[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gigq3P2BoU&w=500&h=310]
Eric Balfour from the hit show Haven speaks out for Dolphins at Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project Party
Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project is a campaign under the International Marine Mammal Project at the non-profit Earth Island Institute. The Dolphin Project aims to stop dolphin slaughter and exploitation around the world.
The stars came out to the private home of animal rights activist James Costa somewhere in the Hollywood Hills on a wonderfully fair weather evening overlooking the bright lights of Hollywood below, to support Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project.
Stars in attendance were: Sophia Bush, Jillian Michaels, Michelle Rodriguez, Maggie Grace, Ed Begley Jr., Q’orianka Kilcher, Leilani Münter, Joanna Cassidy, Eric Balfour, Lina Esco, Lasse Larsen, Abigail Spencer, Ashley Scott & Steve Hart.
Mia Maestro kept the place hopping with her band and Michele Rodriquez DJ’d the event.
I went and checked out Eric’s band Born As Ghosts… You can listen to the tracks on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/bornasghostsmusic. Solid stuff..
Eric took his time with the press, but I believe I rushed him. He was my first interview and I didn’t have all my equipment set up. I should have asked more about Haven and the bruise above his eye. Thanks Eric, hope to catch you again. – JW
Eric Balfour
From Wikipedia
Eric Salter Balfour (born April 24, 1977) is an American singer and actor of film and television. He is the lead singer of Born As Ghosts, formerly known as Fredalba. His best known roles include Milo Pressman on the action-thriller TV series 24 and Duke Crocker in the supernatural series Haven.
Dolphin Project
Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project is a campaign under the International Marine Mammal Project at the non-profit Earth Island Institute. The Dolphin Project aims to stop dolphin slaughter and exploitation around the world. This work has been chronicled in films such as A Fall From Freedom, the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, and in the Animal Planet mini-series Blood Dolphin$.
Campaigns for dolphin protection are currently underway in a variety of locations around the globe, including the Solomon Islands, Indonesia, Egypt, and Singapore.
Earth Island Institute
The Dolphin Project is a proud part of the Earth Island Institute, a non-profit, tax deductible organization founded in 1982. The Earth Island Institute has a long and active history in dolphin-related causes. In 1986, through the International Marine Mammal Project, EII organized a campaign to urge U.S. tuna companies to end the practice of intentionally chasing and netting dolphins with purse seine nets, and to adopt “Dolphin Safe” fishing practices to prevent the drowning of dolphins in tuna nets. This campaign included a consumer pressure, litigation, and revisions of the US Marine Mammal Protection Act. In 1990 a major breakthrough was achieved and the first companies pledged to become dolphin-safe. Today 100% of American tuna have become verifiably dolphin safe. Through the International Monitoring Program, the Earth Island Institute regularly inspects tuna companies to insure consumers that the tuna they buy is truly “dolphin safe.”
Earth Island Institute is an umbrella organization with has more than 60 projects working for the conservation, preservation, and restoration of the Earth. For more information, please visit: www.earthisland.org
To Find Out More Go To: www.DolphinProject.org
Ric O’Barry
Richard O’Barry has worked on both sides of the captive dolphin issue, making him an invaluable asset in the efforts to end exploitation. He worked for 10 years within the dolphin captivity industry, and has spent the past 40 working against it.In the 1960s, O’Barry was employed by the Miami Seaquarium, where he captured and trained dolphins, including the five dolphins who played the role of Flipper in the popular American TV-series of the same name. He also trained Hugo, the first orca kept in captivity east of the Mississippi. When Kathy, the dolphin who played Flipper most of the time, died in his arms, O’Barry realized that capturing dolphins and training them to perform silly tricks is simply wrong.
From that moment on, O’Barry knew what he must do with his life. On the first Earth Day, 1970, he launched a searing campaign against the multi-billion dollar dolphin captivity industry and has been going at it ever since.
Over the past 40 years, Ric O’Barry has rescued and rehabilitated dolphins in many countries around the world, including Haiti, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Brazil, the Bahamas Islands and the United States. He is a leading voice in the fight to end brutal dolphin hunts in Japan, the Solomon Islands, the Faroe Islands, and wherever else they occur.
O’Barry has been recognized by many national and international entities for his dedicated efforts, such as being voted Huffington Post’s 2010 Most Influential Green Game Changer, and being listed on O Magazine’s 2010 Power List – Men We Admire for his “Power of Passion.” O’Barry received an Environmental Achievement Award, presented by the United States Committee for the United Nations Environmental Program. He has done countless interviews with such prestigious news programs as Larry King Live, Anderson Cooper 360, the Mike Huckabee Show, and the Oprah Winfrey Show.
His book Behind the Dolphin Smile was published in 1989; a second book, To Free A Dolphin was published in September 2000. Both of them are about his work and dedication. He is the star of the Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove and the Animal Planet television series Blood Dolphin$.
In January 2006, O’Barry became Marine Mammal Specialist for Earth Island Institute, where he is also the Director of Earth Island Institute’s Dolphin Project.
You can find Ric at his Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/RichardOBarry
Pictures from the event:
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