The birth of a baby bottlenose dolphin on December 7th 2016 was joyously announced by Sea World on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. The arrival came as quite the surprise for the public, who were mostly unaware that there was even a pregnant dolphin at the popular marine park.
The celebratory headlines declared – “It’s a Boy,” and for the first time in 9 years Sea World had a brand new male dolphin calf in residence.
The Christmas holiday season, an emotional time, was fast approaching and with the arrival of this dear little calf came thoughts of festive and time-honored song titles that brought a tear to the eye – “Peace on Earth,” “A New Born King,” and “Silent Night.”
Image:Herald Sun December 21st 2016
We thought about what this new little calf, born into captivity, just like his mother Jinx and father Cohen, would have to endure in the years ahead. Sadly, not even a month into his life, it was made clear that his future would be forever dominated by his owners’ corporate need to oblige Village Roadshow Limited’s shareholders. There would be no peace for this newborn baby, and for the month of January, only his second month on Earth, there would be few silent nights.
For almost the entire month of January 2017, Sea World is hosting “Carnivale,” A Village Roadshow festival of the senses promoted in past years as “Rio coming to the Gold Coast.” The month-long entertainment program will present costumed street performers, bongo drummers, fire breathers, flashy laser lighting, drones and a series of live bands and music acts playing well into the balmy evenings of the Australian summertime.
Image:seaworldcarnivale.com.au
Knowing a newly-born dolphin would be due at the time, one wonders, what were Sea World thinking? Its dolphins are already exposed to constant noise from rides, people, and shows, as well as the unrelenting helicopter drone across all areas of the park during the day. If Sea World are genuinely focused on conservation and education, while maintaining the health of its animals-one may ask why would it subject them, particularly a new baby dolphin, to the additional stress that this mostly night time festival may bring?
Just as concerning, Black Cove have become aware that Sea World have two more expectant mothers at the park-with both Gemma and Sunnie due to give birth mid 2017, in May and June respectively.
There are three separate groups of dolphin lagoons at Sea World on the Gold Coast. The expectant mothers and the new calf are believed to be in the show pool lagoons at the Sea World Nara Resort end of the park. The distance to this area of the park from the main and live entertainment stage is a mere 650 meters, and even less from the Plaza entertainment site. The second group of pools holding more of Sea World’s dolphins is closer still at only 500 meters away.
Image:: Google Earth with labels added
Considering the extra hours of public entry, night time lighting and live music series, Black Cove contacted Sea World through its Facebook page, and questioned the impact Carnivale would have on the animals under its care; in particular, we referred to the effect on the new dolphin calf. A “ride operator,” presumably employed by the park, responded perhaps naively that, “it was ok because the dolphins were down the back of the park.”
This response was interesting; we questioned further as Sea World’s event page states that Carnivale’s 70+ street performers are “roving.” It was also incorrect in regards to the live band performances, as the stage area is only just over 100 meters from the third group of dolphin lagoons, which holds most of Sea World’s rescued dolphins and their adopted mother Amity, one of the eldest dolphins at the theme park.
One would expect that, of all the dolphins kept at Sea World, the rescued would be afforded “sanctuary” at the park.
Image: Kyra Dolphin Calf rescued from a Drum Line July 2014.
Being brought into a captive theme park environment from the wild, usually suffering from trauma and its associated and often lasting injuries, the rescued animals are exposed to a totally foreign existence. Unlike their captive-bred counterparts “down the back,” one would think the rescued dolphins would be particularly stressed by the extra racket that a month-long entertainment festival like Carnivale would present.
Aside from Amity, the rescued bottlenose dolphins in this area are mostly young. One may argue that they do not remember much of their wild lives, and could have grown accustomed to the disturbances of their theme park environment. But if rescue and rehabilitation is truly about Sea World providing sanctuary and a life that replicates as close as possible to what these animals would experience in the wild, then hosting Carnivale, in our opinion, is way off base.
Image: Rescued dolphins at Sea World
In response to our further questioning, Black Cove received an official reply from Sea World via Facebook on January 7th, in which it stated: “The welfare and wellbeing of our animals is our top priority and our Marine Sciences team has monitored noise levels around our exhibits during the carnival event. The animals remained calm and showed no signs of agitation during carnival. Sea World hosts many events throughout the year and the team constantly reassesses any potential impact on the animals.”
