STOP Bayworld Port Elizabeth South Africa from ever having dolphins in captivity again

After the death of three of its dolphins, Bayworld in Port Elizabeth (sister facility to uShaka Sea World), wants MORE dolphins.

Why is this a very bad idea, you may ask?   Well, let’s look at Bayworld’s history: 

In 1995, the trainer of dolphin, “Simo”, noted that the animal's performance was "off" and "not up to standard”.  

As punishment for his “off” performance, food was withheld. ...‘Cause that’s how you punish a bad dolphin, right? By not feeding it.

During the next four months, daily diaries kept by trainers made frequent references to Simo's lack of cooperation during shows. They wrote that Simo was "off, slow, lazy, screaming"; "flat, sluggish and screaming"; "pathetic and slow"; "battling to do anything energetic"; "everything an effort, lying on bottom of pool, mouth pale"; and even "madly in love". 

Bad dolphin.

The truth is that Simo was slowly starving to death because of a mass of foreign objects clogging his stomach and preventing him from digesting food.

Simo died on June 6^th of the same year, weighing just 186kg – having lost 12kg in less than a month.

The full horror of his death was only revealed during an autopsy. His distended stomach contained 19,5kg of wet sand; 22,5kg of stones; 3kg of undigested food; and 750 grams of broken tile bits from the pool.

Consultant, Debbie Young, who was involved in the post-mortem, said: "The complete lack of efficient digestion had resulted in him living off his own body protein and fat in order to survive."

The stones found in Simo’s stomach had been deliberately introduced by the trainers as "toys" for the dolphins, so as to stimulate them in the otherwise barren surroundings of their pool.   None of the trainers had noticed how many stones were being given to the dolphins and how many were being recovered.

As well as the stones, it appeared that Simo had attempted to eat every object he had found in his pool.

Speculation is that ingesting the objects was the only way in which the bored dolphin could "protect" his "toys".  

This is a far more common occurrence than most captive facilities are prepared to admit. Just a few years after Simo’s death, trespassers on uShaka Sea World’s property gave some of the dolphins soft balls to play with. Three of the dolphins swallowed the balls and gastroscope procedures were necessary to remove the balls from the dolphins’ stomachs. 

Captive dolphins live a life of endless boredom; swimming in circles and performing the same routine day in and day out.  Dolphins are highly intelligent and inquisitive by nature.  Any items thrown into their tanks become new toys or objects of amusement.  Such objects are then often ingested, causing intestinal obstructions, infections and other problems – often resulting in a very slow death.

Debbie Young, who has a doctorate in marine biology and has substantial experience of whales and dolphins, said that Simo's death was a symptom of the lack of insight that dolphin trainers and scientists had about the complex biology and behaviour of dolphins, particularly when altered by an artificial captive environment.

Young said that anthropomorphic interpretation of Simo’s movements, socialising and vocalisations were attributed to his being “in love”, and generally “off”, but that "they could not have been further from the truth; and the result was the slow, painful starvation of a dolphin.” She added that “this is just not good enough.” 

“This animal had been trying to make the people responsible for him aware of the fact that something was wrong and nobody listened."

Days after Simo's death, Bayworld’s “Lady Dimple” stopped eating. About a month later, Lady Dimple had deteriorated to such an extent that staff were forced to put her down.

A few months later, “Thandi”, Simo's mother, also died.  She had developed an abscess on the side of her head the previous August.

For more than a year, Thandi was subjected to a range of treatments, including injections, gastroscopes, x-rays and biopsies. During the last month of her life, she had daily treatment reported to be extremely painful and stressful.

During a post-mortem, Thandi's internal organs were found to be bleached and her liver yellow. Vets said that this was the result of long-term antibiotic treatment. They could not agree on what had caused the abscess.

"Again, a valuable animal had died, with no clear consensus on how or why, and the museum did nothing to investigate the matter further," Young said.

In her opinion, the deaths of the three dolphins, in just six months, typified Bayworld's approach to research, scientific study, and medical care.

"I do not doubt that all involved tried their hardest, but I also doubt whether anything has been learned from the experience.”

"In summary, I do not believe that Bayworld deserves the right to capture wild, healthy dolphins and lock them up for the rest of their lives."

"The enclosures are barren and devoid of any form of environmental enrichment.”

"I believe that the staff are not sufficiently qualified to objectively monitor behavioural, social and medicinal factors, particularly with respect to wild dolphins."

Young added that the educational message delivered by Bayworld was not of a sufficiently high standard to warrant the capture of wild dolphins. 

So… three dead dolphins in just six months.

But Bayworld had five captive dolphins, not just three.  “Domino” and his mother, “Dolly”, were now the sole inhabitant of the Bayworld House-of-Horrors.

