With the chill in the air growing increasingly stronger and winter looming ahead, many start thinking of fun, sunshine-filled vacation destinations with the opportunity to take a dip into turquoise waters, and enjoy what they believe is an experience of a lifetime: swimming with dolphins.
Last April, The Dodo published a report that may have changed some minds about embarking on such an adventure, exposing the "dark underbelly" of swim-with-the-dolphin programs.
But with so many people booking their Caribbean vacations now or in the near future, it's time to look at that disturbing reality again.
While swim-with-the-dolphin, or SWTD, programs can be found across the globe, they've become exceptionally popular in the Caribbean over the past decade or so.
One former dolphin trainer spoke with The Dodo about those programs - based on the condition of anonymity as he still works in the Caribbean hotel industry, the site noted.
The trainer, who was employed at two swim-with-the-dolphin facilities in the Caribbean, revealed that his concerns grew over his tenure. "The dolphins' holding pens were not only excessively shallow, but also far too small," he said.
"At one facility, more than 40 dolphins were caged in three compact cells. In the open sea pens — as opposed to enclosed pools within a resort — debris like nails and fish hooks would float in from the ocean," he added.
The trainer went on with some more disturbing news.
"Because they didn't have a vet or any type of veterinary care at [this particular] facility, the dolphins would swallow things, and there would be nothing you could do about it."
Though he witnessed the enclosed pens being cleaned, he claimed the smell of the chlorine was so strong, it would "choke" the trainers — and that some of the animals eventually went blind because of its use.
He also maintained that many of the dolphins suffered from psychosis, a behavior not unheard of in marine mammals forced to swim in small pens all day long. They were also under extreme pressure to perform, which may have made them dangerous to humans, The Dodo wrote.
The trainer further explained, "They did 10 interactions a day … the same motions, the same speech, the same signals over and over. They would get frustrated ... and aggressive to guests or knock food buckets out of our hands."
dolphinproject.net
On an even more depressing note, the former trainer alleged that some female dolphins prevented their new babies from breathing. They did this, he said, by stopping them from coming to the surface. While the trainer is not a scientist, he explained that he and his colleagues deduced the mothers did this because they didn't want their babies to "live in captivity."
The Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), who's been campaigning against cetacean captivity for 16 years has documented numerous welfare incidents in the Caribbean. In a 2010 paper called "Captivity in the Caribbean," it revealed that in one facility in Antigua, dolphins were found to be "unusually dark" due to shallow enclosures and subsequent sunburn; some were found to be held in isolation for training purposes; and some were exposed to polluted water.
Courtney Vail, the WDC campaigns and program manager, told The Dodo, "Although some Caribbean countries have developed legislation to address these captive dolphin programs, regulations are rarely enforced, and facilities operate under the radar in most, due to the lack of capacity and oversight."
In addition to the conditions to the dolphins are forced to live in, the process of captivity is rather horrific as well.
The Dodo cites a letter written in December 2014 jointly written by the AWI and WDC that explains what happens:
"Individuals may become entangled in the capture nets and suffocate or suffer stress-related conditions associated with the trauma of capture. In addition, captures from the wild can negatively impact already depleted dolphin populations by removing breeding (or otherwise important) members from the group."
Diana McCaulay, CEO of the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), which has protested dolphinariums in Jamaica, added that the process of capturing dolphins in the wild is "very traumatic."
"They are chased into nets … they are rounded up, the ones they want are selected, then they are lifted up into a boat and transported," she explains, adding that female dolphins are preferred because they are more "trainable."
Additionally, the "methods used to transport cetaceans can also be inhumane, and many individuals have died as a result of injury and stress brought about by efforts to supply captive facilities around the world."
Due to the actions of animal rights groups, these days, most dolphin programs are unable to get their dolphins from the wild. Instead, many in the Caribbean stock their facilities with captive-bred animals.
But there are not only concerns about the dolphins, wild or not, having to live in tight quarters and conditions they were never meant to. Experts say that captive-bred dolphins are losing their instincts.
Sam Duncombe, director of reEarth, told The Dodo, "What these facilities are doing ... is creating a whole substructure of animals who have no way of living in the wild."
In the end, she said she hopes that the public "will pay more attention to the plight of the dolphin in captivity."
And, to the tourist who is still thinking about swimming with dolphins, she added:
"Your desire to be with them — is killing them."
You may want to think about that when planning your next Caribbean vacation.
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