Do Not Visit Marine Parks, Aquariums And Zoos Holding Dolphins In Captivity

**patfromlogan** · Posted On: 11/15/2012 5:23pm

I "swam" with dolphins at Two Step in Kealakekua Bay here on the Big Island of Hawaii two days ago. My wife and I saw a dozen dolphins. The signs say DO NOT BOTHER THE DOLPHINS as they are resting here, swimming slowly until they go to sea in the late afternoon to hunt. We never try to get close or touch them, if they come close it's great, if not, they are still beautiful. A couple times we've seen them leaping and doing flips, it is fun, and sometimes it's amazing.

Popular culture depicts dolphins as symbols of tranquility and peace. They are considered by some to be benign and all knowing; the very embodiment of wisdom. One can see illustrations of jolly dolphins jumping heroically out of the ocean waters with lasers and rainbows shooting out everywhere. Dolphins actually practice murder of other species (they kill porpoises for unknown reasons - they don't eat the the same fish). And dolphins practice infanticide.

Not that they are some evil creature, but they aren't Disney cute, and they aren't on some movie screen. The ones people swim with at hotels and resorts are captives kept in a pool. Dolphins can swim more than a hundred miles a day. How big is the pool? Dolphins use sonar, but that doesn't work in a cement tub.

Some resorts use captured young dolphins, torn from their family pods - often sold by Japanese fishing companies who sell the older ones for meat. Some resorts, like the Hilton Waikaloa here on The Big Island, use bred animals. Nevertheless, they are captives, they are slaves. The ones at the Hilton aren't even from the Pacific Ocean, much less Hawaii. They are hungry and are trained to interact with humans with food as their reward. While the Hilton runs an OK program, elsewhere there are horror stories, specially in foreign countries.

Dolphins are perhaps cursed by the shape of their mouths: - they always seem to be smiling. One can't assume that's a happy face. Stress factors include confined area with no place for retreat, hunger satisfied only by performing, and stress from surrounding noise - people, loud music, fireworks, whatever the resort has going on. Some resorts claim that they are "connected" to the ocean. They won't mention that the connection has a net or fence across it to prevent their slaves from escaping.

The dolphins were either bred and have never seen the ocean, or captured and stolen from their pod. Resorts and cruise ships call this a 'dolphin experience' , a very expensive tour that is NOT a 'swim with dolphins' but rather a visit in a pool with captive dolphins.

A 'dolphin experience' allows you to climb into a concrete tank and 'experience' some dolphins while the trainer makes them perform tricks. These dolphins are subjected to the slavery of captivity and abuse, and the experience may be disappointing, is nothing like a real swim with dolphins in the wild.

There are dolphins-in-the-wild tours available, and here they are reputable and try not to disturb the animals resting, feeding or mating. The wild tours encourage people to let the dolphins set the agenda. They aren't horses, no one rides the animals like children are sometimes allowed to do to the slave animals.

***battlefields*** · Posted On: 11/15/2012 7:58pm

They're also delicious.

**Devil** · Posted On: 11/16/2012 8:38am

I watched some dolphin marathon on Discovery a couple years ago. My main take away was that I don't want to **** with dolphins or be near them.

Like Pat says, they're amazing predators and can be very aggressive. The most badass thing I saw them do was hunt as a pack and chase fish onto the beach, slide right the **** up there, grab them out of the sand and flop back into the water.

As for putting them in pools - I learned that they practice slavery and gang rape as well, so I call karma.

**Diesel_tke** · Posted On: 11/16/2012 10:22am

I don't really know why people pay to see dolphins when you can see them in the wild for free. I've surfed before where there were dolphins swiming in the same waves I was surfing on. Sting rays too. Also, we see dolphin in the water every time we take the boat out. Usually they swim up next to the boat, so we stop to make sure not to hit one. The kids think it is cool.

I understand the dolphin rescue plases where they keep them just long enough to help them and then release them. But the worst places I've seen for holding dophins was in Mexico. They have them in little cages which are in the ocean. Then they throw little tourist kids into the cage with them and fish them back out. It was pretty sick when I saw it. I mean those cages were small!

**Bneterasedmynam** · Posted On: 11/16/2012 10:25am

I think we should all calm down and discuss this over a nice can of flipper errr.. tuna I mean tuna!! Anyway dolphins are the only sea creatures I'm aware of who regularly rape humans, there is just something pretty un-fucking majestic about a sea creature that rapes people with a 4 foot long dick. Just saying.