Often these people have a very delusional view on
these facilities and bend facts, and to our great fear
even lie to people to gain followers and money.

Never believe something when it is not presented with facts,
and always double-check before you assume something

Judging a situation

Something to be kept in mind is that you can not judge
all marineparks under one badge.

a supermarket delivering bad food,
will not make you judge all supermarkets
and never go to any again.

If your neighbour beats and mistreats his dog,
does that make all dog-owners cruel? and should
we stop keeping dogs worldwide because of what
this person did?

These comparisons may sound strange but it's a fact that there ís a
difference between a modern Marinepark that houses their animals
according to international rules

and

an outdated touristic attraction's 'swim with dolphins' pool.
By all means go and investigate dolphin captivity on your own
when you have read this page. Know the facts, not the lies.

_{Dolphin Acadamy, Dolphin Reef Eilat
and Dolfinarium Harderwijk, facilities that offer a
large natural envoirment with real seawater.}

_{as opposed to:}

_{Private property, Dolphinella Egypt, and
Delphinarium Munster. Showing poor conditions or
outdated tanks.}

Captivity

The keeping of non-domestic mammals in human care
is a tradition that goes back centuries.

About every well-known species is kept in captivity in zoo's
througout the world. Dolphins and other cetaceans are no ecxeption.

Dolphin Deaths

The first thing you will find on websites against dolphin captivity
is a list of 'Dolphin Deaths' in a certain park.

Dolphins just like every animal can get sick and will eventually die one day.

They are not gods, they are not immortal and both in the
wild and in captivity they will face illness, diseases, pneunomia,
miscarriage, genetic disorders and even cancer.

Very much like other mammals. So yes, a park that excist for 10,
20 or even 40 years will ofcourse have lost some animals.

Therefor we are completely clueless what point the activists
try to make with lists like this. Need I remind you that captive
animals on average live longer than animals in the wild!

Fact: 25 to 30 is 'old aged' in the wild and many dolphins do not reach
this age. while there are many many (if not most) dolphins within that
age rank in captivity.

In captivity there are even quite some dolphins over 40 years old and even
a few with the age of 50 and over!

_{Moby, Paco, Skinny and Smarty
some examples of the many more dolphins in
captivity aged 40+}

Dolphin Nellie at Marineland Florida is the record-holder
with 58 years, followed closely by others.

Fact: The mortalty rate of dolphin calves and young dolphins in
the wild is just as high if not higher than in captivity.
The immune system of young dolphins is very fragile and a lot
of wild dolphins do not even survive their first year.

Compare these information to the deaths of tigers, lions, elephants
or even animals like deer and these results will be much more shocking.

Numbers

Overall the number of dolphins kept is nothing compared
to other species.

Fact: Between 1000 and 2000 dolphins live in captivity
in the world today.

Fact: The Association of Zoos and Aquariums estimates
that up to 12,000 tigers are being kept as PRIVATE PETS in
the USA alone, significantly more than the world's
entire wild population! 4,000 'house tigers' are believed to be
in captivity in Texas alone.

Dolphin Slaughter in Japan

Activist statement: By visiting a marinepark you support
the dolphin drivehunt and slaughter in Japan.

After the documentary 'The Cove' was released people all over the
world were told Marineparks throughout the world were the cause of the
dolphin slaughter in Japan. Even on life tv Ric O'Barry lied to to the whole world.

Fact: NOT A SINGLE DOLPHIN FROM JAPAN was imported to Marineparks in
Europe and the USA since the 1980's!! Fact: Marineparks and Dolphinaria in Europe (Russia not included)
and the USA are a member of 'CITES' and are not allowed to import dolphins
that are caught in the wild anywhere.

All dolphins caught in Japan drivehunts will be imported to parks within Asia,
Russia and other countries that do not support the CITES rules. Again,
all marineparks and dolphinaria within the USA and Europe do support these.

ALL dolphins living in the USA and Europe today are either Captive born,
Rescued and not able to return to the wild OR date back to the years capture
was still allowed and are now of very old age (30+)

_{Wildborn dolphins living in a marinepark today,
Beachie (left) stranded injured and could not return to the wild,
Helen (right) was rescued from a fishingnet}

Bad Apples There ARE 'bad apples' among marineparks, these parks are
not a member of CITES and deserve to be closed, these parks are
mostly located in Russia, Asia and touristic places like Cuba.

_{'Swim with Dolphins' touristic attractions are unresistable
to most tourists. Thanks to this they can still exist at places who
do not meet the right standards and/or can barely afford to care
for their own animals.}

a Captive Dolphin's Life

a Captive dolphin is presented with a lot of enrichment,
in the form of toys, attention of their trainers but sometimes
also rocks/other scenery directly into the tank
and access to different pools.

Activist Statement: 'Wild dolphins swim many miles at sea a day,
in captivity they do not have enough room'.

