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| General arguments FOR dolphin captivity |
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- Captive dolphins are ambassadors for their species...
- Dolphins can only be studied through research works carried out on captive dolphins...
- Captive dolphins can get everything in their high-quality artificial living environment...
- Dolphinaria are usually engaged in rescuing and rehabilitating stranded or injured dolphins...
- Maintaining endangered dolphin species in captivity saves them from the brink of extinction...
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Captive dolphins are ambassadors for their species. Displaying the captive dolphins can raise public awareness on this kind of creature, and therefore enhance conservation of the wild populations. Therefore, benefits to the entire species outweigh the loss of freedom and welfare experienced by the captive ambassadors. |
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You may be surprised that, but the truth is, the above argument has no scientific grounds. |
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| In the foreign countries, a poll called “Public attitudes towards aquariums, animal theme parks and zoos” has been conducted. It found that most of the respondents believed that the oceanaria did serve a vital role in education and conservation. A number of such parks held some educational and conservation programmes indeed, but the effects of the programmes are never systematically assessed. A couple of assessing criteria including number of attendants, type of activities held and amount of resources allocated are helpful in evaluating the programmes, but are unable to guarantee their quality. |
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| Let's get in more deeply: what kind of messages do the captive dolphins convey to the public? To learn more about this, take me as a paradigm. Just like majority of HK people, aquarium is where I first met dolphin when I was still a kid. But in fact I knew nothing about dolphins, except the fact that they are charming and clever. And I still thought bottlenose dolphin was the only dolphin species in the world when I was a teenager! See how ignorant I was! This was not until in late 1990s did I finally realize there were other dolphin species residing in HK water. I am convinced that this is the case for most HK people. |
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| This is how a dolphinarium is run: to entertain the spectators with dolphin tricks without even touching on the topic of dolphin knowledge and ecology. Have you ever heard a narrator of a dolphin show tell his/her audience the global distribution, natural behaviour and population status of bottlenose dolphins or orcas (killer whales)? How many viewers learn that the orca is actually a dolphin, not a whale, after watching a dolphin performance? If a spectator learns nothing about dolphins after attending a programme, can the programme really be considered “educational”? Sometimes panels introducing dolphin biology and distribution are hung in the vicinity of a dolphin pool - but the number of people who really pay attention to the panels remains a question. |
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| What's worse, dolphin shows can provide false or even misleading information to the public. Dolphins in aquaria are usually trained by humans to perform all sorts of “intriguing” tricks like touching a hanging ball with their beak, waving to onlookers with flukes and jumping across obstacles. Sadly, not many people realize that this has already seriously distorted the natural behaviour of dolphins. These dolphin shows are so impressive that most watchers believe all dolphins, including wild ones, do routinely perform, or even love to perform tricks. |
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| Feed-the-dolphin programme leads to more severe consequences. For a number of times I have come upon people who would like to feed the wild dolphins in the sea during dolphin watching tours. They are greatly convinced that wild dolphins are keen on seeking fish-feed from human hands. Obviously, they have no idea that wild dolphins never prefer dead and frozen fish. They eat those fish just because there is no living alternative. |
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| Aquaria do provide an opportunity for people to know and care more for dolphins, but in that the dolphins are only creatures crafted by the aquaria, rather than genuine dolphins. Is this the “education” we humans desire? |
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| In fact, with the blooming dolphin-watching activities held in nature, aquaria are no longer the only place where people can get a closer look at these fascinating marine mammals. Should you attend a high-quality dolphin-watching tour, it is for certain that you can see the natural side of the dolphin, and acquire accurate knowledge of them. |
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Various aspects of dolphins, including their physiology, intelligence and behaviours, can only be studied through research works carried out on captive dolphins. |
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It is undeniable that a great deal of research concerning dolphin anatomy, physiology and behaviour are based on captive dolphins, which enhance our knowledge of this kind of animal. However, the key issue here is not science, but ethics. Is all the research crucial enough to sacrifice the freedom of dolphins? For instance, now we realize that the IQ of dolphins is fairly high. Do we humans need to go on further? And does the work contribute much to wild dolphin conservation, and even to human fortune? These are what researchers should consider.
