I was very lucky to be involved in Open Ocean training with Dolphin Quest during my internship there and I’m so happy to see it evolve into what it is today.
Cirrus is a former navy dolphin, so she took to the open ocean very easily and is the one who does the open ocean walks.
When I was there, there was still the netted ocean habitats. The net was there to provide the dolphins with extra security when going out there. But damn that thing was a pain to maintain. That thing needed to be inspected manually on any day ocean habitat training was happening - ensuring there was no damage to it.
Then it had to be cleaned every 6 months and it took a team of interns and trainers two whole days to remove it, clean it and put it back in. That was a loooong two days.
For Ocean Habitat training we were still working on encouraging some of the younger dolphins like Cooper, Marley and Cavello to go out to a netted habitat.
The dolphins were very hesitant and sometimes would bolt back through the tunnel if they felt it was too much. Other dolphins just flat out refused to enter the tunnel entrance lagoon because even that was too much for them.
A lot of people have this idea that dolphins in human care are desperate for more space and would swim off without a second thought. The reality is that the dolphins don’t understand why they should leave the comfort and safety of what they know to be their home and venture into unknown environments. How are they supposed to know that’s actually ~natural~ and ~better~ for them? They don’t care about that, they care about what is reinforcing, what feels safe and where their social groups are.
We literally have to convince them and reinforce them and show them it’s okay and trainers really need to have a good relationship with their animals for this to happen.
Honestly I was so surprised in seeing these reactions and seeing how the dolphins responded to being offered larger habitats. They really just. Didn’t care.
We created a reinforcement history around the open ocean and the ocean habitat. It didn’t offer any intrinsic value and the dolphins only showed interest and motivation in going out there when they were reinforced for it.
Simply being given a bigger area to swim in doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to be happier.
