Information on this page put together by Sara. Thanks for that. But before we get to Sara's stuff, here are some impressions from Guy.

Are humans and dolphins really on the same wavelength? Maybe. Depends who you ask. Plus, it depends whether the dolphin has the liberty to 'go home' at knock off time, like the girl in the wetsuit.

What are these grinning cetaceans really thinking?

Who said that dolphins weren't sentient beings?
This poor bugger is sentient beyond sensibility.

We love dolphins!

We marvel in jealousy at their beauty as they live in harmony within the mystical and mythical realm of the ocean. We love them so much we simply must put them in tanks!
We sit in awe as we learn of the close family bonds these animals share, suggesting they are more like us than we are yet to know. We love them so much we simply must seperate them from their family!We stare is wonder as they express happiness and joy, leaping from the ocean into the air, dashing and twirling beneath the waves. We love them so much we must encourage someone to devoid them of food until they express this elation on demand! We are convinced they feel the connection too, that we are kindred. They love us so much we must pay someone to confine them until they take a photo with us!

We humans are convinced that dolphins feel an affection for us as greatly as we do for them. But how much would you love someone who locked you up for no good reason, put you in a cell a thousand times smaller than the world you know, to bounce between solitary confinement to being forced to co-inhabit a tiny inhospitable home with complete strangers? And how much could you honestly believe your captors loved you back.

Make no mistake - these animals are captives. And should you support the industry you are no better than those who steal them from their family and ther rightful home. The heartless captors from distant lands may throw them in the cell - but it is you who has thrown away the key.

Capture

The process of capturing wild dolphins is a harrowing experience for the innocent beings involved, with the evasion of capture generally achieved only through death. The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society reports that the total number of dolphins accidentally killed during capture drives can never be fully known as the information is not reported, however the mode of capture most commonly used upon Atlantic bottlenose dolphins involves speedboats and seine nets, in which dolphins, in their state of panic, often become entangled and drown.

In 2004 six aquariums were involved in the Futo Drive Fishery in Futo Bay, Japan. Over a period of three hours over 100 bottlenose dolphins were hearded into a bay and cut off from escape with fishing nets. They were left in a state of panic in the overcrowded lagoon, collding repeatedly with each other and slammng their bodes against the nets and boats responsible. They were left there for over 20 hours until aquarium staff came to hand pick females to haul out of the water to throw into the back of pick up trucks to be driven to the airport. Shizuoka Prefecture and the Japan Fisheries Agency stated in a report that of the captives fourteen dolphins were taken to be life-long aquarium captives, one was released with a (far to large!) transmitting tag attached to its dorsal fin, five were slaughtered for 'research' and human consumption, and four were drowned or died of shock.It is believed that for many of those released, in being so injured and weak from the struggle, their very ability to survive once freed was still endangered.

Who meets a better fate
As some dolphins are slaughtered or merely left to die,
others are driven away to become the waking dead we see in dolphinariums.

Photo credits above: CSIWHALESALIVE

Transportation

There are constant accounts of cetaceans dying of stress related illness during and shortly after transportation, either occurring immediately after capture, as seen recently in the Solomon Islands, or after years of captivity, such as the case for the dolphins of the Prospect Reef hotel in Tortola wherein, in September 2001, one of the four dolphins died after transportation to a near-by temporary holding pen and another remained gravely ill for the following months.

Animals Australia reprorts the Solomon Islands is a modern day hot spot for the cetacean slave trade. Wild dolphins are caught and transported for up to two and a half hours in a boat, inflicting severe pain upon the water-borne animals as their internal organs are slowly crushed under their own weight, before being dumped nto three foot deep holding pens in the Gela Islands. It is here they are left until buyers can be found which can be some time as capture often exceeds demand, meaning many meet their death in these primative, over-crowded and disease ridden seapens. The animals are sold to nations as far away as Mexico, requiring they be flown across their ocean home and driven across land to meet their destination. With a recent import of 30 such dolphins into Mexico from the Solomons a total of 15% of the animlas did not survive the journey. This was quickly followed by plans to send another shipment into Japan.

