A few months ago an important paper was published to establish the harm done to the brains of captive elephants and cetaceans. Putative neural consequences of captivity for elephants and cetaceans by Bob Jacobs, et al. provides “a substantive hypothesis about the negative impact of captivity on the brains of large mammals” The paper supplements observations of pathological behavior like chewing on hard surfaces or head-banging against a wall, and biomedical symptoms of stress, and adds neurological damage that likely accompany such symptoms.

The Chehalis River is one of the last free-flowing rivers on the west coast of the United States, and in some years it is the biggest producer of wild salmon in Washington State. These salmon are an important source of food for the endangered Southern Resident orcas. But the river floods, as all good rivers do, and these floods are becoming more catastrophic, due to climate change and habitat destruction in the Chehalis Basin.