To better understand relationships between scientific and popular views regarding the agency, sentience, and cognition (ASC) of aquatic animals, and policies that protect these animals in the United States, this project focused on the influence of scientific literature in motivating, justifying, and rationalizing changes in protection. We chose Cetaceans, Thunnini, and Octopoda as case studies. We selected these cases because we provisionally assumed that, since roughly the 1950s, the trajectory of protection was different with respect to each animal: that protection has increased for whales, not appreciably changed for tunas, and appears to be in the early stages of improvement for octopuses. These three cases thus provide different perspectives on the relations between protection and scientific literature.

This report was prepared by CEAP and the Guarini Center of the NYU Law School, with support from the Brooks Institute for Animal Law and Policy.

• Read the main report
• Read appendix 1 on legal directionality
• Read appendix 2 on cetaceans
• Read appendix 3 on tuna
• Read appendix 4 on octopuses
• Read appendix 5 on the scientific literature

Authors

• Dale Jamieson (New York University)
• Jennifer Jacquet (New York University)
• Christopher Ewell (Yale Law School)
• Lori Marino (Whale Sanctuary Project and Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy)
• Jennifer Telesca (Radboud University)
• Paul Greenberg (Journalist)
• Becca Franks (New York University)