Dolphin "prison" on Anguilla???

Old Aug 4th, 2003, 07:39 AM
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 40
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Dolphin "prison" on Anguilla???

What is the dolphin "prison" referred to on the tip of Anguilla??? My daughters want to swim with the dolphins...
lisac is offline  
Old Aug 4th, 2003, 07:53 AM
  #2  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 729
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
The Dolphin Fantasies is a very confined area for these wonderful creatures. It has many non fans on the island of Anguilla, and its many visitors. The pool water looks very murky to me, I viewed it from the next door restaurant. I really have to question this program, and will not support it in any way. I am sure O.T.
will her reasons why she called it a prison, which it IS!
penny is offline  
Old Aug 4th, 2003, 08:06 AM
  #3  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,658
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Hello Lisa,

The poster was referring to Dolphin Fantaseas - a new captive swim with the dolphins program on Anguilla.

Many people do not realize what a horrible existence it is for the dolphins in ALL swtd (swim with the dolphins) programs, and how many of them (50%) die within the first 90 days after their capture.

Here is some info I pulled from other posts. (You can find a lot if you put dolphins or dolphin in the text search window in the Caribbean or Mexico forums.)

"Message: I would ask you to please reconsider the dolphin swim. They are incredibly cruel. I did it once and was sorry ever since. (In fact, the place I did it was UNEXSO in the Bahamas as rockstar recommends. And I've seen the habitat for the program she/he also suggests at Xel Ha. It's a dingy green tiny lagoon.)
No matter how clean or nice it looks, more than half of the dolphins die within 60 to 90 days of capture.
In order to make an informed decision, please visit:

http://dolphinproject.org/

http://www.hsus.org/ace/11727

(The second site is the Humane Society of the United States' position on SWTD programs.)"

"Message: Sadly, the dolphin park south of Cancun may have a dolphin or two added to their park. That's because Mexico just paid thousands and thousands of dollars to import 35 dolphins from the Solomon Islands almost 8,000 miles away to Parque Nizuc in Cancun. Several died before they could be loaded on the plane. Two more died shortly after arrival, another died on Tuesday. Since this park already has 15 dolphins, I can't see them being able to keep all the new ones, although certainly many more of those will die from capture shock as well. A couple of the ones left will most likely be sold to other parks. Of course, the ones that manage to survive won't be ready for 'human interaction' for at least 4 months, after they are trained to do tricks by food deprivation."

"Message: Please do not give the Dolphin businesses your tourist money. They capture wild dolphins, taking them from their pods. Each pod uses a highly complex social system for survival. It takes over 3 years for a baby dolphin to fully understand the cooperation between "teenage" and adult dolphins to cooperate in finding food, protecting one another from sudden shark attacks, warding off other pods, etc. Many adult females are taken from the pods, leaving their babies helpless. Each act a heretofore wild dolphin does to amuse the tourists are not done for "bonding" reasons..it's only done for food rewards because they can no longer survive by themselves in the ocean without the pod they were taken from. Captive wild dolphins live only about 5 years, compared to the 70+ years they are known to live in the wild. Tourists are mislead by the Dolphin industry, and tourist dollars will increase the enterprises more throughout the Caribbean. Tourists aren't mean, nasty, insensitive people; just uniformed. Robert"

"Message: I agree with Diana. I would not visit the Dolphin Fantaseas and discouraged many from visiting when on Anguilla. The information Diana has given is correct. I have been told the same from the locals on Anguilla. They sneak the poor dead dolphins out in the middle of the night, when no one can see and bury them. Please do not pay money to see these beautiful, intelligent animals. They are in the wild for all to see. It is a terrible thing, the less people that visit, the less money they will make and hopefully will be forced out of business. It is discusting what they do to these beautiful creatures."

"Message: I have to agree with Diana and SandyFeet. Dolphin encounters that keep these incredible creatures penned up and foreced to perform tricks for food are cruel.

