Today, as I was surfing the internet, looking for topics to discuss in this week’s passion blog post, I stumbled upon the most amazing thing ever. You can adopt an orca for the small lump sum of $38. Of course, I was intrigued, so I continued to explore whalemusem.org. I found out there are different options including individual adoption, family, and classroom adoptions. Obviously, you are not able to literally adopt it and take it home with you, but it sort of like the buy a star program, where you “technically” own one of the stars in our solar system. There are three pods of orcas you can choose to adopt from over 80 different orcas. The proceeds from adopting an orca go to education programs and research efforts. As I have stated before, education is extremely important in keeping orcas out of captivity and in the wild. The programs that benefit from adopting an orca are The Whale Hotline, Marine Mammal Standing Network, Soundwatch Boater Education program, SeaSound Remote Sensing Network, Marine Naturalist Training, Salish Sea Association of Marine Naturalists, and Education Programs. All of these programs are, for lack of a better word, awesome. These programs educate the public on orcas and help humane research efforts on orcas in the wild. Unlike SeaWorld, who does their research on captured orcas in the wild.
The proceeds from adopting an orca go to education programs and research efforts. As I have stated before, education is extremely important in keeping orcas out of captivity and in the wild. The programs that benefit from adopting an orca are The Whale Hotline, Marine Mammal Standing Network, Soundwatch Boater Education program, SeaSound Remote Sensing Network, Marine Naturalist Training, Salish Sea Association of Marine Naturalists, and Education Programs. All of these programs are, for lack of a better word, awesome. These programs educate the public on orcas and help humane research efforts on orcas in the wild. Unlike SeaWorld, who does their research on captured orcas in the wild.
What do you get when you adopt an orca? Well besides being able to say you own an orca which is cool enough, you get an adoption certificate, a personal biography of your whale, informational booklet about orcas, monthly orca updates via email, a patch and bumper sticker, and a one year Whale Museum individual membership. When I learned of all of this great stuff, I immediately went to my boyfriend and told him I wanted him to adopt an orca for me as a gift. If you are interested as purchasing an adoption as a gift, there are some key things you should know about when selecting the orca:
Hopefully, my wishes will come true and Paul will adopt me an orca! Maybe if he does not, I will adopt one myself. I think it would be really interesting to continue my passion blog with personalized posts about one specific orca that I adopted with updates on him or her, pictures, etc. I think people who read this and I will enjoy to learn the history of one orca’s life and what he or she does now. For example, one of the world’s oldest orcas at a whopping 111 years old named “Granny” is available for adoption and learning about her history would be amazing.
I think more people would support me and trying to stop captivity in SeaWorld if they adopted an orca, forming a personal connection, learning history, seeing pictures, getting updates, and more. Who knows, maybe by next week I will have adopted an orca and you can read about him or her here until the rest of the semester. Consider adopting an orca today from whalemuseum.org and helping their education programs and conducting research.