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Activist.

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You know, when I was a bit younger,
I would hear the word "activist,"

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and immediately my mind would wander

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to images of these 
highly opinionated people,

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taking their beliefs to the streets,
with signs and megaphones.

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And I couldn't help,
but just sit there and think,

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"What are these people doing?"

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Then, in my own life, 
one thing sort of led to the other,

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and, before you know it,
there I was on the streets of Vancouver,

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sign in my hand, heart on my sleeve.

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Good afternoon, everyone,
my name is Ella Van Cleve,

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I'm 14 years old,
and I am a teenage activist.

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But, let's back it up a bit.

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For me it started about two summers ago.

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Ask any of my friends or family,

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I am a bit of an ocean fanatic,
and I always have been.

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So, when a friend introduced me
to a documentary about the slaughter

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of some 2,000 dolphins
off the coast of Taiji, Japan,

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my world was ultimately 
turned upside down.

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Still, just 12 years old,

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the oceans had never been anything 
other than my playground,

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but that was all about to change.

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I wasn't just simply introduced
to a documentary that day.

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I was introduced to a world

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where sharks were bludgeoned
and murdered for their fins,

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where seals were beaten 
and skinned alive for their pelts,

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where whales, the gentle
giants of our oceans,

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remained lifeless at the surface,
blood surging from their bodies.

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This world I was introduced to
was one I became unable to escape,

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and yet, through all the disasters
our oceans have faced,

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from oil spills to acidification,

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all I could seem to think about
were those 2,000-some-odd dolphins,

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whose lives were
heartlessly stolen each year.

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Now, at first glance,

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Taiji is a community that appears
to love dolphins and whales.

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But a deeper look into the culture
of their village shows otherwise.

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Each year, from September
through to March,

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in and around 2,000 dolphins
and small whales are slaughtered

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at Hatajiri Bay, or The Cove.

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Now, seeing as Japan is a nation

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with a kill quota of up
to 23,000 dolphins and small whales,

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oftentimes people wonder,

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"Well, what's so special about Taiji?"

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But what you will find is that,
in terms of the whaling spectrum,

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Taiji is unique in a number of ways.

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Now, one of Taiji's attributes
that really sets it apart,

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as a dolphin hunting community,

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is how they actually kill their dolphins.

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Now, in Taiji they use a method 
of hunting known as drive fishing,

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which allows them to take in
a select number of animals, each season,

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to send off to captive
entertainment facilities.

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The name "drive fishing"
legitimately refers

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to driving a pod of dolphins
into the shore

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where they are then trapped.

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Fishermen insert 
long metal poles into the water,

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and proceed to bang on the tops
of these poles with hammers,

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in the process emitting a very loud
and stressful sound for these animals.

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You see, cetaceans, which are
dolphins, porpoises and whales,

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are all highly sensitive to sound.

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Their sonar is what they use to hunt,
to communicate, to navigate.

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It really is a highly sophisticated 
and vital survival tool

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that these animals use,

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and what the dolphin hunters
have discovered

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is that they can take advantage of this.

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The use of the poles in this practice
is the fisherman's way of exploiting

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the one sense cetaceans 
cannot live without.

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And in terms of exploitation,
this is merely the tip of the iceberg.

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Now, the governments that take part
in the slaughter of cetaceans

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tend to be very secretive
about this practice.

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They seem to think that their people
don't need to know

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what goes on in their own country,

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even if what's going on 
could be hazardous to their own health.

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Government sure seem to just protect 
the big money-making corporations,

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not the people, and not the animals.

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The majority of dolphins 
targeted in this hunt

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are marketed and sold
as food to the public,

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but the problem with this

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is that, due to their elevated
place on the food chain,

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dolphins contain 
extremely high levels of mercury,

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making their meat toxic.

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The recommended total amount

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of mercury consumption
in seafood, in Japan,

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is 0.4 parts per million.

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Dolphin meat contains
2,000 parts per million ...

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2,000 parts per million!

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So this isn't just
a question of conservation,

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it's a question of humanity.

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There's an incredibly small market
for this meat in Japan.

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Seeing as less than 1% of the nation
actually consumes it,

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as a result, we're oftentimes seeing

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that it's given away free
to school systems,

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where children are infected daily

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by the world's most toxic 
non-radioactive element.

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But hold on.

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So, less than 1% of Japan
consumes dolphin meat,

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yet 23,000 are killed each year.

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Where's the logic in that?

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How are you supposed to profit

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from a several million-dollar 
hunting operation,

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when nobody eats the meat?

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Well, that right there is your answer,

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and it has nothing to do with meat.

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The existence of the Taiji 
hunting operation

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relies on this: "Captivity."

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Without all of those glorified
SeaWorld shows

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and swim-with-the-dolphins
programs around the world,

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this hunt would be nothing.

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Each morning, several dolphin trainers
make their way to the bay

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to select the most attractive dolphins
for a life in captivity,

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oftentimes staying behind 
to help out with the hunt itself.

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So the people that we
are supposed to believe

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love dolphins more than anyone else
in this world, the trainers,

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are in the water, in the boats,

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with the fishermen that terrorize them
for the last 30 hours of their life.

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It looks like things
aren't always what they seem.

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These trainers are generally paying
between $ 150,000 to $ 300,000

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on a single dolphin.

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To put this in perspective,

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a dolphin that sells for its meat 
sells for around $ 600.

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So you see, the money
is coming from the aquariums.

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Collectively, the fishermen in Taiji

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make in and around a million dollars
off of their slaughtered catch,

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but are now, reportedly,
paying police forces

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$ 1.5 million to secure the bay.

