Binding Instrument · Cetacean Doctrine

AE-LEG-0012 — Cetacean Non-Captivity Doctrine

A fleet that frees the ocean does not build a cage at home. The League breeds, recovers, and rewilds — it does not keep. This instrument states the League's absolute position on the capture and captivity of whales, dolphins, and porpoises, and the narrow band of interaction the doctrine permits.

Doc Control AE-LEG-0012 Revision A Effective 2091-02-09 Owner Legal & Ethics Approver Counsel · Marine Health Next Review 2092-02-09 Classification RESTRICTED // TIDEWATER-EYES-ONLY

The absolute. No cetacean may be captured, confined, transported for display, trained for performance, or held beyond the minimum time required to heal and release under veterinary direction. This prohibition binds every member, every vessel, and every facility of the League without exception, exemption, or override. There is no authority — including the Admiralty — empowered to waive it.

1. Purpose & Scope

1.1. This instrument fixes the League's doctrine on cetaceans: orders (Cetacea) — whales, dolphins, and porpoises — and applies by extension to other highly cognitive marine mammals where Marine Health so directs. It governs every interaction, from a distant photograph to a hands-on disentanglement.

1.2. The doctrine is stated as an absolute because it functions as one. Unlike the proportionality judgements of the Rules of Engagement, no balancing test applies here. Capture is not weighed; it is prohibited.

2. The Position

2.1. Permanent or display captivity of cetaceans is incompatible with the ocean's mandate. The League exists to return the sea to a wild state; to hold a wild creature for our convenience — even for our science, even for its "safety" — is to commit a smaller version of the harm we fight. The mandate does not bend for the mandate-holder.

2.2. The League recovers and rewilds. Where an animal cannot survive release, that determination is made by veterinary authority and the animal is placed in an accredited sanctuary under independent oversight — never retained by the League, never displayed, never bred for captivity.

3. Permitted vs Prohibited Interactions

Interaction	Status	Conditions
Photo-identification & visual survey	Permitted	Standoff distance maintained; no pursuit; no herding
Passive acoustic monitoring	Permitted	Listening only; no harmful active sonar
Non-invasive acoustic / satellite tagging	Permitted	Under vet direction; minimal-stress protocol; Marine Health sign-off
Rescue & disentanglement	Permitted	Vet-directed; least-restraint; immediate release on freeing
Temporary clinical hold for treatment	Conditional	Minimum healing time only; independent vet oversight; release plan filed at intake
Capture for any non-rescue purpose	Prohibited	Absolute — no exception
Confinement for display, performance, or breeding	Prohibited	Absolute — no exception
Transport to a captive facility	Prohibited	Sanctuary placement (non-display) excepted, vet-directed
Provisioning, baiting, or habituating wild animals	Prohibited	Alters wild behaviour; incompatible with rewilding

4. Rescue & Disentanglement

4.1. The one circumstance in which the League lays hands on a cetacean is to free it from harm — entanglement, stranding, or oil. Such interventions proceed under veterinary direction, use the least restraint that achieves the rescue, and end at the instant the animal is free. A rescue that would require ongoing confinement is escalated to Marine Health, not improvised into a capture.

4.2. A clinical hold for treatment is the only confinement the doctrine tolerates, and only under the conditions in §3: minimum healing time, independent veterinary oversight, and a release plan filed at the moment of intake. "We'll decide later" is not a release plan; an animal held without a filed plan is a doctrine breach.

5. Why This Line Is Non-Negotiable

The line that proves we mean it. Every militant cause believes its ends justify a little harm "for the greater good." The cetacean line is where the League refuses that bargain entirely. If we will not cage a dolphin even to study it, even to fund the fleet, even to save it from itself — then our mandate is real and not merely a story we tell to license what we already wanted to do. The animals we will not touch are the proof of the constraint we accept everywhere else.

5.1. The line is also practical. The moment the League holds a cetacean, it becomes — to any court, regulator, or newsroom — indistinguishable from the captivity industry it condemns. Our credibility (the asset on which AE-LEG-0011 turns) does not survive a single contradicted principle. The absolute is cheaper than the hypocrisy.

6. Cross-References

← Legal & Ethics SOP AE-SOP-0405 · Cetacean Rescue & Disentanglement → Rules of Engagement → Whistleblower & Disclosure →

7. Revision History

Rev	Date	Author	Summary of Change	Approved
A	2091-02-09	Counsel	Initial issue: non-captivity absolute, permitted/prohibited matrix, rescue conditions.	Counsel · Marine Health