Dolphin interaction/swim programmes

Swimming with dolphins may be a dream for you, but what about the dolphins?

Click on image to read the Marine Connection leaflet 'Swimming with Dolphins'

Few people taking part in 'swim with dolphins' experiences are aware of how the facility obtained the animals or the effects captivity has on the animal involved.

Dolphins (and whales) continue to be captured from the wild to stock many facilities. Although some dolphins and whales are born in captivity, breeding programmes cannot keep up with demand for replacement animals or to stock new facilities, therefore captures from the wild continue. During the capture procedure dolphins have to endure being chased, netted and lifted into small boats or driven into shallow bays for capture and transport or held in small, crowded holding pens until they are "selected". Witnesses have observed exhausted and frightened dolphins become entangled in the nets and die and also pregnant females aborting their calves.

Captures continue for two reasons only - profit and demand
Dolphin traders and dolphin facilities make huge amounts of money by removing animals from the wild, with a single dolphin earning up to $2,000 (£1,150) per day for its new "owner". In 2003 dolphins were captured from the wild population in the Solomon Islands after a western dealer offered local fishermen a bounty for each dolphin taken alive. The fishermen were paid a minimal amount for the animals, however the trader sold these animals on to Parque Nizuc in Cancun for a reported $46,000 (£26,000) per dolphin, some of these died in transit and others after arrival in Mexico. If people did not visit captive facilities these captures would stop - so we urge you not to unknowingly support this by swimming with dolphins or whales in captivity and leave them in the wild with their families where they belong.

Wild captures endanger the future of dolphin populations
Young, breeding age female dolphins are the usual target for dolphin traders which can greatly effect wild populations. Dolphins live in highly complex social groups (known as pods), ties with their families are maintained for life, with young males moving out of their family group to breed, but have been reported "visiting" their family pods frequently. They have highly extended social units and it is common for "aunts" or "sisters" to help look after and protect new born and young calves. To remove a breeding female from a group therefore endangers not only calves still dependent on their mothers for food and protection, but also the gene pool for that pod in the future.

Animals held in sea pens suffer just as much as those in pools
Some facilities will claim that a sea pen is much better for the animals than a concrete pool, again this is a false argument. The water may be natural sea water, however the amount of sewage created by dolphins in just one day (a dolphin weighing 450lbs will generate 5 times as much urine and faeces as an average human), cannot effectively be swept away by tidal flow -therefore both the dolphins and human participants are in danger from untreated sewage which gathers at the bottom of these pens.

Dolphins have been known to attack participants and each other
Held in confinement in unnatural and cramped conditions compared to that of their wild counterparts, dolphins (and whales) can become bored and aggressive. With no way of escape from constant demands on them, they have been known to attack as a means of defence.

Disease can be transferred from dolphins to humans and vice versa
Anyone coming into close contact with a marine mammal risks infection. One way disease can easily spread is via the "spray" from the blow hole from any contaminants in the water. One particularly dangerous pathogen is "pseudomonas pseudomalle", known to cause respiratory disease in humans and also serous wound infections which can result in fatal septicaemia.

Injuries relating to swim with dolphin programmes