Fw: [EthologicalEthics] Study finds many marine mammals dying in captivity

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Tuesday, May 18, 2004 6:11 AM

[EthologicalEthics] Study finds many marine mammals dying in

captivity

 

 

> Tony Smith <fauna.found

>

> (Sun-Sentinel/Angel Valentin)

> May 17, 2004

>

> Study finds many marine mammals dying in captivity

>

> Posted May 16 2004

> South Florida Sun-Sentinel

>

> This is the second in a series of stories called Marine Attractions: Below

> the Surface.

>

> Four decades ago, hunters off the coast of Washington found the perfect

> young killer whale specimen swimming with its mother. They fired a

harpoon,

> hoping to attach a buoy to the bigger animal that would make trailing them

> easier. But the spear went in deep and the mother whale drowned.

>

> The crew made a deal for the young whale with SeaWorld. The company today

> says it did not know about the capture but it did calculate correctly that

> crowds would come to its San Diego park for the chance to see a killer

whale

> up close.

>

> The modern marine park industry began with the killing of Shamu's mother.

>

> Since then, the splashing stars have delighted millions. That

entertainment,

> built on a public convinced that sea stars enjoy performing for people,

has

> come at a continuing price to animals even while turning parks and

aquariums

> into a thriving international business. Florida is the center of the U.S.

> industry with 13 marine attractions and 367 sea animals, more than any

other

> state.

>

> Over nine months, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel examined the history and

> records of the industry, including more than 30 years' worth of federal

> documents on 7,121 marine animals the government collected but never

> analyzed. The investigation found:

>

> More than 3,850 sea lions, seals, dolphins and whales have died under

human

> care, many of them young. Of nearly 3,000 whose ages could be determined,

a

> quarter died before they reached 1, half by the age of 7.

>

> Of about 2,400 deaths in which a specific cause is listed, one in five

> marine mammals died of uniquely human hazards or seemingly avoidable

causes

> including capture shock, stress during transit, poisoning and routine

> medical care. Thirty-five animals died from ingesting foreign objects,

> including pennies, plastic balls, gravel or licorice.

>

> Dolphins and whales have become so valuable, some worth up to $5 million

> each, that attractions take out life insurance and transport them

worldwide

> for the chance to breed more. About 2,335 marine mammals have been moved

one

> or more times, 11 animals, at least a dozen times. Duke, a sea lion owned

by

> a Mississippi company, holds the record: 19 moves.

>

> More than 1,600 marine mammals, including the original Shamu, were taken

> from U.S. waters for attractions worldwide. American parks and zoos have

not

> applied for a capture permit in more than a decade but do not rule that

out

> for fresh genetic material. Other countries still take dolphins and whales

> from the wild, particularly in the Caribbean, where swim-with-the-dolphins

> attractions have become increasingly popular. Cuba is now the world's

> leading exporter of bottlenose dolphins.

>

> Marine mammals in U.S. parks and zoos are federally protected, but

> inspectors have been slow to enforce regulations on everything from water

> quality to veterinary care, even after they document animal deaths. The

> National Marine Fisheries Service has kept an inventory on captive marine

> mammals since 1972 but does not fully enforce rules on the reporting of

> births, deaths and moves of animals, relying on the parks for information.

> In hundreds of cases, the inventory does not say why animals died or even

> that they have died.

>

> " We've never really had the time and energy to do this sort of analysis,''

> said Steve Leathery, head of marine mammal permitting for the Fisheries

> Service. " This is the first effort to really take a hard look from the

> outside.''

>

> U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, ranking Democrat on the oversight and

> investigations subcommittee, called the findings " a wake-up call to all of

> us.''

>

> " I don't think there's any question we need to do better,'' said Deutsch,

of

> Fort Lauderdale. " You found things that, even with oversight, the

government

> has not really focused on.''

>

> U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the

> Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans subcommittee, said, " Congress hasn't taken

on

> the responsibility of looking at this problem effectively.''

>

> " There's no place on Earth like SeaWorld® Orlando!'' the company's Web

site

> says. " Feed the dolphins, take in an incredible performance, and just try

to

> stay dry when the world famous Shamu® comes a-splashing! SeaWorld

Orlando --

> it just doesn't get any closer than this.''

