Having to have grown up visiting the New England coastline with my family every spring and fall, I had been fortunate enough to have experienced marine wildlife that was pretty much close to home. I have seen a number of marine mammal species such as Atlantic white-sided dolphins, North Atlantic right whales, grey seals, humpback whales, minke whales, and of course, fin whales. In addition, I had also grown up seeing other marine species that are often found in New England waters like swordfish, blue sharks, and even a great white shark. Seeing such marine wildlife has inspired me to not only know more about the Gulf of Maine’s marine ecosystem, but it also inspired me to work with animals, and even educate others on marine ecosystems and what they can do to protect it.

Should killer whales be captive? Some think yes some think no today I will be talking about some reasons why captive whales and animals do not do very well in captivity. Whales are typically caught and brought in from the wild, there are some whales that have been bred in captivity but have been separated from their mothers at a young age. This is one thing that really messes with the way whales live they live in pods with their family these captive whales are put into an artificial pod, and when they have babies they’re taken from them. This causes what seems to be a depression with the whales. Captive whales are kept under bad conditions with an unnatural diet of dead fish that is thawed. This causes the male whales to have a bent or collapsed dorsal fin. Captivity causes these animals to endure so much. These creatures deserve to be left in the wild. There are at least 166 orcas in captivity, 129 of these whales are now dead. There have been about 166 deaths of orcas in captivity including miscarried and still born calves. There are 20 whales in captivity at the three United States SeaWorld parks and at least 49 whales have died at SeaWorld. The whale capture of 1970 is probably the most infamous, this capture concluded in 7 whales captured and 5 whales died that day. There is only on captured whale still alive in captivity, she is at the Miami Seaquarium. There have been 19 orcas taken from the wild and placed into captivity. There were 10 whales illegally captured whales in Russia in 2018, but where released in the summer of 2019. These creatures are not meant to be held in captivity and made to perform for our amusement. Though many people either do not care what harm can come to these animals and their trainers, there are some who think and fight for these animals to stay in the wild. The owners of the brand SeaWorld are the people who need to realize that these creatures are dangerous. They can and have killed their trainers, these whales are powerful and have a very smart brain. They work out problems and take out their frustrations on whatever they want. SeaWorld has always blamed the trainers and not the whales for the trainers deaths. The most famous whale for killing his trainers is Tilikum. Tilikum has killed 3 people in his 3 decades of being in captivity before he passed on. There has been one whale that was released. Keiko also known as free Willy who captured many hearts in the free Willy movies. He was released but as many believe this was not for his well being, but for the well being of places like SeaWorld. SeaWorld and many people who work with SeaWorld want these animals to stay in captivity and continue to perform for our amusement. SeaWorld thinks that these animals are just for show and amusement, though this is not true. These animals are beautiful creatures who belong in the wild and should stay in the wild. Though there is no laws keeping people from capturing these whales but you do need a permit to capture them and take them into captivity. These laws are specifically put into place for entertainment and scientific reason. Though some believe it should be illegal there is little they can do. As stated previously orcas and many other animals do not do well and are not able to adapt to the life of captivity. These are just some of the many reasons that orcas and other animals should not be held in captivity. This also shows that SeaWorld and other ocean animal parks do not think about the well being of their animals.

We lost a big member of our family this week. Now let me just make this clear...if you have never had a dog or ever not liked dogs then click off now because you will not understand anything that I am going to say next.

It is easy to escape into nature within the beautiful state of Adelaide in Australia. You will find a large number of people enjoying cycling and hiking throughout the countryside. However, one activity which is likely to be a lot more fun than the above is horse riding Adelaide. To find them, all you need to do is escape from the city’s traffic jams.

Hey there my fellow dog lovers! I want to share some tips and tricks that I either found out on my own or found on a billion different websites- yes.. I tried to do my research lol. I got my gorgeous, sweet, peanut head, Rusty in February of 2019. Whenever I adopted him, he had to stay a few more weeks until his appointment to be neutered. Turns out that that worked out perfectly (should have been a sign of how great he would be (; ) because I was also in the middle of moving out of my mom’s house. I knew that Rusty had anxiety based off of his bio but there was something about him and I knew he was mine! I visited him a few times a week so he could get used to me and I already had him sitting more on first command by the time I was able to go pick him up! I have to say... he is a VERY smart dog but I think I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself *pats self on back*. He hardly had any accidents and potty trained fairly easy! Within the first two weeks, he learned to stay, lay down, give his paw, and roll over. Now all of these took another week or so to be on first command but it did awesome. He is also currently learning left and right paw and gets it correct pretty often!

​I Knew that having a guide dog was going to be hard work, and a lot of responsibilities. But I never realized that you could fall in love with a dog so much until I had my first guide dog Uno. A black Labrador who was very vocal about everything. She hardly barked, but the sounds that she would make almost sounded like actual words. She was not just my guide dog, but she became my baby, my little toddler. When retirement came for Uno. It was so hard, and in my circumstances, I was not able to keep her. At thirteen years old Uno was back at the school and soon was adopted by a new family. I was so attached to her, and I felt like nobody understood that she was my baby. I took care of her since I first received her. I also took care of her health for all eleven years that she was with me. It was also hard retiring her because she still wanted to guide me. She still wanted to help me around obstacles, finding the steps and the curbs for mommy. But she had gotten too slow. Like it or not, it was just that time for her retirement. I’ve missed her so much, and even till this day, I still miss her.

"What is your purpose?!"

Once there was a slippery snake known by the name of Seymour the carpet python. He was a lovely shade of green as green, in color. Seymour's usual habitat was the overgrown backyard of a family known as the Townsend's. They lived on a quarter acre block of land, which was joined to a native reserve at the end of their street. Therefore, it was very easy for Seymour the green as green , carpet snake to move around the backyard of the Townsend's. Seymour the snake slithered and slithered around the backyard, the family were used to meeting him on their lawn and their lunch and dinner guests were used to seeing him as well. At times, he was like a streak of green as green hightailing it across the backyard, as if he were being by some rather large predator who was going to eat him for dinner.

There once was a Koala by the name of Kevin, he spent most of his days eating leaves and sitting in a tree. Kevin had a friend by the name of Samuel, the rock wallaby. In many ways, it was an unlikely friendship, it crossed the boundary of different species and yet they were firm friends. Samuel too liked spending his days, eating and eating and then doing some thinking and thinking.