After still not being able to make up my mind about DC vs. Dolphin Fantaseas, I did another search. Here's an article that I found. Gives me lots to think about.
http://www.dolphinproject.org/?pageid=22276
Who and What is Dolphin Fantaseas -- a general overview
By Helene O'Barry, September 2002
Dolphin Fantaseas is an Anguilla-based company that was founded in 1998 under the name Dolphin Lagoon Inc. Apparently the name was changed when the owner -- Graham Simpson -- realized that the concrete holding tank would not pass as a real lagoon. The company is geared up to broker captive dolphin for other facilities in the Caribbean and, in January 2001, received six wild-caught Cuban dolphins to accomplish this goal.
When Dolphin Lagoon changed its name to Dolphin Fantaseas, four marine mammal experts were hired. According to Chris Heslop - - public relations spokesperson of Dolphin Fantaseas -- the marine mammal experts are from the United States and have worked at captivity facilities including Sea World and Dolphin Quest.
Dolphin Quest is owned by the infamous dolphin captor Dr. Jay Sweeney. Dr. Sweeney is featured in A Fall From Freedom -- a TV Documentary produced by The Marine Mammal Fund -- and, according to information we have received, has taken part in the drive fisheries in Japan. In sereral fishing villages of Japan, dolphins are driven ashore and then hacked to death by fisherman. The world was shocked by the TV footage showing the entire bay red with blood as the dolphins were brutally massacred. It is believed that Dr. Sweeney brokered some of the surviving dolphins for captive dolphin swim programs in Japan and other countries.
In January 2001, Dolphin Fantaseas obtained a permit to capture up to 12 dolphins annually in Antiguan waters. The permit, issued by Prime Minister Lester Bird, was given to a person named John Mezzanotte. It was granted without any population study of the wild dolphins in the area.
In May 2001, the company tried to set up a captive dolphin swim program at Prospect Reef of Tortola, British Virgin Islands, as the first step in their scheme to broker captive dolphins to some of the many hotels and resorts in the Caribbean.
For reasons unknown to us, the authorities of Tortola chose to obtain their dolphins from Dolphins Plus, a captive dolphin facility in the Florida Key, USA. The dolphins arrived in Tortola in September 2001.
October 26 2001 Dolphin Fantaseas sent three dolphins -- two males and a female -- to Antigua to be used in dolphin swim program in Meads Bay.
November 11 2001, Richard OBarry was denied entrance in Antigua by the Antiguan Immigration Office. Prior to the incident, The Environmental Awareness Group (EAG) and the Antigua Barbuda Independent Tourism Promotion Corporation (ABITPC) of Antigua had arranged for Richard OBarry to give an educational public lecture about dolphins in Antigua November 13 2001. Richard OBarry was planning to give a slide presentation of dolphin rescue and release efforts. He was also going to address the various negative aspects of keeping dolphins in captivity. However, when he was about to board the American Airlines (AA) flight to Antigua November 11, he was pulled aside by an American Airline supervisor who informed him that AA had received information from the Immigration office in Antigua that he was not welcome in Antigua and for that reason they could not let him board the plane. The AA supervisor also told OBarry that if he boarded another plane to Antigua he would face arrest and deportation upon arrival in Antigua. OBarry asked if the Immigration office in Antigua had given any reason as to why he was not welcome, and the answer was no.
In December 2001, the government of Antigua sent out a news release, announcing the opening of Dolphin Fantaseas on their island.
In August 2002 we received information that Dolphin Fantaseas has gone into a joint venture with a local company in St. Lucia called Minvielle & Chastenet. They have applied for a permit to open yet another captive dolphin facility, this time in St. Lucia. If approved the (US $1 million) facility would be developed and operated by Dolphin Fantaseas. The new dolphin facility will target land and cruise ship visitors.
According to the information we have received, a permit is also being sought to capture wild dolphins in St. Lucia's territorial waters even though St. Lucia has signed and ratified the SPAW Protocol. Dolphin Fantaseas is requesting permission to capture the first 6 dolphins needed for this facility. To our knowledge, the only thing holding up this permit is whether or not the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is approved.
