Author Topic: Dolphins  (Read 11168 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline cef

  • Prolific Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4624
  • Location: United Kingdom
Dolphins
« Reply #20 on: July 15, 2007, 10:13:52 AM »
quote:
Originally posted by pookie

How amazing  - fantastic photos Tink.  I have been lucky enough to swim with both wild and 'caged' dolphins.  I have seen the benefit first hand of children experiencing the magic of these creatures and Fletch your son must have been thrilled.  I would, please, love to see photos and receive contact details if possible.  We have promised my daughter that we would go to Cas on one of our trips and may try to do it in August if we can get booked.......Pomegranite Tree  :o - sorry, think you have lost touch with reality.  My cousin trains Dolphins in USA, is a psychologist and lectures on these incredible creatures.  Believe me, he would not do so if he felt the Dolphins were not the sociable, loving and caring creatures that they are.  They willingly interact and it is acknowledged that they experience pleasure by swimming with humans.  (Sensitive humans that respect them and treat them gently and kindly...).  Share some time with a child with special needs and watch the stimulation and joy that a brief relationship with these animals offers them  :).



Well stated pookie  :) a bit more love & understanding towards all, would go a very long way  :) Pomegranate's post made feel really sad...:-\

Offline Tonya

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 1196
  • Location: United Kingdom
Dolphins
« Reply #21 on: July 15, 2007, 10:54:07 AM »
Would love to see your pics Fletch, I would love to arrange this as a surprise for next year.

Offline teresa321

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2544
  • Location: Turkey
Dolphins
« Reply #22 on: July 15, 2007, 11:10:51 AM »
I had this link bookmarked which may be of interest

http://www.delphintherapie.net/index.asp?langid=10000&location=0

Offline fletch

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1619
  • Location: United Kingdom
Dolphins
« Reply #23 on: July 15, 2007, 14:37:05 PM »
I am having trouble posting pics so as soon as I have sorted problem it will be done.

sorry :-\

Offline laffa

  • benitez
  • Prolific Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8547
  • Location: United Kingdom
Dolphins
« Reply #24 on: July 15, 2007, 14:54:23 PM »
 :) I wont repeat all the facts in the above posts, which I feel are correct, Fletch, I would love to see your photos when you get sorted, My friend took his wife to Florida this year, as she is in a wheelchair, she has longed to swim with dophins, He said it was amazing to watch and did her the world of good, So , you go for it mate. and good luck.  ;)

Offline Crabbit

  • The Fuhrer
  • Prolific Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10574
  • Age: 423
  • Location: Here at the moment .... waiting to be with my Angel Pearl again
Dolphins
« Reply #25 on: July 15, 2007, 15:18:31 PM »
quote:
Originally posted by fletch

I am having trouble posting pics so as soon as I have sorted problem it will be done.

sorry :-\



Fletch
Send them to me, I`ll post them for you.
Anything to help a fellow Gooner.  :D

Crabbit

Offline tinkerman

  • Moderator
  • Prolific Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 17736
  • Age: 68
  • Location: Turkey
Dolphins
« Reply #26 on: July 15, 2007, 15:37:50 PM »
I had trouble posting my pics earlier, it was caused by photobucket now having a shared url under each picture now, that wont work you need the second url on the list.

Tink ;)

Offline PomegranateTree

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Location: United Kingdom
Dolphins
« Reply #27 on: July 16, 2007, 16:12:53 PM »
Thanks for the toilet advice Fletch - interesting?

I just happen to think that no creature should be exploited, especially when unnecessary pain is involved. Sorry for being guilty of caring for my environment and what I consider to be the amazing world in which we live. If some of you lot want to live in ignorant bliss, then so be it, but I can at least say that I tried to make a difference.

