Thoughts on swimming with dolphins?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have an opportunity, for $200, to swim with dolphins in Aruba on a shore excursion associated with my cruise, and as much as I’m thinking it would be awesome and a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I’m not sure I feel comfortable doing it.

Looking around online, trying to get more information about the usual setup of these “encounters”, I find a lot of people saying not to do it, because the dolphins are captured violently, starved, and abused. Of course these claims never have anything to back them up, but they’re at least plausible, and I would feel terrible to be encouraging an unethical industry. On the other hand, dude, swimming with dolphins. On the other other hand, they’re huge and wild and I suppose they could decide to kill me, so I’d be a little scared doing it anyway!

What are these encounter situations usually like? Will I kick myself forever if I miss this chance, or will I be wasting $200 to support a dolphin-damaging industry?

2

Are these captive animals, or area you swimming in the ocean?

I did the latter about 15 years ago, and it was a lot of fun. But… I was in really good shape then, and was swimming a lot, so I was really the only person in my group who even cam close to seeing them. And even then, they just sort of toyed with me. This one dolphin would sort of stop and turn around and wait until I got about 20 ft away, then he’d dart further out and do it again.

The whole encounter took maybe 5 minutes, and I was absolutely exhausted afterwards.

Later on that trip, I did a “swim” with a captive dolphin that wasn’t really a swim. It was standing in the same water enclosure with the dolphin wile the trainer had him to some tricks. I did get to pet the dolphin and feel his heart beat. I didn’t see any evidence that the dolphin was abused, although you might argue that keeping him captive was a form of abuse.

3

Try plugging into the Google-fu the place you’re swimming at (in?) and see if there are any negative reviews or more info. I think it depends on the location.

4

http://www.myfamilytravels.com/how/advice/10475-Ethical-Questions-Raised-Dolphin-Swims.html

This outlines some of the problems, and how low your chances are that it will be an ethical setup. It does give you some questions to ask too, so you can minimise impact.

The only one Ive been on that was pretty good was in Kaikoura NZ, where you could jump in to the middle of several hundred dolphins. Only about 3 of us on the boat did it because the water was freezing, so numbers were minimised simply due to the setting.

Otara

5

When I was in the Florida Keys we did the swim with the dolphins and it was amazing. The dolphins are definitely tame. You can’t swim with a wild dolphin, because it’d be too dangerous.

It’s unlikely the’d attack you but easily a wild dolphin could do a power dive and drag you under before a blink of an eye. Though perhaps in some countries where the laws aren’t as strong it’s done.

6

I’ve also done the Keys experience. The animals were not mistreated in any way that I could see and actively enjoyed interacting with us. They obviously had favorite people and would play with them more.

7

I did it at Seaworld and was very disappointed. My daughter swam with them in Jamaica. Her experience was much better. On the video my daughter brought home, it certainly appeared that the dolphins were having fun too. I didn’t get that impression on my swim. There was almost no actual interaction on my trip and it was so expensive.

8

:dubious:

I haven’t done it, but as Otara says, there are swim-with-wild-dolphin experiences out there, and I’m familiar with the Kaikoura company. It is indeed a swim with wild dolphins.

Most dolphins are relatively small, with the largest that you would actually be able swim with being the Common Bottlenose Dolphin*, of around 12-13 feet long and up to around 1000 lbs. At those sizes and weights, they’re not going to drag you under. Even people who have close encounters with 80,000 lb. whales don’t get dragged under. See this youtube video of a close encounter and this close encounter with a blue whale. No way a 1000 lb. dolphin is going to drag you under.

