Last week, household-name and theme park operator SeaWorld, announced they were ending their killer whale captive breeding programme.

For anyone who has been following the growing financial and negative PR struggles of SeaWorld since 2013 documentary Blackfish was released, this was big news.

The news coverage continues to rumble on, days after the initial announcement. Just earlier today, Forbes published a long interview with SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby on the events leading up to the decision.

Green Dispatches spoke with Claire Bass, Executive Director of the Humane Society International’s UK office. The US arm of the charity was instrumental in helping craft SeaWorld’s new policies.

Episode one of the Green Dispatches podcast has a great explainer on why SeaWorld’s announcement is so important.

If you are wondering why so many column inches have been dedicated to the subject, then this podcast is for you.

Green Dispatches also learns about SeaWorld’s other good news for animals that was slightly overshadowed by the captive breeding announcement and uncovers why the UK’s recent history means the country has no real equivalent to SeaWorld.

You can listen and subscribe to Green Dispatches on iTunes or via the Opinion page.

Top image: (cc) yareshi 2011, made available under an attribution 2.0 generic license

Sources: BBC, LA Times, National Geographic