Rekindling Waters

Artist credit:  Christian Lassen

I think I've made my position regarding animals in captivity pretty clear throughout the duration of my having this blog.  When I lived out in California for almost 18 years, I never once visited Sea World because I could not stomach the fact that they had dolphins and orcas, etal imprisoned there.    I admit I've been to the zoo a few times in my lifetime.  A couple of times in Oregon and once at the San Diego Zoo.  This was before I became more educated on this issue.  And once when I visited Las Vegas, I believe it was the Mirage hotel that had dolphins in captivity there so people could just walk through, see them, and walk out.  Boy was I stupid to let myself be influenced by peer pressure at the time, knowing full well that it did not sit well with me in the least to see these dolphins in that environment.

Some people argue that situations and places like this are invaluable in educating people about our wildlife and marine mammals.  I disagree.  There are far more humane ways to educate people about our animal and mammal friends than to basically enslave them and make them beholden to the almighty buck.

Following is an excellent article by a writer that shares my view on this: Get Dolphins Out of Aquariums

Excerpt:

One thing that the profitable marine entertainment industry doesn't want the public to know is that buying a ticket to a marine theme park helps support the slaughter of dolphins in the wild. Every year, thousands of dolphins are killed in bloody "drive fisheries" in Japan. While most end up as meat in Japanese supermarkets, each year, approximately two dozen captured dolphins are sold to marine parks and "swim-with" programs around the world. The considerable profit from those sales perpetuates the slaughter. 

 I couldn't have said it better.   If you buy a ticket to a place like Sea World, you are supporting the slaughter of these marine mammals.   It's just that simple.

 I don't care how well the park owners or trainers or whoever states that the mammals are treated well.  It is NOT a natural environment for them.

Here's another excerpt from that article:

The mortality rate for dolphins and other captive marine life is high. Animals have become sick and have died from contaminated water and stress-related ulcers and from ingesting key chains, sunglasses and rocks that were tossed into their tanks. They've died while being treated for common ear and tooth infections. Former dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry quit the business after the death of Flipper, his favorite "student," believing that stress and depression contributed to the dolphin's death.

Because official records are sketchy at best, there is no way of knowing for sure how many animals die in captivity. But since many gate-drawing animals such as orcas and bottlenose dolphins are covered by million-dollar insurance policies, even dead they bring in bucks.

I will repeat:  If you buy a ticket to a place like Sea World or any other related park or setting, YOU are supporting the slaughter and enslavement of these mammals.  That makes YOU an accessory to murder.

Extreme of me to say that?  Maybe.  But that's how I see it.  We wouldn't stand for this sort of thing happening to humans, so why do we stand for it with dolphins and/or orcas?   The fact that this continues to occur and people rake in millions of dollars in profit by doing this, and people support this,  is a prime example of our failure as human beings.

A friend recommended this book to me.  I've yet to read it myself but it's on my list.  Rekindling Waters The Truth About Swimming With Dolphins


Another article on the subject of treating dolphins as "non human persons."   Dolphins Second Brightest on Planet

This gives even more weight to the controversial issue of keeping our marine friends in captivity.

Excerpt:

The researchers argue that their work shows it is morally unacceptable to keep such intelligent animals in amusement parks or to kill them for food or by accident when fishing. Some 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die in this way each year. "Many dolphin brains are larger than our own and second in mass only to the human brain when corrected for body size," said Lori Marino, a zoologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who has used magnetic resonance imaging scans to map the brains of dolphin species and compare them with those of primates.

On the Sea Shepherd front, there are a few updates on their site:

Sea Shepherd is a Fundamentalist Darwinist Anti-God Organization

In Pursuit of Lives Not Lost

Cyber Wars


In Australia:  Locals Rally to Save Whales

Great site:  Save the Earth Virtual Conference

Wonderful video:  Imagine by John Lennon (shown in American Sign Language and singing)

Mahalo,

Dolphin