If you really are set to have a dolphin encounter, I would suggest that you take up scuba diving and observe them in the wild."

"Message: I would also recommend not supporting these dolphin ventures. Dolphins are free-ranging wild ocean mammals, and live for 70 years in the wild. Life expectancy is reduced when captured. Also, female dolphins spend a minimum 3 years teaching their babies how to fit into the complex social structure of the pod, and also how to avoid sharks. Many female dolphins are netted and placed into total dependence upon their human captures, for the amusement of tourist...let's face it, money! Not to degrade people interested in dolphin encounters, I was one of them myself until I did some research. Please do not support this particular business venture. Robert"















Diana is offline  
Old Aug 4th, 2003, 08:21 AM
  #4  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 40
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
thanks for your detailed description, i will show this to my 10yr old, and i'm sure she will have a change of heart, and rethink her desire to swim with the dolphins...
lisac is offline  
Old Aug 4th, 2003, 09:00 AM
  #5  
OT
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 269
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I have viewed the Dolphin Tank as close as you can get to it without getting in the water, and it was a sad sad sight!

The actual tank is approx 6 x 6 metres at the most, at the time I saw it, divided into two sections with 2 males in one and one pregnant female in the other. There are also stingrays, with the stingers removed.

The water was dark and murky, and thick green gunge sticking to the sides of the tank. What a contrast to the beautiful turquoise coloured water in Mead's Bay, no wonder the dolphins looked sad, - no room for them to leap and move around!

Unfortunately they are doing good business with tours from St. Maarten, at $ 90 - 100 per person.

Permission to open this establishment was granted by a former adminstration in Anguilla and no one seem to be able to stop it operating.

Where is Animal Welfare, is my question..
OT is offline  
Old Aug 4th, 2003, 12:50 PM
  #6  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 619
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Lisac; It would be a great learning experience for your daughter NOT to support the dophin business, and possibly do research on her own and present a classroom paper on the cons of the dolphin operations. Diana and others have given you, and her, some great researched sites to explore. However, the wild pod of spotted dolphins off of the Bimini, Bahamas coastline do not accept scuba divers; the bubbles scare them off. The interactions I described are for snorkelers only, so maybe you can try that. Interestingly, years ago Mrs. Keefe of Bimini Underseas Adventures began a formal "dolphin encounter" for snorkelers only, since she noticed this wild pod gravitated toward their usual snorkeling tours of the Bimini Road area by the "Lost City of Atlantis." Since then, she's learned how to motor the boat around the area, so the spotted dolphins recognize the boat engine (their sonar is better than that of nuclear attack subs that ID soviet subs), using the same cruising speed of 9 mph (which dolphins cruise at), and the same triangular pattern which covers several miles in perimeter. If the pod is done feeding, taking care of its babies, and has all of its survival agenda for the day out of the way, it may approach the boat and interact with the snorkelers because it wants to, and for no other reason. Robert
Robert is offline  
Old Aug 5th, 2003, 11:40 AM
  #7  
MightyIsis
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
This is the most heartbreaking thing I've ever read. I too thought the Swim with Dolphins sounded all warm and fuzzy. You never hear about the other side. This info needs to get on TV (Dateline, Oprah, 20/20, dateline, 48 hrs, etc). I am going to suggest this as a show idea on Oprah's website. Who else has some good information to persuade them to do a show on this?
 
