Charles Vinick

Charles Vinick is a marine mammal activist who is no stranger to ambitious, visionary ocean-related projects. He worked closely with the Cousteau family for more than 25 years, helping the ocean explorers establish, grow and sustain multiple initiatives. Vinick was also the director of the initiative to return Keiko, the Free Willy whale actor, to the wild. As executive director of the Whale Sanctuary Project, his current work focuses on getting people to rethink societal norms. In Whales Without Walls (Mountainfilm 2021), Vinick and his team propose the creation of a whale sanctuary as a real-life solution to whale and dolphin captivity.