Cruel Fate Of Dolphins In Swim With Program.

WDCS is asking for anyone considering swimming with dolphins, especially in Turkey, to consider the plight of the animals involved before paying to see or swim with them in captivity.  If you have already been to one of these facilities then we would like to hear your thoughts about the conditions you found the dolphins in (please see form below).

The plight of Turkeys captive dolphins is three-fold.

1) wild captures have occurred in Turkeys waters to supply the demands of the dolphinarium industry

2) many are held in sea-pens, heart breakingly close to their open ocean home(or natural habitat), and

3) they are then made to interact with human swimmers all for a reward of dead fish.  It is a very sad and sorry story.

WDCS receives many complaints from tourists regarding whale and dolphin captivity in Turkey. In addition, in 2008, the Daily Mirror went under cover to see for themselves the conditions these social and wide-ranging mammals are subjected too. This investigation happened after complaints from a potential swim-with participant in Turkey. After parting with her money, she then realised the horrific conditions the dolphins were kept in. Even today, this participant is still traumatised by the experience and she is now helping us to expose these terrible conditions.

The dolphins are captured from the wild
Turkey has 11 dolphinaria, many of which are sea-pens, or rather small cages attached to the coastline. The vast majority of the bottlenose dolphins and beluga whales held in Turkey have been captured from the wild.

In 2006, Turkey revoked a ban on the capture of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)in its waters (the Mediterranean and the Black Sea). Then in November 2007, Turkey confirmed that 23 bottlenose dolphins had been captured from locations around this area, despite the Black Sea population of dolphins being classed as Endangered and the Mediterranean subpopulation being classed as Vulnerable (IUCN Red List).

Furthermore,in 2008, 12 bottlenose dolphins were imported into Turkey from the Japanese Drive Hunts, again despite the lack of information about the viability of the local population targeted and the horrifying welfare implications of the hunt.

Live captures pose a huge welfare concern, as well as a conservation issue.  The actual capture is extremely traumatic and violent:
Families are separated from each other
Young females are often targeted for interaction programmes such as swim-with and DAT
Many dolphins die during the capture process
Studies are not conducted to find out what happens to those animals left behind
Once removed from their natural environment dolphins are transported to small enclosures which lack not only their families and social groups but also the natural open ocean that they are used to
Research shows that death rates increase six-fold during and immediately after capture

Dolphins do not adjust well to confinement in captivity
Once confined, dolphin must:
Put up with separation from their natural habitat
Get used to an artificial diet of dead fish, strange noise and odours and the proximity of people and other captive animals
Lose their freedom
Suffer from the stress of confinement, which often results in aggression and other behavioural abnormalities, illness and decreased resistance to disease
Suffer reduced life expectancy and have higher infant mortality than in the wild

In addition to bottlenose dolphins, Turkey holds beluga whales in captivity. The capture,trade and confinement in captivity of beluga whales also presents significant conservation and welfare problems. Beluga whales are found in Arctic andSub-Arctic waters.  The effect of keeping them in sea pens in the Mediterranean is unknown.

WDCS is campaigning against the live capture of wild whales and dolphins through conventions such as CITES (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). We are also fighting for better standards for those dolphins already kept in captivity - until such a time in when all cetacean captivity has been phased out. We are also working towards exposing and banning swim-with and other interaction programmes for the conservation, welfare and health issues that they pose.