I implore you all to please take the time to read these articles that I have attached below and then to judge me thereafter; they might make some of you think again about playing with cuddly dolphins? One is from Japan and the other is from the US. I could also attach many others about Europe and the Mediterranean, but these are freely available all over the web and are easily found, if anyone is interested in the wider implications, rather than having the attitude of, "I'll enjoy myself on holiday and damn the consequences of anything that might stand in the way of that"

I can assure you that I am no loon, tree loving hippy, or freak, but I still stand by my original comments. My conscience is clear: Please give these dolphinariums a very, very wide berth and believe absolutely nothing that they might try to convince you of in their marketing spiel, as in all probability they were once swimming freely in the big blue oceans, until one day the boats came for them.

Dolphin Drives in Japan

Japan's annual drive hunts of coastal dolphins began in October. The presence of peaceful witnesses trying to document the slaughters causes officials and fishermen great concern, for the worldwide condemnation that has always followed.

They were unable to document one group of about 50 bottlenose dolphins, including babies, slaughtered out of their sight in a small cove. Another were Risso's dolphins, wiped out entirely on 29 October in a five hour slaughter hidden from view by white blinds and large curtains of blue tarp covering the entire slaughterhouse. Some young dolphins were selected by the trainers from Dolphin Base, World Dolphin Resort and Taiji Whale Museum, and taken to steel cages in Taiji harbor for sale to zoos and aquaria. One was force fed later that day.

She has done much to stop the dolphin drives, often at considerable personal risk. In Taiji she has been threatened with a knife, and reported that this year, "on several occasions the fishermen said that if we did not stop videotaping the drive fishery we would be killed."

The dolphin drive fishery in Futo was recommenced on November 11, 2004 for the first time in five years. On that day, after about three hours' chase and herding offshore, about 100 bottlenose dolphins were driven into Futo Fishing Port on Shizuoka Prefecture's Izu Peninsula, Japan. Cut off from escape by fishing nets across the entrance of the port, the confined dolphins, including many babies, swam around in panic.

This continued more than 20 hours and the next morning a second drive again herded dozens of dolphins, driven by the threatening bang of metal poles to the pier and encircled by fishing boats and fishing nets. Then aquarium staff and fishermen ruthlessly searched for uninjured females about 2.5 meters long, preparing to haul them out of the water. Many dolphins were panicked, crashing into the nets, boats, the pier wall, and each other. Some became trapped in the nets, injured, bleeding, and struggling. Within the first hour the water had turned reddish with blood.

Shizuoka Prefecture and the Japan Fisheries Agency reported that fourteen dolphins were taken by six aquariums, one was released with a (too big!) transmitting tag attached on its dorsal fin, five were slaughtered for research and human consumption, and four were drowned or died of shock.

Every time a sling was put down into the water by crane, I recorded the lifted number and the time and confirmed that 19 dolphins were selected and lifted in all. However, I surmised that a considerable number of dolphins were drowned and sank to the port bottom or died of shock during the capture. Although the Fishing Cooperative and newspapers reported that fishermen released 80 dolphins to the ocean, it seemed to me that there were far less than 80. Furthermore, many of them were so injured and weak that their ability to survive in the wild was endangered.

This Futo drive fishery clearly illustrates the close relationship between aquariums and drive fisheries. While aquariums claim to be educational facilities, they capture dolphins in ways that actually destroy wild pods of dolphins.

Although aquariums sing the praises of dolphin protection, they chase them around fiercely in order to select and obtain dolphins that satisfy their shopping lists. Thereby they sacrifice the lives of many other dolphins and increase the captured dolphins' suffering. The truth is that aquariums motivate the Fishing Cooperative to carry out the drive hunts. To truly protect these creatures we must inform as many people as possible about what aquariums are really up to.

The Aquariums which bought dolphins from this Futo drive fishery were Shin-Enoshima Suizokukan, Awashima Marine Park, Marine Road / Dolphin Fantasy, Hosaka Marine Project, Shimoda-Kaichu Suizokukan, and Shinagawa Suizokukan.

US Aquariums

Four decades ago, hunters off the coast of Washington found the perfect young killer whale specimen swimming with its mother. They fired a harpoon, hoping to attach a buoy to the bigger animal that would make trailing them easier. But the spear went in deep and the mother whale drowned.