>

> SeaWorld has become the world's largest and most recognized marine park.

> Company executives say animal care and knowledge has improved enormously

> since the industry's beginnings.

>

> " If you go back 40 years or 50 years ago, people went out and collected

> dolphins from the wild and didn't know how to take care of them,'' said

Jim

> McBain, senior veterinarian for the company. " They didn't have very good

> luck. As they learned, they got better at it.''

>

> Industry officials say that while some animals have not fared well,

they've

> served a higher purpose: educating and instilling a respect for marine

life

> in millions of park visitors.

>

> " The number of people in the public that are exposed to these animals and

> know about them that wouldn't otherwise pay any attention to them

> whatsoever, I think you can make the argument that they are true

> ambassadors,'' said Michael Hutchins, director of conservation and science

> for the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA). " So you have to weigh

> that against the cost to individuals.''

>

> >From the Panhandle to the Florida Keys, this scene is familiar: Delighted

> visitors cheer as splashing stars jump, " tail walk " and flip on command.

>

> >From the slick public relations mastery at big parks such as SeaWorld to

> lower-key zoos with just a few marine mammals, the parks put forth an

> idyllic picture.

>

> " We provide the animals here with the best of care,'' says the Web site

for

> Theater of the Sea in Islamorada. " Man keeps many animals in his care; few

> if any are treated as well as marine mammals. "

>

> What parks and zoos do not say is that many of those animals have not

lived

> long. Over the past 30 years, the federal data show, fewer than half of

the

> dolphins and sea lions reached the industry's own projections of life

> expectancy of 20 and 14 years respectively.

>

> What is certain are the deaths of some 3,850 marine mammals under human

care

> that have been reported to the Fisheries Service's Marine Mammal Inventory

> Report, the only official record of how sea animals have fared.

>

> The inventory shows that 1,127 bottlenose dolphins -- Flipper's species --

> have died over more than 30 years. Of the 875 whose ages can be

determined,

> more than half never reached 10 and 83 percent were dead before 20.

>

> Of California sea lions, the species most commonly found in parks and

zoos,

> 1,262 with known or estimated ages have died, half before the age of 5 and

> 77 percent before 14.

>

> Among killer whales, the most dramatic of the theme park mammals, the

> inventory shows 24 have died after living to 10.2 years on average. Of 43

> the records show now alive in captivity, the average age is 15.7 years.

> According to SeaWorld Orlando's Web site, researchers in the Pacific

> Northwest believe female whales that make it past the first few vulnerable

> months will live to 50 and males to 30. Some whales have been tracked in

the

> wild into their 90s, according to a researcher who follows them in Puget

> Sound.

>

> Industry officials say captive animals are living longer now with better

> nutrition, veterinary care and knowledge of what it takes to keep them

> healthy.

>

> In response to questions from the newspaper, the AZA asked a member,

> conservation biologist Kevin Willis, to calculate life expectancy. Using

the

> experience of the dead animals but also the better prospects of the

living,

> Willis projected that dolphins live to 20 on average and sea lions to 14.

>

> Of those now living, 42 percent of dolphins and 60 percent of sea lions

have

> made it to those projections.

>

> It will take another 30 years or so, industry officials say, to know

> longevity of animals in parks and zoos for certain.

>

> Pinning down how long sea mammals should live or do live compared to their

> wild counterparts is difficult, according to the industry, marine

biologists

> and the federal government. They all say studies of life in the wild are

> limited, following small populations over too short a period and too small

a

> geographic area.

>

> One study frequently cited has tracked bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay

> for 34 years. Scientists are still unwilling to assign an average life

span

> to the dolphins but at least four of 140 they are following are in their

> 50s.

>

> Of some 1,500 dolphins in captivity over the past 30 years, both alive and

> dead, just one -- Nellie at Marineland of Florida -- made it to 50.

>

> The federal records also show that marine mammals that have never been in

> the wild, that have been bred specifically for display, died significantly

> younger. Even beached animals put into marine attractions because they

were

> sick or injured lived longer than those born at parks and zoos.

>

> Captive-bred sea lions, for instance, died at 3.5 years on average. Sea

> lions captured from the wild, in contrast, survived 11.4 years and those

> found stranded, 10.5 years on average. The pattern held true for dolphins,

> whales and seals.

