Dolphins
in Captivity, Are We Doing More Harm Than Good?
Pamela
Campbell
The majority of us have probably at one time or another been to Sea World
or some place like it and witnessed the shows put on by the dolphins and
trainers; did you stop to wonder how the dolphins feel?
To most of us that thought never crossed our minds; and rightly so if you
were five years old. And to most,
our daily lives are not much affected by this thought.
However, there are two different opinions on holding marine mammals in
captivity. The people working for the big corporations like Sea World are most
certainly animal lovers, but are the dolphin’s best interests always in the
forefront of their plans?
One of the many mammals affected is the bottlenose dolphin, probably the
most recognized mammal at these parks by children and adults alike.
Tursiops truncates, or
bottlenose dolphins belong to the order Cetacea, suborder Odontoceti
(toothed whales). They are found in
temperate and tropical waters throughout the world. They can grow to be about 8
feet in length and can weigh up to 600 pounds.
These mammals have pectoral flippers, which help steer them, flukes which
propel them through the water, and a dorsal fin which is believed to help in
stability (seaworld.com). These
mammals form tight social units called pods, which are usually comprised of the
females and their calves. The males
are usually observed alone, in pairs, or sometimes swimming with groups of
females. The gestation time for a bottlenose dolphin is 12 months (seaworld.com).
The question is how a dolphin’s life may differ in captivity from that
in the wild. The most basic
conditions that change are their environment and the way they provide for
themselves. They go from a huge
wide-open ocean to an enclosed area off the coast or a tank filled with
chlorinated seawater and from being self sufficient, foraging on their own, to
being hand fed by their trainer. What are the consequences for these mammals
locked up in captivity? Are we doing more harm than good?
A quote from the Marine Mammal Conservancy sums up the arguments of the
animal rights conservation groups who do not believe that we should have the
right to make mammals like the dolphins perform tricks just for our
entertainment, “the exploiting of animals for our entertainment is unwanted,
unnecessary, and outdated”. The
people arguing for the marine parks would say the shows are important for the
dolphin’s stimulation (theaterofthesea.com).
The swim-with-dolphin programs; are they healthy for the dolphins or
merely a money-making scheme? Conservationists
believe these kinds of programs are merely ways to commercially exploit the
dolphins (Donoghue 1990). Marine
life aquaria, such as the non-profit Dolphin Research Center in Florida say
these programs are a necessary means to obtain funding. Are the dolphins paying for our pleasure with their lives or
is it in their nature to entertain us? It
certainly seems that we are sustaining these animals primarily for
entertainment, but is it possible they are happy to be around humans?
Of course the dolphins will never be able to answer this question, but
maybe we can learn from the clues they may give their trainers.
Health risks are a major concern when it comes to captive populations of
dolphins and other mammals. How do
these compare to the health concerns of the wild populations?
Both populations inevitably will be affected by disease and old age.
The open ocean bears its own risks for these animals, such as pollution,
hunting and fishing practices, all of which are brought about by humans, not to
mention natural predation. How do
the health risks change by being in an aquarium?
First, the water they live in is not that of their natural environment,
although some aquaria, such as in the Florida
Keys, keep their dolphins in a netted area of the sea.
Unfortunately, most tanks are built of concrete and chlorinated to keep
them free of algae. In the process
of training a group of dolphins to be reintroduced into the wild, the chlorine
was removed from their tank, subsequent algae growth made it hard to observe the
dolphins, so the practice was discontinued.
It was noted that there was no change in the dolphin’s behavior due to
the removal of the chlorine (Waples 1998).
In addition to unnatural water conditions, the people watching them all
day affect dolphins. Oftentimes the
tanks are not big enough, especially in smaller aquaria, for the dolphins to
escape the noises of the large crowds (Donoghue 1990).
Within only 50 days of acquiring 3 bottlenose dolphins at the National
Aquarium in Baltimore, the animals had to be flown back to the Dolphin Research
Center in Florida. It was found that there was no place for the dolphins to
escape the crowds and noise in order to feel more at ease. The dolphins, in an attempt to escape the noise fled to a
corner of the tank near filters, making the noise pollution even worse.
They were diagnosed with gastro-intestinal ulcers at the Dolphin Research
Center (Donghue 1990).
Dolphins are mammals that are capable of swimming up to hundreds of miles
in a straight line up and down the coasts (Interview with Naomi Rose,
Frontline). Obviously there are
huge restrictions put on these mammals enclosed in a concrete tank, and as of
now no one knows how the space constraint affects the captured dolphin.
