Dolphin Research Center's Position on Taiji, Japan, Faroe Islands, and Dolphin Drive Fisheries

Dolphin Research Center and all of the more than 60 members of the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums (the Alliance) condemn the mass killings of dolphins in the Japanese drive fisheries and the annual hunts in the Faroe Islands, a territory of Denmark.  For many years, we have educated visitors from around the world about these hunts, calling on the Japanese and the Faroe Islands populations to end these practices.

DRC does not support these killings in either location in any way. We do not have or take animals from these horrible hunts, nor have we ever.

No dolphins have been captured from the wild to live at United States parks since the late 1980s.

Those who oppose the idea of marine mammals living in parks and aquariums often deliberately spread false information to convince the public that marine mammal facilities are responsible for the drive fisheries continuing each year.  This is not true.  Comments made by the extremists and those made in movies such as The Cove make it seem that dolphins captured in the Japan drive fisheries are sold to facilities in this country.  That is also not true.  

Continuing to mislead the public undermines these peoples’ credibility and does nothing to further the purpose of ending the dolphin and whale killings in Taiji or the Faroe Islands.

You can help by sharing the messages that you see us post on Facebook or Twitter, and adding your voice.  You can also contact the Japanese authorities. 

Send a comment to the Japanese Prime Minister.

About Blackfish

Dolphin Research Center and the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks & Aquariums (Alliance) strongly disagree with the biased presentation and false allegations made in Blackfish: The Movie and affirm our support for our members’ animal programs and their highly trained, animal care professionals.  We know from the more than 40 million guests who visit Alliance-accredited facilities annually that personally seeing and experiencing live whales, dolphins and other marine mammals is a powerful experience that can move people to support wildlife conservation.  The film is incorrect in claiming that marine mammals do not thrive in our parks and wrongly challenges the public’s right to experience killer whales in our facilities.

The film also deliberately fails to acknowledge the essential role killer whales and other marine mammals play in the education, conservation and research missions of accredited zoological facilities that directly benefit animals in the wild. For more than 40 years, the importance of providing the public a chance to see marine mammals in approved facilities has been clearly and strongly supported by the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act. The MMPA acknowledges and provides for the educational and conservation benefits of people having the opportunity to experience whales and dolphins in parks, aquariums and zoos. 

The American public also strongly supports accredited zoos and aquariums and clearly understands that if it were not for these facilities, children as well as adults would have no viable way to see, experience and learn to care about marine mammals.  A 2012 Harris poll conducted by Harris Interactive® for the Alliance confirmed that the vast majority (97%) of the American public believes that seeing and experiencing live marine mammals is the best way for children to not only learn about the animals but to inspire conservation action that can help marine mammals and their ocean environments. 

SeaWorld Professionals/Contributions

Blackfish also fails to acknowledge SeaWorld’s contribution to the conservation of marine mammals worldwide.  SeaWorld is a leader in marine mammal research and education. SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund grants enable research important to animals and the environment.  SeaWorld’s impressive and varied education programs successfully motivate the public to become better stewards of our environment. 

Like all U.S. facilities caring for marine mammals, SeaWorld is licensed to do so by the U.S. federal government and regularly inspected.  It adheres to the strict standards of all federal and state laws, including the Animal Welfare Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, as well as Alliance Standards and Guidelines, which surpass government standards for the care of the animals.

(Information provided by the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums.)

SeaWorld and the Truth About Blackfish

SeaWorld has been forced to defend itself against the dramatic, often false and misleading information presented in this film.  The company refutes the inaccuracies and other misinformation on this website The Truth About Blackfish.  Visit the site to read more about this topic, including a pointed analysis of the film with documentation provided that supports SeaWorld's stand.  

Third Party Opinions About Blackfish

In addition to the information directly from SeaWorld, there are other, third-party, sources who have analyzed the film's approach and content.  You may also be interested in reading what Cinemaspin wrote.  An independent videographer presents his detailed analysis.  SeaWorld also shares links to opinions from a variety of other sources.

The Benefits of Marine Mammal Cognition Studies in Human Care

There are activists in this world who have long opposed the keeping of marine mammals in human care. Recently, some of them have begun to argue that because dolphins and other toothed whales (e.g., orcas & belugas) are intelligent, they should be treated as "non-human persons" and not kept in captivity. 

