David Kirby Quotes & Sayings

One faction views SeaWorld as a Garden Hilton for killer whales, and the other views it as a Hanoi Hilton for killer whales. — David Kirby

Nearly one-quarter of all orcas captured for display during the late sixties and early seventies showed signs of bullet wounds. Royal Canadian fighter pilots used to bomb orcas during practice runs, and in 1960, private fishing lodges on Vancouver Island persuaded the Canadian government to install a machine gun at Campbell River to cull the orca population. — David Kirby

Food-- like sex, politics, and religion-- is an intensely personal, emotional, and complicated subject. — David Kirby

Naomi noted in closing that Britain had one of the "most staunchly conservation-oriented publics ... they are strongly antiwhaling ... they are an island nation who feel they must protect the marine environment." Yet there were zero cetacean displays left in the UK. "Clearly they are getting their marine education, their marine ethic, from some other source. — David Kirby

Orcas can be spotted from the shores of Seattle, Tacoma, Port Angeles, Bellingham, and the popular San Juan Islands in Washington State; and Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Campbell River, and other cities in BC. These venues not only offer easy access to the whales, they are scenic and pleasant places to live: Researchers who study orcas tend to gravitate more toward this region than, say, Iceland. — David Kirby

I can help, but in the end it is up to you — David Kirby

That fire you see can't last. Still, as it burns, it lights everything. — David Kirby

What we should enjoy, perhaps, is not their performance, but the mere fact of their existence. That, we believe, is wonder enough. — David Kirby