My UWCSEA Learning Journey

Ella Rokic

1

Underwater Prison

Over the past two years, four dolphins at Dolphinaris Arizona have died, with the most recent being on January 31st with the death of a dolphin called Kai. Kai was a 22-year-old bottlenose dolphin who was supposed to live until he was forty. Dolphinaris said they have down everything in their power to help the Dolphin “including bloodwork testing, ultrasounds, x-rays, and engaging external specialists and submitting diagnostic samples to outside university veterinary laboratories,” said Schaeffer the general manager of Dolphinaris. Even so, the USDA has inspected Dolphinaris 4 times since its opening and has not found any problems. So that raises the question if this all was some coincidence or there is an underlying cause to the deaths of these dolphins.


On May 22nd 2017, the death of the first dolphin occurred. Alia was a female bottlenose dolphin who was reported to have died of an acute bacterial infection that apparently spread quickly through her body. Shortly after on September 23 2017, Bodie the male bottlenose dolphin died of a rare muscle disease which wasn’t classified. With 2 unexpected deaths to happen so closely together, it was sure to raise some suspicion. But a year went by without any more casualties until December 31, 2018, when Khloe the bottlenose dolphin died by a pre-existing health condition. 32 days later another bottlenose dolphin died. Kai showed signs of difficulty swimming breathing and eating.

 

There are many ideas about what could’ve caused the deaths of these animals. One of the most likely causes is an extreme amount of stress. “Dolphins at Dolphinaris are likely under an extreme amount of stress, which could lead to compromised immune systems”, according to Lori Marino, founder of The Whale Sanctuary Project. Imagine being in the same tank every day of your life and being expected to entertain a crowd of people yelling and screaming. Not only the overstimulating environment could be scary but also the fact of being trapped in a small place swimming around in circles. They swim 8km/h and swim for about 16 hours a day and 8 hours sleeping. this means they travel for about 128km per day. The worst part is, most of them can’t even be returned to the wild because of their lack of hunting abilities and the lost instincts they would have had in the wild.

These dolphins have most likely been taken from their home environment and transferred into Arizona, which is a desert. Dolphins are not made to live in the desert, they are exposed to new viruses and germs. They also might not be used to the temperature and the dryness in the air. All these little things can affect any animal if they aren’t in their home environment and not used to the new conditions. Even humans, for example, become affected by new conditions. Do you notice when you go to a new environment that your skin might become dryer, your lips crack, you might tire more easily or become colder more easily. At least for us, we can do something about it with another jumper or some lip balm but I imagine for dolphins it might be a bit more hard to vocalise their discomfort.

 

I believe that animals should not be kept in captivity if they are perfectly able to live in the wild by themselves. Hunting animals and keeping them in captivity for our own entertainment is cruel. Not only is it bad for the animals themselves, but it’s also potentially dangerous for us as well. There are so many stories of trainers being killed by their animals and even more of them attacking. There aren’t as many recorded killings from animals in the wild as there are from killing in captivity. So we should just leave them alone. But we are all hypocrites. Most of us as children have been to zoo’s or marine parks and most likely enjoyed our selves, without seeing the cruel upbringing of these animals. It’s sad that this huge problem has supporters every day comes come to their theme parks because that’s the only reason they stay open. But that needs to change, and people need to see the real threats that are behind the show.

 

Works Cited

By:
                                     abc15.com staff. “Dolphinaris Temporarily Closing after Death of 4th Dolphin.” KNXV, 15 Feb. 2019, www.abc15.com/news/region-northeast-valley/scottsdale/dolphinaris-arizona-temporarily-closing-after-death-of-facilitys-fourth-dolphin.

Holcombe, Madeline. “4 Dolphins Have Died within 2 Years at an Arizona Facility. Now It’s Closing.” CNN, Cable News Network, 6 Feb. 2019, edition.cnn.com/2019/02/06/us/four-dolphins-died-arizona/index.html.

Longhi, Lorraine, and Nathan J. Fish. “Dolphins Are Dying at Dolphinaris Arizona. Here’s What Experts Have to Say.” Azcentral, The Republic | Azcentral.com, 7 Feb. 2019, www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/scottsdale/2019/02/06/dead-dolphins-dolphinaris-arizona-experts-explain-why/2742337002/.

rokic58888@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg • March 8, 2019


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Comments

  1. dinsd61619@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg March 11, 2019 - 2:26 am Reply

    This was really good Ella! You chose a matter/problem that lots of people would be interested in, you used the featured structure throughout the article it gets the reader more interested and by making the ending more od-ed with what you can do was very effective. I also really think your opening line ‘Over the past two years, four dolphins at Dolphinaris Arizona have died’ if very capturing and effective to the reader’s emotions. I just there was more to read

    pepper

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