>

> Making sweeping comparisons between facilities is difficult because of

> variables including differences in the number of animals and where they

came

> from. The federal inventory also does not contain enough detailed

> information to determine the significance of such things as the expertise

of

> staff, how often animals are checked for health problems, diet, the size

of

> enclosures or whether they are filled with natural or chemically treated

> water.

>

> Visit a marine attraction, however, and you'll hear none of these

> uncertainties or any discussion of the variables. The standard message of

> park employees is that their animals are healthy, happy and live at least

as

> long as wild counterparts.

>

> Miami Seaquarium said on its Web site that captive dolphins " have a much

> greater lifespan. " The Seaquarium based that on the Web site of a rival

> attraction in the Keys, officials told the newspaper.

>

> Seaquarium has lost 64 of 89 dolphins since 1972. Of those whose age could

> be determined, more than half died at 10 or younger, including 16 in their

> first year. Of the 25 dolphins there now, one-third are over 20.

>

> " There is a PR [public relations] aspect to this,'' said U.S. Rep. Tom

> Lantos, D-San Mateo, Calif. " They want their customers to feel good about

> what they're doing.''

>

> The Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi boosted attendance by 50,000

last

> year and raised $12 million for a tank in a new exhibit to hold what its

Web

> site described as " non-releasable dolphins ... [that] lack the necessary

> skills to survive in the wild. "

>

> The nonprofit aquarium's dolphins, Sundance and Kimo, were not injured or

> sick. Captured off Florida in 1988, they are now " non-releasable'' because

> they've spent so much time in human care.

>

> " That's probably not the best term to use,'' aquarium executive director

Tom

> Schmid said.

>

> Parks and zoos " want you to think that God put them there or they rescued

> them, " said Ric O'Barry of Miami, a dolphin trainer on the Flipper

> television series (which ran from 1964 to 1967) who now campaigns against

> keeping marine mammals in captivity.

>

> " If people knew the truth, they wouldn't buy a ticket. It's all about

> money. "

>

> By law, facilities housing marine mammals must be licensed and inspected,

> but the Sun-Sentinel found the government does little to enforce rules and

> rarely levies fines or closes facilities. Attractions have little

incentive

> to fix problems that inspectors cite or to report information to the

> Fisheries Service.

>

> Federal law requires that the government keep a record of marine mammals

> births, deaths and transfers, including animals and their progeny sent

from

> the U.S. to foreign countries. The Fisheries Services relies on the parks

to

> turn over this information but many facilities interpret the law to mean

> they do not have to report stillborns or newborn deaths.

>

> Some report even less to the government.

>

> The newspaper found hundreds of animals that simply vanished from the

> records once they were moved, others listed as living in marine parks that

> closed as long as a decade ago, and births and deaths of which federal

> officials were unaware.

>

> Nemo, a California sea lion at Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, N.Y., died in

> June 2000, according to the zoo's Web site. He was still listed in

> government records three years later as alive.

>

> " I'd have to say it was a clerical error,'' said zoo director Larry Sorel.

>

> Dolphin Research Center in Grassy Key did not tell the government about

the

> March 2001 birth and death of Destiny. It did not report Tanner, a dolphin

> born, according to its Web site, in 2002. Center officials declined to

> comment.

>

> The Fisheries Service lacks the resources to ensure the accuracy of

reports

> from parks and zoos, said Leathery, head of marine mammal permitting.

> " There's a lot of competing and conflicting demands. Our real focus is

those

> animals out in the ecosystem, in the wild. "

>

> Marineland near St. Augustine, conceived as an underwater movie studio,

> calls itself " the pioneer of American marine-life theme parks. " It opened

to

> 20,000 visitors in 1938.

>

> Theater of the Sea, Miami Seaquarium, and Florida's Gulfarium in Fort

Walton

> Beach followed. In the 1960s the parks boomed, thanks to Flipper, the 1963

> movie and the TV series, and the fortuitous introduction of killer whales.

>

> The Vancouver Aquarium commissioned a sculpture of a killer whale in 1964

> but instead got a real-life exhibit. Hunters harpooned a whale to use as

an

> artists' model, but it unexpectedly survived. The aquarium put him on

> display, mistaking his gender and calling him Moby Doll. The whale lived

> three months, during which visitors and the media flocked to see the black

> and white behemoth.