A story from Cousteau’s book entitled Dolphins mentions how they
were observing a formerly captive dolphin swimming with wild dolphins, and it
was noted that he was always the first to resurface. This was interpreted as an indicator of his poorer fitness
level compared to the wild dolphins that were used to swimming long distances at
a time. Along with being fast
swimmers, dolphins also have an acute sense of hearing associated with their
echolocation (seaworld.com). In a
concrete tank this navigational tool is useless, as Naomi Rose of the Humane
points out in her interview with Frontline.
Again this is an area where not much, if any, data are available, and
more research is needed. As of now this is just part of the argument voiced by
the opponents of marine parks.
Another element that can be argued in favor of either the marine parks or
the conservation groups is the survival rate of newborn calves.
Most conservation groups will say that the parks have been struggling to
keep their breeding populations up and therefore have to rely on capturing wild
dolphins. According to Naomi Rose,
a marine mammologist, the marine parks’ survival rates as compared to the wild
are merely the same and sometimes even worse.
She questions why, with all the health care and food and the absence of
the hardships of the wild, the survival rates are not much greater?
She says it comes down to the mother’s health; they are under too much
stress to have healthy calves (Frontline interview 1998). The marine parks on
the other hand take pride in their breeding programs adding that especially the
bottlenose dolphin program is doing well. The
Discovery Cove, a park owned by Sea World informs people that they have had 4
calves born in their park since July of 2000.
Recall the gestation period of a bottlenose dolphin is 12 months; this
would indicate a good survival rate. Yet
places like Sea World are constantly being questioned about taking mammals from
Japanese dive fisheries and the like (Frontline interview with Jim McBain).
The general public may never know how many wild animals need to be caught
to compensate for dying or sick dolphins.
There are significant reasons to believe that dolphins are put at risk by
living in captivity, so why is it being done?
The conservation groups will argue it is purely for the money (hsus.com),
but there are non-profit organizations that hold dolphins captive. The big
marine parks argue that there is also a lot of money spent on research and
education (McBain interview). The
research is an important argument for pro-captivity by aquaria, and everything
we have learned about the bottlenose dolphin stems from the captive populations
(McBain interview). The flip side
of that argument is if the findings can be applied to the animals in the wild.
The only aspect of this debate that is agreed upon by both sides is the
educational value of parks like Sea World and other aquaria. People are able to learn about mammals they may never see in
the wild. Jim McBain, director of Veterinary Medicine at Sea World feel that
people need that up close personal contact with the dolphins or other mammals to
receive a lifetime impression. “This
is how conservation is really going to happen, by people getting empathy for an
issue”, says McBain. The
conservation groups agree that the educational value of these programs is true,
but feel that there is a different way to teach our children about nature.
They believe children can get the same experience by reading a book about
the dolphins or watching a documentary. They
believe the mammals will be saved through habitat conservation not by being
locked up in a tank.
One
last element of this debate is the reintroduction of mammals from captivity into
the wild. Most conservationists say
that any dolphin, with the right training can be reintroduced into the wild (hsus.com).
In reality this deprogramming of the dolphins is extremely time consuming
and expensive. In fact there are some dolphins that are not going to be good
candidates for release, says McBain in his interview with Frontline.
These dolphins have been in captivity too long and have become too
dependent upon humans. Marine biologist Kelly Waples had a first hand experience
with nine dolphins from an aquarium in Western Australia that was shut down due
to financial reasons. The decision
was made to release all dolphins into the open ocean after training.
Four of the nine were believed to be doing well in the wild; however
three of the nine could not survive on their own and were constantly seen
depending on humans for food. It was decided that their health had declined too
much; they were recaptured and sent to another aquarium.
Two juveniles were thought to have perished.
As you can see there are pros and cons to reintroducing dolphins into the
wild and there really does not seem to be much of a clear-cut answer. The ones
that live in captivity may not be able to survive in the wild, what would their
fate be if all aquaria were shut down? On
the other hand, if there are dolphins that are perfectly capable of surviving in
the wild, why should they still be in captivity? Obviously, as long as dolphins
are held in captivity, the controversy will continue.
Works
Cited (web pages accessed Dec. 2003)
Cousteau,
Jacques & Diole, Philippe. Dolphins,
The Undersea Discoveries of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
Garden City, NY: Doubleday
& Company, Inc., 1974.
Donoghue,
Michael & Wheeler, Annie. Save
the Dolphins. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Sheridan House, 1990.
www.dolphin.org
http://www.dolphintrainer.com/
Leatherwood,
Stephen & Reeves, Randal, eds. The
Bottlenose Dolphin. San Diego:
Academic Press, 1990.
McBain,
Jim and Andrews, Brad. Interview.
A Whale of a Business.
Frontline online. 1998
http://www.marinemammalconsv.org
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/whales/talk/
Waples, Kelly. The Atlantis Marine Park Project, A Whale of a Business. Frontline online. 1998.