Mostly we take dolphins FROM the sea. We put them in marine parks, we charge tourists to watch them do tricks and to swim with them, and we often breed them to produce more dolphins that can stock the parks. So it is pretty cool when there is an attempt to take captive dolphins and send them in the other direction: back to the wild.
Tom and Misha are part of an expensive, ambitious and risky program sponsored by the UK-based Born Free Foundation, which is aiming to prove that captive dolphins can be reintroduced to the wild.
For more than a year, Foster and his team worked in a quiet cove on the Aegean, teaching the two dolphins how to catch their own food. He said the intensive training was necessary to get the dolphins ready to fend for themselves.
“It would be like taking your dog and releasing it into the woods,” Foster said. “If you don’t prepare your dog for that, it would never happen.”
When Foster first met these dolphins more than a year ago, he said they would eat only if humans placed dead fish directly in their mouths.
“We had literally thousands of fish in the pen, and they just wouldn’t look at them,” Foster said. “They had just been so used to being hand-fed in a captive situation that they did not recognize fish as a food source.”
If they can survive, and even thrive in the wild, it will help establish that marine park releases, for dolphins that are good candidates, are viable. So far, Tom Continue reading “Two Dolphins Go Back To The Sea”
UPDATE: My call-in time has changed to 6:10 pm EST.
Tomorrow evening (Friday), at 6:10 pm EST, I’ll join Sam Simon to talk about orcas on his radio show on RadioIo. Simon is an interesting guy, who was “lucky” (his word) to be involved in getting The Simpsons up and running. He was also involved in a lot of other shows and you can read about him here.
On the side of all this, and in addition to a radio show, Simon has a foundation, and does a lot of work protecting and rescuing dogs. SteveO, of Jackass fame, will also be on the show, to talk about circuses.
If you want to listen in, the show will start at 6 pm EST, and I am calling in at 7 pm. Just go to this link, and click the red “Listen” button next to the “Bubba One” channel.
Should be an interesting and unpredictable evening, so hope you can join in.
Getting word that the fast-rising pool floor that SeaWorld has been tinkering with for months, in the “G” pool at SeaWorld Florida, is about to go operational. And that construction to install similar floors at SeaWorld Texas and SeaWorld California will begin in earnest late this year or over the winter.
The fast-rising floor and “spare air” for trainers have been the two most prominent safety upgrades that SeaWorld has pursued in the aftermath of the death of trainer Dawn Brancheau. Getting these complex technologies to work properly could be the key to SeaWorld making a case to OSHA that it is safe for trainers to go back into the water. That is a case that SeaWorld presumably would have to make if its appeal of OSHA’s citation regarding waterwork, which is in the hands of a judge at the moment, is denied.
First up, I wanted to post this clip of the Taiji dolphin drives. You’ve likely seen video of what the drives involve, and The Cove has done a lot to go behind the screens and try to help the public see the reality of the drives. I am posting this clip not to gratuitously add to the bloody imagery. I am posting it because it is a clip filmed for the BBC in 1986. So it is a reminder that this goes on year after year, and has been going on year after year for a long time. It is hard to imagine the sheer number of dolphins and whales who have gone through this, but the time span between this clip and today forces you to stat grappling with that question. The clip also makes me wonder whether humanity, and humanity’s awareness of this cruelty, will evolve enough to mean that the drives will no longer be going after another 35 years have passed.
[h/t: JW]
Next up, is another account of the thought-provoking unnatural paths which life at a marine park can lead an animal down. I don’t have pictures (so this is more of a “Knowing Is Important” item), but this is the story of a dolphin called Shalest, who was at SeaWorld Florida in the 1980s/1990s. I had heard of Shalest before, but her story was brought up again in response to my effort to find out if there were more stories like the one posted in a comment, by Jen, on yesterday’s Seeing Is Important post:
There was a dolphin called Bubbles in the the Gasser families travelling circus that had to have a pectoral flipper amputated after catching a serious pseudomonas infection that caused the fin to rot and Gangrene set in. She recovered and performed in shows again but died a few months later after developing Hepatitis.
