This trip to Australia and New Zealand was the trip of a lifetime, probably one of my favorite trips for many reasons. Australia, I remember being a little girl and watching Jacques Cousteau and his little red beanie. I loved him and admired him so much the work and research he was doing on marine conservation. When I arrived to the Great Barrier Reef, I had envisioned what I thought I was going to see, beautifully colored reef's with more sea life than I could ever imagine, sad to say not so.
The coral is not vibrant and many of it is dead! During our swim and our dive Lauren (my daughter) and I observed the swimmers and we were mortified at what we saw! The majority of the people that were swimming, were swimming on top of the reef, kicking the reef with their fins, stepping on them, placing there hands to keep balance! We were outraged! Nobody seemed to care, especially the boat and crew that had taken us out there. New Zealand, Lauren dove one day and the next day I wanted to go out and see the dolphins since our previous excursion was cancelled because of rough seas. We got on a boat and thirty minutes out from port the water was filled with dolphins, 60, 70 ,80 who could count with all the excitement of seeing these beautiful creatures frolic and play with us!
The most beautiful sight I have ever seen with wildlife! Mind you I have been up and close to many, Gorillas, Elephants, Lions, and many many more, the dolphin is the only one that wants to interact and play with humans! They loved jumping, spinning, and twirling! Onboard our ship was a woman that was observing the dolphins part of a three year PHD study. New Zealand has very strict guidelines when it comes to any type of encounter with the dolphins and the possibility of getting in to the water with them. If there are babies, feeding, breeding, or resting, it is a no go! The first group we encountered had several babies, so it was off limits to get in, we were even limited in the time the boat could stay by them. Shortly after we moved on to find more and sure enough we did! No babies, just time enough to jump in to the frigid waters and see if you were lucky enough for them to swim next to you. This was hard work, these guys are fast and playful. The amazing thing is to hear them under water talking to each other, the social interaction between them is simply amazing!
Things the Sea World, the Sea Aquarium and other places do not want you to know:
In the wild, dolphins live from 50 to 60 years and more!
In captivity the generally die within the first five days and maximum life span five to six years!
They go through dozens of dolphins before one actually survives in the captivity. They pay poor countries like Fiji and many others multiples for capturing of dolphins.
They become depressed and not being able to swim and be social with other dolphins and kill their spirit and they die.
Please read below, this is not propaganda, this is the ugly truth! Trainers in these parks do not train them how to jump and play, it comes naturally them, it is instinctual. Please resist the urge to take your children to these places, take them on a boat ride and let them be viewed in their own environment.
Ten Fast Facts about Captive Orcas and Dolphins
- Both orcas (commonly known as killer whales) and dolphins are members of the dolphin family Delphinidae, of which orcas are the largest members. There are more than 500 orcas, dolphins and other members of the dolphin family held in captivity in the United States.
- Before the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) in 1972, roughly 1,133 dolphins had been captured in the U.S. waters. From 1964 to 1989, 138 orcas were captured worldwide for aquariums. While the MMPA makes it more difficult to capture marine mammals from the wild, aquariums still can apply for permits or import animals caught in other countries.
- Despite their claim, marine parks do not help to conserve marine mammals through their breeding programs. The marine mammals most commonly bred in captivity are not considered threatened or endangered.
- Aquariums have no intention of returning captive breed animals to the wild. In fact, they frequently argue that the success of such endeavors would be unlikely and vehemently oppose release efforts.
- The results of studies conducted in captivity may not be adequately extrapolated to wild animals for several reasons. Captive marine mammals live in small, sterile enclosures and are deprived of their natural activity level, social groups and interactions with their natural environment, and many captive marine mammals develop stereotypic behavior and/or aggression not known to occur in the wild. What we have learned from captive research is that orcas and dolphins are more intelligent than previously imagined, providing more evidence that a life in captivity is inhumane.
- Current research shows that there is no significant difference between the longevity of captive and wild orcas/dolphins. Despite the controlled environment, routine veterinary care and medications including anti-depressants, captive dolphins and orcas do not outlive their wild counterparts.
- Forcing orcas and dolphins to live in groups dictated by humans disrupts the dynamics of the natural hierarchy, which in turn upsets their natural behavior.
- Surveys show that most people prefer to see marine mammals displaying natural behaviors rather than performing “tricks and stunts.”
- A public display of wild animals is not necessary to engage people. Many wild animals, including several whale species, enjoy a high degree of public interest and concern despite never being maintained in captivity for public display.
- Keeping wild animals in captivity for human amusement is inherently cruel, as it deprives them of the ability to freely engage in instinctual behaviors in their natural environment.
