave is a piece of shit! It’s okay to have a favorite character that is also a piece of shit (look at loki lmao), but you can’t have a meltdown when people speak out against said piece of shit! You just can’t! Tony stark doesn’t run the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and he isn’t the most important character, and I need people to realize that I’m sick and fucking tired of it being the “Tony Stark Show” 24/7. I’ve lost my empathy for him, and I’ve lost my respect for him and the people who like him. I will definitely be posting more about this, because I need Tony stans to read a clear, concise argument instead of just plain discourse.