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I think it goes without saying

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that they're protecting
the approximate $ 3 million

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they make off of selling dolphins
into a life of slavery.

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Now, the work that I've been trying to do
in cetacean conservation

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initially started in Taiji, 
but has progressively moved

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toward this captive 
entertainment industry.

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It took me a while to adjust
to the idea of places like SeaWorld

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being anything
even remotely close to evil,

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but today I couldn't see myself 
supporting them.

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Their tie with the slaughter 
was enough to make me cringe,

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but a deeper look has shown

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that this is simply another
lucrative money-making scheme

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governments want to protect.

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Like I said,

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governments seem to only protect
these big name corporations,

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not the people and not the animals.

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But it's what you don't see
about captivity

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that makes it so unacceptable.

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Cetaceans undergo 
extreme amounts of stress in captivity.

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To begin with,

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capturing the animals themselves
is a very violent procedure,

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and the travel process isn't much better.

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In what's the aquarium itself,
everything simply goes downhill.

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I've already mentioned 
how sensitive cetaceans,

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so dolphins, porpoises and whales,
all are to sound.

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So, with that in mind, 
imagine what life would be like

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performing for a clapping 
and cheering audience several times a day

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while spending your breaks 
swimming around in a tank

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whose walls are constantly
being beaten on by small children.

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This stress can oftentimes lead to death,

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and this is what
the aquariums won't tell you.

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Canada's very own Marineland

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has 29 animals marked
as missing, presumed dead,

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on an inventory taken of their park,

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because they won't admit 
to what has really happened.

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Marineland and SeaWorld alike 
started for the purpose of profit,

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not conservation, and nothing's changed.

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Take Junior, for example.

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Junior was a male killer whale who,
in 1990, lived in Marineland Ontario.

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This same year, undercover video
shows him isolated in a minuscule tank

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along with two other bottlenose dolphins.

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Now, after his tank mates
were sent to SeaWorld,

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there Junior stayed, inside the same tank,

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inside the same damp warehouse
located next to the park.

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Years later, more undercover
video shows, in 1994,

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Junior is still alone and isolated,
in that same warehouse,

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virtually ignored, alone
and lethargic, only 12 years old.

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Now, something about the use
of a warehouse, in that situation,

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just screams secretive, 
and that's what it is: secretive.

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Marine parks are full of secrets,
there's always something to hide.

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Nonetheless, people insist 
that captivity is vital

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in teaching our population
not just about these animals,

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but how to develop a love for them.

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This is miseducation.

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SeaWorld is pushing the image

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that it's OK to have a dolphin
propel you through the water,

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that it's okay to use
a killer whale as a surfboard.

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It's actually a federal offense
to harass or even approach a dolphin

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- or a killer whale,
for that matter - in the wild.

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How ironic!

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So here's the thing.

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When I was about seven, I participated
in a swim-with-the-dolphins program.

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Going into it, I was excited,
because they had dolphins,

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and like I said, I've always been
a little bit ocean-crazy.

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I went, I fed the dolphin a squid, 
it kissed me on the cheek,

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and I left.

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It all felt a bit unreal,
I didn't love dolphins any less that day,

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but I sure didn't like them
any more than I had

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before going into the experience.

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When I truly fell head over heels
in love with these animals

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was when I experienced an accidental
encounter with an orca in the wild.

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Just about two years ago
I was kayaking off of Willows Beach,

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right here in Victoria, with my mom,

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and we noticed that, about 10 feet away,
this orca had emerged.

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To have this massive and powerful creature
take some time out of his own life

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to come see what we were all about

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was a truly humbling experience,
and one I'll never forget.

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That day, I saw the single most
important reason captivity doesn't work.

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I saw them in the wild.

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In the words of Jacques Cousteau,

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"No aquarium, no tank in a marineland,
however spacious it may be,

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can ever begin to duplicate
the conditions of the sea,

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and no dolphin who inhabits
one of these tanks

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or one of these marine lands

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can ever be considered normal."

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But it's not just about
saving the dolphins.

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We have a much bigger problem
on our hands today,

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and that's the issue
of conserving our oceans.

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So get involved!

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Our world is coming to a point
where we need drastic action.

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Conservation is not what it used to be,

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it's not all hugging trees 
or saving the tigers.

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Times have changed.

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We can't solve all of our problems
by going out and recycling,

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or turning out the lights 
every time you leave a room.

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It's happening: our oceans are dying,

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and at a much faster rate
than anyone had initially predicted.

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I have been told that within my lifetime
all the world's coral reefs could be gone,

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unless we take that drastic action.

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Today, pigs are our ocean's 
biggest predator.

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They're consuming more fish 
than all of the world's sharks combined.

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In and around a third of the fish
that we take from our oceans

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is made into fish meal.

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And through this
we're seeing domestic cats

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eating more tuna
than all of the world's seals.

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We're seeing seabirds starving

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because the fish that they rely on
is being fed to chickens.

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We are destroying our home!

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The issues our oceans are facing
are being sidelined,

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in a world where the ocean
is our lifeline.

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There's a fine balance on Earth,
where species depend on one another,

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and humans, more than any other species,
rely heavily on the life of this planet.

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Even when we look at creatures
as small as bees,

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we can see that they can live without us,
but we can't live without them.

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00:11:00,232 --> 00:11:04,467
Jacques Cousteau also said
that people protect what we love,

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00:11:04,467 --> 00:11:07,898
and I think it's just about time 
we started protecting our home.

241
00:11:07,898 --> 00:11:09,073
Thank you.

242
00:11:09,073 --> 00:11:10,823
(Applause)