Although appreciative of a response, and to Sea World’s credit, unlike SeaWorld in the US, they do respond and will engage with advocates who hold differing views to theirs, it is interesting to note that the event only began the day before on January 6th. The dolphins may have been calm for one day of events, a novelty perhaps, but what of the impacts long term?
The Sea World Marine Science team would of course be aware of their dolphins’ individual personalities and behaviours; every aspect of these animals’ lives is ‘managed’ by them. The Carnivale event would simply present another challenge for the staff to utilise their animal-management skills. They may well be monitoring noise levels “around their exhibits” and that is positive, but they fail to mention if they are measured in the dolphins’ world- under the water?
Image:seaworldcarnivale.com.au/ourworlds.co
Apparently studying noise is not an easy thing to do; additionally, dolphins don’t hear the way that humans hear – their hearing is far more sensitive – so one would question how the park is monitoring the noise? (Dolphins-World, 2013)
“Sound levels cannot accurately be measured and defined using a single absolute scale, such as those used for temperature, rainfall and wind speed. For simplicity we often just refer to a decibel level, but this does not take into account the duration and frequency of the acoustical signal.” (Excerpt-G.Shannon 2015)
There is solid and scientific evidence that dolphins can and do suffer psychologically in confinement, resulting in behavioural abnormalities and high rates of mortality. Noise is only one of the contributing factors known to be detrimental to the life of a dolphin in human care.
Dolphins are highly vocal and dependent on sound for almost all aspects of their lives. They use echolocation to investigate their environment, although in captivity it is speculated that many dolphins choose not to use this sense because of “bounce back” from the walls that confine them, and it is not needed as they are familiar with their pool. “Responses of marine mammals to noise can often be subtle and barely detectable, and there are many documented cases of apparent tolerance of noise. However, marine mammals showing no obvious avoidance or changes in activities may still suffer important, even lethal, consequences.” (Excerpt-Weilgart, Linda S.,2007) (WCACaptivity WG)
Image:seaworldcarnivale.com.au
Being trapped in their “large sandy bottom lagoons,” at a fraction of the size of their natural habitat, subjected to even more noise, flashing lights, screaming concert crowds and an unusual change of routine caused by the hosting of Carnivale, doesn’t correlate with the “oasis” and “sanctuary-like” environment that Sea World tells the public it provides to its animals. In the ocean, there are also stresses and noise but the dolphins can flee, can escape.
At Sea World there is no escape – where are they going to go?
We also question the musical performers who have lined up to play for Carnivale. Did none of them even consider – as “entertainers” themselves – the impact on animals, who have no voice, before they signed up? Do these acts research their concert choices or do they simply absorb the word of Sea World and perhaps their own agents, that the impact of their noise on the animals is negligible, or is it simply an opportunity, too good to refuse, to further their own bottom line?
Black Cove, along with many other advocates, have lobbied The Aston Shuffle (DJ Set), The Griswolds, Jess & Matt, In Stereo, Hey Geronimo and Mashd N Kutcher via their social media accounts, to reconsider performing, to no avail. The silence from all of these acts has been deafening, just as their music will be to the animals they apparently failed to consider.
The new little dolphin, named “Dusty”, already promoted as “an ambassador for his species, playing a vital role in raising awareness of the threats facing the species in the wild,” and promoting “a natural caring for the marine environment,” will sadly never see the wild, nor will he see the natural marine environment.
Some may argue that an animal born into captivity knows no different, but this is not necessarily the case. These animals, although we like to think we have an “affinity” with them, are wild animals and “the claim that captive dolphins are semi-domesticated or that a captive-bred dolphin is less of a predatory wild animal due to its birth in captivity has no scientific basis. Millions of years of evolution and specific adaptation to life in the seas cannot be overcome after a single or even several generations.” (Excerpt-World Animal Protection, US)
Image:Raggy Charters
The message of ambassadorship and caring promoted by Sea World in the press, on its website, social media sites and even inside the park, will rarely, if ever, be absorbed into the minds of the hundreds of thousands of visitors who will pass through the gates to be entertained by Dusty and his captive family. He will sadly perform for the public in this amusement park for the rest of his, more than likely, shortened life. (N.Rose, E.C.M. Parsons, and R.Farinato,2009)
As long as the Sea World model remains one of a place that promotes ‘family entertainment’, then that will be what the public expects, and events such as Carnivale will continue to re-enforce that expectation.