My search for more stories prompted this, on Shalest, from former SeaWorld trainer Jeffrey Ventre:
One day she was in a small side pool at W&D stadium with other dolphins (circa 1991) all of which were more dominant than she. Although it wasn’t directly witnessed, what apparently happened was she was being chased and tried to flee (a nice option for wild animals); similar to how Morgan kept trying to get away from the animals at LP on that video… but much smaller space with quicker movements, in a shallow side pool; so nowhere up or down to go in the water column, either.
She must have been near the perimeter of the pool and when she accelerated, she severely sliced a large piece of her tail fluke… but not quite all the way off. The median notch divides the tail into two lobes, each being a fluke. So she sheared about half of one lobe/fluke… but it was hanging on… not completely severed. And it was bleeding.
I remember inspecting the pool to try and determine what could have caused the partial amputation. When I looked into the water outflow pipe, which was of fairly large caliber (guessing 12 inches in diameter) the pipe tube was lined with PVC… The edge of the PVC liner formed a sharp plastic angle where it was cut with a saw, I think. If you’ve ever worked with PVC, then you can imagine how sharp an edge can be.
The fluke (lobe) was severely severed, but only about 2/3 of the way through… so it was hanging on. The incision began from the leading edge of the fluke (lobe) and made it about 2/3 of the way to the trailing edge.
It was not a stable injury. It was a displaced partial amputation made worse with swimming. Vet Mike Walsh tried to suture it back on, but it didn’t take, began to show signs of infection and/or necrosis, and so the fluke was fully amputated later. The tissue eventually granulated and she survived it, but did die a tragic death later.
Regarding Shalest’s death, I have a number of memories of Shalest from a discussion between former SeaWorld trainers, which explain what happened. These trainers no longer support captivity, and Shalest deeply affected their thinking (see, KNOWING is important). It is hard to know whether Shalest’s death was connected to the stress of the injury, or the general stress of being a small dolphin in a confined pool. But every story is important, because it brings forth details that are unique to the experience of each animal. The aim is not to anthropomorphize, but to individualize.
From one former SeaWorld trainer:
My most painful Sea World memory was of the Atlantic Bottlenose dolphin Shalest, who died from, in my opinion, stress-induced malnutrition/starvation. Looking back it seems tragically ironic that a dolphin born and raised in captivity under the principles of behavior modification, learned them so well that the food SW trained her to eat no longer continued to be reinforcing for her. It was attention from these same people that she solicited and appeared to crave most prior to her death.
Samanatha Berg, at SeaWorld Florida's Whale & Dolphin Stadium
From Samantha Berg, another former SeaWorld trainer, in response:
I remember Shalest, especially during her last days looking like a skeleton with the ghost of a dolphin exterior. She literally starved to death. I can still see her in the back pool swallowing and regurgitating the same herring all day long. Before Shalest got sick, she was such a phenomenal animal. You could get in the water with her and hug her for hours and she would just hang out.
Dolphin anorexia is a good description. She started regurgitating her food and playing with it. It was more reinforcing for her to do that than eat it. The animal care staff tried force feeding her, but it didn’t do any good. She just kept eating and throwing up. Eventually starved herself to death.
Again, the point here is not to gratuitously dramatize, though this is a dramatic story. It is to dig deep into the reality of Shalest’s experience, so we can better understand, which is the key to critical thinking and judgement.
Feel free to share more stories or pictures in the Comments.
No matter what your views on marine parks, it is important that you know as much about the lives of the animals there as possible. Otherwise, you can’t really hold whatever views you have honestly. A few days ago, a picture came across my desk, and Elizabeth Batt has written up the backstory over at Digital Journal.
I hesitated to publish the picture because it is dramatic and open to mis-interpretation. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt that not publishing it also is a dis-service, and also dishonest. And that you can never know or understand more by NOT seeing something.
So below is the picture that got Elizabeth going on her article. It shows a team at an Asian marine park trying to save a dolphin’s life by amputating an infected dorsal. One one level it is hard to object to what they are doing, as brutal as the procedure might be for an animal that can’t handle general anesthetic. But the picture also shows the sort of lives and experience marine mammals at marine parks live, in contrast to the lives they live in their natural environment.
