Charles Vinick, a man doing his bit for orcas

The sea is where he feels most at home. For twenty-five years Charles Vinick roamed the oceans with Captain Cousteau and his son Jean-Michel. Alongside them, he encouraged exploration of the marine world. Subsequently his skills led him to carry out many missions, all of them dedicated to the sea and the creatures living in it.

A real expert

Amongst the many hats he has worn have been those of adviser to and cofounder of the Cousteau Centres; Vice-Chairman of the Institut Jean-Michel Cousteau and of the Ocean Futures Society, which have produced educational resources and films about the ocean and the environment; President and CEO of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound; Chairman and CEO of two environmental technology societies, in Florida and Santa Barbara. Charles has also been Chairman and CEO of the Santa Barbara City College Foundation, director of training and development at TRW Inc. and executive director of adult education at the University of Southern California.

Founder of a sanctuary for captive cetaceans

Today, still full of boundless energy, Charles Vinick provides his services to the cetaceans suffering in dolphinariums. He sits on the boards of directors of Heal the Ocean and the Ocean Futures Society and in mid-2016 joined the Whale Sanctuary Project as executive director. The aim of this amazing project is to set up sanctuaries on the coasts of North America for orcas and belugas held captive by the leisure industry.

It's the incredible members of the team he led who really did 'Free Willy'

It's an enormous challenge. Whereas numerous sanctuaries provide homes for terrestrial animals liberated from circuses or zoos, there is as yet nothing comparable for marine mammals. But Charles Vinick is no novice when it comes to rehabilitating former captive cetaceans. In 2019 he took part in the scientific expedition to save the orcas and belugas held in the Baie of Srednyaya, in Russia. We immediately answered the call to help him. It must be said that Charles acquired extraordinary experience with Keiko, the most famous male orca on the planet and better known by the name of Willy in the film Free Willy. It was he who accompanied the animal, who had been snatched from his family when very young, on the long road back to the wild. An astonishing adventure, stranger than fiction … Charles told us about it in detail in this interview, which is essential listening.

translated by Patricia Fairey MCIL