The crew made a deal for the young whale with SeaWorld. The company today says it did not know about the capture but it did calculate correctly that crowds would come to its San Diego park for the chance to see a killer whale up close.

The modern marine park industry began with the killing of Shamu's mother.

Since then, the splashing stars have delighted millions. That entertainment, built on a public convinced that sea stars enjoy performing for people, has come at a continuing price to animals even while turning parks and aquariums into a thriving international business. Florida is the center of the U.S. industry with 13 marine attractions and 367 sea animals, more than any other state.

Over nine months, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel examined the history and records of the industry, including more than 30 years' worth of federal documents on 7,121 marine animals the government collected but never analyzed.

The investigation found:
More than 3,850 sea lions, seals, dolphins and whales have died under human care, many of them young. Of nearly 3,000 whose ages could be determined, a quarter died before they reached 1, half by the age of 7.

Of about 2,400 deaths in which a specific cause is listed, one in five marine mammals died of uniquely human hazards or seemingly avoidable causes including capture shock, stress during transit, poisoning and routine medical care. Thirty-five animals died from ingesting foreign objects, including pennies, plastic balls, gravel or licorice.

Dolphins and whales have become so valuable, some worth up to $5 million each, that attractions take out life insurance and transport them worldwide. About 2,335 marine mammals have been moved one or more times, 11 animals, at least a dozen times. Duke, a sea lion owned by a Mississippi company, holds the record: 19 moves.

Other countries still take dolphins and whales from the wild, particularly in the Caribbean, where swim-with-the-dolphins attractions have become increasingly popular. Cuba is now the world's leading exporter of bottlenose dolphins.

From the Panhandle to the Florida Keys, this scene is familiar: Delighted visitors cheer as splashing stars jump, "tail walk" and flip on command.

From the slick public relations mastery at big parks such as SeaWorld to lower-key zoos with just a few marine mammals, the parks put forth an idyllic picture.

What parks and zoos do not say is that many of those animals have not lived long.

What is certain are the deaths of some 3,850 marine mammals under human care that have been reported to the Fisheries Service's Marine Mammal Inventory Report, the only official record of how sea animals have fared.

The inventory shows that 1,127 bottlenose dolphins — Flipper's species — have died over more than 30 years. Of the 875 whose ages can be determined, more than half never reached 10 and 83 percent were dead before 20.

Seaquarium has lost 64 of 89 dolphins since 1972. Of those whose age could be determined, more than half died at 10 or younger, including 16 in their first year. Of the 25 dolphins there now, one-third are over 20.

"There is a PR [public relations] aspect to this,"' said U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, Calif. "They want their customers to feel good about what they're doing."

The nonprofit aquarium's dolphins, Sundance and Kimo, were not injured or sick. Captured off Florida in 1988, they are now "non-releasable" because they've spent so much time in human care.
"That's probably not the best term to use," aquarium executive director Tom Schmid said.

Parks and zoos "want you to think that God put them there or they rescued them," said Ric O'Barry of Miami, a dolphin trainer on the Flipper television series (which ran from 1964 to 1967) who now campaigns against keeping marine mammals in captivity.

"If people knew the truth, they wouldn't buy a ticket. It's all about money."

Today, more than 1,200 whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions live in U.S. marine parks, aquariums and zoos, federal records show, with hundreds more overseas.

In the Caribbean, swim-with-the-dolphins attractions catering to tourists, primarily American cruise ship passengers, are opening at the rate of two a year.

The parks have hit on a profitable formula. Admission can cost up to $130, not counting heavily promoted extras.

Be a dolphin trainer for a day for $650. Hold a T-shirt and let a dolphin paint it for $55. Send a handicapped loved one to dolphin "therapy" swim sessions for upward of $2,000 a week.

Just how big the industry has become is impossible to say because most marine attractions don't release attendance or revenue figures.
But, according to an industry trade publication, SeaWorld alone attracted 11 million visitors last year.

