Secret slaughter of the the dolphins.

[dolphingirl47]

I have to say, that article made my blood churn. This is one of the reasons why I would never go to Atlantis in Dubai as their dolphin facility contains predominantly wild caught dolphins which were caught off the Solomon Islands fairly recently.

Seaworld and Discovery Cove are a different proposition though. Yes, both parks have wild caught dolphins. Seaworld currently has 42 dolphins. Only 4 of those were caught (in the 80s). All other dolphins were born in captivity, most of them at the various Seaworld parks and a couple at Marineland in Florida. Discovery Cove has 38 dolphins, 6 of which were caught in the wild (all but one in the 70s and the last one in 1980). The rest were born in captivity.

Yes, I would prefer that all their dolphins had been born in captivity, but fact is that at the time there was no viable captive breeding programme and people simply did not know better. Anheusser Busch did not buy the Seaworld parks until 1989 and since they owned the parks, no dolphins has been caught for Seaworld. The dominant male at Seaworld Orlando, Hekili, is slightly muddying the waters as he was caught in late 1989, but he was caught for the National Aquarium and only moved to Seaworld in 1993 on a breeding loan (I think officially he is still only on loan to Seaworld).

Corinna

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

I have to say, that article made my blood churn. This is one of the reasons why I would never go to Atlantis in Dubai as their dolphin facility contains predominantly wild caught dolphins which were caught off the Solomon Islands fairly recently.

Seaworld and Discovery Cove are a different proposition though. Yes, both parks have wild caught dolphins. Seaworld currently has 42 dolphins. Only 4 of those were caught (in the 80s). All other dolphins were born in captivity, most of them at the various Seaworld parks and a couple at Marineland in Florida. Discovery Cove has 38 dolphins, 6 of which were caught in the wild (all but one in the 70s and the last one in 1980). The rest were born in captivity.

Yes, I would prefer that all their dolphins had been born in captivity, but fact is that at the time there was no viable captive breeding programme and people simply did not know better. Anheusser Busch did not buy the Seaworld parks until 1989 and since they owned the parks, no dolphins has been caught for Seaworld. The dominant male at Seaworld Orlando, Hekili, is slightly muddying the waters as he was caught in late 1989, but he was caught for the National Aquarium and only moved to Seaworld in 1993 on a breeding loan (I think officially he is still only on loan to Seaworld).

Corinna

Thankyou for that Corinna I wonder what parks in the US the paper was referring too.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Thankyou for that Corinna I wonder what parks in the US the paper was referring too.

I wish I knew as well. I would avoid any park that still catches marine mammals in the wild in this day and age, where many places (including Seaworld and Discovery Cove) have very successful captive breeding programmes, like the plague.

Corinna