I saw someone claim, âThereâs no evidence that swim with dolphin programs and closed-system habitats are detrimental to the animals.â
This, of course, referring to the various âDolphin Encounterâ programs offered by marine parks, and the state of the enclosures that cetaceans are currently house in.
First, letâs briefly tackle how Dolphin Encounter programs work.
You shell out a bit of extra money plus the cost of your day ticket to feed and/or swim* with the dolphins. The less expensive feeding option gives you a tray of fish to give to the dolphins.
*Depending on the facility, there is little to no actual swimming with the dolphins. You will get in the water with them in a wetsuit on an underwater platform and the trainer accompanying your group will go through a set routine and allow each of the guests to feed, touch, and possibly get towed by the dolphin. A photographer employed by the park is sometimes present to take pictures of the guests.
What are the risks?
Aside from being stressful and dangerous for the dolphins, there are health and safety risks for the guests involved. Zoonotic diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia can be passed between people and dolphins, and the water that the dolphins live in also happens to be the same water that the dolphins excrete (eg. poop and pee) in. Ingesting any amount of the dolphin water could lead to infection, such as MRSA or bacillary dysentery.
Aside from the risks to your health, there are the risks of injury. One of the more well-known cases of a park guest experiencing dolphin-inflicted injury is the young girl that got bitten by a dolphin at SeaWorldâs Dolphin Cove.
The conclusion that most people came to in this case was that the dolphin got excited at the sight of the tray (which I believe you are supposed to keep out of the dolphinâs view, hence the angled border of the pool) and subsequently lunged for it and caught the girlâs arm in the process.
In this video, a dolphin lunges in frustration after being repeatedly teased by the guest holding the fish just out of reach, in order to pose for a picture.
This video shows Silvana Straccia, a swimming with dolphins at Bavaro Beach in Punta Cana. Starting around 2:20 in the video, one dolphin appears to strike Straccia in the face with itâs tail, and another rams her.
She explains in the video description: â while the first one throws me water in the eyes, the other one comes behind and hits my chest, and sank me under the water. â She was in the hospital for 8 weeks for broken cartilage, and claims that she was made to sign a form saying that any accidents to happen were not the fault of the park: â They do the same routine every 20 mins surrounded by strangers, with noise, and orders.. non stop!!.. I was told that if he had hitted me with the nose I would not be alive.. so i was quite lucky in the end. Poor them.. who is the silly one??.. Us.. I will never do it again, and not for the hit. Nobody should and their business would be ended. THey earn a fortune with no responsabilities, as they made me sign a paper before entering, not being responsible for any ACCIDENTS! so you cant claim⊠â
A dolphin swim experience in Miami. A dolphin charges at the man shown in the video and bites his forearm. It stops underwater in front of him, then heads back to the direction it came from, and appears to strike him with itâs tail flukes. The man floats on his belly and says âHe bit me.â From the video description:
âDolphin attacks my son while on summer holiday in Miami. South African family. Just come across this video from our holiday in Miami, Florida, and it made me feel sick as the day it happened and decided to post it onto Youtube, so you can see the ugly side of swimming with dolphins, donât think itâs all fun. Be careful and remember, itâs a business theyâre running. â
Another incident that I have to link because tumblr doesnât want me to embed more than 5 videos: âDolphins attack Josieâ - 2 dolphins bite a woman during a âswim-withâ session.
Captive cetaceans aside, wild cetaceans acting aggressively towards humans is not entirely unheard of. In fact, in many areas, entering the water with and/or touching wild cetaceans is illegal due to the risks to both human and animal.
âDustyâ the dolphin was a local celebrity of sorts in Doolin, Ireland. Here he is displaying quite aggressive body language via tail-slapping several times before ramming the woman in the water. From the video description, âThe dolphin is believed to have struck the woman in the kidney area with its nose, leaving her winded and shouting to be rescued.â
Dusty apparently frequently injured people.
Tumblr wonât let me embed more than 5 videos on a post, so here are more links to wild cetacean-human aggression.
âWhen Dolphins attackâ - 2 wild dolphins harass a woman and the person filming.
âWild Dolphin Attacks Swimmers In US Townâ - A wild dolphin bites multiple people in a canal.
âPilot Whale Attack - original versionâ - A man and woman jump into the water with wild pilot whales, even touching one. One of the whales grabs the woman by the leg a drags her under. They were fined $10,000, but battled it for 3 years and the claim was dismissed.
You can point your finger at the people getting hurt by wild dolphins and say âOf course they got hurt, they shouldnât have been in the water!â What does that say about marine parkâs swim-with programs?
âOf course the wild dolphins attacked, they arenât used to people!â Then how do you explain the captive dolphins also lashing out at park guests? Itâs well-documented that wild dolphins will harass swimmers, and yet marine parks continue to introduce the circumstances that allow these incidents to happen.
amandla
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