If this dolphin came from the Taiji drives, as seems likely from Elizabeth’s reporting, you can say that it is “lucky” to be alive, and you would be right in the sense that getting sold to a marine park is possibly better than being slaughtered in a cove (though who really knows which of those two fates a dolphin would choose it if could choose between those two fates). But that doesn’t take away from the truth of what the picture shows about the alien (to a marine mammal) world of marine mammal captivity (plus, it is the sale of dolphins to marine parks that underlies much of the economic incentive for the Taiji drives, so there is a bigger picture).
Finally, yes, the ocean can be a tough place, and dolphins no doubt get injured and die at sea. But this situation is a result of human choices and human culture. So I am publishing the picture so it can be seen by human eyes.
Last November, I wrote about the pregnancies of SeaWorld orcas Kohana, Kasatka, and Takara (much to the skepticism of some readers). Not sure what my critics are thinking right now, but I can add some detail to my previous post by reporting that I am told that Takara is expected to deliver in December, with Kasatka following in January.
Also, at the risk of inflaming the skeptics again I’ve heard that Kayla is next on the breeding list, and the hope is that she can be impregnated by artificial insemination using a sperm donation from Mundo Marino’s Kshamenk–which reflects the fact that SeaWorld is doing what it can to diversify the limited captive gene pool.
If Kayla is successfully impregnated it will raise questions, given Kayla’s checkered breeding history. She was born at SeaWorld San Antonio to Kenau (sired by Orky) in November 1988. According to her profile, when she was 11 months old she was separated from Kenau, and when she was 2 years old was shipped off to SeaWorld Ohio, eventually returning to SeaWorld San Antonio in 1999. The profile says that while Kayla has had behavioral issues, she was consistent with husbandry and in November 2001 was artificially inseminated. That AI, however, did not lead to a pregnancy.
From April-November 2003, blood samples showed high progesterone levels indicating a possible pregnancy. The profile notes that Kayla’s behavior changed over this period, and she showed aggressive tendencies toward trainers. However, as winter arrived her progesterone returned to normal levels, and her behavior improved.
Kayla finally became pregnant (for certain) in the summer of 2004 (in the early months of her pregnancy her behavior again became inconsistent, before stabilizing further into her pregnancy). Keet reportedly was the father, and she gave birth to a female calf, called Halyn, in October 2005. As her profile records, she immediately became aggressive with her calf, pushing Halyn against the glass, picking her up in her mouth and throwing her, “fluking” her out of the pool onto the slideout, and then pushing her back in and up against the glass. Trainers got Kayla through a gate to separate mother from calf, and then then removed Halyn from the stadium. Kayla allowed herself to be milked a few times a day for about six weeks. Sadly, Halyn died in June 2008, at 2 years and 8 months old.
Halyn being bottle-fed.
In November 2006 Kayla was transported to SeaWorld Florida. She was pregnant during the transfer (so within a year of giving birth to Halyn, again by Keet) according to the profile. But in April 2007 an ultrasound showed no fetal movement. Shortly after, she delivered a stillborn male calf.
If SeaWorld is successful with an AI of Kayla, it would be her first calf since Halyn. It would be interesting to know whether the training and animal care staff believe that an older, more mature, Kayla would handle a calf better than she handled Halyn, and if so, why. Or it could be that SeaWorld is more confident about its ability to hand-rear a calf, if necessary, based on the success (so far) of raising Adan at Loro Parque despite Kohana’s refusal to nurse and lack of involvement. We’ll have to see how it all plays out.
I last wrote about Kayla here, because she reportedly helped shut down the Believe show that took place before the Dine With Shamu show in which Tilikum killed Dawn Brancheau. Here she is, putting her stamp Kalina is, after Kayla worked her over during another show a few months later.
And speaking of Tilikum, there has been a lot of concern and chatter about the fact that he wasn’t well earlier this year. For what it is worth, I have been told that SeaWorld believes he is on the mend now, but that it was a close-run thing and he has lost a fair bit of weight.
