So you’re dreaming of swimming with dolphins?

Know the facts before you live out your ambition - your dream is a nightmare for the dolphins.

The Marine Connection has produced a new leaflet to raise awareness and advise people on the risks to human and dolphin participants from swim with the dolphin programmes.

Click here to view the leaflet on swimming with dolphins

Summer is in sight and people are booking their summer holidays - many tour operators continue to sell excursions to captive dolphin facilities to swim with the dolphins. However, many serious and damaging issues surrounding swimming with dolphins often go unnoticed and unreported to the public.

From injuries and diseases for human participants to stress and psychological problems for the dolphins, "swim-with" programmes are not the "unique experience" which many people are hoping for. These programmes are heavily contrived, the dolphins will be trained and will not act "naturally" around you, they will simply react to their trainer for a piece of dead fish. An encounter with a captive dolphin is an illusion, a Disney performance; the dolphins will not exhibit natural abilities and the encounter will be far from unique - the next queue of people will have an identical experience.

Below: Dolphin at Ocean World Adventure Park, Dominican Republic	Ocean World Adventure Park is one of many facilities offering swimming with the dolphin. TUI/Thomson still sells excursions here despite the fact they recently ordered 12 more dolphins for their swim programme from the brutal Japanese drive hunts, click here for more.

Tour operators will often portray swimming with the dolphins as an experience of a lifetime. However, this experience of a lifetime is a nightmare for the dolphins which must endure a lifetime in captivity for the entertainment of humans; in an area a fraction of the space of their natural habitat without the stimulation of pod members, other marine animals or the complex marine environment.

So please, read this leaflet before you decide to swim with dolphins.

It is possible to view dolphins and whales in the wild, even off the coast of the UK! Please click here for more information.

For further information on swimming with dolphins, please click here