save the dolphins

People want to be near dolphins. I don’t blame them, dolphins are awesome animals!
To fill this want, people will often see a dolphin show or have a “swim with dolphins” experience. Some of you may even have “Swim With Dolphins” as a goal on your 43Things list! In these captive environments, dolphins are cared for, fed well, are praised and respected. So what’s wrong with this picture?

Dolphins don’t belong in captivity.

Some facts:
- Dolphins naturally swim 40-100 miles a day. They can’t do this in aquariums.
- Dolphins are social animals and travel in different groups. In captivity, they are attached to the same friends leading to self-destructive behaviors like banging their head against the wall, etc.
- At these shows, a dolphin’s reinforcement is clapping from the crowd. Dolphins use echolocation. Hearing these sounds may actually give them a headache!
- When a captive dolphin is released, they have to retrain the dolphin on how to catch fish again.

Dolphins in Taiji are captured for dolphin shows and dolphin interaction sites around the world. The fisherman are paid a good price of $150,000 per dolphin captured. As long as we continue to support these institutions, dolphins will continue to be captured.

1. The very first step in saving the dolphins is not recognizing how cute they are, but understanding that they are intelligent creatures and are closer to human intelligence than we recognize.
In brain size to body size proportion, they are second only to humans and are regarded to being second in intelligence (yes, smarter than chimpanzees)!
Did you know that dolphins are self-aware, that when they look in the mirror, they know that they are looking at themselves?

2. Please watch the documentary “The Cove.” WARNING: this movie is not for children. As I watched this, I felt nauseous and horrified. Where dolphin meat is sold in Japan, consumers are being lied to in order for the meat to sell because the Japanese don’t regard dolphin as meat.Not only are they being lied to, but people are being poisoned by the meat’s high mercury content. Let’s stop the slaughtering of dolphins starting now.