The Death of Dawn: on the Ethics of Florida Marine Parks
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The Death of Dawn: On the Ethics of Florida Marine Parks By Taylor L. Leach A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Wilkes Honors College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts and Sciences With a concentration in Marine Biology Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University Jupiter, Florida May 2018 i The Death of Dawn: On the Ethics of Florida Marine Parks By Taylor L. Leach This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate’s thesis advisor, Dr. Jon Moore, and has been approved by the members of her/his supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of the Honors College and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts and Sciences. Supervisory Committee: Dr. Jon Moore Dr. Nicholas Baima Dean Ellen Goldey, Wilkes Honors College Date ii ABSTRACT Author: Taylor L. Leach Title: The Death of Dawn: On the Ethics of Florida Marine Parks Institution: Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Jon Moore Degree: Bachelor of Sciences in Liberal Arts and Sciences Concentration: Marine Biology Year: 2018 Over the last 80 years, humans have enjoyed and developed a deep connection to bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncates) and killer whales (Orcinus orca), starting in 1938 with the opening of the world's first oceanarium to present- day with the current marine parks in Florida. We have learned an immense amount of information about the intricacies of two of the most charismatic marine mammals in the ocean, and as we learn more about these highly social creatures, the more people are demanding the immediate release of them into the wild. This, however, raises an ethical dilemma: either we release the animals into the wild, in which case they stand a very slim chance of survival, or, we continue to keep them under human care, in which case, they suffer from inadequate habitats. iii Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 Section one: Background History of the parks. ............................................................. 2 Section two: Veterinary Care ............................................................................................... 9 Section Three: The dark side to cetaceans under human care. ............................ 14 Section Four: Keiko’s story ................................................................................................ 19 Section Five: Conclusions: should they be released or not? ................................... 24 References ............................................................................................................................... 26 iv Introduction Over the past few years, marine parks, especially SeaWorld, have come under fire for their treatment of their majestic marine mammals. After the release of the CNN film, Blackfish, there has been an outcry to “free” all the dolphins and killer whales into the wild. Dawn was pulled into the pool by the killer whale Tilikum and drowned on February 24th 2010 (Kirby D. 2013). Dawn’s death sparked a nation wide call to release the animals ‘back’ into the wild. This idea poses a large number of concerns on its own and raises an ethical dilemma: either we release the animals into the wild, in which case they stand a very slim chance of survival, or, we continue to keep them under human care, in which case, they suffer from inadequate habitats. The following paper will go through and explore both side of the argument of whither keeping marine mammals under human care is inhumane or if releasing human dependent animals is inhumane. Section one will focus on the history of four major marine parks in Florida from their open dates to today. Section Two will focus on the evolution of veterinary care in parks. Section three focuses on the dark side of cetaceans under human care. Section four will focus on Keiko’s life and release project. Finally section five is the conclusion. Ultimately the issue relies on the fact that we as a society have a standard mind set on animal care, but facilities that do not accommodate to these standards. 1 Section one: Background History of the parks. A History of Marine parks and the public's love for cetaceans. Throughout history humans have been deeply interested in understanding one of our closest water-bound family members. With the opening of the first oceanarium to the current Florida parks, the love for marine mammals has inspired many young marine biologists. In the past decade a number of studies and documentaries have come out showing the dangers and mistreatment of marine mammals around the world. These studies and films have stirred up activists calling for the immediate rehabilitation and release of all the animals in the parks. Despite the calls many of the marine parks in Florida still have large attendance rates. History of Marineland Dolphin Adventure and Facility set up. In the 1930’s this interest was jump started by the opening of a little film studio off the east coast of Florida. This film studio was known as Marine Studios, it opened its doors to the public and filmmakers in the summer of 1938. Marine Studios hold the title of being the nation’s first oceanarium. During the planning and construction of the original pools for the studio the three owners Douglas Burden, C.V. Whitney and Ilia Tolstoy faced a number of challenges including how to reinforce the viewing windows. At the same time the pools were being built there was a team of engineers building the filtration system for the studio. The system built for Marine Studios was state of the art; they dug out from under the pools to the ocean that way fresh seawater was pumped into the pools. Once the pools were fully constructed and filled with water the owners hired men to collect a number of 2 animals for them. The goal of the owners was to recreate an environment in the pools that looked as if someone had taken a cut out of the ocean (McGinnis 2017). It housed all sorts of marine species but its most popular was its Atlantic bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncates) and other cetaceans. During these first years the owners and the divers realized that the dolphins would follow the food wherever it went. This discovery led to the “jump master” feeding show and eventually the hiring of Adolph Frohn to attempt to train a dolphin. Adolph Frohn was an established animal trainer for a number of circuses; he was a large mammal trainer. In the Marineland historical archives there is documentation that Frohn didn’t believe it was possible to train dolphins, that there was a difference between the learning capacity of land mammals and marine mammals. When Frohn arrived, he requested a young female dolphin to work with, but instead was given a young male named Flippy. To train Flippy it took Frohn three years, in the end Flippy knew five or more behaviors (McGinnis 2017)(Marineland 2018). Over the past 50 years, Marineland Dolphin Adventure (MDA) has grown its veterinarian staff and care routine for its dolphins. At this time the park holds 16 bottlenose dolphins, 8 of which are female and the other 8 are males. MDA is known for having one of the best breeding programs—they are, for instance, the first park to have a successful birth under human care (Marineland 2018). In 1947 just nine years after opening their doors as Marine Studios, the first dolphin was successfully born under human care. That dolphin’s name was Spray. Shortly after Sprays birth, Marine Studios was home to one of the most famous dolphins in Florida, in February of 1953 Nellie was born. Nellie holds the 3 record for the longest-lived dolphin born under human care; she passed away on April 30th 2014 making her 61 years old (McGinnis 2017). According to a number of field guides, the life expectancy of the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin is around 30 to 50 years in the wild (Smith1997). Nellie’s longevity can be a result of the voluntary husbandry behaviors the dolphins are taught as well as the better understanding of bottlenose dolphins in general. This little wonder of Florida is no longer named Marine Studios but rather Marineland Dolphin Adventure. From the 1950’s to the 1970’s Marine Studios changed their name to Marineland, during this time the park became one of the leading tourist attractions in the state. The popularity of the park gained so much traction that Marineland became its own city. Marineland had a number of famous guests coming through and spending large amounts of time at a number of the different things at the facility. Including Ernest Hemingway who was a regular at the park’s Moby Dick lounge. In its prime, Marineland had a number of exhibits that were on both sides of A1A, a fire station, police station, restaurants, and hotels all on site. However, after a string of hurricanes in the early 2000’s the facility was in desperate need for repairs. According to the head of the Education department Terran McGinnis, Marineland wanted to change direction of the facility towards education and close encounters, so in 2004 they shut their doors to remodel the park. Over a two-year period, a number of the old structures were taken down along with old exhibits. In 2006 the park reopened as Marineland’s Dolphin Conservation Center. Today the park is home to 16 bottlenose dolphins, two sea turtles and 12 sand tiger sharks. The dolphin habitat is a 1.3 million gallon system of eight 4 connected pools. The filtration system has been modified to include heaters, protein skimmers and equipment to filter out potential pathogens making the system a recirculating one. The original water pumps are still used in case a switch is needed from the recirculating system back to the original pump system.