Ocean Sentry
(From turkishdailynews.com.tr) – Dolphins are known as “cute” mammals around the world – their smiling faces cheer people up and their energy gives joy – but since they became a form of therapy for people, they have also became one of the current topics of animal rights research.
It is not only dolphins but also other marine mammals that are kept in pools that have been subject to various international condemnations.
Janja Novak, who works at The Marine Connection, a U.K.-based charity working internationally for the protection, welfare and conservation of whales and dolphins, said that marine mammals are instinctually a far-ranging species, and confinement causes trauma. “This facility keeps four male bottlenose dolphins captured from the wild in an enclosure that measures 10 meters by 20 meters,” he noted.
According to Novak one major threat to wild whales and dolphins today is the possibility they will be captured and traded to supply marine parks and swim programs because captivity-bred stocks are unable to sustain growing demands by the captive-dolphin industry.
(by Bodrum – Turkish Daily News)
