Dolphins are social and intelligent beings with advanced echolocation, which means they can ‘see’ for great distances. Locking dolphins in water tanks equivalent to dark dungeons has resulted in many dolphin suicides, where they just sink and stop breathing. As Dolphins have to want to breathe, they can just switch off, unlike humans for whom breathing is an automatic function.
As with seeing wild animals in the circus, there is no educational value to seeing dolphins in captivity. More importantly, it is extremely stressful for them. Please reconsider visiting aquariums or other institutions that have captive dolphins! Sea animals belong in the sea, not in glass and water prisons!
We are proud to have been part of discussions with the Bayworld Aquarium in Port Elizabeth, where our suggestions of instead using Holographic displays of dolphins and other sealife was taken seriously, and the assurance was given that dolphins would not be re-introduced.
