Updates

The masters course is fully underway, and very enjoyable; yet keeps me insanely busy. It is now normal for me to be a Uni all day, and then continue to work on coursework into the night at home. It is a small price to pay though as I am learning a lot, and I am already looking forward to starting my thesis. The general idea of my thesis is to determine the effectiveness of a passive acoustic monitoring device on the study of dolphin presence. I will post further information on this later once it is underway!
This post will be rather fragmented; with various snippets of information. Blackfish aired last month on CNN and was watched by over a million people, with many more watching it on catchup or online. The fallout on twitter has been phenomenal, with multiple petitions being signed, people articulating their views and opinions, and boycotting SeaWorld and it's associated partners. Seaworld has already seen a drop in ticket sales, and this will no doubt continue with increased publicity and follow-on documentaries. With SeaWorld being such a global organisation, with multiple offshoots, it will take time to put an end to cetacean captivity and shows, but this is an impressive start!

Staying with the captivity theme, I managed to find time to take a weekend off to show my girlfriend around Cork; and took a trip to Fota Wildlife Park. It was a rather moist day, although we made the most of it. I was instantly impressed with the park; expecting it to be fairly small and basic. For the most part, enclosures were well planned, with monkeys and lemurs having "open" enclosures, on islands, and many animals such as Mara and wallabies free-roaming around the park. There were a good number of staff on hand to answer any questions, and an adorable young cheetah cub on display (Video). I would definitely recommend it for a cheap, educational day out in Co. Cork.