The deal is a step to changing the way we perceive certain aquarium displays (Image: Kevin Schafer/Getty)

Keiko, the orca star of the film Free Willy, would approve. Last week, 120 countries signed up to consider banning the capture of wild dolphins and whales for display in zoos and aquaria.

The resolution, signed at the triennial meeting of the UN Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals in Quito, Ecuador, isn’t legally binding, but it commits the signatories to consider drafting laws banning the capture of dolphins and whales for commercial display.

Danny Groves of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation lobby group says the move is symbolic and a recognition that “taking dolphins and whales into captivity is not a good thing”. “Some may just pay lip service to the resolution, but the big thing is getting it officially on to the political agenda,” he says. “It’s a starting point for possible legislation banning it in the future.”


Capture discouraged

The resolution obliges signatories to “actively discourage” capture of live dolphins and whales for commercial display, and to cooperate with international bodies that monitor and regulate the exploitation of wild animals, including the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the International Whaling Commission.

SeaWorld Entertainment of Orlando, Florida – one of the world’s largest aquarium operators – said that it no longer captures wild cetaceans for show, so the resolution on wild collection has no bearing on them. “We’re accredited by two professional zoological associations, and our animals are healthy and well adapted,” said spokesman Fred Jacobs.

But Jacobs added that SeaWorld would oppose the resolution if it made no provision for rescuing and rehabilitating beached animals, conserving critically endangered species, and recognising the “significant educational and scientific benefits of marine mammal displays”.

Heidrun Frisch of the convention secretariat, who drafted the resolution on behalf of the signatories, says that the resolution only covers captures for commercial purposes, so rescue and rehabilitation of stranded animals are outside of its scope.

“Our Parties have not expressed an opinion about any benefits of captivity,” she says. But she added that there are “at least considerable doubts” as to whether any benefits for humans justify “the suffering caused by capture, transport and keeping of cetaceans”.

Even stronger measures were adopted to protect 31 other iconic species, including sharks, giant rays and polar bears. Threatened by shrinking Arctic ice cover, polar bears were added to the convention’s Appendix II, which obliges signatories to coordinate transboundary conservation, as were hammerhead, thresher and silky sharks. Stricter Appendix I protection, which legally restricts the capture of species, was granted to manta rays, devil rays and sawfish.