>

> " Our experience with Moby Doll had allowed us to make great strides in

> understanding marine mammals,'' the aquarium's then director Murray Newman

> wrote in a 1994 autobiography. " But at the same time, we had unwittingly

> opened the way to a new kind of commercialism.''

>

> Today, more than 1,200 whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions live in U.S.

> marine parks, aquariums and zoos, federal records show, with hundreds more

> overseas.

>

> In the Caribbean, swim-with-the-dolphins attractions catering to tourists,

> primarily American cruise ship passengers, are opening at the rate of two

a

> year.

>

> The parks have hit on a profitable formula. Admission can cost up to $130,

> not counting heavily promoted extras.

>

> Be a dolphin trainer for a day for $650. Hold a T-shirt and let a dolphin

> paint it for $55. Send a handicapped loved one to dolphin " therapy'' swim

> sessions for upward of $2,000 a week.

>

> Just how big the industry has become is impossible to say because most

> marine attractions don't release attendance or revenue figures.

>

> But, according to an industry trade publication, SeaWorld alone attracted

11

> million visitors last year.

>

> Using public records, Web sites and information that some facilities

> provided, the Sun-Sentinel estimated that more than 50 million people

> visited facilities featuring sea animals last year, spending at least $1

> billion.

>

> In the bays off the Keys and Florida's west coast, bottlenose dolphins

leap,

> swim after boats and glide like torpedoes through the water. Hundreds were

> plucked from these waters from the 1960s through the 80s to populate

marine

> parks.

>

> " Healthy, alert dolphins, bright, show-quality,'' read a brochure for

> Dolphin Services International, a company co-directed by veterinarian Jay

> Sweeney, who caught at least 80 dolphins in the 1980s. " Will deliver to

your

> size and sex specifications ... 90-day replacement guarantee.''

>

> Sweeney offered an experienced " collecting crew,'' show training and

> transportation with " swift routing from Miami International Airport.''

>

> Florida dolphins he captured wound up in parks in the United States,

> Switzerland, Finland, England, Israel and Canada. Nineteen died within

five

> years, 10 surviving less than a year, the Sun-Sentinel found.

>

> Sybil, captured in 1983, died seven weeks after arriving at Knowsley

Safari

> Park near Liverpool, England.

>

> Amit, another dolphin Sweeney captured, spent nearly four years at the Tel

> Aviv Dolphinarium before being sent to Knie's Kinderzoo in Switzerland in

> 1986. She died of cardiac arrest two days after that move, records show.

>

> Sweeney caught six dolphins for Walt Disney World's Epcot Center in

Orlando

> in 1985. Geno survived less than a year. Three others were dead by 1990.

>

> Sweeney said he was " unfamiliar with the case histories of the animals. "

>

> " The mortality of individual animals, like that of individual humans, may

be

> influenced by a wide variety of factors.and it is not always possible to

> pinpoint a reason for the loss of an individual, " he said.

>

> Sweeney founded Dolphin Quest in the 1980s, a company that operates

> swim-with-the-dolphins attractions in Hawaii, French Polynesia and

Bermuda.

>

> Ted Griffin talks freely about his past as a whale collector. In seven

years

> starting in the mid 1960s, when there were few legal controls on hunts,

> Griffin estimates he and his crew " captured and shipped somewhere around

30

> to 34'' killer whales. That includes Hugo, who survived until 1980 at

Miami

> Seaquarium, and Lolita, still there at an estimated age of 37.

>

> Even for experienced collectors like Griffin, hunts did not always go

right.

>

> In 1970, in an area off Washington known as Penn Cove, Griffin's crew

> trapped 40 killer whales. In the darkness, three or four became entangled

in

> his net and died, he recalled in a telephone interview from his home in

> Bellevue, Wash.

>

> With a state game warden on board, Griffin said, his crew hid the deaths

> until they could quietly dispose of the bodies.

>

> Previously, they had sent bodies to the state for research -- until a

> government official told him, " We are not the dumping ground for your dead

> whales,'' Griffin said.

>

> Rendering plants, happy to have massive carcasses, had turned other dead

> whales into fertilizer or dog food, but they sometimes alerted the media,

> Griffin said. The hunters did not want to take that chance.