In addition, wild dolphins will generally approach people for fleeting encounters (see John Mace’s post above yours) and you’re unlikely to spend more than a minute or two in a close encounter with a particular dolphin. Being quite speedy, the wild dolphin will control the timing and length of the encounter.
I would have reservations based on the continued exposure of dolphins to boats and humans, and watch out for the possibility that unscrupulous tour operators would handle their boats in a manner dangerous for the dolphin, not some mythical safety-of-the-human concern.
[sub]*Larger dolphins like the Risso’s and Orca are not likely to spend much time where people will swim with them in the wild. Inshore resident orcas might be an exception, but I don’t know of anyplace where tour operators attempt to offer such an experience.[/sub]

9

If they are wild dolphins in the open ocean, it may be ethically ok. You do need to be careful though - while dolphins tend to like to play, they don’t always understand what is dangerous to humans.

If they are captivate dolphins…even in a very large pen…it’s probably a bad operation.

You mention that common claims of bad behavior for capturing dolphins never has anything to back it up. I suggest you see the documentary The Cove. I was lucky enough to see the world premier of this, including a Q&A session with a few of the people from the movie. They certainly seem convinced that the killing and imprisonment of dolphins is real.

When is the cruise? I can send a note to one of the guys from The Cove and get their take on open water dolphin encounters, if you’d like. I think he’s travelling right now, working on a new project, so I don’t know how quickly I can get an answer.

-D/a

10

I’ve heard of the movie “The Cove”, but I was under the impression it was more about hunting and killing dolphins for meat.

The place is in Curacao, not Aruba as I originally thought, associated with the aquarium. They say on their website that the dolphins are in a large “natural lagoon”, so they are in captivity. They also seem to have a therapy program there for special-needs children to interact with dolphins. It seems at least like a legitimate organization, not some guys with a dolphin in a pool in the backyard. I’m not sure how to judge whether they’re well cared-for and whether it would be wrong of me to encourage programs like this. One one hand, it’s captivity… but so is a zoo. On the other hand, dolphins are awesome and this would be a really neat thing to do.

They have a “contact us” link - what sort of questions could I ask to get a better idea of what goes on there with respect to their dolphins? Is there an international organization that rates zoos and aquariums so I can know that this place is legit and good to its critters?

11

I did the swim with the dolphin thing as Discovery Cove in Florida and it was a life altering experience. A group of about 6 or 7 of us spent about 45 minutes with a bottlenose named Latoya, who was their alpha dolphin. She was obviously having just as good of time as us lowly humans. When you look into their eyes you KNOW they are intelligent, thinking, emotional beings.

Do it. You’ll not regret it.

12

I did this in New Zealand, without any problems. I was told of a place where a wild dolphin had been seen to swim with people, so I went there, swam out off the beach, and the dolphin showed up. She (it was reported to be female) stayed within 20 feet of me for 15 minutes or so, then swam off. She was later seen close to the beach.

13

See post #2. It’s not dangerous at all.

Xema: My experience was in NZ, too, but in the Bay of Islands, and we jumped form a boat after locating a pod.

14

You do realize Dolphins pee in the water?

:smiley: :smiley:

Please tell Natalee H. “hi” for me while you’re in Aruba.

15

That’s one of the angles. The dolphin fishermen scare dolphins into their holding pen, and pick out the best looking ones. Those get sold to aquariums. The rest get killed, in part for meat. Not all captive dolphins come from here - many are born to captivity, and some are from other regions.

[QUOTE=Antigen]

The place is in Curacao, not Aruba as I originally thought, associated with the aquarium. They say on their website that the dolphins are in a large “natural lagoon”, so they are in captivity. They also seem to have a therapy program there for special-needs children to interact with dolphins. It seems at least like a legitimate organization, not some guys with a dolphin in a pool in the backyard. I’m not sure how to judge whether they’re well cared-for and whether it would be wrong of me to encourage programs like this. One one hand, it’s captivity… but so is a zoo. On the other hand, dolphins are awesome and this would be a really neat thing to do.

