The Netherlands Moves To End Captive Dolphin Breeding. Now, It’s Sea World Gold Coast’s Turn
In a partial victory for marine mammals, the Dutch government has proposed a breeding ban and phase-out policy for dolphins in captivity. While those already trapped in tanks will be made to continue performing in shows while a ban becomes reality, it’s a start – one Sea World on the Gold Coast must mirror immediately.
Much like Sea World on the Gold Coast, Dolfinarium in Hardewijk keeps 22 dolphins in captivity (Sea World imprisons 26). The Dutch government has now proposed that, while Dolfinarium’s captives can live out their lives at the park and the dolphin shows will continue for the public, no more are allowed to be bred, effectively – eventually – phasing out dolphin shows. They have also instructed the park not to command dolphins to interact with humans – something else Queensland’s cruel dolphin prison should copy!
Relief for Dutch dolphins may not be a done deal yet – but that doesn’t mean marine parks like Sea World should delay imposing similar breeding bans. By stopping the cruel cycle of babies being born into captivity, there will come a day when cetaceans like dolphins and orcas are spared the suffering of swimming in circles in concrete tanks.
Life In A Tiny Tank Is No Life At All
Dolphins are highly intelligent and socially complex individuals who value their freedom. Bottlenose dolphins pass the ‘mirror test’ for self-awareness, some use tools, and they play games like tossing seaweed about in the same way we might play catch with our kids.
In their natural homes, dolphins swim up to 95 kilometres in a single day. They jump from the water, dive to depths of 55 metres, hunt for their food and engage in complex communication with their friends and family, but marine parks deny them all those natural, important behaviours.
Instead, these intelligent individuals are forced to swim in circles with little to do, hand-fed dead fish by humans, and judged by how ‘well’ they obey orders to perform. Sea World staff force dolphins to beach themselves to be mauled by visitors for photos, and are ridden by staff, who stand on their delicate noses and are towed by their fragile fins.
If you can imagine spending your whole life in a bathtub, you can imagine how miserable life in a tiny tank is for dolphins.
Breeding Creates Generational Trauma
To continue displaying captive dolphins, abusement parks must maintain a steady stream of babies. Born to suffering mothers, dolphin calves know only barren, concrete tanks and the repetition of performing tricks for decades on end.
Dolphin pods can contain up to 30 dolphins of different generations, and, like us, dolphins choose their own mates, but at many marine parks, they’re used as breeding machines, sometimes through forced artificial insemination. Some animals endure this process repeatedly, only for their babies to die or be shipped off to other parks. Marine parks also break up families – dolphins are often moved, even though dolphins stay with their mothers for life in their natural homes, and many die after being transported.
Ending captive dolphin breeding, as the Netherlands intends to do, is a crucial first step, one which New South Wales took back in 2021.
Now, we need Queensland to follow suit so we can close the parks, move dolphins to seaside sanctuaries, and evolve beyond using animals for entertainment.
Some Dolphins Were Captured
Not all animals trapped in marine parks or aquariums are bred on-site. At Sea World on the Gold Coast, at least two dolphins who are still alive were taken from their rightful ocean homes and placed in tanks. Of the 94 animals who have died at the Queensland park, 48 were originally taken from their ocean homes.
During this year’s Taji dolphin hunt, amid the slaughter of entire pods, 11 bottlenose dolphins were chased into a cove and snatched from the sea for use in captive entertainment. These animals will go from freedom one day to confusing concrete tanks the next, always wondering what happened to their homes and loved ones.
Compassionate Crowds Want Marine Mammals Freed
Compassionate crowds don’t want to see animals tormented for tourism, and more and more companies are denouncing live animal shows and animal tourism.
Act today to add your name to the almost 20,000 members of the public urging the Queensland Government to ban captive marine mammal breeding!
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