>

> " We secured anchors and rocks to their tails and we sank them in the

bay,''

> Griffin said.

>

> That's also how they had disposed of Shamu's mother, five years earlier,

in

> 1965.

>

> Griffin said he and his partner were in a helicopter on the lookout for a

> killer whale in Puget Sound for Griffin's Seattle Aquarium. They spotted a

> juvenile with its mother and another whale.

>

> He blames " a bad shot " for how that hunt turned out. " You hope the whale

> surfaces just as the harpoon hits the water,'' he said. " It's tricky. The

> female rolled to the surface and impacted the harpoon. "

>

> The mother died and the young whale proved too aggressive toward Griffin.

> SeaWorld wanted a whale for its San Diego park and agreed to lease the

whale

> for $2,000 a month, Griffin said. SeaWorld named the whale Shamu.

>

> " They were concerned the whale would not do well,'' Griffin said. " I had

> agreed if the whale died through no act of negligence I would replace

it.''

>

> Shamu did very well.

>

> " The attendance began to grow in staggering proportions, " Griffin said.

> " Other oceanariums realized they could have the same attendance. Everybody

> wanted them.''

>

> Shamu, the first of 51 SeaWorld whales with that name, died six years

after

> being captured.

>

> SeaWorld officials said they had no records on hand of the capture and

knew

> of no employees familiar with it.

>

> It's unknown how many whales and dolphins perished during capture. Federal

> records show at least 22.

>

> But the federal government rarely exercised its authority to send

observers

> to ensure humane captures, and as Griffin's experience shows, hunters hid

> deaths.

>

> Two-thirds of the marine mammals caught in the 1970s and 1980s are dead,

> records show.

>

> Three Northern right whale dolphins captured for SeaWorld in 1982 were

dead

> in about two weeks. Six of eight Pacific white-sided dolphins the company

> acquired in 1973 died by the end of the year, records show.

>

> " I couldn't even begin to speculate to tell you what happened,'' said Brad

> Andrews, senior vice president for zoological operations for Busch

> Entertainment Corp., a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch, which owns SeaWorld.

> " Whatever it was, it's unacceptable.''

>

> Dolphin Research Center posts plaques of each of its dolphins. For those

> that came from the wild, the center lists " origin " as the previous

aquarium

> where the dolphin lived.

>

> Protective of their public image, parks and aquariums have not applied for

a

> permit to capture whales or dolphins in more than a decade, though they

> don't rule out going back to the sea in the future.

>

> Currently, records show, nearly two-thirds of the marine mammals displayed

> in U.S. parks were born in captivity.

>

> Another 11 percent came off beaches too ill or injured to be returned to

the

> wild. The rest, except for 4 percent of unknown origin, are animals

captured

> more than a decade ago.

>

> U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, in central Florida, said marine parks

need

> to " play by the rules " of animal care, but he is reluctant to criticize

> them.

>

> " Our larger, more well-established, well-funded parks are doing more than

> just teaching a dolphin to fetch a ring, " he said. " Every time there is a

> marine mammal crisis, a whale beaches itself, a manatee gets hit by a boat

> or a bottlenose dolphin turns up sick, the first people that are called

are

> some of our top parks that are also involved in cutting-edge marine

biology

> research. "

>

> Studies by park and zoos, said Marilee Menard, executive director of the

> Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums, " have led to improvements

in

> diagnosing and treating diseases, techniques for anesthesia and surgery,

> tests for toxic substances and their effects on wild marine mammals, and

> advancements in diet, vitamin supplementation and neonatal feeding. "

>

> She estimates Alliance members spend about $1 million a year rescuing and

> rehabilitating stranded mammals.

>

> The AZA's Hutchins estimates that its members spend more than $50 million

a

> year on research. " It's very hard to nail down an exact amount.''

>

> SeaWorld inspired young visitors to become vets, conservationists and

> environmental researchers. " Somewhere along the line, we've touched them

> enough to go out and do something, and I think that's pretty neat,''

Andrews

> said.

>

> Rep. Lantos said he thinks marine parks " can do the positives without

> incurring the negatives. "

>

> " I don't accept the juxtaposition that they're doing some useful things

even

> though the treatment of animals is a long way from being perfect. "

>

> Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.

>

>

>

>

>