Tell Mississippi Officials Not To Include Dolphins in Planned Aquarium

The City of Gulfport, Mississippi, is planning on building an aquarium that will include a dolphin exhibit. As the City is still in the process of securing funding, now is an excellent time to contact city officials and explain why it is best not to include such an unethical exhibit within this new facility.

The city has already gathered $40 million for the construction of the facility and estimates that an additional $20 million will be required in order to purchase the animals, including dolphins. There is no word where these dolphins will be coming from. According to the architectural firm assisting with the project, construction is expected to begin in the summer of 2017, then be stocked with animals by 2018, and finally open to the public beginning in 2019.

The Mississippi Aquarium is intended to replace the Marine Life Oceanarium that was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. According to some, then-director Moby Solangi stirred controversy when he decided not to move the existing eight dolphins out of the facility fast enough, preferring to keep the Aquarium open as long as possible before the storm hit. While it is fortunate that Solangi is not involved in this new project, he still runs a highly questionable “research” facility that ended up on the number seven spot on In Defense of Animal’s Ten Worst Tanks list in 2016.