Should Whales and Dolphins Be Kept in Captivity?
Everyone crowds around the currently empty stadium pool. Children are buzzing with excitement and adults are happy for the perfect day out with their kids. A trainer steps onto the stage at the back of the pool and smiles in front of the audience. She whistles and suddenly a huge killer whale swims out of an enclosure behind the stadium and leaps up into the air. The whale splashes onlookers completely wet. Everyone is amazed as more orcas enter the pool and perform acrobatic stunts, ending with a resounding splash. Then, the whales jump onto a platform at the front of the pool and raise their flukes in the air. The trainer explains to everyone about conservation and protecting orcas in the wild. But is this the whole truth? Or is it just a mask to cover up the fact that we continue to exploit whales and dolphins for financial gain?
Humans really feel a connection to dolphins because they are playful and intelligent.
Dolphins & Humans
Humans have long had an obsession with whales and dolphins. Like us, they have families, culture, games and some studies have shown they may even gossip like us! Each pod of dolphins is different displaying characteristics such as unique hunting techniques, this makes them fascinating for humans to both observe and study. Because of all these things, many people want to see these incredible creatures up close which creates a market for a multi billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry. The first dolphinarium was Boston Aquarial Gardens, which was established in 1859. After that, two beluga whales were captured from their arctic home for Barnum’s American Museum so people could see the animals in a more accessible place. At first, everyone was stunned by the intelligence and talent of whales and dolphins. More and more people started attending aquariums and marine parks. The dolphinarium business was starting to grow, growth which continues today. But at what cost?
Swimming with dolphins in captivity is becoming increasingly popular in tourism.
The Capture
Many dolphinariums like to hide the fact that whales and dolphins in their facilities were at some point in their lives taken from the wild and their pod of loved ones. An example of this is Tillikum, the largest orca ever kept in captivity. When he was a calf he lived in a pod with his family in Iceland until a boat threw a net over him and separated him from his family. Then, he was hauled onto a boat and was put onto an uncomfortable rubber hammock. After that, he was loaded into a crate to be shipped to MarineLand Of the Pacific. Often when capturing orcas there is usually a boat as well as a seaplane or a drone. The orcas will try and flee and the males will trick the hunting boat into following them while the females, mothers and calves will swim in another direction. But the aircraft will spot them from above because the whales have to resurface to breathe. Because orcas are so large when they are adults, vendors always want to capture the calves because they are relatively small.
Spectators view beluga whales at Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta.
Training Dolphins: The Dark Truth
When you go to any marine park or dolphinarium, and you see the smiling trainers performing amazing tricks with the dolphins, you may be thinking, “Gosh, it seems amazing to be a dolphin trainer”, or, “I would love to be a dolphin trainer one day,” but there is a secret behind training whales and dolphins. First of all, you can often see that dolphins will perform in reward for fish. The majority of dolphinariums often deprive the animals of their food so they will be desperate enough to perform tricks and stunts in front of an audience. Trainers often like to talk about how they ‘showcase the natural behaviors of this species’, but many tricks, like twirling around out of the water, are just not what they say. In dolphin and whale shows, they often perform cruel tricks that don’t seem like what they are. Standing on a dolphin’s beak, ( which is a sensitive part of the dolphin’s body ) can cause damage and infection to it, and many vendors are unaware of this. Another trick that dolphins as well as beluga whales perform involves a rubber boat and a small volunteering child. The animals have to pull the boat along even though it is extremely uncomfortable for them in reward for a small portion of fish. It may look like innocent family fun, but for the dolphins, it is work.
An orca performs at SeaWorld San Diego in California.
Swimming With Dolphins
On many people’s bucket lists, swimming with dolphins is at the top. Many marine parks and aquariums have dolphin encounters, where you can swim with dolphins and pet them. They will usually push you along, splash water in your face and somersault out into the water in front of you. While to many this is a fun and memorable experience, for the dolphins, it is not. We are breaking into the only home that the dolphins have. They cannot escape from us in their limited space. They don’t want to interact with us, they have to for food. So does it make it enjoyable for the dolphins, too?
Dolphin Petting Pools
The scene is at SeaWorld. Everyone crowds round a small pool as dolphins whistle and click at the spectators. Children tease the dolphins with small pieces of fish they have purchased at the stall nearby. But what's the secret behind these dolphins? Many people don’t wonder why these dolphins are desperate for the fish we give them in these environments. They are deliberately starved of all their food so they will beg, or as staff says, ‘wanting to be petted’, and eat the small portion of fish. Near petting pools are stands that sell a small portion of fish to feed the dolphins. The dolphins are so starved and desperate that they will be petted for a reward of a small fish.
Lolita, the whale at Miami Seaquarium, was about to be released into the wild before her death a few days before the release.
Vendors Around the World
The most popular vendors to see dolphins in captivity can vary in different continents. In Tenerife, Loro Parque is a zoo with hundreds of different species. It has tigers, gorillas, penguins and sea lions. They also have bottlenose dolphins and killer whales. It was voted the best modern zoo on trip advisor, and many airlines to the Canaries sell tickets to the facility. The bottlenose dolphins live in a tank the size of a swimming pool with fake rocks and palm trees everywhere. These nine dolphins are kept in this small environment where they can’t escape from each other. The killer whales for the park were imported to the park from SeaWorld. SeaWorld is a theme park in 3 locations in the United States. One in Orlando, the largest city in Florida, another in San Diego, California and the third in San Antonio, Texas. SeaWorld was also the first ever marine park to keep orcas in captivity. They first caught orcas from the southern population in Seattle. After that, the government there banned capturing orcas for aquariums. Then the orca capturing business started in Iceland. This was where they caught Tillikum, the largest marine mammal ever kept in captivity. Many people started coming to these parks where they could see such amazing animals up close. But the park kept having problems. Back to Tillikum, this orca is probably the most infamous. After being restricted to only the same four walls, he was getting very enraged and led to three fatalities among two park workers and one citizen. The first was Keltie Lee Byrne, who worked at SeaLand of the Pacific. This is where Tillikum used to be. Another was a man named Daniel P. Dukes who snuck into the park without supervision from any park staff. Probably the most shocking incident was the death of Dawn Brancheau, who was Tilikum's chief trainer. At a Dine With Shamu presentation, the whale pulled her in by the ponytail and dragged her under the water. The whale had a habit of pulling people under the water, presumably from being restricted to a small space to live in. Incidents with dolphins can happen too. At SeaWorld, at the dolphin petting pool, a young girl who was teasing a dolphin with a small portion of fish, got bitten when the dolphin got so frustrated. Unnatural aggression between whales can form this way.
Bottlenose dolphins are one of the most popular species to keep in zoos and aquariums.
How You Can Help
For many people, seeing a whale or a dolphin is amazing for the first time. But it’s even more unforgettable in the wild. Many marine parks rely on tourists purchasing tickets as an attraction, but you can also see wild whales in similar areas. This doesn't just slow down the business of the captive whale industry, but it supports small businesses who want to educate customers about real marine life. If you ever get the opportunity to see a wild whale or dolphin, take that chance, and the memories of it will stay with you forever.
