DolphinFreeCayman.Org Issues

Welcome to the home of dolphinfreecayman.org

WELCOME - Today is - WORKING TO KEEP DOLPHINS FREE!

Copyright Dolphin Project

THE ISSUES

Three companies have applied to open captive dolphin facilities in Grand Cayman. Each is at a different stage in the planning process. All the dolphins (approximately 8+ per facility) would be confined to inland holding tanks or excavated marl pits.
Successive governments in the Cayman Islands have consistently IGNORED the advice and recommendations of various boards set up to assist them in decision making with regards to the Captive Dolphin Industry. These boards and the CITA have repeatedly recommended AGAINST allowing these copy-cat attractions in Cayman.
Some of the listed causes of death among dolphins in captivity are trauma, killed in fight, euthanasia, accidental drowning, kidney problems, pneumonia, malnutrition and stress, bacterial septicemia . . . etc.

Since 2000 there have been at least five documented dolphin deaths at the two Dolphin Cove captive dolphin entertainment facilities in Ocho Rios and Half Moon Bay in Jamaica.

Depending on the species, a wild dolphin will swim anywhere from 40-100 miles per day to play and catch fresh fish to eat. In captivity, they are fed dead fish and forced to live the rest of their lives swimming in circles in tanks.

Wild dolphins such as the Bottlenose can jump as high as 7 meters and dive as deep as 650 feet. They stay underwater for up to half an hour and spend only 10-20% of their time at the surface per day. In tanks, it is difficult if not impossible to avoid the sun's harsh rays.

Dolphins are only transient visitors to the Cayman Islands for a reason -- either our water temperatures do no fall within their tolerance thresholds or we do not have the available fish harvest to sustain them.

Dolphins that have reached puberty become aggressive or protective and are no longer "suitable" for interacting with the public, so what is or can be done with them once they are no longer "useful?" Captive dolphins have little or no survival skills in the wild.

All site content ©Copyright 2004- Dolphin Project. All Rights Reserved worldwide.