Dolly was Lady Dimple’s daughter.  Dolly gave birth to Domino in 1990.  Domino is Simo’s son.  

In September 2004, Dolly gave birth to her third offspring, “Dumisa”, after losing her second calf, “Thunzi”, a year earlier.  Dolly died just 5 months after giving birth to Dumisa, leaving the young calf in the care of Domino, her father, no, wait… her brother. Or is that is her father?

Confused yet? 

You see, Domino was a young and sexually frustrated male stuck in a tiny pool and the only other dolphin in this tiny pool was his mother, Dolly.  And so Domino mated with his mother, not once, not twice, but repeatedly so.  Thunzi was the products of incest.  Thunzi was born with a heart defect and died shortly after birth.  

Again, this is not uncommon in captive dolphins.  In 2013, uShaka Sea World’s “Gambit” impregnated his daughter, “Khethiwe”.  Khethiwe rejected the calf, and the calf died just days later from malnutrition and repeated trauma to her little body.

After Dolly died, Bayworld was down to two dolphins: a father-daughter/brother-sister duo. 

This left Bayworld in a spot of bother.  Father-daughter/brother-sister dolphins don’t make healthy babies. Incest-bred offspring are born with all sorts of birth defects; many of them dying shortly after birth – as was the case with Thunzi and the dead calf at uShaka. 

After much pressure, Bayworld decided to ship the duo off to Hong Kong’s Ocean Park as part of a breeding exchange programme –  with the hopes of one day restocking Bayworld with Domino’s and Dumiso’s respective offspring.

Some of you may already be familiar with Hong Kong’s Ocean Park.  Many of their dolphins were acquired from violent dolphin drives.

If you still don’t know what a dolphin drive is, we highly recommend you watch “The Cove”.

Bayworld hasn’t had any dolphins at their facility since 2009. Without a dolphin show, the paying crowds have all but disappeared – as is evident by some of the reviews on TripAdvisor.com:

Reviewed January 10, 2012

“We arrived at Bayworld and discovered the aquarium is in fact an abandoned dolphinarium with a few poorly maintained display tanks and a couple of seals.

It should not currently be listed as a tourist attraction.”

Reviewed January 19, 2012

“It is sad to learn that the dolphins are gone, so without them I can not give 5 [stars].”

Reviewed April 10, 2012

“3 seals, a few penguins, 3 pathetic fish tanks - you call this oceanarium!!?? Disgusting - should be closed down! …DO NOT GO THERE. Save your money! Absolute disappointment.”

Reviewed April 30, 2012

“Standard not what I expected. Wish the dolphins would come back.”

Reviewed May 8, 2012

“There is no more dolphin show! That is probably the only reason people want to go to Bay World.”

Reviewed June 7, 2012 

“…The oceanarium was a complete disappointment. The dolphins had to be sent away to Hong King if I recall correctly.

…I felt that the penguins and sea lions were cooped up in a small area. The whole place needs some serious modernisation, as it looks like it hasn’t changed since the 80s.”

Reviewed June 10, 2012

“Marine section was closed for renovation so just the penguins and seals in very small enclosures there.”

Reviewed July 11, 2012

“If you go to Bayworld thinking that it is an aquarium, you are in for a big surprise, our local pet shop has more fish tanks. The facility is run down and need a big intervention. There are only a few seals and penguins for entertainment.”

Reviewed September 14, 2012

“Our visit turned into a disaster, seeing that the big pool was empty and broken bits and pieces of waterpumps, filters etc were laying (sic)  around. Outside the (sic) were a couple of African penguins, 2-4 seals in a pool as well as a water tortoise.”

Reviewed February 12, 2013

“not what i expected, there is hardly any sea life what so ever in those tanks and we saw dead sea horses in one of the tank which was heart breaking.”

Judging by the reviews, it does not sound as if Bayworld is fit to keep any animals; yet Bayworld wants dolphins.

And executive director of the Mandela Bay municipality’s economic development and recreational unit, Zolile Siwana, has obliged. He has instructed the city‘s urban renewal arm, the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA), to draw up a plan for Bayworld. Previous plans pegged redevelopment at about (tax-payer’s) R100-million. The MDBA then plans to approach national and international aid agencies – from US-AID to the National Lottery – to fund the redevelopment on the basis that it will be an educational and science research facility.

The Democratic Alliance’s councilor, Dean Biddulph, whose ward includes Bayworld, has praised the move, saying that the MDMA was passionate about getting the dolphins back to Bayworld. MDMA is “adamant that one of the first things that needs to be done is to bring the dolphins back,” he said.

If you think Bayworld is unfit to keep dolphins, please sign our petition. 

Ocean Watch SA has made several attempts to establish the health - and living conditions of the animals currently in Bayworld’s care.  Bayworld staff are uncooperative.