"Aquariums, particularly marine mammal circus acts, are bound to disappear as the public is educated and revolts against it." Jean-Michel Cousteau.

Visitors to marine amusement parks are fascinated by the intelligence, sensitivity and grace of dolphins and whales. Yet many people don't realize the degree of suffering and injustice involved in taking these animals from their families and native habitats, holding them captive in highly artificial and unnatural environments.

Marine parks and aquariums claim to educate, but in reality they teach people that the capture and exploitation of these intelligent and complex creatures is acceptable. They send a message that the whole of nature is ours to exploit, for a reason as frivolous as sheer entertainment. That's why many scientists and experts, such as the late Jacques Cousteau, oppose all captivity of marine mammals.

The Capture
In the 1960's, the American television show "Flipper" starred a captive dolphin and set off a craze that launched the modern captivity industry. Today, Flipper's trainer, Ric O'Barry, serves as director of the Dolphin Project, crusading against dolphin captivity and fighting to liberate those dolphins currently held in marine parks and aquariums throughout the world.

As of 1994, an estimated 3,000 cetaceans had been removed from the wild and placed on display at U.S. facilities and abroad (Source: Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society). The most commonly captured species were bottlenose dolphins, pacific whitesided dolphins, beluga whales and orcas, commonly known as killer whales.

The capture of wild dolphins and whales is violent, cruel and disruptive to entire communities of cetaceans and the ecosystems in which they live. One capture method involves chasing dolphins to the point of exhaustion with high speed boats. The dolphins are then netted and dragged aboard. Undesirable dolphins (the old, the very young, the weak, injured or sick) are thrown back to the sea, while the young, healthy specimens that meet aquarium specifications are kept for sale and transport.

Another method also involves chasing the animals with boats and herding them into enclosed bays or makeshift sea pens, where they are trapped and frequently separated from family members. (Dolphins and whales live in tightly knit social units, known as pods. In the case of orca whales, the pods stay together for life.)

In 1997, fisherman in Taigi, Japan trapped a pod of 10 orca whales in this manner. Eyewitness accounts and undercover video footage provided by the Whale and Dolphin Network of Japan document the terrible ordeal that these whales endured. Compelling video footage shows a baby orca crying plaintively as he is placed in a sling, hauled up by a crane and placed on a flatbed truck for transport. The young whale's mother watches helplessly, her body contorting and her tail violently slapping the water as her offspring is hauled away, her family shattered forever.

Five of the ten orcas captured at this time were shipped off to Japanese aquariums. (Five others were released.) Within months, two of the orcas had died. One was a female whale who was pregnant at the time of capture; the other was the baby whose heartbreaking cries of distress were captured on video for all the world to see. Just three of the captured orcas survive today in Japanese aquariums.

The Drive Fishery link
In 1994, IDA, working with Earth Island Institute, stopped the California-based amusement park Marine World Africa USA from importing four pseudorca (false killer whales) who were captured from a brutal Japanese drive fishery. The drive fishery occurs annually when Japanese fishermen herd dolphins with boats, driving them ashore. There the fisherman stab and bludgeon the dolphins to death. The sands run red with blood as hundreds of dolphins perish in this manner during each drive fishery.

Before the slaughter, fishermen segregate the best looking "specimens" and confine them in sea pens, where they are set aside for sale to marine parks and aquariums. At $3,000 per dolphin, this market provides strong incentive to the Japanese fishermen to continue this brutal practice.

In 1997, the PBS television show Frontline produced a powerful documentary about the captivity industry and exposed the dark side of supplying the world's theme parks and aquariums with marine mammals.

In Spring 2001, IDA co-sponsored environmental filmmaker Hardy Jones, whose bloody and horrifying footage of drive fisheries was featured on Frontline, on a fact-finding mission to Japan. In the ports of Futo and Taigi, Jones uncovered a previously unknown and expanding dolphin capture and export business that is supplying the world's aquariums and marine parks with small cetaceans. In Taigi, he documented a dolphin packaging infrastructure, where dolphins are captured, trained and then exported with the trainers to aquariums, theme parks and swim-with-the-dolphins programs throughout Asia, the South Pacific and Mexico. Several Americans are involved in the export of these drive fishery-caught cetaceans to international facilities.

The Impacts of Captivity
The life of a captive dolphin or whale is one of severe deprivation. Whales and dolphins swim 40-100 miles a day in the open sea; in captivity, they can legally be confined to tanks as small as 24x24x6 feet. Captivity deprives dolphins and whales of everything that is important - the family bonds that form the heart of cetacean societies, the rich and varied ocean environment, the natural rhythms of the ocean, the diverse sea life on which they feed, the freedom to swim vast distances across the open sea. In their place: a concrete tank, chlorinated water, buckets of dead fish fed daily, and endless circles swum in a barren tank.

Whales and dolphins are among the most complex, social and intelligent animals on the planet. Captivity takes its toll on these magnificent and free-ranging creatures. While wild dolphins can live 40 years and orcas can live 90, in captivity they often die prematurely. Captive cetaceans routinely suffer from ulcers. They frequently go blind and suffer from skin problems caused by heavily chlorinated water. They die from stress-related conditions like pneumonia, as well as self-inflicted injuries or injuries caused by accidents or confrontations with other confined dolphins and whales. Acoustic creatures who use echolocation (sonar) to communicate and hunt for food, their sound waves bounce off the concrete walls. It is a situation that has been compared to a human being confined to a room of mirrors for life, and it is enough, literally, to drive some of these complex animals insane.

Dolphins are cursed with a face that always appears to be smiling. But behind the smile of a captive dolphin lies misery and a quality of life that can never compare to the complexity and richness of life in the open sea.