"Healthy, alert dolphins, bright, show-quality," read a brochure for Dolphin Services International, a company co-directed by veterinarian Jay Sweeney, who caught at least 80 dolphins in the 1980s. "Will deliver to your size and sex specifications ... 90-day replacement guarantee."

Sweeney offered an experienced "collecting crew," show training and transportation with "swift routing from Miami International Airport."
Florida dolphins he captured wound up in parks in the United States, Switzerland, Finland, England, Israel and Canada. Nineteen died within five years, 10 surviving less than a year, the Sun-Sentinel found.

Sybil, captured in 1983, died seven weeks after arriving at Knowsley Safari Park near Liverpool, England.

Amit, another dolphin Sweeney captured, spent nearly four years at the Tel Aviv Dolphinarium before being sent to Knie's Kinderzoo in Switzerland in 1986. She died of cardiac arrest two days after that move, records show.

Sweeney caught six dolphins for Walt Disney World's Epcot Center in Orlando in 1985. Geno survived less than a year. Three others were dead by 1990.

In 1970, in an area off Washington known as Penn Cove, Griffin's crew trapped 40 killer whales. In the darkness, three or four became entangled in his net and died, he recalled in a telephone interview from his home in Bellevue, Washington.

With a state game warden on board, Griffin said, his crew hid the deaths until they could quietly dispose of the bodies.

Previously, they had sent bodies to the state for research — until a government official told him, "We are not the dumping ground for your dead whales," Griffin said.

Rendering plants, happy to have massive carcasses, had turned other dead whales into fertilizer or dog food, but they sometimes alerted the media, Griffin said. The hunters did not want to take that chance.

"We secured anchors and rocks to their tails and we sank them in the bay," Griffin said.

That's also how they had disposed of Shamu's mother, five years earlier, in 1965.

Griffin said he and his partner were in a helicopter on the lookout for a killer whale in Puget Sound for Griffin's Seattle Aquarium. They spotted a juvenile with its mother and another whale.

He blames "a bad shot" for how that hunt turned out. "You hope the whale surfaces just as the harpoon hits the water," he said. "It's tricky. The female rolled to the surface and impacted the harpoon."
The mother died and the young whale proved too aggressive toward Griffin. SeaWorld wanted a whale for its San Diego park and agreed to lease the whale for $2,000 a month, Griffin said. SeaWorld named the whale Shamu.

A pregnant sea lion at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, jumped to her death into an empty pool four years ago as workers cleaned the exhibit. The chlorine level in tanks at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium last year was so high that dolphins couldn't fully open their eyes and their skin peeled off.

Blisters developed on the eyes of a sea lion kept in a pool that didn't have enough shade at the North Carolina Zoological Park.
Despite veterinary medical advances and decades of trial and error, marine mammals in parks, aquariums and zoos have continued to get sick and die from such seemingly preventable causes as accidents, contaminated water and stress-related ulcers, a South Florida Sun-Sentinel investigation found. They've eaten key chains, sunglasses and rocks.

Maria, a bottlenose dolphin caught off Florida in 1984, spent the rest of her life until 2000 on display and performing at the West Edmonton Mall in Canada. She died after swallowing coins thrown into her tank, said mall spokesman Martin Schuldhaus.

"It's not uncommon," he said. "It's happened at a number of places, unfortunately."

The Clearwater Marine Aquarium has been unable to find the right chemical balance in its dolphin tanks for more than two years. Parks commonly use chlorine to disinfect animal wastes and other chemicals to maintain a balance of alkalinity/acidity, just as in backyard pools.

Animals suffer burning eyes, inflamed skin and can even die from fluctuating or excessive chemicals.

In 2001, U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector and veterinarian Sylvia Taylor found potentially "alarming" pH levels, a measure of water acidity, at the Clearwater Aquarium. About three months later, Sunset Sam, a dolphin kept there from the time he was captured in Tampa Bay in 1984, died.

CAYO COSTA — On this barrier island on Florida's west coast, Harvey Hamilton grew up in a family that made its living from fishing.
From a friend in the Keys, he learned about a far more lucrative catch: bottlenose dolphins.