There is no one who has more knowledge and credibility when it comes to what really goes on for trainers and whales at marine parks than former orca trainers.
Now four former SeaWorld trainers, all of whom have contributed enormously to my reporting on SeaWorld and orcas, have launched a cool new website called Voice Of The Orcas. It’s got tons of background info about orca captivity, and links to a wide range of resources. It will no doubt also become Voice Of The Orca Trainers, as they use the site to share their take and experience on every aspect of orca captivity.
One of the realities for SeaWorld’s killer whales is movement from park to park. The next killer whale to be transported will be Keet, who will be shipped from SeaWorld Texas to SeaWorld California sometime early this year. I had heard some noise about Keet’s pending transport a little while back, and Candace Calloway Whiting of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently received a document in response to a FOIA request that indicates SeaWorld had notified the National Marine Fisheries Service sometime before Nov. 2, 2011 of its intention to move Keet.
Keet was born at SeaWorld Texas, to Kalina (and Kotar), in February 1993, and was the first second-generation marine park bred killer whale. Kalina was moved to SeaWorld Florida in 1994 (when Keet was just 20 months old), and according to his profile by 1999 Keet was increasingly abused by Haida and Ky. The profile goes on to say:
“During this time, Keet began to avoid separations into pools with the other whales by leaving control and regurgitating. Keet continues to be the subdominant whale, regardless of the social structure. He has on occasion been raked by other whales to the point where he will shiver.”
Keet was moved to SeaWorld California in November 1999, and bounced around a bit between SWC and SeaWorld Ohio before returning to SeaWorld Texas in 2004. By all accounts, he is a reliable and consistent killer whale when it comes to working with trainers and performing. But he continues to be a subdominant whale who struggles in the social order, and has the scarring to show it. His situation, I have heard, is comparable to that of Tekoa in Loro Parque.
I’ve been getting a lot of updates from folks who are worried about how Morgan is being treated by the other killer whales at Loro Parque. The first flurry of concern was related to this image of Morgan’s dorsal film, which was screen-capped from a video, and appears to show bite marks on Morgan’s dorsal fin.
I was also tipped to this video, which appears on a Facebook group called Occupy Loro Parque. It shows Loro Parque owner Wolfgang Kiessling walking over to the med pool after a show, to discuss Morgan and take a look at her dorsal with two trainers. Fast forward to the 2:20 mark, where Kiessling makes an appearance:
Finally, I was sent a link to this video, which appears to show Morgan, Kohana and Skyla swimming together in the main show pool. I am not enough of an expert on killer whale behavior to evaluate whether Morgan is being harassed or chased, and what her vocals indicate. But the video does show what appears to be this pretty nasty rake along her side.
Here is the full video, for comment and analysis.
UPDATE: Since I posted the above video it has been removed from YouTube. It has been republished here by someone who wanted to preserve the record of Morgan’s life at Loro Parque. Here is the republished version:
The social grouping at Loro Parque has always been a volatile one, and it is impressive to see the degree to which Morgan’s welfare there is being tracked with such passion and commitment.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Today, December 24, is the 2-year anniversary of the death of Alexis Martinez, who was killed by Keto at Loro Parque on Dec. 24, 2009. I never met Alexis, but I have met his family. They are wonderful, caring, people who are handling a tragic loss with courage and grace. I am amazed by their strength and they deserve all the love and support the world can offer them on this most difficult day of the year.
Mostly we take dolphins FROM the sea. We put them in marine parks, we charge tourists to watch them do tricks and to swim with them, and we often breed them to produce more dolphins that can stock the parks. So it is pretty cool when there is an attempt to take captive dolphins and send them in the other direction: back to the wild.
Last November, I 
One of the realities for SeaWorld’s killer whales is movement from park to park. The next killer whale to be transported will be Keet, who will be shipped from SeaWorld Texas to SeaWorld California sometime early this year. I had heard some noise about Keet’s pending transport a little while back, and 
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