Rethinking Swimming with the Dolphins

 

One of the things that used to be on my bucket list was to swim with dolphins, until I saw the documentary “The Cove” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KRD8e20fBo&feature=player_embedded) and this article by the BBC news. “Is it Wrong to Swim with Dolphins?” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8572855.stm).  British researchers have found that swimming close to bottlenose dolphins disturbs dolphins in their habitat, preventing them from resting, feeding or nurturing their young.  In this article, Dr. Horace Dobbs, founder and honorary director of International Dolphin Watch, says, “Keeping dolphins at resorts or aquatic parks is akin to torture, as it separates these sociable animals from their pods.  It would be like locking me in a lavatory.  We should respect [dolphins] in the same way that we respect other people.”

The Oscar-nominated The Cove takes us to Taiji, Japan to witness the cruelty of the annual dolphin slaughter, exposes us to the dangers of eating mercury poisoned dolphin meat, and warns us that dolphins behave erratically when they are in captivity.  Richard O’Barry, the famously rueful trainer of “Flipper”, the world’s most famous and favorite dolphin in the 1964 TV series, clearly states that conditions in any holding tanks are likely to drive any dolphin insane.  For one thing, dolphins’ extraordinarily sensitive hearing, which enables them to locate and communicate with each other over miles of ocean, cannot process the sonar assault caused by their confinement tanks’ bare and unbaffled walls.  He also points out that dolphins/whales are among the few wild species in captivity that are forced to perform for their keep.  The 2010 death of veteran SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau, caused by Tilikum, the captive 12,300 lb. male Orca “killer whale,” has reignited the captivity controversy and reminds us of  O’Barry’s policy position (http://www.wesh.com/news/22674574/detail.html). 

The brush of Brancheau’s ponytail against Tilikum’s nose appears to have incited the attack.  Despite Brancheau’s death, SeaWorld will not destroy the largest Orca in captivity.  Russ Rector, a former dolphin trainer in Fort Lauderdale who runs the Dolphin Freedom Foundation says, “Tilikum is a casualty of captivity; it has destroyed his mind and turned him demented.” Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the Humane Society of the United States, says putting Tilikum down is not a solution.  “It’s not his fault what happened, just as it wasn’t Dawn Brancheau’s.  The fault lies with using these wild animals as entertainment—this was an accident waiting to happen”  (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/25/killer-whale-tilikum-drowned-trainer-hair/print). 

The Whale and Dolphin Society said it’s time to recognize that keeping animals up to 26 ft long in small tanks is no longer acceptable.  “The spaces are inadequate, the psychological damage is deep.  There are highly social, long-distance acoustic animals who are harmed by living in concrete pens.” 

O’Barry says the world’s smallest dolphin tank is located in the Taiji Whale Museum in Taiji, Japan.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W49bpPAzQ-Q&feature=player_embedded).  He says the tank is as big as a medium-sized conference room, and named the two dolphins “Sad” and “Lonely” because the two Pan-pacific spotted dolphins are listless and “hanging at the surface of the tank as if they were dead.” 

O’Barry says they suffer from Captive Dolphin Depression Syndrome, or CDDS.  “They will lay like that in the tank, with their head against the walls because they have nothing to do” (http://www.takepart.com/blog-series/cove-watch/2012/01/30/worlds-smallest-dolphin-tank-must-be-closed-says-ric-obarry). 

 Compared to the fact that dolphin pods can swim up to 100 miles a day hunting for food, even the largest aquarium compares to less than 1 percent of their natural environment, cruel and unusual punishment. O’Barry is trying to get the attention of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) into shutting down this tank before it is too late and at the very least transferring these dolphins to a dolphinarium seawater pen a few hundred yards away—where they can receive sunlight and fresh air. 

You can help by signing this petition to shut down the smallest dolphin tank in the world:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/10/shut-down-the-smallest-dolphin-tank-in-the-world/


4/1/12--Update:  According to Ric O'Barry, Director of The Dolphin Project Earth Island Institute, "Sad" and "Lonely" have been moved to a larger, open-air tank.  A lot of the credit is due to mixed martial arts star, Enson Inoue, who personally called the Mayor of Taiji, Kazutaka Sangen, imploring him to move the two spotted dolphins.  According to O'Barry, "While the tank they are now in is not exactly huge, and lacks the stimulus of waves and natural seawater found in the sea pens, it is certainly better than the small dungeon they were locked in before."  (http://savejapandolphins.org/blog/post/partial-victory-sad-and-lonely-are-moved)