#anticaptivity

Recently, Empty the Tanks - Capitulo México volunteers went to investigate dolphinariums within the state of Quintana Roo, a tourism hotspot where you can find places such as Cancun and Cozumel. Shockingly, this small area has 19 marine parks that profit off of the exploitation of cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises).

In an article from the Dolphin Project, founder of Empty the Tanks, Rachel Carbary, describes what volunteers found at “Delphinus”, a company that operates several marine parks in the region under the same brand name. Poor water quality, pollution in the animals environment, blatant falsities to guests in regards to how dolphin family units work, noise pollution and shockingly small tank size were just some of what volunteers found.

Dolphins were documented to have abrasions on their rostrums at a location in Playa Mujeres due to the constant foot work that occurs in dolphin interactions. At another location in Cancun, the cetaceans were found to have excessive rake marks (teeth on skin gashes) across their bodies:

“Rake marks such as what we see on the dolphins in captivity are well beyond what is seen or documented in the wild. There is a Delphinus facility inside The Interactive Aquarium in Cancun, and there were obvious signs of tank mate bullying taking place there. On each of the visits to that location, volunteers witnessed a single dolphin being bullied so badly it would jump out of the water and onto the edge of the tank to get away from the other dolphins. Again, in the wild these animals have the entire ocean when they need to flee, but in captivity they are trapped.”

This, of course, referring to the various “Dolphin Encounter” programs offered by marine parks, and the state of the enclosures that cetaceans are currently house in.

First, let’s briefly tackle how Dolphin Encounter programs work.

You shell out a bit of extra money plus the cost of your day ticket to feed and/or swim* with the dolphins. The less expensive feeding option gives you a tray of fish to give to the dolphins.

*Depending on the facility, there is little to no actual swimming with the dolphins. You will get in the water with them in a wetsuit on an underwater platform and the trainer accompanying your group will go through a set routine and allow each of the guests to feed, touch, and possibly get towed by the dolphin. A photographer employed by the park is sometimes present to take pictures of the guests.

What are the risks?

Aside from being stressful and dangerous for the dolphins, there are health and safety risks for the guests involved. Zoonotic diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia can be passed between people and dolphins, and the water that the dolphins live in also happens to be the same water that the dolphins excrete (eg. poop and pee) in. Ingesting any amount of the dolphin water could lead to infection, such as MRSA or bacillary dysentery.

Aside from the risks to your health, there are the risks of injury. One of the more well-known cases of a park guest experiencing dolphin-inflicted injury is the young girl that got bitten by a dolphin at SeaWorld’s Dolphin Cove.

The conclusion that most people came to in this case was that the dolphin got excited at the sight of the tray (which I believe you are supposed to keep out of the dolphin’s view, hence the angled border of the pool) and subsequently lunged for it and caught the girl’s arm in the process.

In this video, a dolphin lunges in frustration after being repeatedly teased by the guest holding the fish just out of reach, in order to pose for a picture.

This video shows Silvana Straccia, a swimming with dolphins at Bavaro Beach in Punta Cana. Starting around 2:20 in the video, one dolphin appears to strike Straccia in the face with it’s tail, and another rams her.

She explains in the video description: “ while the first one throws me water in the eyes, the other one comes behind and hits my chest, and sank me under the water. “ She was in the hospital for 8 weeks for broken cartilage, and claims that she was made to sign a form saying that any accidents to happen were not the fault of the park: “ They do the same routine every 20 mins surrounded by strangers, with noise, and orders.. non stop!!.. I was told that if he had hitted me with the nose I would not be alive.. so i was quite lucky in the end. Poor them.. who is the silly one??.. Us.. I will never do it again, and not for the hit. Nobody should and their business would be ended. THey earn a fortune with no responsabilities, as they made me sign a paper before entering, not being responsible for any ACCIDENTS! so you cant claim... “

A dolphin swim experience in Miami. A dolphin charges at the man shown in the video and bites his forearm. It stops underwater in front of him, then heads back to the direction it came from, and appears to strike him with it’s tail flukes. The man floats on his belly and says “He bit me.” From the video description:

“Dolphin attacks my son while on summer holiday in Miami. South African family. Just come across this video from our holiday in Miami, Florida, and it made me feel sick as the day it happened and decided to post it onto Youtube, so you can see the ugly side of swimming with dolphins, don't think it's all fun. Be careful and remember, it's a business they're running. “

Another incident that I have to link because tumblr doesn’t want me to embed more than 5 videos: “Dolphins attack Josie” - 2 dolphins bite a woman during a “swim-with” session.

Captive cetaceans aside, wild cetaceans acting aggressively towards humans is not entirely unheard of. In fact, in many areas, entering the water with and/or touching wild cetaceans is illegal due to the risks to both human and animal.

“Dusty” the dolphin was a local celebrity of sorts in Doolin, Ireland. Here he is displaying quite aggressive body language via tail-slapping several times before ramming the woman in the water. From the video description, “The dolphin is believed to have struck the woman in the kidney area with its nose, leaving her winded and shouting to be rescued.”

Dusty apparently frequently injured people.

Tumblr won’t let me embed more than 5 videos on a post, so here are more links to wild cetacean-human aggression.

"When Dolphins attack” - 2 wild dolphins harass a woman and the person filming.

"Wild Dolphin Attacks Swimmers In US Town” - A wild dolphin bites multiple people in a canal.

“Pilot Whale Attack - original version” - A man and woman jump into the water with wild pilot whales, even touching one. One of the whales grabs the woman by the leg a drags her under. They were fined $10,000, but battled it for 3 years and the claim was dismissed.

You can point your finger at the people getting hurt by wild dolphins and say “Of course they got hurt, they shouldn’t have been in the water!” What does that say about marine park’s swim-with programs?

You've probably seen those posts on Facebook and Twitter. You know, the ones that display elephants, tigers, bears, and other large mammals preforming in traveling circuses under appalling conditions. What one wouldn't expect is to see dolphins - oceanic mammals - being used for this same practice. That is what is happening in Indonesia, where around 72 bottlenose and stenella dolphins are used in these rundown attractions. 

More often than not, the three main companies which control this business (Wersut Seguni Indonesia, Taman Safari Indonesia, and Ancol) illegally capture the animals from the ocean. Once placed into captivity, the dolphins are then destined for a life of endless travel. They are driven from town to town in the back of trucks along empty roads; water falling out of their small tanks over a period of up to 30 hours. At each location they are unloaded like products into grossly undersized plastic pools, preforming for a demanding public who payed mere pennies to see them. 

Due to stress of the transportation and the poor conditions they are kept in, the dolphins subjected to this cruelty will often die young. Not only that, but non-cetaceans are also subject to the abuse of traveling circuses. Orangutans, sun bears, small clawed otters, and yellow-crested cockatoos are just a few of the many species that are used alongside the dolphins.