To be sure, the issue of how humans treat other animals is important. It's something that should be talked about. In fact, it's an issue that marine mammal facilities think about and talk about all the time. To take just one example, the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums (to which Dolphin Research Center belongs) holds its members to extremely high standards for animal care, housing, and training – standards that exceed legal requirements and guidelines, and which are continuously updated to reflect current scientific knowledge and best professional practices.

However, the argument that "intelligent dolphins = non-human persons," as well as the response to it, are both flawed.

Why the non-human persons argument is flawed:

•  First, the issue of measuring animal "intelligence" is actually tricky, and widely misunderstood. Different animals have evolved in different environments, and their brains have evolved to solve different kinds of problems. So it's almost impossible to compare overall intelligence across animal species in any meaningful way. Instead, we have to look at more specific skills and capacities -- like number concepts, imitation, memory, etc. -- which can be compared across animals.

• Yes, there are some areas in which dolphins and humans have cognitive similarities, and those are interesting. However, these similarities do not make dolphins some type of sea-human, any more than they make people land-dolphins. There are also areas where humans and dolphins have profound cognitive differences. Actually, we are still in the early stages of learning how dolphins think. So the temptation to claim that dolphins are "just like us" is more a reflection of our thought processes than of theirs.

• The more we learn about animal cognition, the more we realize that many animals have "complex" thought processes. For example, research has recently shown that on some social cognition tests, dogs outperform even chimpanzees. (Does this mean that everyone should therefore release their dogs into the wild?) DRC believes that cognition studies lead to greater appreciation for many animal species. To try to focus this issue narrowly on marine mammals is a biased misrepresentation of the science.

Why we need dolphins in human care:

• It is essential that we as a society provide the public with direct, up close and personal experiences with animals. The biggest threat to wild animals is people. We know that direct experience with animals inspires people to connect with and care about them, and to conserve the environment in which they live. The number of marine mammals that live in human care is a tiny percentage of the population that lives out in the wild. However, the impact of these “ambassadors” is huge.

• Fifty years ago, it was still common practice to hunt and kill dolphins and other marine mammals in the wild. Marine mammal facilities that provided the public up close experiences and that conducted cognitive and behavioral studies directly and strongly influenced public opinion, which inspired people to make a difference. This work must continue and must be talked about in order to continue to inspire people now and into the future.

Why we should do cognitive research with dolphins in human care:

•  Any behavioral study of dolphins, whether in human care or in the wild, is informed by what we know about their cognitive capacities. The types of cognitive studies that give us this information cannot be done in the wild. You can observe behavior in the wild, which can be great for generating hypotheses. To actually test these hypotheses, however, you need to be able to present animals with specific situations, up close and personal, with all the necessary controls, consistency, and repetition that are simply impossible to achieve in a wild setting.

• Cognition studies with dolphins are relevant to our scientific knowledge of all species, including humans. Dolphins have evolved along a completely different path from humans and other primates for 90 to 95 million years – in a different environment, with a different body plan and different neuroanatomy. So when research reveals a particular ability in dolphins, and we compare that to what people and other animals can do, we learn about the ways in which intelligent behaviors evolve in general. If you stop this type of research with marine mammals, you leave gaping holes in the overall knowledge of animal cognition and its evolution across all species, including humans.

• Cognitive studies inspire conservation. It is human nature to care more about animals with which we connect. Some guests may be inspired by dolphins' beauty; others by their athleticism; still others by watching them think and puzzle things out. This connection inspires more care and compassion for dolphins and the environment in which they live.

• Dolphins require mental stimulation, which cognitive research provides. In fact, what we call "cognitive research", the animals experience as "thinking games". These types of cognitive challenges are inherently enriching, and enhance the well-being of the animals (Clark, 2013).

 It is imperative that we stay true to our mission for the most important reason – the ultimate benefit of the animals in our facilities and their wild counterparts.

Reference:

Clark, F. E. (2013). Marine mammal cognition and captive care: A proposal for cognitive enrichment in zoos and aquariums. Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research, 1, 1-6.