Between the 1960s and 1993, at least 1,600 whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions were taken from U.S. waters, according to National Marine Fisheries Services records. SeaWorld is listed as "collector" of 186.

Collectors used airplanes, boats, harpoons, nets and explosives to catch specimens.

Captures disrupted the highly social animals. At least 22 died from shock or injuries, federal records show.

Of those that survived capture, three-quarters are now dead. Killer whales that died survived an average of nine years after capture; bottlenose dolphins, eight years, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found.

 "It wasn't very popular then," Hamilton said. "[Santini] was catching dolphin for $300. He'd pay me $50. We'd catch one or two a day."

Hamilton set out in a catch boat, working it toward a group of dolphins. He waited for a lone animal or a pair to split off.
The crew hoisted eligible dolphins onto the boat. "We'd cradle him and pick him up," he said, "One, two, three ..."
Hamilton covered the foam pad that held the dolphins with flannel to avoid skin abrasions. A sprinkler system in the boat kept the animals moist.

Marine parks wanted to capitalize on the Flipper craze. Worldwide orders for dolphins poured in, Hamilton said.

"Things really took off in the dolphin business," he said. "I was supplying overseas, in the U.S."

Hamilton's services are still in demand outside the United States, and prices have continued to go up. About 15 years ago, he said, Ludwig Meister, owner of two dolphin attractions in the Caribbean, hired him to catch 15 dolphins in the Bahamas.

During his tenure, the Cuban government sold dolphins to marine attractions in Europe and Latin America for $85,000 to $90,000 each, Lopez said.

When an order came in, Lopez and his team of 10 to 15 headed out in two boats along Cuba's northern coast.

"The fast boat would drag a net 200 meters long by 4- to 8-meters deep," he said. "They would find a pod and release the net. Most clients wanted females, measuring 7 feet 2 inches to 7 feet 11 inches."

At least five dolphins died, Lopez said. Once, the team entrapped a mother and baby.

"The rules prohibited capturing them, so they were released, but the baby got caught in the net," Lopez said. "He died in my arms."
A necropsy showed the 3-month-old died of a heart attack. Another dolphin died two months after arriving in Switzerland from a liver infection most likely caught while awaiting transport, Lopez said. Another dolphin lost an eye being hauled onto a boat.
Lopez said he had no choice about the captures.

"You're a doctor. You're a communist," he said. "I felt very bad."
Lopez resigned in 1994 after his complaints about conditions at the aquarium went unheeded and two dolphin calves died, he said. Still a Cuban citizen, Lopez, 47, now works outside that country as a marine mammal consultant and advocates against captivity.

"I'm trying to help animals," he said, "cure them."



Offline laffa

  • benitez
  • Prolific Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8547
  • Location: United Kingdom
Dolphins
« Reply #28 on: July 16, 2007, 17:05:37 PM »
 :) Well, you have taken the time and effort to put this post on,and having read it, I hold my hands up, I for one was not aware of all of this, and its certainly made me think twice, I myself was looking at the smaller picture, ie, disabled people being given the chance to swim with them, and seeing the joy it brings to them,which to me seems quite harmless, but as they say, you live and learn. ;)

Offline pookie

  • Prolific Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4037
  • Location: Cambridge
  • One hell of a Pookie
Dolphins
« Reply #29 on: July 17, 2007, 08:24:21 AM »
I am not apologising for my opinion either Pomegranate Tree -  I love the world we live in and am passionate about nature and wildlife.  The aquariums that I have been to have been able to guarantee the history of their dolphins and I do my research thoroughly.  Yes, I am aware of the issues in your last post and it chills me to the bone.  However not all 'aquarium' dolphins have been exposed to this treatment, and if we stop supporting the charity based rescue centres that allow swimming with dolphins, we will be cutting off a life-line for these beautiful creatures, as well as denying us the incredible experience of learning from their sensitivity, generosity and intelligence.




Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf