I saw a couple of dolphins while I was away being fed by local fisherman but I was never quick enough to get a picture of them! In particular, this post is about the truth behind captive dolphins and why swimming with them is NOT COOL!! I hope you enjoy reading the information as much as I enjoyed gathering it.

First off, it’s important to keep in mind while reading this that Dolphins are mammals just like us. They breathe air using their lungs, give birth to live young and feed their young with milk. Also, like us, they can show signs of severe psychological stress.

A popular TV show in the 60’s called Flipper caused a huge surge in the demand for show dolphins all over the world. Ric O’Barry was the trainer of Flipper. After his dolphin Suzie “committed suicide” in his arms, he stopped training dolphins and is now an animal activist travelling the world to rescue and release captive dolphins back into the wild.

A dolphins’ primary sense is sound. In Taiji, Japan, when dolphins are nearby, fishermen insert poles into the water and bang on them to scare the dolphins into swimming towards the shore. The dolphins are then kept in shallow water overnight through use of a net. The next day, trainers arrive to select which dolphin they wish to keep and they are then relocated all over the world to participate in shows and “once in a lifetime hands-on experiences” for humans. Each dolphin can be sold for up to £100,000. The dolphins that aren’t selected are slaughtered and sold for their meat. This is estimated to be up to 23,000 per year. In Taiji you can watch a dolphin show while eating dolphin meat at the same time.

The average life span of a dolphin in the wild is 45 years. According to the “Dolphin Project”, 53% of dolphins who survive this violent capture die within 90 days. The rest die within 2-5 years of being kept in captivity. They are then replaced. The main causes for the death of captive dolphins are: capture shock, ulcers, chlorine poisoning, pneumonia and other stress-related illnesses. Sea World, one of the most recognised captive dolphin facilities in the U.S., reported 93 dolphin deaths between 1971 and 2002. That’s an average of three dolphins per year, assuming that all dolphin deaths were accounted for.

Dolphins are very sociable creatures and they live and travel in pods of up 12. In the wild they travel up to 40 miles each day however, in captivity, many dolphins are kept in small pools or tanks by themselves for years. They swim in circles around the tank, most often in water filled with their own excrement.

Dolphins are trained by depriving them of food. If a captive dolphin waves to you, it is because they are hungry. They are not saying “hello”. Many people who swim or interact with dolphins as part of a show try to get the perfect picture of them touching or “kissing” the animal. Dolphins are trained to beach themselves for this purpose however, being in this position for an extended period of time on land causes the dolphin’s intense weight to begin to slowly crush its internal organs.

Please don’t fund cruelty to animals. Dolphins don’t belong in captivity. Their home is in the ocean.

Sources:

http://www.wspa-usa.org/wspaswork/oceans/wrongwithswimwithdolphins.aspx

http://www.upmagazine.com/blog/dont-swim-captive-dolphins

http://www.bluevoice.org/index.php

http://dolphinproject.org/blog/post/join-ric-at-eu-anti-captivity-demo-june-28th

Further reading:

http://dolphinproject.org/take-action/to-free-a-dolphin-a-step-by-step-guide-to-dolphin-activism

Interesting documentary “The Cove” which won an Oscar for documentary of the year in 2010:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eknshN_uhM

Time to listen to the children:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEPB6c6UpXo