” Fifty percent of dolphins in captivity will die in less than seven years”

EMILIE LEVERT ALEXANDER DUNLAP

NAN DANEHOWER

Is it Cruel and Unusual to Keep Sea Animals in

Captivity?

Sea Animals in Captivity

I decided to do my junior paper on sea animals in captivity because I have always gone to aquariums and zoos as a child and now that I grow up I’m starting to realize the effects it has on the animals.

Is it Cruel and Unusual to Keep Sea Animals in Captivity?

Things I learned:Fisherman in Taiji, Japan bang post so the dolphins

get together.The banging noise the poles make scares the

dolphins until they panic and stay together.Dolphin trainers from all around the world come to pick which dolphin they want. The other ones are speared and killed.Tanks for dolphins may be only 24 ft. long, 24 ft. wide, and 6 ft. deep.

Facts.

Every time the dolphins are confined and shipped to a new location, its as traumatic as it was the first time they were captured in the wild.

The reverberations of the animals own sonar wavesbounce off the walls and hit the dolphin right back which causes the dolphin to become crazy. Dolphins are able to take their own lives by hitting their heads on the wall or bynot coming up for air. Some wildlife species will live longer in zoos but they have agreater quantity of life rather than quality of life.

More facts.

Of all the marine deaths, about 2,400, one in five of the death could have been avoided because they were human hazard.

Some dolphins will die from shock or stress, and some will die slowly of pneumonia when the water enters their lungs through their blowholes.

Thirty five animals died because they ingested foreign objects like coins, plastic balls, gravel, and licorice.

Even more facts.

Dolphins in the wild can live up to 45 years where in captivity they cant live any longer than 5.

Half of the dolphins die within the first two years of the capturing.

When an exhibit at a Calgary zoo opened, forty of the stingrays died from an unknown toxic in the first three months the zoo opened.

Product

Since I wrote about sea animals in captivity I decided to try to get behind the scenes of how animals react to the people around them. Since I wasn’t able to go to sea world, I volunteered at a North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher.

My mentor was Alexander Dunlap. He helped me a lot because he was always at the aquarium when I was there so he was able to make sure I was doing everything right and knew everything I needed to know.

Is it Cruel and Unusual to Keep Sea Animals in Captivity?

Yes, it is. Animals don’t react the same way in captivity as they would if they were in the wild. The tanks are way to small for the animals to be able to swim around. There is also a lot of deaths caused by animals in captivity.

Self- Reflection

I learned a lot about how sea animals in captivity have it so hard. I never knew so much about it.

About myself, I learned that I need to work on time management better. It was very difficult to find time to drive to the beach with being a senior in high school, graduating college in December, and working.

Some of the successes I had were learning about all the animals at the aquarium so fast. Also actually completely over 20 hours just volunteering at the aquarium.

Some of the challenges I had were actually driving to the aquarium and finding time between school, college, and work.

After I graduate high school, I will be graduating from JCC in December to be a cosmetologist. I want to continue at JCC to get my associates in business and transfer to state to get my bachelors.

Thank you for your time.

Do you have any questions?