They have a “contact us” link - what sort of questions could I ask to get a better idea of what goes on there with respect to their dolphins? Is there an international organization that rates zoos and aquariums so I can know that this place is legit and good to its critters?
[/QUOTE]

How big is the “natural lagoon”? Dolphins roam. They travel large across large areas normally. In The Cove, Ric Barry (trainer from Flipper) talks about how he believes one of the dolphins who starred as Flipper committed suicide in front of him, instead of living on in captivity. In a large lake.
I can’t speak for how true the story is. And Ric wasn’t at the Q&A I attended, so I couldn’t really question him about it.

Looking at your link..it says they interact with the trainers “outside the lagoon”. One question I would ask is what prevents the dolphins from swimming away. If they truly are released into the open ocean and come back of their own free will, then I wouldn’t have an issue with it. If they aren’t really given that chance..if it isn’t really “open ocean”, then I would avoid it.

Reading more:

[QUOTE=Dolphin Academy Curacao]
As the dolphins accompany the trainers on daily excursions to the open ocean, they are free to leave or choose to return “home” with us.
[/QUOTE]

Given that..I’d change my question to “How do you get the dolphins back into the lagoon when they are in the open ocean?” I’d also want to understand the setup in Honduras where the first set of dolphins came from.

They seem to have all the right language on the site.

-D/a

16

go for it!
it’s fun, and the dolphins seem to enjoy it too.I actually petted the dolphin on its head ,and was rewarded by it talking to me with squeaks.

I found it to be an amazing experience.

But now, I’m gonna be a spoilsport: the experience gets much less amazing once you start to look at it rationally, and realize that… Dolphins are just animals. Like dogs.
Go to a city park: Nobody gets amazed playing frisbee with a dog. Nobody pays $200 for the " wonderful experience" of jogging alongside a couple of dogs, or having a dog come close and investigate the palm of your hand.
But if you do those things while in water, they suddenly become amazing experiences.
And they are! I really recommend doing it–it’s fun, it’s different, it makes you feel good, and yes, the experience somehow grabs you in the guts emotionally. But mostly because we humans feel awkward in water. So anything happening under water that reminds us of our pets back home tugs at our emotions.

(And I saw zero evidence of any abuse of the dophins. They may not be as totally free as an ocean-roaming, wild creature. But being slightly domesticated, well-fed and protected doesnt seem to do them any harm—just like with dogs and cats. )

17

I did the swim with dolphins thing in Cuba. It did feel a bit like being with trained dogs. The dolphins swam out to us because they were asked to and rewarded after a few minutes with a treat. Repeat. Was pretty cool, but was part of package for $60. Not sure I would have shelled out $200 for my time in the water with them.

Best part was just happening to be in the right place at the right time when one of the aquarium staff was feeding a new dolphin and her baby pieces of fish. This was not part of the tour, but she let me and another person help.

18

You might find some reviews and more information at Cruise Critic.

19

I have accidentally swam with dolphins; it wasn’t exactly a paid set up thing.

There are dolphins that come around near the beach where I hang out. We nearly always spot them. One day, my BFF and I were walking along the beach and we saw this guy standing in chest-deep water, fishing. His wife/gf/so/whatever was standing on the shore near where we were walking. Suddenly, we saw a spray of water erupt around the guy and several smallish dolphins – 3 or 4 maybe – were swimming around him, darting and cavorting as they do. We waded in the water a little bit and the dolphins swam over to us and then took a sharp left when they got about 4 feet away. They went back to investigate the fisherman guy again and then, with a “so long and thanks for all the fish” they were off, back out to sea.

So I didn’t pay money and touch them and get dragged under or anything like that. And after that completely organic experience, I have no interest in paying for such an arranged experience. I don’t have a strong opinion if you should do it or not, but I don’t like zoos or circuses either, so if that sort of thing doesn’t bother you, go for it. Dolphins are friggin’ cool.

20

I haven’t much to contribute, but I have been to the aquarium in Curacao. While I did not do the swim, I have seen the dolphin show. The animals seem to be well-treated, but they are in a zoo environment, so your decision should reflect your feelings. The show was great, and the aquarium has a variety of awesome creatures.
I’ll pm you links to some photos.