As can be seen from the above, Dolphin Fantaseas poses a serious threat to the welfare of dolphins in that the company is causing an increase in the violent captures, lifelong confinement, and commercial exploitation of dolphins. As a direct result of the activities carried out by Dolphin Fantaseas, many more dolphins will be captured from the wild and brokered through the company to be exploited at the many hotels and resorts in the Caribbean.
Why is Dolphin Fantaseas seeking to create this seemingly uncontrollable spreading of captive dolphin facilities in the Caribbean?
If you look at the website of Dolphin Fantaseas you will see that their alleged main purpose is to give people the opportunity to gain an understanding of this fascinating mammal. I would like to comment on this statement:
The key to understanding why captivity of dolphins is wrong is understanding what dolphins are like in nature. With this in mind, please consider this:
In nature dolphins enjoy the ability to move freely. Their streamlined bodies and smooth skin enable them to gain fast speed, and bottlenose dolphins are always on the move, swimming up to 40 miles a day. They can hold their breath for as long as 20 minutes and dive to depths of more than 1,640 feet.
In captivity dolphins are restricted to the size of their tank or enclosure. Deprived of expressing their natural abilities they can only swim a few feet before a wall or a fence stops them.
In nature dolphins constantly explore their ocean environment by sending out bursts of sounds of many different frequencies. With reflected sound, called echolocation or sonar, dolphins can detect elements that are invisible for animals that are sight oriented, depending on reflected light for vision. The use of sonar is as important to dolphins as eyesight to humans. Dolphins rely on sonar in almost every aspect of their daily lives.
In captivity dolphins are severely restricted in using their sonar. They can't use it to catch live fish as they are fed dead fish as food rewards. They cant put it to full use to explore their underwater world because there isn't much to explore in a barren, concrete tank or a small cage in the sea. They certainly cant use it to navigate, because they arent going anywhere. Sensory deprivation is one of the most damaging aspects of keeping dolphins in captivity.
In nature most dolphins spend their entire lives in the company of dolphins of their own kind, living in groups known as pods. Some pods consist of females and their offspring; others of young males who -- when they reach maturity -- leave their mothers pod to form their own. Dolphins are intelligent and social animals. Belonging to a pod is important to them because this is where they find safety, love, and companionship.
In captivity dolphins are forever separated from the pod they naturally belong to. Instead, they are forced to live in an artificial pod, designed by humans for commercial reasons. During the capture, the strong social bonds that the dolphins have enjoyed and nurtured for years are abruptly and permanently destroyed.
The word "capture" clashes with the superficial surroundings of the captive dolphin swim program, and it is therefore understandable that Dolphin Fantaseas doesnt give the public the details about how their dolphins ended up in captivity. The truth is, the capture of dolphins is an extremely violent procedure. Different capture methods are used for different species of dolphins. One of the methods used to capture bottlenose dolphins -- the species that Dolphin Fantaseas uses -- is this: Pods of dolphins are chased to exhaustion, surrounded with a net and dragged onto the boat where the capture team searches through the terrified group for the specimen they want. The lucky ones are thrown overboard. Those selected are taken ashore. They will never see their ocean world and their pod again. In some incidents, dolphins have been separated from their calves, regardless of the fact that a bottlenose dolphin normally protects and remains with her calf for about five years. During this time they nurture a relationship characterized by profound affection. The violent and permanent separation no doubt represents a traumatic experience for both mother and calf, and it is hardly surprising that dolphins have died from capture shock.
In an article published in the St. Lucia Star September 25 2002, Dolphin Fantaseas boats that their company is run by a group of people that have in excess of 80 years combined experience handling and caring for marine mammals. This statement is laughable at best. Dolphins, in comparison, have evolved over more than 50 million years! Having adapted perfectly to their vast marine environment, they hardly need to be captured, cared for, and trained in how to be dolphins by so-called experienced staff members of Dolphin Fantaseas. On the contrary, the dolphin care that Dolphin Fantaseas can provide consists of a brutal capture, lifelong confinement, and hours of training in abnormal behaviors. These three aspects of dolphin captivity clearly violate a dolphins most fundamental behavioral requirements. The dolphins held captive by Dolphin Fantaseas will never swim in a straight line for as long as they desire; nor will they ever be able to use their speed, intelligence, sonar, and sense of cooperation to catch live fish. They will never again experience what it means to be a real dolphin, in a dolphin's real world -- the open sea. By human design these free-ranging and complex marine mammals will be confined to a very small space where, for the rest of their lives, they will have to satisfy a never-ending line of tourists demanding a close-up encounter with an exotic animal.