A race against time
As the dolphins are transported by boat from their ocean homes to awaiting tanks it is a race against time
to get them there before the weight of their own bodies crushes them to death

Photo credits above" All Creatures

The entire process is in blatant violation of the CITES (Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species) agreement of which Mexico is a signatory, though as The Solomons are not there is no Managment Authority within the country to ensure even basic levels of care for the animals, the slave traders make the decisions around there.

Rick O'Barry, head marine mammal expert for WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals) reports that the Solomon Islands held, in 2003, up to 200 captured dolphins. This was not only the largest ever capture of wild dolphins, but these animals consisted of one-fifth of all the worlds slave-trade cetaceans, this small nation, through the financial assistance of distant nations and dolphin parks boasting such sponsors as Pepsi, Fuji Film and American Express, increased the worlds captive dolphin numbers by 20% in a matter of months. The fact that this can all happen in a nation where it is taboo to harm a dolphin as the ancient culture teaches of mystic people possessing the power to turn themselves into dolphins, merely displays the influence of the vast and readily available money within this industry. And lets not forget - this is all money that comes out of your pockets!

So far over 400 dolphins have met this fate of being sold into the slave trade illegally by members of the Solomon Island community and there appears to be no evidence of it ceasing within the near future without signficant government and public pressure.

Welcome to your new home

Matters do not improve greatly once they reach ther 'new home'. The horrific experience of capture, if successful, signals the begining of a depleted and harrowing existance for the animals we claim to love so dearly.

The dolphins, once captured, are instantly removed from any natural social and environmental stimuli. The thrill of hunting, so often seen as both a social activity as well as a physical outlet for highly-active beings, is replaced with a diet consisting entirely of long dead fish. Former dolphin captor Jay Sweeney states that force-feeding through a tube is often required until the animals learn to accept and consume the lesser food source.
Over time the dolphins become so starved that even this mediocre food can become a bargaining tool. Kenneth W. La Vasseur, a researcher for over 25 years in the field of marine mammal intellectual capabilities argues that without operant conditioning, the deprivation of food until a set task is performed, captive dolphin shows within oceanariums would simply not be financially viable.

The vast and expansive ocean that was their playground is replaced with a cement and glass tank, offering such little structural variation that their natural echolocation causes them immense discomfort, making even communication with fellow captive dolphins difficult and painful. One example rests in Underwater World Singapore, where the highly endangered pink dolphins, whom exhibit a home range of up to 400sqm in the wild, are placed in tanks no bigger than a basketball court.

The creatures must instantly adjust from living within a close knit pod of related individuals to human 'companionship', a species with whom they can not successfully communicate in a relationship based upon service and 'reward', the rewards being the basic needs for living no creature should be required to earn.

The farce

When the topic of cetaceans in captivity is arroused, those who enjoy the selfish pleasure of seeing dolphins in a tank argue that it provides such a valuable and educational experience! I ask those of you who have visited such concentration camps - what do you remember learning? That they can jump through a a hoop if provoked perhaps? But what of the fact that some Orca found off Canada have been discovered to allocate specific whistle 'names' to the individuals within their pod? Or that brothers within other Orca pods have been found to 'talk and discuss' methods of attack during group hunting? Or that a female bottlenose will spend her entire life within the same pod as her mother? Of course not, why would these trainers want you to know that they call each other by name, or can 'talk' with each other, or spend their entire lives together when these institutions, which you fund, seperate them forever from those with whom they are destined to live, and communicate, and who know them by their real name.

Of course one can then hit back with the argument of captive breeding programmes. Sea World America brags that through successful breeding 50% of their captives, or 40 individuals, were born in the tanks which hold them. What does that really mean?
'Why now not ALL of our animals were stolen from the wild, some of them never even had a taste of it!'
I challenge you to ask how many of them they have released. Will you be disappointed to learn the number is zero, that they have made no attempts? Or elated because it means more animals will be shipped further around the world to provide a greater number of chances of encounter for your, and only your, enjoyment.

