Save the Dolphin Smile | Ella Van Cleave | TEDxYouth@Victoria

Ella is passionate about the ocean and its creatures. Find out why and how she became an activist when she was just 12 years old.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Activist.

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

and immediately my mind would wander

to images of these
highly opinionated people,

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

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

"What are these people doing?"

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

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

sign in my hand, heart on my sleeve.

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

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

But, let's back it up a bit.

For me it started about two summers ago.

Ask any of my friends or family,

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

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

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

my world was ultimately
turned upside down.

Still, just 12 years old,

the oceans had never been anything
other than my playground,

but that was all about to change.

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

I was introduced to a world

where sharks were bludgeoned
and murdered for their fins,

where seals were beaten
and skinned alive for their pelts,

where whales, the gentle
giants of our oceans,

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

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

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

from oil spills to acidification,

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

whose lives were
heartlessly stolen each year.

Now, at first glance,

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

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

Each year, from September
through to March,

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

at Hatajiri Bay, or The Cove.

Now, seeing as Japan is a nation

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

oftentimes people wonder,

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

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

Taiji is unique in a number of ways.

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

as a dolphin hunting community,

is how they actually kill their dolphins.

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

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

to send off to captive
entertainment facilities.

The name "drive fishing"
legitimately refers

to driving a pod of dolphins
into the shore

where they are then trapped.

Fishermen insert
long metal poles into the water,

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

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

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

are all highly sensitive to sound.

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

It really is a highly sophisticated
and vital survival tool

that these animals use,

and what the dolphin hunters
have discovered

is that they can take advantage of this.

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

the one sense cetaceans
cannot live without.

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

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

tend to be very secretive
about this practice.

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

what goes on in their own country,

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

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

not the people, and not the animals.

The majority of dolphins
targeted in this hunt

are marketed and sold
as food to the public,

but the problem with this

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

dolphins contain
extremely high levels of mercury,

making their meat toxic.

The recommended total amount

of mercury consumption
in seafood, in Japan,

is 0.4 parts per million.

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

2,000 parts per million!

So this isn't just
a question of conservation,

it's a question of humanity.

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

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

as a result, we're oftentimes seeing

that it's given away free
to school systems,

where children are infected daily

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

But hold on.

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

yet 23,000 are killed each year.

Where's the logic in that?

How are you supposed to profit

from a several million-dollar
hunting operation,

when nobody eats the meat?

Well, that right there is your answer,

and it has nothing to do with meat.

The existence of the Taiji
hunting operation

relies on this: "Captivity."

Without all of those glorified
SeaWorld shows

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

this hunt would be nothing.

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

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

oftentimes staying behind
to help out with the hunt itself.

So the people that we
are supposed to believe

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

are in the water, in the boats,

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

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

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

on a single dolphin.

To put this in perspective,

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

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

Collectively, the fishermen in Taiji

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

but are now, reportedly,
paying police forces

$ 1.5 million to secure the bay.

I think it goes without saying

that they're protecting
the approximate $ 3 million

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

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

initially started in Taiji,
but has progressively moved

toward this captive
entertainment industry.

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

being anything
even remotely close to evil,

but today I couldn't see myself
supporting them.

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

but a deeper look has shown

that this is simply another
lucrative money-making scheme

governments want to protect.

Like I said,

governments seem to only protect
these big name corporations,

not the people and not the animals.

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

that makes it so unacceptable.

Cetaceans undergo
extreme amounts of stress in captivity.

To begin with,

capturing the animals themselves
is a very violent procedure,

and the travel process isn't much better.

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

I've already mentioned
how sensitive cetaceans,

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

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

performing for a clapping
and cheering audience several times a day

while spending your breaks
swimming around in a tank

whose walls are constantly
being beaten on by small children.

This stress can oftentimes lead to death,

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

Canada's very own Marineland

has 29 animals marked
as missing, presumed dead,

on an inventory taken of their park,

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

Marineland and SeaWorld alike
started for the purpose of profit,

not conservation, and nothing's changed.

Take Junior, for example.

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

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

along with two other bottlenose dolphins.

Now, after his tank mates
were sent to SeaWorld,

there Junior stayed, inside the same tank,

inside the same damp warehouse
located next to the park.

Years later, more undercover
video shows, in 1994,

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

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

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

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

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

Nonetheless, people insist
that captivity is vital

in teaching our population
not just about these animals,

but how to develop a love for them.

This is miseducation.

SeaWorld is pushing the image

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

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

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

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

How ironic!

So here's the thing.

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

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

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

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

and I left.

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

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

before going into the experience.

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

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

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

right here in Victoria, with my mom,

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

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

to come see what we were all about

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

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

I saw them in the wild.

In the words of Jacques Cousteau,

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

can ever begin to duplicate
the conditions of the sea,

and no dolphin who inhabits
one of these tanks

or one of these marine lands

can ever be considered normal."

But it's not just about
saving the dolphins.

We have a much bigger problem
on our hands today,

and that's the issue
of conserving our oceans.

So get involved!

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

Conservation is not what it used to be,

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

Times have changed.

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

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

It's happening: our oceans are dying,

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

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

unless we take that drastic action.

Today, pigs are our ocean's
biggest predator.

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

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

is made into fish meal.

And through this
we're seeing domestic cats

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

We're seeing seabirds starving

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

We are destroying our home!

The issues our oceans are facing
are being sidelined,

in a world where the ocean
is our lifeline.

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

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

Even when we look at creatures
as small as bees,

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

Jacques Cousteau also said
that people protect what we love,

and I think it's just about time
we started protecting our home.

Thank you.

(Applause)