Old Aug 6th, 2003, 12:23 PM
  #8  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,194
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I would LOVE to see anything that shows the true horror for captive dolphins air on TV in the US. I have been researching the subject for over a year, in preparation for a documentary I'm making on the subject. But, I've had a couple of conversations with Ric O'Berry, (the origianl dolphin trainer of "Flipper") who tells me it will be very hard to get it aired in the US. That's because the big stations are just too scared to lose the advertising dollars. For instance, Anheuser Bush, who owns SeaWorld, spends millions of advertising dollars with the stations and could pull all that if a station dared to air anything bad about captive dolphins. It's pathetic what money will do. It's money that keeps the parks open by all the people who attend because they just don't know better, and it's money that keeps the advertising going so more people will go. Meanwhile, more dolphins suffer capture, live horrible lives and then die in these parks.
Ally is offline  
Old Aug 6th, 2003, 12:43 PM
  #9  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,194
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
To mightylsis,
Have have LOADS of information that supports the horrible truth of captive ceataceans. I got most of it by searching the web, any by talking to former trainers.
Here's some of that info gathered.
Over half of the dolphins that survive their violent capture will die within 90 days. Of those that survive, half will die within their first two years of captivity. Of those survivors, the average lifespan will only last five years in captivity. Every seven years, half of all dolphins in captivity, whether captured or born in the parks die from capture shock, pneumonia, intestinal disease, ulcers, chloring poisoning and other stress related illnesses.Some commit suicide. Yes, dolphins can and do commit suicide. They hold their breath until they sufficate. Some dolphins even die from the food they are given. Since their food is dead, it has to be fortified with vitamins and antibiotics. These drugs can cause a fungus (just as some antibiotics cause women to get yeast infections) that rots the dolphin alive. And by the way, the dolphins don't readily accept dead fish. Many have to be force fed through tubes until they learn to accept dead fish. After they are 'trained' they are kept hungry, so they will do tricks for you, as they know that is the only way they will get fed. Dolphins get sunburns too. In the wild, they spend 80% of their time below the surface, but in captivity, they spend 80% of their time at the surface.
Oprah's research team and anyone else can learn many other things on
wwwbornfree.org
//csiwhalesalive.com
www.wdcs.org
www.freethedolphins.org
www.bluevoice.org
www.dolphinawareness.org
www.captiveanimals.org
and many more.
Ally is offline  
Old Aug 6th, 2003, 01:30 PM
  #10  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 619
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I communicated with Ric O'Berry after reading one of his dolphin books. I told him when I was on the island of Abaco in the Bahamas, that the locals were telling what I thought was a folklore about a man who broke the law and saved a captured pod of wild Dolphins, which were captured in the Sea of Abaco, and had them in a fence on Great Guana Cay, just off of Abaco. It was him! He told me how he dove at night in scuba gear, cutting the chain link fence, which was guarded, and sent them all free. Apparently, Disney or some other enterprise was going to use them for show. He's definately willing to go to jail for the sake of wild dolpins. This pod is very healthy now, and in southern Abaco, a research facility is set up to study them and keep records of their travels. Robert
Robert is offline  
Old Aug 6th, 2003, 02:02 PM
  #11  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,194
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Very nice story Robert! Which of Ric's books did you read? "Behind the Dolphin Smile" or "To Free a Dolphin"? Both are very informative, and sad. I cried my eyes out when I read the last page of "To Free a Dolphin".
If anyone wants to know how many of these dolphins die, and why, get the Marine Mammal Inventory Report (MMIR) from the National Marine Fisheries Service. It will cost you $31.68 (price as of June '03) but it's a good source of information. It only covers dolhins that we're captured/born or imported to/exported from the US, so you can only imagine the numbers world wide.
Ally is offline  
Old Aug 7th, 2003, 04:27 AM
  #12  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 619
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
The book was "To Fee A Dolphin." His e-mail to me read: From: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2001 7:47AM
"Dear Robert: Thanks for the story. I love that area, glad to know all of the dolpins are wild and free around Abaco. I hop that the local people will read that book. Cheers, Ric"
Robert is offline  
Related Topics
Thread
Original Poster
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Susan
Mexico & Central America
32
Aug 27th, 2003 05:06 AM
jcc
Caribbean Islands
6
Aug 6th, 2003 02:21 PM
yankees23
Caribbean Islands
6
Mar 27th, 2003 08:33 AM
A.Non
Mexico & Central America
19
Jan 20th, 2003 04:36 PM
ocean lover
Caribbean Islands
14
Dec 11th, 2002 11:46 AM

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are On


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information -