So too will the dolphin show that has been a “family favorite” presented for decades at Sea World. Although recently improved in its educational content, it is still sadly lacking in any real take home awareness or conservation messages.
The message of conservation, education and caring are generally lost on people when they visit a facility that doesn’t genuinely represent or inspire these things. Although Sea World tell us that its intent is to be inspirational, the company’s bottom line will always take precedence over anything that happens at the park.
For years Sea World has demonstrated “do as we say, not as we do” in terms of ethics. They tell us we should never touch a dolphin in the wild, but it wrongly demonstrates to families that if a dolphin is in a pool providing entertainment, then kissing, hugging and standing on its face is acceptable. It demonstrates that it is “natural” for a dolphin to bow ride alongside a boat and it is, but the dolphins at Sea World are not bow riding – they are performing a series of jumps in front of a rib and it is a trained behaviour for the show. The message that it is illegal to drive a boat at speed near dolphins, and that there are strict guidelines relating to approach distances to them in the wild-is lost when Sea World do the exact opposite in its show.
At the end of the day Village Roadshow, the owner and operator of Sea World, are a publicly-listed company answerable only to its shareholders and accountable to the government of Queensland, to which it politically donates regularly and largely. No matter how you spin it, it is first and foremost an entertainment company and the show must go on.
The simple fact is–the message Sea World says its “ambassador” dolphins are providing to the public may be one of caring, but more than likely the public will care far more that they’ve had a good time and have been entertained. How a captive dolphin calf is able to raise awareness of the threats facing his species in the wild-when it is kept in a pool to provide entertainment to people who only want to see or swim with a dolphin, and check it off their bucket list-is a concept that is difficult to understand.
Some would argue that without the entertainment dollars there would be no ability for Sea World to continue with its valuable research and rescue work through its Sea World Rescue and Research Foundation, and this work is valuable. To be clear, Village Roadshow Limited is a multi-million dollar company that is diverse in its business and its investments on a global scale. It is in a position where it can make education and conservation a priority through its Sea World theme park, and it should. It simply needs to choose to truly inspire, lead the charge and change its model to a park that is one of genuine rescue and rehabilitation. It can still make money and in doing so can have an incredible impact on public perception and participation-leading by example, with real education and conservation values.
Image:ABC News
We have hope that Sea World will choose this path in the very near future; in fact we are confident that it will evolve-eventually it will have no choice. We also hope that little Dusty’s generation of captive-bred dolphins will be the last we see at Sea World and in Australia, and that he will be seen as an ambassador for change.
Carnivale is in full swing, and will continue to entertain visitors who are oblivious to the impact their attendance may be have on the animals at the park, thus continuing to demonstrate that the message of caring is not getting through to the masses.
We hope when Sea World’s Marine Science team next reassesses if there is any potential impact on the animals in its care, that it would never again consider an event such as Carnivale – a “no-brainer” for those who are actually inspired to care for and understand the “vital role” these animals truly could play.
Contacts: Sea World on The Gold Coast The Aston Shuffle (DJ Set) The Griswolds Jess & Matt In Stereo Hey Geronimo Mashd N Kutcher
Featured Graphic: Peta Wilson
References: Graeme Shannon, Lecturer, Bangor University http://theconversation.com/how-noise-pollution-is-changing-animal-behaviour-52339 International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 20(2)Author:Weilgart, Linda S., Dalhousie University, Canada Publication2007 The World Cetacean Alliance Captivity Statement World Animal Protection https://www.worldanimalprotection.us.org/our-work/animals-wild/marine-animals-captivity/captive-bred-dolphins-interactive-programs Dolphin shows belong in the history books- Mehreen Faruqi, SMH January 9, 2017 J.Nicholls,G.E.Reports N.Rose, E.C.M. Parsons, R. Farinato The Case Against Marine Mammals In Captivity Dolphins World,2013
* The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the original authors unless otherwise referenced.
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