There are international rules about the size and depth of a dolphin tank.
Most modern marineparks and dolphinaria follow these rules and
they have to because they would be closed otherwise.

but again sadly not every country supports this yet.
Countries like Russia, Japan and Cuba often keep dolphins
in small pools as touristic attractions.

Captive dolphins do not swim as much miles as wild dolphins.
But they do perform several times a day. Even when parks are closed
the training sessions continue. This includes jumping, speedswimming,
breaching and many more which is performed daily. This matches the
daily activity in the wild.

Activist statement: 'the dolphins only perform because
they are starved and want fish'

Fact: There are many feeding sessions a day.
The small amount of reward fish given in the show is by
far not enough to keep a dolphin alive, so feeding session
occur before, inbetween and after shows.

In modern days dolphinaria use other training methods than in the far past
and the reward given is not always fish, it can be the enthausiastic reaction
of a trainer or a favourite toy.

It is remarkable how some dolphins will perform just for an enthaustic
reaction without any fish given in the session, and how some dolphins
who get rewarded richly with fish will refuse to perform when the trainer
does not react to them.

If a dolphin does not want to perform, it will not. There is no way to force
a dolphin to do something and they will not try it. There is no punishment
involved when a dolphin refuses to perform. The animal will get fish in the
next feeding session no matter whether it performed very well or not at all.

Fact: The amount of food a dolphin is given
is very acurate. It goes per individual based on
their age, weight, gender, health status and more.

Each individual has an own timetable and bucket and it is always
kept track of how many fish the animal ate.

This way they know for sure the animal is getting enough
nutrients and also if the animal might be sick when it eats
less than the normal portion.

There is no skipping of meals because the animal did
not do the asked behaviour.

_{What and how much a dolphin eats
is monitored closely. Here a dolphin gets some extra
fluids with vitamins because he ate less than normal.}

Activist statement: They put all kinds of chemicals in the water
which hurts the dolphins and burns their eyes.

Fact: Some parks use real seawater, some use artificial seawater.
All water is filtered with multiple filter systems.

Sometimes a small amount of chlorine is added but in such a low amount
it is harmless to the animals. (less than a tapglass in millions of liters water)
but efficient to bacteria (think of our own swimmingpools)

Marineparks are not out to hurt their own dolphins!
The water is Ph tested daily and is send to a laboratory
occasionally to determine the water quality and to
search for pesticides and other things that could harm the animals.

Activist statement: Dolphins are scared of a large amount
of people and they hate the noise.

Fact: Dolphins are curious of nature. Even in the wild they
often come up to humans themselves.

In captivity it is often observed how dolphins will swim
up to the visitors deliberatly and start to interact with them.

It is also observed how some captive dolphins splash visitors at their
own accord just because they are fond of the screams and reaction it will cause.

_{Dolphins wild and captive show great interest
in humans. They share their abnormal curiosity with apes
and humans.}

Activist statement: Dolphins are bored in captivity

a Modern Marinepark/Dolphinarium offers a lot of
enrichment to their cetaceans.Maybe even more than any other species.

As mentioned before this can be in the form of toys,
attention of their trainers, rocks/other scenery directly
into the tank, changing the grouping and pools, interactions
with humans and many more.

Fact: Dolphins are very playful and keep this
throughout adulthood.

They can be amused with the most simple things, especially
when the object or situation is new. In the wild dolphins are
often seen playing with things as stones, pieces of driftwood,
other animals and sadly also trash and other things
that do not belong in the ocean.

_{Enrichment in form of trainer's attention
(playing with waterhose/spray and touching)
and Enrichment in form of toys, this can be
balls, hoops and rings but also things as icecubes}

Activist statement: Captive dolphins show wounds and scars.

The 'wounds and scars' people claim to see are called 'rakemarks'.
Dolphins rake eachother when displaying dominance or when playing.
Often the animal that is raked ranks lower in the group hierachy.

This obviously is a very natural behaviour, wild dolphins display rakemarks
as well, old individuals are even totally covered with them.

_{Male dolphins showing rakemarks
both lived in a male group where lots of dominance
issues occured. This is completely natural and social
behaviour like this is another form of enrichment.}

Anti-Captivity

Some activists lie straight to their readers, some seem blinded by the past.
In the 60's and 70's animals were indeed caught from the wild, there was no
captive population yet.

keep in mind every animal you visit in a zoo today
or keep as a pet started out as a wild animal, domesticated
or turned into a captive population by us.

Animals in the beginning of animal-keeping were indeed
starved to perform very much like the method of old Circusses.

Many years have passed since this. There was a breakthrough
in animal wellfare rights as well as the renovation of exhibit's in zoo's
and the use of training, instead of 'taming' and starving an animal.

Marineparks have changed, yet the activists do not seem to grant
them a chance. The ones that have not changed or are not able to should
be closed and we will by all means try to achieve this, we hope you will too.