“I wondered when I’d be seeing you, Mr. Potter.”
… was the line, delivered flawlessly by John Hurt in his memorable role as Garrick Ollivander in the first Harry Potter film, that passed through my mind as I drew a copy of “Europe’s Sea Mammals” out of the just-arrived parcel from Princeton University Press.
The public perception – due in no small part to the success of the film “Blackfish” – of keeping cetaceans, particularly Orcas, in captivity has taken a decidedly downward turn from the family-friendly spectacle it once was. But where did all this fascination with keeping these enormous marine mammals in captivity first begin, and how did the general public become so enamored of them in the first place?