These businessmen, I mean 'breeders' and 'scientists', may respond that they need more time to build larger stocks to release, in one 'big bang' if you will. The fact of the matter is over generations of captivity these animals will no longer be viable for release. Hunting behaviour is replaced by the ability to jump through hoops for food. Sadly many rehabilitation efforts have had to be abandoned after it was learnt the animals simply could not provide for themselves in the wild. John Dineley writes in the scientific journal of Zoo-Centum - International Zoo News the the most successful rehabilitation and releases occur when the animal is returned to the region from which it came, as it possesses the same mating and hunting rituals as those with whom it will co-inhabit and has a greater likelihood of being accepted into a pod. The sad fact is this is only significantly true for first generation captives. Further generations must be released with animals it is not only behaviourly but also genetically viable to breed with, with unsuccessful reintroductions to the wild holding negative effects for the local wild popualtions also as the competition for food and space would become greater, they may become a pest species if you will.

The growing trend of artificial insemination has further increased this problem with sperm now being advertised as viable to be sent all over the globe, resulting in attemps to make geographically, behaviourally and genetically isolated species produce offspring, the implications of which can be enourmous not only for rehabilitation efforts but for the resulting offspring themselves.

You may argue that the if we love these animals so much why are we not happy with this breeding success? Because SeaWorld scientists themselves declare that the natural reproductive success of bottlenose dolphins in captivity parallels that of those in the wild. In regards to bottlenose dolphin conservation it is blatant waste of time, money and lives. Please note once more that none of these captive born dolphins have ever been released back into the wild!

As those making the money would tell you - with all the difficulties faced in rehabilitation and reintroduction it is all the more reason to keep them 'safe' in their little prisons. How many times have we heard people argue "If I was a dolphin I would much rather be fed and kept safe from sharks"? Good for you then, go committ a crime worthy of punishment and get yourself locked up in a prison if it sounds so good. One of the very first things we learn about animal behaviour is that hunting and play, and hence enjoyment, are associated. And if sharks were such a great threat then we would not have any wild populations of dolphin to speak of. Rather dolphins, particularly bottlenose and Orca, are observed in the wild to exert the best defense mechanisms against sharks. This makes perfect sense as they have evolved together, this is their true nature.

Yet the farce that captive breeding is for an excuse is shown in its greatest glory in regards to the pink dolphin, Sousa chinensis, of the Pearl River Delta, Hong Kong.

The species is suffering a rapid decline in numbers with estimates ranging from 100 to 1000 individuals and hence Underwater World Singapore laid the claim that by keeping captive pink dolphins to breed they could replenish stocks.However a major implication for captive breeding programmes, as we have previously observed, in the fact that captive stocks present only a small genetic pool, resulting in the 'need' to capture more and more wild dolphins to avoid the high risk of inbreding, further depleting wild populations. There is no guarantee that the loss of each individul will in time replenish the population, or even replace its own loss, for in captivity many dolphin species suffer significant alterations to their natural biological processes, including ovulation, making even artificial insemination a difficult and rarely ever successful task.

There are plans underway to send the genetic material to other countries to build 'breeding stocks' there, whom will no doubt entertain audiences with their tricks as they work to replenish the population. But why send animals of such isolated geographical range to the otherside of the world to breed? Because over there they are a novelty, they are not native, and therefore will bring in the big bucks. Ask yourself; why would they start building populations on the otherside of the world to breed and then pay the millions of dollars it costs to get them back to their native waters? It makes no sense from a conservation or financial standpoint. Why is this money and focus not being paid to protecting the natural habitat from whence it came, and working to resolve the dire conditions leading to their likely extinction?

The lack of breeding success observed in this species may well, in this case, not be solely a result of the dolphins captive state. The wild pink dolphin populations of the Pearl River Delta have also been observed to be breeding less, with dolphin watch operators claiming they are seeing fewer and fewer baby dolphins each year. Given that the region endures some of the heaviest seafarring traffic of anywhere in the world, up tp 25,000 vessels annualy, and flows through a region with up to 57,000 factories and a total of 99 million people, it comes as no suprise that the polluted living conditions are beyond ideal.

Samuel Hung Ka-Yiu, chairman of the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Soceity, who studies the corpses of wild pink dolphins routinely finds they are being poisened by pollution, remarking "Their body tissues are full of toxins: chemical fertilisers, insecticides, heavy metals, the list goes on."

