#nicknie121

[viva-wawanakwa]

Ah, I'm helping people get the Pave furniture they need, and I'm writing down names that message me, but I should be writing down urls because now I can't find someone! Nicknie121, I hope you see this because I have your Pave Chair! Signal boost and help a fellow crosser out!

[mayorkerri]

Hey! Are you lucky enough to have your favourtie villager in your town yet? Do you like the layout of your town? What is your favourite ordinance? Do you have an orchard/garden in your town? least favourite part of your town? Has a villager ever moved into a very inconvenient spot for you? Do you have any villagers you REALLY want to move out?

aww! i wanted to answer this earlier but my internet went down.

Are you lucky enough to have your favourtie villager in your town yet?

yes i do have my very favorite villager, Olivia, in my town! i'm so happy about that!

Do you like the layout of your town?

i do like my town layout. i reset for a decent one and i think the ony i have is great.

What is your favourite ordinance? Do you have an orchard/garden in your town?

my favorite ordinance is definitely the beautiful one. oh gawd i dont know what i'd do without it. i dont really have a defined orchard or garden in my town, besides the tiny blue rose garden behind my house i guess.

least favourite part of your town? Has a villager ever moved into a very inconvenient spot for you? Do you have any villagers you REALLY want to move out?

so far my least favorite part about my town is the very northern areas to the left and right of the train station. they're kinda blah and i'm still figuring out what to do with them. also, biff unexpectedly moved in to the top right half and aghh i've been working for days trying to TT him out omgplzleavebiff.

thanks for asking all this! so cute of you!(:

[theorcas]

Hi :) I also live in Australia and I was wondering what your opinions are on the two marine parks that house dolphins here. Do you think they should be shut down, or release their cetaceans? Do you believe captivity is ok if it is the only option and the animal is well cared for? Or do you believe release is always an option and no facility could provide proper care for a cetacean. I'm very curious to know your opinion on these points if you wouldn't mind :) Thank you in advanced x

I'm going to publish this because I think it might be of interest to my followers - and as a little disclaimer, obviously these are MY opinions only and whether or not any of you agree is up to you :)

My opinion of Sea World is better than that of the US SeaWorld, but still not good enough. Their facilities are pretty incredible with the huge sandy lagoon and their care/dolphin longevity seems okay, but I think they have way too may dolphins. Personally I don't think they need their dolphins - they already do whale and dolphin watch tours in the wild. If they were to set up a dolphin sanctuary they could still take park guests to see them through their watch tours. I don't know enough about their individual dolphins to make judgement on whether they are viable release candidates but they would certainly be able to handle a seapen, I would think. They do a fair bit of of cetacean rehabilitation which is great too. I think if they could shift their business model a little more, put their dolphins in a sanctuary and stop with shows, and perhaps keep their facilities as a rescue/rehab centre it would be a great move for them. They're still partnered with the other parks on the Gold Coast, you can still get multi park passes and people would still go there so I think they would be able to work as a theme park potentially with rehab facilities and with their current captives in a sanctuary.

As for the Porpoise Pool, I don't mind them so much. Their two 'parent' dolphins are both unreleasable due to injury (they tried to release one of them years ago and they had to take her in again after she almost got herself killed) and were rescues initially. Both of them are in generally good health, are getting up there in age (Bucky is in his 40s and Calamity is in her 30's). They live with their naturally conceived family - Zippy their oldest son is 25 I believe - and apparently the Bucky and Calamity are super close. Their lifespans suggest the place is doing something right (keeping in mind that the natural lifespan for wild bottlenose dolphins is generally 50 max) and they're the only dolphins the place has had besides their children being born for something like 30 years, since one more rescue dolphin they had passed away. Originally they were just a captive facility who would take any dolphin they could get, but it seems they moved away from that a while ago. They're also trying to get funding to build a proper marine hospital on the site so that they can seriously contribute to treatment and conservation of cetaceans and pinnipeds. The admission fee on the place is super low, the shows are quite educational and overall I personally feel as though I can agree with their practice, HOWEVER I am hoping that they will put Calamity on birth control now so that she won't breed again as their numbers are getting a bit high for my liking and I would prefer that they began to phase it out, even though it has been of Bucky and Calamity's choice to breed. I wish they could make the tanks a little more natural, but they've done a great job in expanding them in recent years, and considering the fact that they're a smaller business and not a huge corporation I feel like they've provided their dolphins with the most natural life possible under the circumstances and I can support them as a rescue facility. I don't know how well a seapen would work for Bucky as he's getting quite old and has had a lot of age related health problems lately so putting him in ocean water could kill him easily, and I wouldn't want to separate the family, so I don't think I would consider seapens until perhaps after Bucky has passed on. 

I think most cetaceans can be put into seapens or sanctuaries however there are some cases where it would definitely do them more harm than good. Many of Sea World's dolphins would probably thrive in a seapen, and potentially some of the PPP's, but it would depend on individual assessment. I also question sometimes whether it is our responsibility to step in if it means the animal will spend the rest of it's life in captivity. If that is the case I would almost rather they were to die a natural death in the wild. I don't mind places operating as rescue facilities as long as they're not doing it to obtain new dolphins or fresh captive genes. 

I don't think I ever believe continued captivity is okay, but it is important to assess facilities case by case. With what they've had for decades, I think the PPP have done a lot better by their animals than Sea World Australia (who have done better by their animals than SW in the US), but it is my hope that both facilities in the future will begin to do the real right thing - operate as marine hospitals or rehab centres, stop breeding and release viable animals. I don't think they should be shut down, as their medical knowledge of marine life and facilities for rehabilitation is a valuable tool that Australia needs, considering our masses of marine life. But obviously continued captivity is not okay and I am hoping that it will eventually come to an end here.