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| In addition, captive dolphins cannot provide all the answers. For example, captive dolphins cannot exhibit a full range of behaviour as their wild counterparts do, like playing, hunting, migration, mating and nursing their young. We will never be able to get a full picture of the natural behaviour of dolphins from the captive subjects. |
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| According to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), over half of the research on captive dolphins around the globe is carried out by professional dolphin institutes. Most of these institutes will only retain dolphins in their tanks for a short period, after which the animals will be set free. And the dolphins are never trained to perform tricks for entertainment. Their dignity is respected. On the other hand, commercial aquaria have accomplished a number of dolphin research projects, which, however, focus mainly on improving dolphin husbandry techniques. This has nothing to do with wild dolphin welfare. So you will see captive dolphins are not essential for scientific research. |
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| With the exception of freedom, captive dolphins can get everything in their high-quality artificial living environment: their health status is always closely monitored by veterinarians, they can have an endless supply of food, and they can be barred from all the risks they have to face in the sea. |
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| This is the argument most often raised by dolphin captivity advocates. But think carefully. Are we sure the dolphins really appreciate what we offer them? Would they be willing to give up their freedom for a living environment of higher quality? Certainly we will never be able to obtain the real answer from the animals. What is more definite is that, wild dolphins have been living well and propagating in the ocean for ages, despite the lack of human care. Yes, they do have to face a series of problems in nature, including being attacked by predators, and migrating annually for food. But don't forget, they have already adapted to this kind of living, and hence bear the ability to deal with it. Inevitably some weaker individuals die of natural hazards, but this is the normal consequence of natural selection. It is unnecessary for us to interrupt how nature runs by “rescuing” the dolphins to a captive environment. |
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| Moreover, we are not sure if the artificial living environment is really of high quality to the dolphins. In the concrete tank of aquaria, what a captive dolphin can see is a pool of blue. This is nothing comparable to the diverse oceanic environment they originally lived in. In captivity, dolphins can never feed on live prey, play with their mates or travel the seas. Instead, they have to eat frozen dead fish, and be spared from their companions. Try to be considerate. Could you stand living in a beautiful and elaborate room, where home service is available, but never stepping out of it? If this not the way of life you prefer, why would you think the dolphins enjoy it? |
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| Besides, there is no evidence that dolphins in captivity are healthier. Despite intensive veterinary care, many captive dolphins are still subject to, and even die of, a larger number of diseases. |
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Dolphinaria are usually engaged in rescuing and rehabilitating stranded or injured dolphins. Displaying captive dolphins helps subsidy the dolphin rescue project. |
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Utilizing artificial environment though, rehabilitation of stranded dolphin is different to dolphin captivity. In fact, quite a number of voluntary dolphin hospitals can be found all over the world. They mainly aim at rescuing and rehabilitating stranded or injured dolphin, but never display or train them to make money. Moreover, these laboratories will return the recovered dolphins back to sea and monitor their post-release conditions for scientific purposes, while commercial aquaria seldom do so.
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| What's more, according to some statistics, dolphin itself is already well-admired enough to raise much publicity and hence donation to support the operation of dolphin hospital, suggesting that rehabilitation operation is not essentially supported by dolphin shows. |
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| Maintaining endangered dolphin species in captivity saves them from the brink of extinction. The technique of captive breeding developed from abundant species can even be applied on the captive stock of the threatened ones, with an aim to reintroduce the successfully bred individuals to the nature. This surely contributes much to conservation of wild population. |
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| In 2001, two bottlenose dolphins were successfully bred in HK, using the technique of artificial insemination. Scientists were greatly delighted by that news, saying that captive breeding of dolphins was feasible. They argue that the technique can be applied to the captive stock of the threatened species, with the aim of reintroducing the successfully bred individuals to the wild, which can contribute much to conservation of wild population. It is not bad if techniques of artificial breeding can be applied to endangered dolphin species. Unfortunately, no such case has happened so far, in the whole world. |
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| The renowned baiji can tell you more. The Baiji is a freshwater dolphin exclusively occurring in the Yangtze River in China. It is a critically endangered species with the wild population no more than 100 individuals. Since the 1980s, researchers in mainland China have been capturing wild baiji in the hope of breeding them by artificial means. However, they have not once been successful in the past two decades. The main problem is, the number of wild baiji is so low that it is difficult to spot them in the river, not to mention capturing them. Indeed, several baijis have been caught in previous years, but apart from one, all passed away soon after they were caught. (The remaining one died too in July 2002) So you can see, trying to apply a captive breeding technique to endangered dolphin species is just pie in the sky. |
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| Furthermore, is artificial breeding a genuine solution to species extinction? The problem leading to their extinction results from all sorts of human activities, like water pollution, net entanglement and loss of habitat. If all these environmental threats are not lessened, it is meaningless to breed any endangered dolphin in captivity. Even if the captive subject is reintroduced into the wild, do you think they can survive in the deteriorating environment? Actually the only efficacious way to save the threatened dolphin is to protect and improve their habitats, not to avoid the real problem by means of removing the animals from the nature. |
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