Almost four years since it was introduced onto the floor of Canada’s Senate, a new law informally known as the ‘Free Willy’ bill has finally been passed by the country’s House of Commons to ban both the capture and breeding of cetaceans for the purposes of entertainment.
Orcas in the wild in Canada. Image by seanscott/Getty Images
Heralded by animal rights groups, the law ensures that the current whales, dolphins and other cetaceans in captivity will be the last generation to endure such a hardship. However, unlike the 1993 movie Free Willy, which famously ended with the release of the starring whale into the wild (first in fiction, then in reality in 2002), a grandfather clause in the law means that those cetaceans currently in captivity will not be need to be set free. Given the perilous difficulties faced by these species when they have been released in the past, the clause is an understandable one.
A Pacific white-sided dolphin leaping out of the water with a humpback whale in the background at Knight Inlet, British Columbia. Image by David Pardoe/Getty Images
Cetacean captivity has been on the downturn in Canada for years, particularly after the backlash sparked by the 2013 documentary Blackfish. The film – watched by more than 60 million people – brought to light the psychological harm wales suffer in captivity and focused on the orca Tilikum who was a star Canadian attraction at Vancouver Island’s Sealand of the Pacific before it killed trainer Keltie Byrne in 1991. The whale was subsequently moved to SeaWorld in Orlando in 1992 and Sealand of the Pacific closed the following year in Victoria.
It will be illegal to keep dolphins in captivity for entertainment. Image by Kryssia Campos/Getty Images
There are currently two Canadian facilities affected by the new law: Marineland in Niagara Falls, which holds one orca, five bottle-nose dolphins and more than 50 beluga whales; and the Vancouver Aquarium, which is believed to hold a single remaining dolphin following its announcement in January that it was to be ceasing all cetacean captivity. The former of the two has been openly against the ‘Free Willy’ legislation.
Fines of up to $200,000 are part of the law’s restrictions against making cetaceans perform for entertainment.
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