Opinions on marine mammals in captivity.

Sit Stay

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#21
Totally against marine parks as the way they are now and will not be giving them any business.

I think the minimum size standards are still disgustingly small. The death rates and the young ages which many captive whales die at is so incredibly sad. It is such an unnatural, sometimes solitary life for these active and highly intelligent creatures and it breaks my heart.

Now, if things were to change dramatically as far as living situations and tank sizes, I may support it as an educational experience.
 

BlackPuppy

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#22
I am against cetaceans and elephants in captivity.

Regarding cetaceans, what opened my eyes was hearing (and reading) an interview with the trainer from the Flipper series. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ric_O'Barry
http://dolphinproject.org/
The animals are not treated well, most are young females captured in the wild, and many suffer from "dolphin depression syndrome". He became an activist when one of this Flipper dolphins died in his arms, suicide. Dolphins can hold their breath until they die, unlike humans.

http://animal.discovery.com/tv/blood-dolphins/ric-obarry-team/ric-obarry-interview-02.html
Marine mammal specialist and Earth Island Institute member Richard (Ric) O'Barry has worked with dolphins for the vast majority of his life. He spent the first 10 years of his career in the dolphin captivity industry and the past 38 years fighting against it. Most recently, Ric's biopic, The Cove, won an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary in 2010.
Working for Miami Seaquarium in the 1960s, Ric was responsible for capturing and training dolphins, including five dolphins who played the role of Flipper in the popular American television series of the same name. When one of the famed dolphins, Cathy, died suddenly in his arms, Ric decided that taking dolphins out of their natural habitat and training them to perform tricks is wrong.
From that moment on, Ric knew he must rededicate himself to a new cause. On the first Earth Day in1970, Ric founded the Dolphin Project, an organization that aims to free captive dolphins and to educate people throughout the world about the plight of dolphins in captivity. Ric believes that this campaign exposes the public to what really goes on at dolphin shows and urges people not to support such forms of entertainment. By stopping the flow of money, Ric hopes to put an end to the captivity industry. This created much hostility toward him by those who stood to profit from the continued exploitation of dolphins.
Ric has rescued and released more than 25 captive dolphins in Haiti, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Brazil, the Bahamas Islands and the United States. With more than 45 years of experience, his firsthand knowledge about the methods used to capture and train dolphins has taken him all over the world to participate in lectures and conferences about the controversial dolphin captivity issue.

With elephants, the turning point was a story on the elephant sanctuary in Tennessee. http://www.elephants.com/
 
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#23
Short answer: No, I don't believe in keeping marine mammals in captivity and will actively boycott any facility, or city that promotes/houses such a facility, as a tourist draw.

While some zoos can defend having animals on display as part of a conservation effort, this is not so for aquatic animals. There is no push to populate their habitat. Marine animals are not running out of ocean. As much as our population grows, the idea of an Atlantis sort of city is many, many years away. We do not need their space. If left alone they can practice their own conservation.

As far as educationally, learning about them and how they live in the wild would be SO much better than watching them perform acts that are unnatural to them in front of a cheering crowd.

Really, look it up, whales have vast ranges that are impossible to duplicate in captivity.
 

tzigane

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#24
My general stance on keeping any kind of wild animal in captivity: if it's a migratory animal (e.g. whales, dolphins, elephants), it should not be in captivity. It's not good for it mentally or physically.
 

Sweet72947

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#25
I also don't agree with keeping large marine animals in captivity. Several years ago I went to Sea World. The seals and walruses didn't seem unhappy since they are naturally fairly lazy animals anyway, but the whales and dolphins always seemed depressed. I saw a beluga whale swimming in constant circles in his box of water, and I also saw a polar bear engaging in repetitive behaviors (jump in the water, swim in an arc, jump on the platform, jump in the water, etc.). I haven't been back since, and will not go back.

People get up in arms about dogs being "warehoused" at no-kill shelters, they talk about the kennel crazies and even how death might be preferable to the resulting mental disintegration, but it seems it is still widely socially acceptable to condemn extremely intelligent marine animals (animals proven to have much richer mental lives than dogs) to the same fate in the name of entertainment. Why?
 

Red.Apricot

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#26
While some zoos can defend having animals on display as part of a conservation effort, this is not so for aquatic animals. There is no push to populate their habitat. Marine animals are not running out of ocean. As much as our population grows, the idea of an Atlantis sort of city is many, many years away. We do not need their space. If left alone they can practice their own conservation.
I don't really think that it's good for whales or dolphins to be kept captive either, but running out of physical space isn't the risk; it's killing them (either directly with hunting, or indirectly through using up the resources they use to survive). Public awareness is needed to build a desire to keep them around.
 
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#27
I am strongly opposed to the captivity of marine mammals, especially killer whales. This was actually the topic of one of my research papers last semester. It is truly tragic what these animals have had to endure living in captivity. If you're interested, Death at Seaworld: Shamu and the Dark Side of Killer Whales in Captivity by David Kirby is an amazing, eye opening book.
 

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