Captive Cetaceans: A Handbook for Campaigners - Whale and ...

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Diego, has said, "We don't have a separate quarantine facility for whales and dolphins" (Kucher, 1996). Criteria recommendations for cetaceans resulting from the workshop findings include, good health and nutritional status, normal behaviour, and normal blood profiles, but as yet do not include requirements for serological tests. Stranded animals should be isolated until approipriate diagonstic tests are performed and treatment instituted. Additionally, isolation involves a discrete water supply, separate area for food preparation, strict disinfection procedures, no access by the public, and ideally, a separate staff. Pre-release conditioning may be needed to prepare the animal to sustain itself depending on the species, the reason it came ashore, and the length of time of its stay. The current policy is to visually mark or tag all released cetaceans, though participants recommended the additional use of radio transmitters whenever possible. Monitoring was recommended for a minimum of one to two months after release (St. Aubin, et al, 1996). Questionable rehabilitation programmes... In 1977, an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin was accidentally caught in a shrimper's net and taken to Sea-Arama in Galveston, Texas. Dubbed Lucky, he served as the symbol of the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network for 13 years, and touted as Sea- Arama's "star performer". His photo appeared as a logo on tote bags and beverage holders until the park closed in 1990 (Texas Stranding Journal, 1991). He was temporarily transferred to the amusement park Six Flags Over Texas, and transferred again to the Chicago's Brookfield Zoo breeding facility in Florida in December 1990. Then, in April 1995 Lucky and three other Atlantic bottlenose dolphins were abruptly sold to the Lisbon Zoo in Portugal under the guise of a “breeding loans. It bears repeating that no animal exchanged between U.S. and foreign facilities for purposes of breeding loans has ever been returned. Another unfortunate example concerns an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin which stranded in May 1984 at Sunset Beach, Florida. Sunset Sam, as he became known, was taken to Clearwater Marine Science Center (CMSC), a former sewage treatment plant and member of the Southeast Stranding Network. The animal eventually recovered; however, according to the attending veterinarian, Sunset Sam suffered from vision impairment, preventing his release. For six years, he remained indoors and isolated, under sporadic non-compliance with the Animal Welfare Act, including 1987 USDA space requirements. NMFS commented that "the tank was actually too small even for one dolphin" (Brennan, 1988). The Marine Mammal Commission has long considered the maintenance of a single dolphin unacceptable. Curiously, a 1985 USDA inspection report noted that, "this facility [CMSC] plans to add a breeding female to the present tank" (USDA, 1985), suggesting that the facility never intended to release the animal, and may have exploited its solitary status in order to obtain an additional animal. A joint agency inspection was conducted in January 1988. Despite being riddled with contradictions, inconsistencies and deficiencies, the inspection recommended that corrections be made, and that CMSC should initiate the permit process to obtain a companion dolphin (Medway, 1988). In February 1989, five years after the stranding, 64
NMFS authorised a permit allowing CMSC to obtain another dolphin from captive stock (emphasis added). In March 1990, a companion animal was temporarily transferred to CMSC. This animal had been captured from the wild (emphasis added) seven months previously, by Gulf World. The second animal was returned to Gulf World in 1991, and replaced by a dolphin from the Navy, which died in 1993. CMSC received yet another beached/stranded animal in 1994 - courtesy of Sea World. Sunset Sam has become a local celebrity, featured in the media as an "artist with flippers": the dolphin, described as "blind", has been taught to paint! A veterinary technician tried this resourceful gimmick after seeing paintings done by an elephant at the Phoenix Zoo. CMSC defends the activity as "therapy", claiming that proceeds will be used to improve the facility (Fitzgerald, 1992). CMSC has profited greatly from the sales of t-shirts, lithographs and posters depicting reproductions of his work. One original painting was reportedly sold for $650 at pricey art gallery. SECTION 7 Influencing policy and politics... Aquariums perceive themselves as environmental leaders and agents of change. According to Nicholas Brown, Executive Director of the National Aquarium (cited in McCormick, 1993): "Entertainment was the key to the aquarium boom in the early 1970's, but the focus is now changing to include facilitating research, promoting advocacy, and influencing legislation" (emphasis added). Zoos have been hardpressed to justify their existence in a changing world ..the influence on policy of an increasing number of scientifically-trained zoo biologists cannot be discounted (Eudey, cited in Norton et al, 1995). 65
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Captive Cetaceans: A Handbook for C
Page 3 and 4:
APPENDICES A: Cetacean-Free Facilit
Page 6 and 7:
SECTION 1 Introducing cetaceans...
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graceful, but not particularly fast
Page 10 and 11:
SECTION 2 Captivity Capture methods
Page 12 and 13:
chronic inactive hepatitis, acute h
Page 14 and 15: Mexico from Texas to northwest Flor
Page 16 and 17: SECTION 3 Confinement.. More consid
Page 18 and 19: In August 1967, Marineland of the P
Page 20 and 21: In early January 1987, Kotar report
Page 22 and 23: age, or to illnesses or injuries th
Page 24 and 25: SECTION 4 Responses to typical pro-
Page 26 and 27: NMFS authorized four facilities to
Page 28 and 29: Response: While many people do visi
Page 30 and 31: ‘It’s not natural’ (given by
Page 32 and 33: catch a few zzz's in the seas, danc
Page 34 and 35: evidence for supposing that captive
Page 36 and 37: population dynamics. Photo-identifi
Page 38 and 39: (like talking about ‘motivation',
Page 40 and 41: SECTION 5 Refuting the myths. The a
Page 42 and 43: Most disturbing is the number of pe
Page 44 and 45: • Zoos have rarely acknowledged p
Page 46 and 47: Aquarium. "The students did not get
Page 48 and 49: species will be increasingly essent
Page 50 and 51: yielded some important findings on
Page 52 and 53: interesting questions about the sys
Page 54 and 55: from the other whales during the bi
Page 56 and 57: Sea World's 1993 handout, The Facts
Page 58 and 59: particular animal was subdominant a
Page 60 and 61: Conclusion... Captive breeding is a
Page 62 and 63: volunteers of the Whale Rescue Team
Page 66 and 67: Recently, the origin of the profess
Page 68 and 69: strategies is convincing policy mak
Page 70 and 71: mammal community definitely knows w
Page 72 and 73: Larry McInerney, who constructed th
Page 74 and 75: SECTION 8 Alternatives to cetacean
Page 76 and 77: Despite their continuing insistence
Page 78 and 79: that human-designed naturalistic en
Page 80 and 81: discovered that zoos are not, in fa
Page 82 and 83: Clearly, reintroductions are certai
Page 84 and 85: Aquarium - was disposed of at sea,
Page 86 and 87: eceived extensive publicity interna
Page 88 and 89: Lolita, the oldest surviving captiv
Page 90 and 91: through a meticulously-planned, gra
Page 92: dollars). By 1988, concrete tanks h
Page 95 and 96: AZA/Alliance. (1993, July 28). Test
Page 97 and 98: Brumsted, R. (1984, August 1). Lett
Page 99 and 100: DeMaster, D. & Drevenak, J. (1988).
Page 101 and 102: Geraci, J. (1986). Introduction and
Page 103 and 104: Jamieson, D. (1985). Against zoos,
Page 105 and 106: Marinelife Oceanarium. (undated). F
Page 107 and 108: (1991). Essay: Looking at captive d
Page 109 and 110: Rodgers, T. (1997, January 22). You
Page 111 and 112: (1990). Marine mammal behavioral di
Page 113: Winston, M.L. (1992, December 28).
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