Is this cruel? Of course it is. Yet Dolphin Fantaseas will have you believe that what they are doing to the dolphins is right. They will even go as far as to say that, guess what, they are capturing and confining dolphins to teach you, the consumer, respect for nature! That is the height of hypocrisy that the dolphin captivity industry is based upon. Sadly, many people buy into the deception, and thats what nourishes the profits made from dolphin captivity: The commercial success of the captive dolphin industry is a classic example of the greedy praying on the ignorant.
In order to justify the commercial exploitation of dolphins, Dolphin Fantaseas argues that life in the sea is so stressful for dolphins; they are far better off being captured and used in dolphin shows and swim programs. If you are a dolphin you dont know where your next meal will come from; when you are going to run into a hungry shark or killer whale; where the next drift net is or what pollutants humans have dumped into the ocean, they say. Thats like saying a human being would be better off never leaving his house out of fear of being hit by a car. But living is doing things. It is expressing who and what you are by living in accordance with your true nature and, in doing so, letting all of your natural skills unfold. For a dolphin, this means chasing fish, surfing, diving deep, navigating, foraging, socializing with pod members, and moving in a straight line mile after mile.
Yes, we need to stop polluting the oceans. We need to stop drift-netting and over-fishing. And we need to stop capturing, exploiting, and killing dolphins for casual amusement. To add to the destruction of nature by capturing dolphins is not going to solve any of our environmental problems. The contrary is true: It enforces the widespread misconception that nature and its inhabitants exist for humans to make use of as we please. Captive dolphin swim programs only serve to perpetuate our utilitarian perception of nature.
Despite all the obvious reasons why dolphins dont belong in captivity -- reasons that Dolphin Fantaseas (in the St. Lucia Star September 25) interestingly enough simply dismisses as a variety of personal reasons -- the company, on their website, goes on to say about dolphins that they are powerful ambassadors of their species, and we are obligated to safeguard their natural sea-lifestyles. Yes, thats precisely what they say: we are obligated to safeguard their natural sea-lifestyles. And this statement comes from a company that makes its living doing the exact opposite! Their business is based on capturing dolphins from the wild, separating them from their pod members and their natural environment; in other words, it is based on permanently destroying the dolphins natural sea-lifestyles. This is yet another example of how the captive dolphin industry supplies the public with information that one must suspect was designed to mislead rather than educate.
In the St. Lucia Star, Dolphin Fantaseas makes a big point out of emphasizing that there is a lot of tourist dollars to be made from captive dolphins. Personally, I have no doubts that when it comes to calculating the desired profits made from charging people to swim with captive dolphins, Dolphin Fantaseas know what they are talking about. After all, thats what the trade in dolphins is all about: Money. There is nothing new going on here: In the name of profit, human mankind has despoiled the Earth of many priceless treasures. Some people work to help nature get back on its feet. Others keep depleting nature of treasures that are not rightfully theirs, and so, according to information we have received, the Government of Antigua has granted Dolphin Fantaseas permission to capture up to 12 dolphins annually in Antiguan waters. To claim that these captures serve the noble purpose of teaching our children respect for nature is preposterous. It is nothing more than propaganda used to sanitize the commercial exploitation of these animals. The dolphins to be captured, confined, and used by Dolphin Fantaseas are not ambassadors. They are victims. Now, we all want to make a living -- but please, not like this.
Like any other business, the billion-dollar dolphin trade is based on supply and demand. As long as there is a paying audience to sustain the profits of the dolphin captivity industry, dolphins will be captured from the wild and captive dolphin breeding programs will be intensified. Ultimately, the consumers are the dolphins' only hope. As a consumer, you can help abolish dolphin shows, dolphin swim programs, and other forms of dolphin exploitation. It's easy: Dont buy a ticket.