Death by direct human impact
Some argue that rather than direct efforts to cleaning up their habitat, the dolphins should simply be pulled out
and placed into tank homes, that people may 'enjoy them' before they become extinct.

Photo credits above: Dolphin World

But it is reclamation of land, including that needed to build a new international airport, for toursts to come and vsit, ironcally, amongst other things the endagered pink dolphins, that Hung regards the biggest threat to the dolphins survival.

"The reclamations were about the worst blow to the dolphins' habitats because it removed nooks and crannies in the coast that were breeding grounds for the fish that the dolphins eat," says Hung."They are adaptable and can tolerate a lot of things, but it's difficult to survive when one of your main sources of food is removed."

With the harsh living conditions they are faced with, and no clear vision of hope short of a miracle, the dolphins themselves have acknowledged it is time to cease bringing their young into an inhospitable world. In regards to conserving the species the attention must now be paid to the habitat which they depend upon and breeding programmes aimed at wild individuals, ar at least those within the same hemisphere.

So why breed dolphins that can never be returned to the wild from whence they came? Once again what we see is simply a dolphin baby farm to ensure dolphinariums have a constant supply of captives that the vicious cycle may continue.

Everyone loves a dolphin

You may claim that your visit Sea World on the Goldcoast is seperate from all these other cases, you can delude yourself that their living conditions are second to none, though this can only be achieved with a drastic lack of imagination to envisae the world into which the dolphins were actually born and have a right to exist in. However, even with all this aside, as long as companies such as Sea World and other dophinariums are making money in developed nations, those in the underdeveloped world will want to follow suit, and do so in ever more horrendous manners.

The World Society for the Protection of Animals saw a case Mexico in 2001 wherein a man had merely dug a hole, laid down a tarp, filled it with tap water and placed a dolphin he himself caught within it. All this in his own back yard, and all to get a sice of the pie such companies as Sea World enjoy.

As captive breeding requires an extensive knowledge of the animals biology, including the added dificulties the captive state induces such as irregular menstral cycles, as well as great financial access given the growing 'need' for artifcial insemination, which has only recently become successful in limited cases in the lucrative nations of the United States and China, it can safely be assumed that the captive dolphins located within poorer nations were simply obtained by being stolen from the wild and no viable breeding programmes are in place. Given the reduced age epectancy of dolphins in captivity (a dolphin which would live over 40 years in the wild is considered a spectacular success if it survives five years, wth most dying within two!) we can see the trend that those who can care for the animals least display a greater turn over rate, resulting in more and more cetaceans being pulled into the vicious cycle.

This is a lucrative business folks, we know that. But with such business comes great investiment and great financial risk for those involved. Prior to December 1999, UnderWater World in Western Australia boasted three dolphins confined for peoples enjoyment. When all three dolphins died in quick succession various possible causes were investgated and ruled out, from water pollution to heat stress. The autopsy report cited heart attack induce by poison as the cause of death. The most widely held belief remaines that the dolphins were slipped fish laced with an unspecified poison. Whilst police were called in and a criminal investigation held the case was classified as unsolved and laid to rest with no suspects named. The aquarium was quick to sever ties with the dolphins, the shame, and their name and can now be found hiding behind the title 'Aqwa' (Aquarium of Western Australia.)

So if you have been reading this looking in scorn upon the 'savage people of distant lands' who 'do this' to the dolphins remember injustice against dolphins is occurring everywhere in the globe every single day, and without your support of a drastic change will continue to do so.

Further information availbale via these links:

http://www.songofhome.com/DolphinCapture_Solomon-Islands.htm animals australia

http://www.acres.org.sg/news/news_tnp-06jul03.htm

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/06/20/hk.pollution/index.html

http://corruptionfreeanguilla.blogspot.com/2007/12/dolphinarium.html dirty tank pictures

http://your-local-surf.blogspot.com/2007/10/rasta-and-30-surfers-paddle-out-to.html dolphin capture pictures

http://www.eurocbc.org/noise_and_pollution_fx_hk_dolphin_procreation_01nov2004page1729.html

http://www.elsaenc.net/eng/info_e_dolphindf.htm

http://www.reproduction-online.org/cgi/content/full/129/5/659